iTunes download error -8288

I am using iTunes 12.6.5.3 on PC. It was ok until Feb 9. No changes were made to security software, so it is no to blame.

I went to Purchased Items and clicked Download all. 8 of 100+ my apps were downloaded successfully.

Like most of you, I've been getting this error for a few days now (iTunes 12.6.5.3 on Sierra - France).

I agree, technically speaking, it looks like a new brutal decision from Apple. On the other hand, I just CAN'T believe any decent company can suddenly take some services away from its customers, and without any warning by the way. So I'm still keeping my fingers crossed, hoping this issue will be solved ASAP.

I still think removing the Apps section from iTunes was a huge mistake. Huge. Managing your apps from your iPhone/iPad can look like a cool idea in theory, but turns into a nightmare as soon as you own thousands of apps and/or several devices. So once again, Apple is spitting to its best customers' face. Maybe selling too many iPhones during those last years made them forget where they were coming from. As far as I'm concerned, I'm old enough to remember a time when everyone was wondering if Apple would still be alive in one year. And thanks to people like me, they still are.

Getting back to this apps issue, the problem is that Apple never provided any convenient way to deal with apps. Not even on iTunes. Unbelievable. I mean I'm only some random graphic designer and I think I could have given them 100 great ideas about that. How comes ??? So, rather than improving (at last !) the apps management, they just killed it !

Since I was quite mad about this (new) issue, I tried some other option yesterday and downloaded Anytrans. But this seems to be quite messy as well. Not reliable at all (starting from their website and software which are extremely poorly translated - plus the fact that every article is actually an ad in disguise…). Anytrans started with copying all my huge iTunes library from an external disk to my internal drive and almost made my computer collapse. Wow, what a weird way to handle things.

Does anyone know any safe and reliable solution to sync apps with iPhone ? I'm not sure iMazing is better, all these softwares seem to show no sign of integrity in their business. But I'm all ears !

Well i think it's safe to say that if it's across the board - Mac, PC, this operating system, that operating system, this software enabled, disabled, so on & so forth all around the world & people still can't get it sorted

Then it's about time people stop trying to fix it because the issue surely has to be Apple's end.

You are right, I'm starting to be tired and 🤨 mad at Apple after all the money I've spent and people I've convinced to get on board.

We sure deserve a better treatment.

BTW I just tried and that 's it , to start from an old backup with Sierra but I get the same error 😔

Why one computer works and another with the identical configuration can't ?

I'm talking about two computers in the same household!!

I'm getting the 8288 error with all attempts at software downloads and updates after 02/07/2019. The configuration is: iTunes 12.6.5.3 on my MacBook pro Retina mid-2014 running macOS version 10.13.6 and the 2019-01 security update in the USA - all of which seems to be irrelevant given the various platforms and locations that are experiencing 8288 errors.

The Gatekeeper Anywhere option is mentioned in several posts so I set Security to accept Anywhere.

sudo spctl --master-disable

That had no effect, so I've re-enabled it.

I am curious how people know the date for their system's Gatekeeper. I used the following Terminal commands:

$ system_profiler SPInstallHistoryDataType | awk '/Gatekeeper/,/Install/ {$1=$1;print}' | tail -6

Gatekeeper Configuration Data:

Version: 108

Source: Apple

Install Date: 1/25/17, 12:47 PM

This is consistent with the result from About this Mac, System Report, Software Installations but may be back level.

I read that the current version is 162 dated February 7, 2019? Is it worth pursuing an update to Gatekeeper?

I followup with feedback to Apple

Gatekeeper date : look for

com.apple.pkg.GatekeeperConfigData.16U1672.plist and

com.apple.pkg.GatekeeperConfigData.16U1672.bom

Both found in System/Library? Receipts

There are security system updates done automatically by Apple :

Look in System prefs App Store and I have “Install system data files and security updates” box checked.

BTW on my iPad and iPhone there are several apps to update that do not show up in the Updates section . To see those I have to search for each one and go in the App store where then they show that they need to be updated.

Definitely something is broken on the Apple side. Sign out and sign back in doesn't fix it

Have all the same App download issues as everyone else with Mac mini and Safari 12.6.5.3. Spent about an hour already on the phone with support. They just said there is an emerging issue with this, and iTunes is working on a fix. So everyone keep complaints up and maybe we can get back to what we had before.

Just have been transferred to iTunes support, they are supposed to be working on a fix, will update if I get anything .

Updated info from Apple iTunes Support:

They say this is now a priority issue, there is to be a fix made up and sent out from Engineering. So we will see what they do next.

Thanks everyone for posting here by the way, I sent the rep to this string so I did not have a lot to explain

.

I don't think that it's a matter of a corrupted iTunes; yesterday (2/10) I downloaded (from Apple website) and installed 12.6.5.3 onto a Windows 7 laptop that never had iTunes installed on it previously, then I attempted to download an app that I've never downloaded/purchased before--I get the 8288 error there as well.

I had tried this solution the other day without success. HOWEVER, I just deleted the certificate and my 17 pending iOS app updates have successfully downloaded. I suspect Apple might have issued new a new security certificate(s) to fix the problem.

It's worth giving it a try to see if it solves the problem for others.

Thank you, DJ Phaze for pointing this out!

I just waited a couple of hours, and now the downloads are processing as normal. Pretty obviously Apple made a certificate update error or something, and now have fixed it. Nice to know they actually listen to us.

After experiencing the same issue on multiple machines with the same operating system and iTunes versions i spoke with an experienced Apple Enterprise Support team member. They provided a solution with seems the be simplicity itself - after two days of careful consultation and screen sharing. By the way, hey couldn't reproduce the problem from their end, hence the feeling the the account itself might be the culprit. It is not an app blocking issue per-se, more an iTunes/Apple Account security 'feature'. If your account details or payment methods have been flagged for 'non-authorised activity' or 'suspicious transactions' it maybe suspended (with out notification or human intervention) until such times as your ID is re-established and the flag removed. Sometimes this can occur well after the said suspicious event. I my case i had multiple Apple accounts in several countries. Only one of which had the 'update error 8288' issue. This one account had been not been flagged as needing ID verification strangely. After changing the account payment method to "NONE' and then re-entering the required credit card details, the Enterprise rep verified my ID using the 3 questions set when the account was first created. Violå. Problem solved in this instance. All updates completed successfully and all machines. The Mac operating version or iTunes version was not really the issue in my case.

merhabalar arkadaşım. mojave sürümünde itunes 12.6.5.3 sürümünü nasıl kullanıyorsun? ben 2. hdd ye mac 10.13.3 kurup gömülü gelen 12.6.5.2 sürümünü 12.6.5.3 sürümüne güncelleyip kullanmak zorunda kaliyorum. eğer mojave sürümünde itunes 12.6.5.3 sürümü kullanılabiliyorsa lütfen bana ayrıntılı açıklayıp yardımcı olurmusun.teşekkür ederim.

hemen cevaplayayım dostum: sip i kapattıktan sonra el ile mojave kısmından iTunes 12.9 u silin. High Sierra kısmından iTunes 12.6.5 kopyalayın. Mojave kısmında uygulamalar kılasörüne yapıştırın. Hepsi bu kadar! Tabi iTunes library dosyanıza dikkat etmeniz lazım. Ufak hatırlatma: nerdeyse her güncellemede iTunes de güncellenir yani o kopyalayıp yapıştırdığınız itunes 12.6.5 i güvenli bir yere daha yapıştırın saklayın. Eğer isterseniz iki iTunes sürümünü aynı anda aynı oturumda kullanmayı da anlatabilirim. İsminiz tanıdık geldi soyisminizi rica edebilir miyim?

dostum selamlar verdiğin cevap için çok teşekkürler eren akil kırklareli lüleburgazlıyım. senin bilgi ve tecrübelerinden yararlanmak isterim. özel mesaj atamadım. bana özel mesaj atabiliyorsan gsm numaranı rica ederim sana danışmak için tabi bi sakıncası yoksa.şimdiden çok teşekkürler akşama dediklerini deneyeceğim. sırf bu yüzden 2. ssd takıp 10.13.3 sürümünü kurdum. macbook pro da iki ayrı macos var :)))