App Store apps do not install properly on a fresh install of High Sierra on internal SSD or HDD

The root cause is now known but might be tricky for non engineers to understand.

I've documented it here for anybody that would like to know.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ngyty19xiUYkqCXbrgvcMocnUqqm-UtS/view

It's unlikely that Apple themselves don't know about the root cause given they're part of it.

The onus is now on Apple to send an update, likely one which tells all these machines that Apple's own certificates should not be in a database that says that they might be bad. They've sent such updates in the past.

In the meanwhile there are several ways around the problem documented in the forum here. Some are better than others.

Most workarounds involve changing security settings on the machine meaning users should really understand what they're doing if they go down this route. More cautious users can use the workarounds which are only temporary but do not require administrative access to the machine.

It will be up to each Mac owner to weigh up the pros and cons of each workaround and choose which work around to apply if any at all, since they can also choose not to run High Sierra right now or wait for Apple also of course.

@Johnno_uk: are you saying Apple has placed a new version 43 on valid.apple.com?

If so, then I agree that new installs may now be able to work correctly, a v42 is what is in /System, and deleting valid.sqlite3 from /Library would have trusted rebuild a new file using the one in /System (v42), then applying the new v43, and any subsequent updates.

I'm checking to see if the DB will get re-created correctly when deleted and bouncing trust.

softmusic wrote:

I still have some problems with the App Store when I want to install an old version of BBEdit that I bought before. I just tested it and I had to retry 5 or 8 times before being able to download it from another account in the family. But is a very small issue and I will not expect Apple to fix it.

Try running What Your Sign on the App Store app itself, wait a few minutes, and then see if it works. That did it for me once, but it's getting hard to tell cause & effect with everything that's going on.

There have been a numerous reports of this download problem on the App Store where trying five or 10 times will finally let it work. I find this curious. Seems like either it should work or it shouldn't. I wonder if the first attempt triggers some OCSP communication. perhaps; and, as you can see with What's My Sign, it can take a minute or two for the connection to be established and the certificate or whatever to be validated. I wonder if it's just a question of time rather than number of attempts.

M-Nadeem wrote:

I have the same problem, and when I sent the problem to apple feedback Assistant, they replied by this:

We reviewed your report and determined the behavior you experienced is currently functioning as intended. Your Mac needs to be able to reach ocsp.apple.com periodically in order to launch App Store apps safely. Please unlock ocsp.apple.com to restore functionality.

Thank you for your feedback.

but I have no idea how to unlock ocsp.apple.com and I asked them and they didn't reply yet, so please help if anyone know how to do it and if this is helpful.

Had you locked it as part of your troubleshooting efforts? If not, then they are barking up the wrong tree.

cavenewt wrote:

My working, pre-existing (July) install of High Sierra is still showing v42 for /Library/Keychains/crls/valid.sqlite3. I'll give it a few days and see if it updates to 147. I could always delete it (I have backups) and see if the resulting rebuild works – when I did that before, apps were broken.

My bad, I was checking the version in the certificate bundle, which remains at v42. The one in /Library/Keychains/crls/ is now at v146.

I did the update from Sierra to High Sierra two weeks ago and ran into the problem with apps from the App Store not launching at all. I've been getting by by periodically deleting the "Squid" (sqlite3) file, which has been a manageable solution to a very annoying problem.

Yesterday my MBP Late 2011 ran out of battery and when I rebooted it it chimed twice with a progress bar showing both times. I have no idea why it would do that by itself, but that happened. 

Later yesterday I tried to launch Pages, Keynote, Numbers and a few other apps downloaded from App Store and by some miraculous intervention they all work now - even this morning ;)

Did anyone experience this or am I the only lucky one?

I've tried several things to get them to run, including using an Xcode terminal command to sign the apps, still crashes after that one, but with a different error. I've also tried signing out and back into iCloud, and the App Store, and numerous reboots, Safe Mode, etc.

Apps run fine when booting from my backup El Capitan disk, so it's related to High Sierra somehow. Copying the apps from my El Capitan disk to the High Sierra volume doesn't help.

I've submitted an App Store support email to Apple for the problem, including a link to this discussion. Automated response says I should get a reply within 48 hours.

Same here. Strangely, the first app I installed yesterday worked. Every install since then has failed, even on a clean format&reinstall.

Please file a bug report: https://feedbackassistant.apple.com

Thanks. Good to know. So just the issue with High Sierra.

I don't think my 2018 MacBook Pro supports any OSX lower than High Sierra.

Talking with a Senior Advisor about it,... They said they have received some reports of this behaviour and was told to upgrade OS.

Oh,Well......

Do you recall if Security Update 2020-005 was offered to you? My "Install macOS High Sierra" file was created June 29, 2018, but if an updater created after September 24, 2020 exists, it could include that update. I know, long shot...

I'm another casualty of this fine mess Apple have got us into. I upgraded iMac late 2013 from Sierra to High Sierra last Sunday. Lots of apps didn't work. I then erased the (fusion) disc, did a clean install of High Sierra, avoided all the security updates, tested all the bundled apps (worked fine) and then tried an app downloaded from the AppStore - and nothing. Nothing from the AppStore works, but apps downloaded from websites are fine. Like others I have tried everything (although reformatting the disc to AFPS failed - something to do with it being Fusion) including new user accounts unlinked to icloud, reinstalling apps from TimeMachine (not AppStore), Terminal commands etc, but none of them work. I still have quite a few 32bit apps that I regularly use so upgrading to Mojave isn't an option. I hope Apple sort this quickly.

Slight variation here... I was doing an upgrade from Sierra to High Sierra. Even downloading a "fresh" copy of the installer from the app store I found I had to do 2 fully separate "updates" for what appears to be the last 2 "security" updates. So far (thank goodness) everything SEEMS ok, except Blackmagic Disk Speed Test crashes on launch. Never did that under Sierra. It seems everyone and their brother uses it for disk speed testing. Thought "maybe a fresh copy"... BUT the app store says it can NOT "install" it and I should go to the "purchased" page to get it. I did that EXCEPT it tells me that for every attempt to get the app. WTF?