App download buttons not working.

Great, i'll keep that in mind, if anyone else asks! 🙂

I have a 3gs and I have never done an update through iTunes. If I do update it will it solve the problem?

You mean firmware update, yes? I'm sure it will solve the problem if you'll update to 4.0 or higher.

I just got a reply, it told me the steps on how to connect to iTunes store... did that person even read my case?

Well, he can't possibly read my reply wrong:

The problem isn't in my iPod, the problem is that the 3.1.3 firmware appears to not be compatible with App Store anymore, I am not the only one with this problem, if you just had a short look on the link i sent you could have sent that there are a lot of other people with the same problem. And no, I have no problem connecting to iTunes store as you suggest, it's the App Store which is causing problems.

Please i don't want another quick copy-paste answer.

The 3.1.3 iOS is not COMPATIBLE with App Store, as many people can confirm: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3574451

If you have no quick answer, please take some time to find out, ask your supervisor, ask him to ask his supervisor, we, your customers, want an answer, we wanna know if apple is going to cut out their older models or if this is just some bug.

Sincerely

Your customers

We just hit this issue during QA of our app. We have an older 3G/3.1.3 in the lab we use for testing, and we were puzzled by not being able to hit the free/buy buttons.

So yes, this makes complete business sense on part of Apple. Including the funny responses people on this thread got after contacting support.

This is very obviously a "forced upgrade" action executed by Apple. I think it is very safe to assume that the overwheming majority of people who "need" to stay on iOS 3 need that to keep their phones jailbroken or unlocked. This community of users, by now, represents a loss for the business and Apple is obviously trying to get the users to pay again for apps and for phone/data service as they intended them to have it.

So this action by Apple forces those people to make a choice between staying unlocked and losing AppStore access or, instead, get back "in jail" and "play right."

Even if Apple reverses the action at some point, making the store accessible again (because of customer pressure - unlikely) it is pretty certain that many 3.1.3 users will upgrade their OS by then.

I think the legality of this action by Apple is very "gray." Which will explain the very vauge responses from the reps. I will not be surprised if they are briefed on a "need to know" basis.

A tiny bit of good news, just confirmed by our QA manager: connecting a 3G/3.1.3 phone to iTunes (PC) gets the apps there. So there's a "solution" - but obviously still a great deal of convenience loss...:-(

I got an answer from Apple (the weblink that you shared some posts ago),... but as you will read below,... they will not help me (us):

Hi Torakaru,

My name is XXXXXX with the iTunes Store and I will be assisting you. According to your email, you're having an issue downloading apps from your iPhone. I realize your desire to have full use of the iTunes Store and I will be glad to direct you in the right direction.

Torakaru, as an advisor for the iTunes Store, I handle issues related to billing, downloading, customer accounts, and the items available on the iTunes Store.

As a consumer we all hate being re-routed, but as an Apple customer, I want to ensure you're directed to the correct technical support team to make sure you receive the efficient and quality answers you deserve. I appreciate your understanding, let alone patience in resolving this issue.

Torakaru, I would strongly recommend contacting our AppleCare technical support team. I am more than confident that an Apple technical advisor will be able to quickly and effectively troubleshoot your issue step-by-step over the phone.

To contact AppleCare, please locate the phone number for your region here:

www.apple.com/contact/phone_contacts.html

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation. Enjoy your day Torakaru.

Sincerely,

XXXXXXXX

Totally useless, this is so sad. 😟

Thank you SO MUCH for this informative (though depressing) information!! When I connect my phone to my PC, it keeps saying "backing up" my phone (and the phone says "synch in progress", but it just never finishes.. so apps on my PC don't get onto my phone. Would you have any suggestions for me please??

vansover wrote:

We just hit this issue during QA of our app. We have an older 3G/3.1.3 in the lab we use for testing, and we were puzzled by not being able to hit the free/buy buttons.

So yes, this makes complete business sense on part of Apple. Including the funny responses people on this thread got after contacting support.

This is very obviously a "forced upgrade" action executed by Apple. I think it is very safe to assume that the overwheming majority of people who "need" to stay on iOS 3 need that to keep their phones jailbroken or unlocked. This community of users, by now, represents a loss for the business and Apple is obviously trying to get the users to pay again for apps and for phone/data service as they intended them to have it.

So this action by Apple forces those people to make a choice between staying unlocked and losing AppStore access or, instead, get back "in jail" and "play right."

Even if Apple reverses the action at some point, making the store accessible again (because of customer pressure - unlikely) it is pretty certain that many 3.1.3 users will upgrade their OS by then.

I think the legality of this action by Apple is very "gray." Which will explain the very vauge responses from the reps. I will not be surprised if they are briefed on a "need to know" basis.

A tiny bit of good news, just confirmed by our QA manager: connecting a 3G/3.1.3 phone to iTunes (PC) gets the apps there. So there's a "solution" - but obviously still a great deal of convenience loss...:-(

No, not all of us CAN upgrade, take for an example iPod touch 1G, like myself, latest iOS is 3.1.3, i don't just wanna trash it, it works just fine, except for no apps and no appstore anymore.

If you can't really stop that backup (by sliding the control on your phone, or through iTunes) then something else might be wrong there.

The only thing I can suggest is try to connect your phone to another PC/Mac and let that other iTunes copy do the magic for you.

Of course, if you don't mind upgrading the OS (to 4.2.1), you may have more choices. One of them is actaully going to a physical Apple Store (preferably when they're less busy) and asking someone at the "Genius Bar" to help you upgrade.

Good luck.

PLEASE don't get offended / irritated, I truly feel for you and have been in similar "stuck" situations myself, but I only have two words as an asnwer to your (correct) statement: "Collateral Damage"

Thanks so much for the suggestions!!!

I have the same problem on my 2G .... please fix it ..... my wife is 😠 !!! (is the iphone of my wife)

Please HELP me!!! 😢

Thanks anyway for letting us know 🙂 not angry at you at all, just dissapointed over apple, we could sue them and win everything back...

I don't believe Apple is dropping support for iPhone OS 3.x, I think they are just dealing with this bug slowly and incompetently.

vansover: Please don't try to convince everyone they are permanently out of luck w/o an official response yet from Apple. That is counter-productive at this stage.

torakaru wrote:

I got an answer from Apple (the weblink that you shared some posts ago),... but as you will read below,... they will not help me (us):

[...] as an advisor for the iTunes Store, I handle issues related to billing, downloading, customer accounts, and the items available on the iTunes Store.

[...]

Torakaru, I would strongly recommend contacting our AppleCare technical support team. I am more than confident that an Apple technical advisor will be able to quickly and effectively troubleshoot your issue step-by-step over the phone.

To contact AppleCare, please locate the phone number for your region here:

www.apple.com/contact/phone_contacts.html

[...]

Totally useless, this is so sad. 😟

I got the exact same kind of unhelpful response, but I took the advice to call a "technical advisor" via that link.

I patiently explained the problem to three different people, and directed them to the handy screenshot and detailed symptom list at the top of this thread. It took an hour, but I believe I finally got someone's attention on this at Apple, so with any luck we'll see some progress someday soon.

I encourage everyone else who's seeing this problem to go ahead and call too.

www.apple.com/contact/phone_contacts.html

(Be polite, and consider pointing out this thread as documentation. Buggy-looking screenshots tend to get attention faster than words.)