Unable to update bundled iMove/iPhoto/GarageBand?

Thank you, yuliu! This fixed my problem! To clarify for others, here are the steps.

1.) Open App Store

2.) On the Quick Links click Account.

3.) You will be prompted for your Apple ID and Password.

4.) After you enter your ID & Password, you will see Account Information and Apple ID Summary. On the title bar above, you will see Featured, Top Charts... Click Purchases.

5.) You should see the three apps GarageBand, iMovie, iPhoto listed. You will need to 'accept these applications'

When complete, all three will be 'gray out' and read 'Installed'. They will no longer appear as Updates in your App Store.

Now to add a twist to this issue which I'm dealing with - how to update when the bundled apps were purchased with a different Apple ID (I bought the machine from someone else)? I'm awaiting Apple's fix but am curious what the support community has to say...

Only Apple can help you. They have to release these bundled apps on this machine from this other guy's Apple ID so that you can accept them into yours. There isn't another way around it, unless you have bought these apps with your ID for another Mac in the past.

An update: Apple "cleared the previous AppleID from your computer's iLife. They provided new acceptance codes to get the iLife applications updated." I went to the App Store, redeemed the codes, and downloaded these apps/updates individually. Which is great but I think they need to automate this process - it took two days.

Same with me. This is my first mac. I have a 13" MacBook Air with Lion 10.7.4. It wont let me update saying "Login with the account you purchased it with to update. I constantly have a little red badge that drives me crazy!!!! HELP!!!

I am also experiencing this problem. I just got my retina display macbook pro and ilife came pre loaded. I cant update those apps, I get the same message. I tried everything written here, I called apple and they said they'll call back with a solution......I guess ill have to wait around until then......

well please excuse me for being so annoying...... I didnt report back because I was waiting for apple to respond to me....they did...They sent me 3 redemtion codes that I used in app store. The apps were then credited to my account and I was able to update. Deleting the apps didnt work for me. I also tried accepting the apps but that didn't work and neither did spotlight indexing or something....anyway if anyone else is experiencing this problem I suggest just contacting apple and asking for redemtion codes, its the most reliable way.

Hello all,

I'm new to the forums and have been pulling my hair out over this issue for a few days. The chap at the genius bar said it was a problem with my account, and told me to phone Apple Care as they could deal with it. Apple Care told me it was a problem with my account, and told me to email Express Lane as they could deal with it.

After a few emails back and forth with someone in Express Lane (who is much too informal in dealing with customers, and makes basic mistakes in English), I've been told that they can't deal with it and that I should get in touch with Apple Care. I'm starting to consider bashing my head against the wall - but perhaps following some steps would be more constructive (though I doubt it).

Anyway. I've tried updating from the 'Purchases' tab - I get an error message saying the download is not available. Trying via 'Updates' gives the same result.

Moving the programs to the trash and then trying the same again gets me in a loop of having to endlessly log in with my Apple ID (via 'Purchases') or leads me to a blank 'No updates available' screen (in 'Updates').

The person I was emailing with at Express Lane then suggested finding and deleting the adoption.plist file - but I can't find that file. Actually I can't find Macintosh HD/Library/Caches/com.apple.appstore, nor can I find Macintosh HD/Library/Application Support/appstore/ (as suggested in Bucharest021's post).

Does anyone have any suggestions, given I can't find/see these two folders?

Many thanks in advance.

To go to the Library:

Go to the Finder menu bar in the top left corner

Then, go to "Go" and click "Go to Folder..."

Type ~/Library in the window that pops up

Then double-click Application Support.

There you go!

Hope it helps.

Thank you, but I don't think I was clear. The folders Application Support and Caches are both there; it's the folders one level down, com.apple.appstore (in Caches) and appstore (in Application Support) which I'm not able to find.

As a follow-up: today I rang AppleCare, was forwarded to an 'Apple Senior Advisor' (is that the same as a 'Tier 2' person?), who, in no time, sent me codes for new installations of iPhoto, iMovie and Garage Band, and then led me through the steps to get them downloaded.

He confirmed that it's a known problem at Apple (otherwise getting me new codes wouldn't have happened in anywhere near such a short space of time) and listened to my concers (scathing opinions) about the person I had a fruitless email exchange with - much too informal a style and consistent errors in English usage.

I hope this may be of use to anyone who might still encounter this problem.

Most annoyingly, as a support person, I can neither perform routine updates to e.g. iLife software, nor troubleshoot updating issues without the "owner" of the machine hovering over my shoulder getting prompted for their password every 30 seconds or so.

Very unfriendly. How to Apple techs in the stores do this? Do they sit down and "oh, let's try this fix, password please, no that didn't work"?

No-one wants to give out their AppleID and password as it's linked to their bank cards etc. Absolutely ridiculous!

I finally figured it out...

Had to download and install iLife Support from here: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1009

Ran App Store and the update finally showed up. Job done. Good luck everybody.

Add me to the list of people with a new Macbook Air having this same issue. Not a huge deal but I hope they fix it soon.

Add me to the list as well. This is my first Mac (MBA 13" with OSX 10.7) so I thought i was doing something wrong!