App Store hanging with beachball

Question

App Store hanging with beachball

In the past couple of days, whenever I launch the App Store, the application hangs with a spinning beachball for as much as 2-3 minutes. It eventually displays a page, and I can click on names/icons to go to other pages. But when I want to go back to the main page, it beachballs again. I see messages like this in Console:

3/25/11 10:40:05 AM [0x0-0x193193].com.apple.appstore[6675] Fri Mar 25 10:40:05 XXXXXX.home App Store[6675] <Error>: CGBitmapContextGetBitsPerComponent: invalid context 0x10a16a480
3/25/11 10:40:05 AM [0x0-0x193193].com.apple.appstore[6675] This isn't a bitmap context. Forcing destination format to ARGB_8 for CGContext.
3/25/11 10:40:05 AM App Store[6675] CGBitmapContextGetBitsPerComponent: invalid context 0x10a16a480

Any ideas whether this is a general problem or something odd on this particular Mac?
3/25/11 10:44:34 AM App Store[6675] multibyte IDs are unsupported.

Posted on Mar 25, 2011 2:46 AM

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Answer 1

Mar 25, 2011 8:32 AM in response to Kirk McElhearn

Hi Kirk,App

The v10.6.7 combo update includes fixes for the Mac App Store. It's available for download here.

Make sure and restart your Mac after the update is installed.

Carolyn 🙂

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Answer 2

Mar 25, 2011 1:24 PM in response to Carolyn Samit

I would say it is exactly the opposite. I am experiencing this issue now when I try to switch to the Purchase tab in App Store AFTER upgrading to 10.6.7. Never had any issue before. I have restarted my computer and it is 100 % reproducible. Takes about 1-2 mins to load that time while App Store is completely frozen (and marked as not responding).

/Eskil

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Answer 3

ragtag_2

Level 1

0 points

Mar 25, 2011 1:39 PM in response to Eskil Swahn

I couldn't open AppStore after updating. Fixed permissions and rebooted... worked. Although I was in 64-bit mode before.. now in 32. Not tried again in 64.

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Answer 4

ltrgy

Level 1

4 points

Mar 25, 2011 9:24 PM in response to Carolyn Samit

I don't see any error messages but I am getting the beach ball when I launch the app store. It continues to spin for two or three minutes and then I can see the front page of the app store. It also does this when I try to navigate away from (also return to) the front page.

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Answer 5

Mar 26, 2011 2:09 AM in response to ltrgy

Same problem - spinning beachball hang for a minute or two before the feature page appears.

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Answer 6

jumaho

Level 1

10 points

Mar 26, 2011 7:30 AM in response to Kirk McElhearn

I had the same problem and fixed it by turning off the "Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP)" / "Certificate Revocation List (CRL)" checking in the Preferences of the Keychain Access Application (in /Application/Utilities). Apparently the certificate checking takes too long which makes the Mac App Store unresponsive for this period.
From a security point of view turning off the checks is definitely not a good solution, especially not regarding the COMODO certificate problem recently, which is still not fixed by Apple i think.

P.S.: The heightened activity of the ocspd (OCSP daemon) is also a hint for the problems cause.

Edit: It seems to be sufficient to switch off the CRL checking, so you have at least the OCSP still turned on.

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Answer 7

Mar 26, 2011 7:28 AM in response to jumaho

Interesting. I did turn that setting on yesterday, because of the Comodo issue. However, I've been having this problem for several days, and I know of others who have had it as well, who have probably not activated these settings. It does, indeed, resolve the problem, but I have a feeling that something else was going on before 10.6.7. I don't think the OCSP settings have ever been on by default, though, so maybe there was some other type of certificate check going on?

Do others who have this problem have those settings activated as well?

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Answer 8

sgginc

Level 3

676 points

Mar 26, 2011 7:35 AM in response to jumaho

Could you please specify where in Keychain Access this option resides?

Thanks ... Ken

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Answer 9

jumaho

Level 1

10 points

Mar 26, 2011 7:49 AM in response to sgginc

In the preferences choose "Certificates" on the rightmost. There you can turn off OCSP and CRL checking independently. But as i added to my previous post it seems to be sufficient to turn off the CRL checking.

Edit: However, as Kirk mentioned already these checks are disabled by default. So if you don´t know where these options can be found you probably did not change these defaults and your problem lies somewhere else 😟 but i would check it nonetheless.

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Answer 10

sgginc

Level 3

676 points

Mar 26, 2011 7:49 AM in response to jumaho

Thanks

I am blind sometimes.

Ken

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Answer 11

Mar 26, 2011 9:24 AM in response to jumaho

I can confirm as well that turning off CRL fixed my problem as well. A bit annoying..

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Answer 12

nomad11

Level 1

10 points

Mar 26, 2011 12:42 PM in response to Kirk McElhearn

I get the same error message. Started today I can visit the app store start page but cannot buy / download anything. After a fee seconds, the beachball shows up and appstore freezes. The certificate stuff is off.

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Answer 13

Mar 26, 2011 8:55 PM in response to Kirk McElhearn

...and fixed it by turning off the "Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP)" ...

Fixed worked for me as well - huge difference.

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Answer 14

ltrgy

Level 1

4 points

Mar 26, 2011 11:39 PM in response to markfalta

Turning off the certificate check in keychain access solved this problem for me as well. I find this pretty unsettling.

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Answer 15

tubo

Level 1

5 points

Mar 27, 2011 3:02 AM in response to ltrgy

Same for me: Could end the state of permananently spinning beachball immediately (<5secs) by deactivating the CRL-Option.
Given the open security hole, thats really a shame.

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