app store update page looks strange

Call done, the support representative has been very kind and acknowledged that this issue is likely to be server side.

She also noticed that even yesterday she saw some clients on High Sierra with this issue but she didn't think it was a widespread issue until my call.

She told me that she will raise the issue internally and suggested me to fill in a feedback report through apple.com/feedback, too, in order to prioritise the issue.

However, she told me to not expect a super fast resolution since macOS High Sierra is not actively supported by Apple anymore and currently only obsolete or vintage Macs cannot update to a more recent macOS version.

So, folks still on High Sierra, let's open Apple Support tickets and report this issue on Apple's feedback page!

Having spoken to Apple 3 times including at senior level, they are now convinced it's a global glitch and have escalated to engineering.

Despite using safe mode, then reinstalling OS High Sierra, cleaning the RAM, the App Store is still not rendering correctly. Reassured a fix will be forthcoming.

Regards.

I have also submitted a concise and terse bug report to Apple Feedback: https://www.apple.com/feedback/macos.html

My two Early 2009 Mac Pros and my 15" 2016 MacBook Pro are all running MacOS 10.13.6 and all have this failure to load CSS in just the Updates tab. Those machines are workhorses. I cannot update beyond High Sierra on the 2009 Macs because the graphics cards do not support Metal. Plus I still run a few older graphic design apps that would not be able to run in Mohave or Catalina (notably Adobe CS6). I could upgrade my 2016 MBP but I prefer to keep all three Macs at the same MacOS version.

Apply this fix to update your trusted certificate authorities on your computer. Also fix the login problem you may also have with High Sierra.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251247486?login=true

"Stick to what you know - it's a SERVER SIDE bug where it is serving an

incorrect page for updates. There have been ZERO changes to the 10.13

app store in years."

Agree, it's an issue with Apple's Servers. I believe they've just pulled the plug on the old method of serving the formatting for this App Store update page, because new versions of macOS don't use this method to show the updates available, and with High Sierra out of support, some bright spark said, well we don't need this now,

With companies the size of Apple, their backend servers can have many forms and functions, that break down bigger processes into smaller more manageable server processes.

To those saying it's an local hardware/software issue. OK, so me a machine running High Sierra that doesn't exhibit this issue and I'll accept that, but I have access to a range of iMacs / macbooks running High Sierra and I'm yet to see one running High Sierra that doesn't exhibit this issue. Can't put it more plainly than that.

Yes, it's quite subtle what Apple has done here. It's clearly not the server that serves the updates themselves. It's not the server that generates the text in different languages.

It's the server that generates the formatted css/javascript page to show the updates available for a specific device request. What we don't is the 'secret sauce' being used here by Apple, in what checks it makes in order to serve that page. How Apple indexes all this their end, keeps track of what updates have been applied.

To anyone that says it's not an Apple formatting server problem show me a 2017 macbook pro (Sept 2018 purchased pre-installed with High Sierra) or any Apple device running High Sierra that doesn't exhibit this problem.

What I'd recommend:

If you have an Apple Store close by, book an appointment by phone with a Apple Genius, say that your issue is related to High Sierra and ask if they have a machine running High Sierra that can be used so you can explain the issue.

Once they bring out the machine running High Sierra, go straight to the App Store Update Page on the Apple Store machine, and the fault will be there, because of all the macs we have access to, various years and devices, I'm yet to see a machine running High Sierra that hasn't exhibited this fault since the change that happened April 4th.

Solved in macOS 10.13.6!

Same here, it seems a widespread issue of the App Store on macOS High Sierra.

Anyone experiencing this issue can provide feedback to Apple here:

https://www.apple.com/feedback/macos.html

Contacting Apple Support is also a good idea to make Apple aware of the issue, as suggested MoonJ.:

https://getsupport.apple.com/

I have exactly the same issue on both my High Sierra and El Capitan MacBook Pros. Contacted Apple Support yesterday via chat and reported it (was told to try safe mode - no dice).

On El Capitan, I enabled the AppStore debug menu and saved the page source to disk to try and pick through it to find the problem. I wonder if it's an issue with the CSS files being called from r.mzstatic.com via plain HTTP rather than HTTPS, and WebKit not allowing a mix of secure and insecure resources on the same page:

<link charset="utf-8" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="http://r.mzstatic.com/htmlResources/8999/da-storefront-base.css" />

<link charset="utf-8" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="http://r.mzstatic.com/htmlResources/8999/da-storefront-autoinstallations.css" />

... in any event, glad to find out that it's not just my machine, and that it's been escalated to engineering already.

I agree with Richard, the CSS call in the "Top Charts" tab is:

<link charset="utf-8" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="https://s.mzstatic.com/htmlResources/8999/da-storefront-base.css" />

ie using SSL, whereas the one in the Updates tab is plain ol' HTTP.

By rights, this ought to be a ten minute fix.

Which is good as it tells you your machine has all the latest OS patches installed. The AppStore -> Updates tab won't change in appearance until Apple sort out the CSS and possibily Javascript issues at their end.

The AppStore (by appearance) appears to be just an app that renders web pages. The Updates page looks weird because the stylesheet is missing. That's a "server-side" problem in as much as it can only be fixed at the Apple end, not on the individual computer.

Hello TayoOlayode

Please follow the thread of this discussion which is going back about 3 months (or more) and now involves some 300 people. We have even called Support, which was not ready to help us (yet) before having an idea of the magnitude of the problem.

The solution would have to come from Apple, now hesitatingly getting itself ready to look into it.

I called Support today, and the man told me this had "recently been brought to his attention".

So even the office is looking up!

I want to ask you to (also) submit a ticket at https://www.apple.com/feedback/mail.html that will eventually help to achieve this help we are waiting for.

I have had this problem for 3 months now, but updates were possible, apps as well as security updates.

For now, this is all we can do: it's a wonder Apple will admit resolving this issue can only come from them.

But every single post added to this discussion also helps so thanks for writing!

So let's keep our fingers crossed!

Hi mery275

5 weeks has been enough to add a lot of posts to this discussion.

Today I called support and if the man was not just trying to lull me to sleep help IS on its way: at least Apple is aware now it's not an isolated problem but it now has grown into a general nuisance.

I have been able to do updates in the 3 months I have had this; now at this moment, there are no updates to be done.

There are interesting answers in this discussion, like this one that will allow you to at least do security updates:

"1). Open Terminal.app

2). Type softwareupdate -l then hit <enter> This will list all available updates.

3). To install all updates type softwareupdate -i -a --restart then hit <enter> This will install all available updates and then automatically restart.

4). After a reboot, follow step 2 and 3 again until no more updates are available. This should ensure you have as fully a patched machine as Apple designed to give you...

Thanks for writing, every line posted here adds to the weight; if you want to please submit a ticket here: https://www.apple.com/feedback/mail.html

Every ticket helps too. Cheers!

Hello Macerooni, thanks for your reaction.

I called support 3 months ago. Then the answer was: we are not aware that this is happening, first we'll see how far this issue has been spread. Well, the thread is growing every day.

The day before yesterday I called support again, this time the answer was: "This has been brought to my attention (he meant through his job) and we are aware that resolving this is up to us. I cannot tell you exactly when it might take a while, but please call back in a few weeks."

The kind man in Ireland told me the same about the CSS file, and he also assured me the page still works. You can even use the option Update All on the strange-looking page.

The answers from support suggest they are at least talking about it, and this discussion also has their interest so thanks for writing!

Hello joeMich,

Thank you for reaching out to Apple Support Communities, and we'll be happy to help in any way we can. We understand you're having issues with the way your App Store Updates tab is displayed. Does the issue occur after restarting your Mac?

If so, test the issue in another user account to see if it occurs there: Set up users, guests, and groups on Mac

We hope this helps.

Cheers!

My mid-2011 iMac (27”) has this same issue. I called after trying everything to fix it myself and have spent the past few days with Apple Support via phone. The last resort was to reinstall OS 10.13.6, which I did. This still hasn’t fixed the issue. I did state there were others I had found in the tech blogs complaining about this exact scenario and that it was really weird to me that it seems to have happened right after Apple had reported Mac App Store outages on ~ 04/03/2021. Since that service came back up, it appears our Mac App Store Updates (and only the updates page) looks like it is missing it’s CSS, etc.). The actual update process seems to work with the buttons given on the HTML page, it’s just ugly.

Here’s hoping this gets escalated and fixed. I hope everyone who is having this issue clicks the “I have this question too” button above on this thread as well as send in a feedback report.