We could not complete your purchase - Unknown Error

Question

Level 1

1 points

We could not complete your purchase - Unknown Error

When trying to update my apps, I get this error message:

We could not complete your purchase Unknown Error.

I've been getting this error for a week straight now.

I uninstalled some of the apps thinking that something was just corrupt, and now I cannot reinstall them (or buy any other app for that matter).

The authors of the apps no longer offer downloads from their individual sites so I'm in trouble here. I have to work tomorrow and I have lost the entire night trying to fix this. I have tried everything mentioned on this forum (signed out, reset safari, cleared the app store cache folder) and now I can't even sign out of the App Store. I click the "Welcome (myname)" and "Account" links and nothing happens.

I even tried restoring the system, but the last step said something like "you cannot update mac osx lion server, you must erase the hard drive first." But I didn't know I had OSX Lion Server. I just bought the Server app awhile back thinking it would let me deploy a MAMP development environment and then deleted it because it was a joke of an app.

So am I screwed or just missing something here?

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.1)

Posted on Oct 6, 2011 3:11 AM

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Answer 1

zkc75 Author

Level 1

1 points

Oct 6, 2011 3:53 AM in response to zkc75

I finally fixed this by loging out of iTunes, logging out of MobileMe (in System Prefs), then deleting the folder named /folders in the /var directory. restarted and all is well again.

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Answer 2

DB-Video

Level 1

0 points

Oct 12, 2011 6:05 AM in response to zkc75

I want to thank you for figuring out this solution. It worked perfectly 🙂

-Sincere thanks

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Answer 3

Apr 26, 2012 9:22 AM in response to zkc75

I'd like to thank you for the tip. It worked for me and I'd like to understand why. Is that folder used by app store and were the permissions not correctly set ? How can this happen ? I want to root cause the problem so I try to not run into it again.

thanks - stefano

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Answer 4

Apr 29, 2012 8:01 AM in response to zkc75

Many Thanks for the info zkc75 it worked for me.

This if for those who dont know how to delete /folders from /var directory.

On Finder select Go, then Go to Folder type /Var, hit enter. You will now get to see all folders under /var.

Delete all the folders under folder.🙂

Thanks,

Narayan🙂

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Answer 5

Nov 23, 2012 2:35 AM in response to zkc75

You are the best man... I've been trying to find a solution for this for quite some time and has been a huge pain!!!

Thanks again.. Worked like a charm!

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Answer 6

Dec 6, 2012 10:59 AM in response to nithincv014

when trying to delete i get -

The operation can’t be completed because the item “cache.db” is in use.

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Answer 7

HACKINT0SH

Level 5

5,804 points

Dec 6, 2012 5:04 PM in response to Andrew Graham5

Close iTunes, MAS, Safari, and try again.

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Answer 8

Feb 14, 2013 1:42 PM in response to zkc75

Thank you! Deleting the "folders" directory in "/var" did the trick. Problem solved.

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Answer 9

Apr 10, 2014 7:14 PM in response to nithincv014

I just had the same issue that the OP had. After I deleted all of these folders I could not connect to the App Store. I attempted to reboot and it now sits on the white startup screen. Any possible solutions??

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