Unable to download item please try again later

Same issue here on iPad for several weeks. Random pop ups that don’t seem to relate to anything. I thought maybe they would go away when I installed the latest iOS update (14.8) but they didn’t. No indication of malice or harm, just annoying.

I’ve been having the same problem for about the last month and a half. I have no idea why it’s happening. Not trying to download anything. It just seems to be completely random. It usually happens when I open an app I haven’t been using for a period of time. It’s annoying AF. I was googling it tonight and came across your post. Hopefully someone comes here with a good solution.

I’ve been getting this for some months now, using an iPad I only bought this year, and still happening despite now using the latest update to iOS 14. I never experienced this problem until this year, despite using iPads since before 2012. Like other users, I’m not trying to download anything when the message appears. The only (temporary) solution seems to be to hit “Done” since the screen and Home button are locked until one does that, so any other fix at the point of occurrence seems impossible.

The problem surely can’t be related to lack of available space on the iPad, because I have a 128Gb version with loads of free space at present?

This issue, which it would seem from a web search, has been around for years, is most frustrating. Can Apple really do no better than this?

Same problem, you’d think Apple would see that 100 people have now reported the problem, here, and would be progressively responding. (If Steve Jobs we’re still around, there would already be a posted solution, here).

Update for all of you reading and frustrated.

Apple Support is sending me a new iPhone.

Yes, they have determined after having tried everything under the sun that they cannot fix the error so my new phone arrives tomorrow, same model etc.

Once I have wiped and returned the old one I will restore from iCloud (which is NOT overstuffed with backup BTW) and post here if the new iPhone develops the issue.

Cheers

iCloud is not the issue.

After they sent me a replacement iPhone I restored from iCloud and do not have the issue anymore. I am convinced they wanted my phone because it is a malware virus embedded and they want to find it. I wiped the iPhone twice and the issue kept reappearing. They now have a perfect iPhone to study in the lab.

Yup, I opened a case yesterday with support via chat. The rep told me to try a few things. Nothing worked. So, I was back in touch with them this morning. They had someone reach out to me by phone. As you said they, would like me to do a backup and then a factory reset. I'll probably try it this weekend, but I was curious if I do a full backup using iTunes and have the files go to my PC, will the way I have my apps arranged on my screen still be the same? I also mentioned this form to them and shared a link. Neither rep said anything about it though.

So, odd guy. I mean my phone works fine…it’s just annoying. I did progress today. Apple took diagnostics off of my phone. Sounds similar to what someone else mentioned in this forum who was issued a replacement phone. I was elevated to Tier II status and assigned a point of contact. I will say Apple wants to figure this out. They are sending my diagnostics log to Engineering. I was told I’d hear within a week. It has been a painstaking process, but they want to rule out everything before taking the next step. Hoping this will shed some light.

I called Apple support today I was on the phone for three hours. They had me turn off the phone wait 10 seconds turn on the phone and then start screen record and about 10 seconds later the pop-up with unable to download item came on and so I sent that in. Then they wanted me to do another shut down and restart and have a timer and time exactly how long it took and the exact clock time to the second, then they did a screen recorder on that to track down the very second it came on. And then they said they call me within a week with a response. It had to be escalated twice to the third level of response, and he said it was going to go to the engineering group.

Yup, only since iOS 15 for me, but understand if others have been dealing with this for longer (sorry).

Apple has a diagnostic tool they can run on individual phones that allows for an event log to be pulled from the device.. which, given enough data from multiple people having this issue, should allow them to diagnose and then resolve the issue. But we’ll all have to agree to provide data. Hopefully theyll

make that easy for everyone by soliciting us in one fell swoop rather than waiting until enough people pursue that option on their own.

I called Apple support after four tries I got through to somebody who knew what I was talking about. I did the event log thing and then they needed me to do it again and then 10 days went by and they said the problem was iTunes store re-download everything. So I did. They cleared my download log. They asked me to do a restart which I did and as soon as it restarted popped unable to download item

I tried turning off my cellular data, and I haven't seen the pop-up in a few hours. I will report back if that changes. (While at home, I am on wifi anyway.)

Obviously, this is no kind of solution. But it does narrow down where the cause is coming from.

Just another heads-up. I've posted several times in this thread. I've been through a long process and wasted a bunch of time trying to figure this out with Apple. After many phone conversations with their tech support and totally resetting my phone (pain in the butt), I was assigned an Apple Case Manager who was never able to resolve the issue and now does not reply to me. I was very pleasant throughout the entire process. I left it saying, if you find a solution, please let me know. I'm living with the problem and tapping 'Done' to close the message is routine, like opening my mail app. I can't see myself switching from Apple products at this point. Some have mentioned in the forum that buying the latest iPhone/iPad has resolved the issue. I have an iPhone XR and it works great, except for this silly bug.