iTunes download error -8288

I can confirm the same problem exists on my system. From my artoftrail thread, 250152425:

iTunes app update hang is on iTunes 12.6.3.6, followed by 12.6.5.3, MacOS 10.13.6 running on MacBook Pro Retina mid-2014

I deleted ~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Downloads folder. Restarting iTunes recreated the Downloads folder, it is empty now. An attempt to Update an app is hung in updating.

Before this I restarted iTunes and deleted several apps that had been hung "updating", and attempted to Install one of them. The downloading failed with unknown communications error 8288.

I am able to access the internet, login to iCloud and login to the discussions forum on the same MacBook.

iTunes 12.6.5.3 installed okay but still got 8288 errors. Then I completely uninstalled iTunes which required turning off SIP and rebooting in recovery mode and executing csrutil disable in order to delete the iTunes.app and delete all files in Preferences beginning with names com.apple.iTunes.* such as the .plist's (followed by rebooting in recovery mode to reenable SIP). I installed itunes 12.6.5.3 again but all download or update app actions result in error 8288 and files of length Zero bytes in ~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Mobile Applications. I set permissions to read & write for everyone in ~/Music... but that didn't help.

Note, my Apple devices such as iPad and iPhone perform app updates on their own with no problem. Perhaps Apple has locked up MacOS iTunes app updates??

Thank you for your help.

FWIW I can update apps in iTunes 12.6.5.3 running on High Sierra with no outstanding updates. Do you have any third party security software? I've been reminded of this old support document which might still have some relevance:

HT203200: If you see ‘There was an error downloading your purchased music‘ when you try to download music from iTunes

(archived).

tt2

Don't disable everything, doesn't help alas

but read this thread and specifically uehithneu post

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/cant-update-apps-through-itunes

It is the list of all I did too and a lot of other users did with no results .

Same problem. I use iTunes 12.6.5 on High Sierra because I want to control apps on my main computer, not my devices. Moreover, an earlier version of 12.7 (and probably 12.8 - I haven't tried it) caused problems with podcasts and video files. The main problem with podcasts is that I could not remove podcast subscription from iPhone or iPad without it also deleting the podcast subscription and all associated downloaded podcasts fro every other device, including my computer. I want to control the use of podcasts using the main computer to drive the process, not have an iPhone control my use of my computer. Apple needs a serious wake-up call about how to let people control the use of their computers, not Apple engineers.

Given that some users are not experiencing the iTunes 8288 problem, possibly those of us experiencing those errors have an app in common that corrupted iTunes.

Here are my Failed attempts to update beginning Feb 9, 2019:

Citi Mobile 9.14.0 to 9.14.1 failed Feb 9 at 16:07

CVS_caremark 4.44 to 4.45 failed Feb 9 at 16:07

LiftMaster 3.121 to 3.123 failed Feb 9 at 16:08

Star Walk 7.3.1 to 7.3.2 failed Feb 9 at 16:09

Last successful updates as determined by the Trash folder:

Feb 7 20:26 182937298 AccuWeather 11.9.1.ipa

Feb 7 20:25 84699665 Panera Bread 4.5.0.ipa

Feb 7 20:25 40344923 Shortcuts 2.1.3.ipa

Feb 7 20:24 125962563 maps.me 8.6.4.ipa

Feb 7 20:24 139532252 Target 9.37.2.ipa

Feb 7 20:23 216200631 Lumosity 9.53.ipa

Feb 7 20:22 258762608 Harris Teeter 8.11.1.ipa

Feb 7 20:21 52121171 1Password 7.2.7.ipa.fee

Feb 7 20:20 147395360 Walmart 19.5.ipa

Feb 7 20:19 121876881 Home Depot 5.17.ipa

Note: I don't allow update of 1Password 7.2.5 to 1Password 7.2.7

I update all apps but 1Password by deleting the app in iTunes until all updates complete,

then copy 1Password 7.2.5.ipa to the iTunes Library list.

Something new with this problem is that iTunes Sync with my devices no longer updates Library with apps purchased on the device. I think it always asked me in the past. I have current copies of the apps that failed iTunes updates on my devices. I deleted those apps in iTunes thinking that Sync would update iTunes.

Well at least someone was thinking. I deleted all of the apps I have from iTunes and imported them in again. It still happens. I deleted Twitter from iTunes and the folder and I was still getting the error. I tested the 4 apps you have issues with and I was able to download Citi and CVS without issue. I am not sure with LiftMaster app so I did not try. BUT I was not able to download the Star Walk app. That error ed out for me. Error 8288. I was able to download Star Walk 2 Ads+. Because I have re-imported the apps into iTunes I now have 48 apps that will not update.

Something new with this problem is that iTunes Sync with my devices no longer updates Library with apps purchased on the device. I think it always asked me in the past. I have current copies of the apps that failed iTunes updates on my devices. I deleted those apps in iTunes thinking that Sync would update iTunes.

Since iOS 9 most apps are delivered in an optimised form for each device, and thus not universal. Such apps are not transferred from device to iTunes when transferring purchases.

tt2

I wouldn't set too much store by the answer you got from support. iTunes 12.6.5.3 should be able to download app updates at this time, indeed it works for me. Do you have any third party security software that could be holding things up?

tt2

I have the same issue. I'm on Windows 10 using Itunes 12.6.5.3. It is obvious that this version is blocked on Apple side. Sometimes Apple dictates too much on how user experiences should be. They are looking at things solely from their own perspective. Why omit the app store from Itunes? Why not let users decide whether they prefer to have it or not.

In my case we have four i-devices at home and in my country even at home internet downloads are metered. This means if I have use Itunes with app store, I can download apps ONCE and sync to all devices and avoid excessive data downloads. But if I go the apple way, I need to download the same app OVER AND OVER again to all devices seperately and suck up all the internet quota I have for Apple downloads. This is a stupid decision on their side and it is the main reason I preferred to use Itunes 12.6.5 with appstore.

I hope they fix this otherwise this other reason will be added to my reasons for not choosing an iphone for our device upgrades this year.

I have filled out a bug report to the link that was provided under this topic. You can't even choose Itunes 12.6.5 in the mandatory version selection menu while reporting the bug. Where is your integrity Apple?

In some cases 4 delta patches from one version to another, with only the specific resources for the device in question, might take less data than a full download of the new version of the app. Either way some users are still able to download updates with 12.6.5.3, myself included, so I think it is too early to say if this an unintentional issue or a planned change.

tt2

Same all, started this week.

I  am able to download the same apps on the same computer using iMazing.

Then I can:

delete the outdated file from iTunes Media/Mobile Applications,

copy the outdated file to the archive on my server,

empty my trash,

export the app as .ipa from iMazing into the Mobile Applications directory,

Get Info on the app in iTunes, which fails, prompting a Locate window,

and find the file exported from iMazing,

at which point the file disappears from the iTunes Update window, and I have one file updated.

Hideous process, but it does work.

Reddit users with multiple accounts on the same machine report that some work and some don't.

Same problem here, running running iTunes 12.6.5.3 on El Capitan (10.11.6). I can download new apps, just not update old ones. Updating worked fine until a few days ago. I do this both because I don't want to manage updates 3 different places but also because I have a data cap, and the current 5GB of updates I have will turn into 15GB of downloads (approximately, might be a bit less because only the device-specific parts of the app will download if downloading directly to a device) if I have to update each device individually.

At least two users are updating their apps using iTunes 12.6.5.3, unlike all other users who cannot, and there are many on both Mac and Pc .

I tried everything suggested in several thread with no success.

All we have in common is that iTunes stopped to be able to finish an update since Feb 8 and on my side I didn't change anything on my computer(and so didn't others) beside the Apple Security Update. I'm able to download new apps but cannot update. At this point something must be wrong on Apple side or the two users who can update have some extra developer stuff or certificates we don't?!

turingtest2: do you think is this possible?

Clearly this is not Mac vs PC thing as the threads below demonstrate that this impacts both platforms. And yes it just started recently. I too prefer to have my computer manage my idevices and content. I run iTunes on a Windows 7 machine using version 12.6.2 because subsequent versions take away the ability to manage ebooks. I purchase many ebooks that aren't from the Apple Store, convert to ePub and import into iTunes with meta data. Subsequent version of iTunes removes that capability because they only want you to buy from Apple and do it from your iDevice directly. Stupid decision.

Now it's forced upon us. Apple's own site suggested using a 12.6.5 version of itunes to continue the practice of managing your own apps, ebooks, ring tones but I guess that no longer is an answer either. Looks like i need to investigate an itune alternative - iMazing perhaps?

Bad call Apple.

Yes, I'm on El Capitan and have the same problem everyone else is describing. I obviously haven't received any security updates, however I do notice that Gatekeeper was update on February 7th. Maybe just a coincidence, but it is a system security thing that changed right around the same time updates stopped working.