Unable to purchase.

The iExplorer method worked for me. After all those weeks of annoyance, the fix took about a minute. Thanks Just_Jeepin! ... I'll also report here if the problem comes back. So far, so good.

The actual credit should go to ya1950 for this clue which led me to try iExplorer (which I used often for transfering audio and video to various apps).

ya1950 wrote:

Reading around this is what I discovered: There is a directory on the phone 'Downloads' which contains folders of partial downloads as well as a database file of apps downloaded by the phone. In some cases the database file gets corrupted and causes these problems.

Good going to both of you. Gotta admit it's a leap of faith to delete a database file by hand. Seems like this is the kind of housecleaning the system software could do from time to time.

Thanks. I posted because this was driving me crazy and I hoped that it would help other people. But actually the real credit goes to someone named Michael Haseth who posted this on another forum way back in October 2010. The internet is a wonderful place to be!

Hey, y'all. I've been following this thread for a few days, after having suffered for about 6 weeks with the "XXX and XX other items could not be purchased at this time" message.

It was so bad that a few weeks ago, I did a complete iPhone restore (as a new device). However, the problem is back.

I followed some of the above suggestions this morning, and the first time I went to download an app update, the message didn't appear. But just about a half hour ago, it appeared again.

So, my next step is to try iExplorer. And the more I think about that as a solution, the more it makes sense.

A couple of months ago, I was looking though some of the new iOS 5 settings, specifically, SETTINGS> GENERAL> USAGE> MANAGE STOREAGE. This is a newer feature which show exactly how much space each app is taking up on your phone, both by the installed app size and by the in-app user data.

I noticed that a few apps seemed to have an unusually high amount of user data for apps that are either web-based and/or ones I don't use often enough. I contacted a developer of one of these apps and asked why his app is taking up so much space on my phone. He replied that there is definitely a bug in iOS 5.0/5.01 and that older data is not being cached. (I'll look for the Tweet from him).

If this is true, then it might explain our issue and why iExplorer seems to have worked for some of you already.

Anyway, I'll post my results when I am done trying the iExplorer fix.

I can confirm the iExplorer method works for the iPad 2. It's really easy too:

1. download and install iExplorer

2. attach your iPad 2 to your computer via USB

3. open iExplorer

4. go to Media>Downloads and delete the sqlitedb file

5. close iExplorer and detach your iPad 2

6. reboot your iPad 2 by turning it completely off (hold down the power button)

From there you should be good to go. I've been testing it out by downloading various apps, and haven't seen the error message pop up. For the record, the sqlitedb file gets re-written by the system, so if you go back you will see the file there again but this time it will be uncorrupted.

Also, iExplorer lets you copy files to your computer by dragging and dropping, so if you're unsure about deleting a file just drag and drop it beforehand so you have a backup copy. That way if things start to go haywire after you delete a file, you can just put the file back in place.

Well, that did it! The iExplorer solution works. Oh, and now when the App store loads (on iPhone), it seems so much quicker.

Like I said in my previous post, I'm 99.9% certain that this in an iOS caching issue, as reported by 3rd-party app developers. Let's just hope it gets fixed in the v5.1 update.

Thank you to everyone who made suggestions.

P.S. I hope I'm not back here in an hour saying I'm getting the **** message again. LOL.

If it's a database file corruption issue, what's to stop the file from becoming corrupt again requiring another deletion?

In this case, our efforts here with iExplorer work temporarily until the it all goes sideways again. This is a great band-aid, but without Apple coming up with a way to do a cache cleanup type fix within the OS we're potentially going to have to go back and do this repeatedly.

Just sayin'.

Since you said what you did about how the App Store loads on your iPhone, I decided to try the iExplorer thing. I have NOT had the error message since I tried PlatnumK's procedure (as I posted above), but my App Store hasn't been working right since (as I have also posted).

It would be great if this fixes THAT problem. I will report back either way.

One question: why does my new SQLITEDB. file show 10 pm when it's 5 pm here?

I agree with you "DukToonz' and a funny thing is I haven't seen the error since my last post and I did nothing except sync my iPhone & iPad to iTunes. the iExplorer program returned an error on my computer so I couldn't even use it. I did find another program that did install without incident though so if need be I can use that to delete the corrupt file if Apple doesn't come up with a solution. FYI: My app store has stopped showing the badge when updates are available too so I think this may be something on Apple's end. Perhaps they're not sending it through push notificaitons to preserve battery life as that was another issue people were experiencing with their iPhones.

For me the App Store badge will update but when I open the app and select the Updates tab, most of the time it's blank. I then have to go to the home screen, double click the home button to bring up the switcher, tap and hold to close the app store, then relaunch the app store.

Also, my mail app badge is never correct.

Makes me wonder if Android users have this many problems.

Agreed. But hopefully Apple will issue a fix in iOS 5.1. What's taking 5.1 so long anyway? It's been in Beta for months now.

Deleting the file did NOT fix my APP STORE "badge" problem, unfortunately.

No one ever said it would. Deleting the database file fixes the unable to download x with x in the queue and the ghosted app that never downloads.

As I said, since the Supremes thought he noticed faster responses from the APP STORE after he deleted the file, I wanted to try.