Feoen

Q: Cannot update pre-installed iLife suite from App Store.

Hello.  My family purchased a new Macbook Air for my sister who is going off to college soon.  We are a long-time user of Apple's products and are normally pleased by their simplicity and ease, but we have come across something entirely perplexing.

 

Her App Store icon said that there are 3 updates available the moment she turned on her new computer.  She registered her MBA with Apple under her Apple ID.  She set iTunes to use her Apple ID, and did the same with the App Store.

 

However, when she clicks on the update button, types her Apple ID and password into the prompt, and hits enter, it says something like, "You must first purchase this software to receive this update."

 

We were thrown for a loop.  We looked up GarageBand, iMovie, and iPhoto in the App Store, and it says that they are installed on her machine already.  Her Support Account says that her MBA is registered to her Apple ID, etc.


After trying everything we could find, I found this "answer":

 

https://discussions.apple.com/message/15453853#15453853

 

Long story short: The iLife Suite gets its updates from Software Update, while the individual apps get their updates from the App Store.

 

We have run Software Update, and it says there are no updates available for her software at this time.  Despite this, the App Store says there are updates for the software.  We have cross-checked the version number of the updates to the currently installed iLife software and the updates available on the App Store are newer versions of the iLife apps.

 

Why is she not able to receive the updates for these applications through Software Update?

 

Thank you for your time.

Posted on Jul 22, 2011 8:53 PM

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Q: Cannot update pre-installed iLife suite from App Store.

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  • by SweetBoss,

    SweetBoss SweetBoss Aug 11, 2011 8:13 AM in response to Feoen
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Aug 11, 2011 8:13 AM in response to Feoen

    Got the same problem with a Macbook Air 13 inch bought last week. I contacted support 2 times and both times was directed to senior advisors. It took 5 days for iTunes support to respond to the email I was asked to send email to. Several days of communication and attempts later they finally gave me 3 redemption codes. That was 8 days after I first contacted Apple. Since somebody posted a solution I tried it first, a few times actually, but it did not work for me. I ended up using the redemption codes, updates downloaded and they are showing up under the purchase tab as purchased. I am still concerned about this issue though. When I went to the Genius bar last week the technician could not even reinstall Lion from an external drive after 2 attempts. He told me that the problem was a file on the computer and that I should return it. They would not exchange it at the Apple store since I bought it from an Authorized dealer. That chain (Futureshop, owned by Best Buy here in Canada) is out of stock since almost day one they received them, hence the reason why I continued to find a solution. I think I will try to do a fresh install of Lion to see if there is any issue. If there is one I think it is better to return the MBA and wait until they have new ones in stock, otherwise I will keep it. Not sure what will happen with iLife, not even sure if I can backup the apps, or just reinstall them using the App store since they are considered purchased now.

     

    Any thought about what is the best way to reinstall Lion (HD recovery mode or internet one in order to get maybe a non "corrupted" version of Lion)?

     

    ps: I have not been very impressed by Apple's responsiveness or willingness to really help, I had to push to get a solution and felt like both senior advisors dropped the ball, just like the Genius bar technician. Finally, Apple stores had/have in stock for Macbook Airs and they refused to replace a defective Apple product (as told by the Apple technician) because bought at another (authorized) store. Not a good experience.

  • by tomashek1,

    tomashek1 tomashek1 Aug 11, 2011 7:42 PM in response to SweetBoss
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 11, 2011 7:42 PM in response to SweetBoss

    Here is what you could do. Reboot while holding Command + R key. It should boot to recovery utility. From there run Disk Utility. You should see 2 partitions there, one for your existing Mac and one for Recovery Partition - erase both. Reboot and your Mac should fail to start from the disk (as there is neither OS there nor Recovery Partition), and it should start from Apple server from Internet. Then it downloads fresh copy of Lion (it takes a while), creates Recovery Partition and installs Lion from the scratch. I have done it that way and it worked.

    Hope that helps, good luck.

  • by Saul in PA,

    Saul in PA Saul in PA Aug 11, 2011 8:51 PM in response to tomashek1
    Level 2 (295 points)
    iTunes
    Aug 11, 2011 8:51 PM in response to tomashek1

    Before wiping out your Lion make sure that you can dowload it.  Otherwise you will be waiting for them to send you a USB stick.

     

    Verify that you can run the Internet recovery by doing an Option-Command-R.  You should see a spinning planet earth as it tries to go to Apple's servers to load the recovery software.  Mine doesn't get past that.  I get a message to go to apple.com/support with error code -3400F.

  • by Saul in PA,

    Saul in PA Saul in PA Aug 27, 2011 6:04 PM in response to Feoen
    Level 2 (295 points)
    iTunes
    Aug 27, 2011 6:04 PM in response to Feoen

    Got the iLife update issue resolved today.  I followed these instructions from Apple support:

     

    1 - Exit iTunes and the App Store

    2 - Delete /Macintosh HD/Library/Caches/com.apple.appstore/adoption.plist

    3 - Reboot

    4 - Open App Store

    5 - Select updates.  Enter iTunes username/password when prompted.

     

    It then started downloading and installed.

     

    Yay!!!!

  • by hwai tiong,

    hwai tiong hwai tiong Sep 3, 2011 8:09 PM in response to Saul in PA
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 3, 2011 8:09 PM in response to Saul in PA

    Thanks a lot. It works. You are better than the Apple product specialist.

  • by rhunter15,

    rhunter15 rhunter15 Sep 10, 2011 12:08 AM in response to Saul in PA
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 10, 2011 12:08 AM in response to Saul in PA

    Thanks Saul in PA. That worked for me also. I am fully updated and I have no "update notifications" on the App Store icon. I knew a fix would eventually come out. I see a few have reinstalled the whole OS trying to fix it . Sometimes it takes patience. Thanks again.

  • by DPerl,

    DPerl DPerl Sep 17, 2011 1:58 AM in response to Saul in PA
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 17, 2011 1:58 AM in response to Saul in PA

    I have spent a frustrating month searching for a solution to this problem, engaging in phone calls to apple care who knew of no solution, and then endless emailing with iTunes support reps who refused to issue new purchase codes -- which was one way to remedy this problem as reported on these forums, because they claimed that since they knew of No "real" solution to this as of Sept 14th they wanted more time before issuing the codes.

     

    I  was therefore  delighted to find this post from August 27th, that presents a real AND SIMPLE fix to this mysterious problem on our new MacBook Air which was purchased in July. (This was not the only .plist problem on our MBAir--I also, through the user forums, was able to find a simple .plist deletion to deal with my Bluetooth turning itself back on after every restart, despite my setting it to off.)

     

    I am left wondering how in the world Apple's own system for communicating to its  Apple Care engineers  and  iTunes support reps can be so ineffective as to allow a problem like this to persist for this long even after a SIMPLE solution becomes known--a problem which obviously affects a significant number of customers, some of whom have wasted countless hours on this, including being told to reinstall their OS !

     

    Maybe Apple engineers and support people ought to spend a little more time reading and cataloging the fixes that these user discussion forums reveal, rather than spend all their time trying to reinvent the wheel themselves.

     

    Heartfelt sympathies to all those who have searched in vain for a fix till now. And thank you Saul for your post.

  • by weeying,

    weeying weeying Oct 17, 2011 8:41 AM in response to Saul in PA
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 17, 2011 8:41 AM in response to Saul in PA

    Thank Saul, it works

  • by fverloy,

    fverloy fverloy Dec 6, 2011 2:47 AM in response to Feoen
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 6, 2011 2:47 AM in response to Feoen

    The "Saul" trick did not work for me, after deleting the adoption.plist file I get asked to accept the apps on my account/computer (a unique hardware id needs to be sent to apple it says) but then get the message

     

    These application cannot be accepted on this computer, for updates use Software Update...

     

    which offcourse does not work and no updates come in for iLife...

     

    Apple support could not figure it out either and asked me to reinstall iLife (which I don't have since it came pre-installed)

  • by Saul in PA,

    Saul in PA Saul in PA Dec 6, 2011 6:25 AM in response to fverloy
    Level 2 (295 points)
    iTunes
    Dec 6, 2011 6:25 AM in response to fverloy

    Hopefully you have an Apple store nearby.  Take it in and let them re-install everything.  If that doesn't work they may swap out your computer.

  • by jmg144,

    jmg144 jmg144 Dec 28, 2011 9:38 AM in response to Saul in PA
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 28, 2011 9:38 AM in response to Saul in PA

    Thanks, likewise Apple support had no idea what to do.  This fix worked!

  • by thecodeman,

    thecodeman thecodeman Jan 6, 2012 5:46 PM in response to Saul in PA
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 6, 2012 5:46 PM in response to Saul in PA

    What do we do if we don't have a file named adoption.plist?

     

    Week #1 down of waiting for Apple Express Lane support to remember me :{

  • by bradley143,

    bradley143 bradley143 Feb 7, 2012 10:39 PM in response to Feoen
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 7, 2012 10:39 PM in response to Feoen

    I tried Sauls idea and now all it tells me that i need to dowbload any upgrade from thre  the account that i bouhgt them from , when they were already installed

  • by MyloSmylo,

    MyloSmylo MyloSmylo Mar 17, 2012 4:35 PM in response to Saul in PA
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 17, 2012 4:35 PM in response to Saul in PA

    legend

     

    this worked for me. been trying to find a solution to this for ages

     

    Thanks so much

  • by Rob0,

    Rob0 Rob0 Mar 24, 2012 5:35 AM in response to Saul in PA
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 24, 2012 5:35 AM in response to Saul in PA

    Thanks Saul, you’re the best! I’d pretty much given up any hope of updating the built-in iLife applications. Apple’s support was rubbish but this did the trick.

     

    Thanks a million!

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