Unable to purchase.

I have no the patience to read through 18 pages of replies... but what worked for me was to deauthorize all computers and then use the reset warnings option (both part of the apple iTunes store). If this is a permanent solution I'll try and post again in a little while.... it's worked for me lately though.

-Lid555

There are a number of references to "iExplorer" on most of the later pages...I believe that the original was on page 9 or so. I suggest searching for that since it's the only permanent fix so far. (And maybe some day the originator of this large discussion will mark it as the solution!)

Ok so the bug that caused the original problem will still be there and if you get a confluence of situations it may come. Back. The official solution is to reset to factory condition. The bug will still be there with this solution. So the iexplore is the best solution as it is easy. I have not had the problem back after over a week. I had the ipad about 6 weeks before thre message came up, as a result of a bad download. The first message was something to do with the app not downloading because it was being updated. Then i got the error and it would not go away until the iexplore option. Apple are aware of the problem but i susoect it is not a priority and may be ages till they fix it. It was not fixed with 5.1. So if you want the best chance the simple solution is iexplore and the reset is too time consuming.

I read all the posts in these 18 pages but nothing helped me out.

My problem is not the "unable to download" (I have no error messages) issue but the "ghost" apps stuck in "waiting".

I tried the iExplorer thing but it works only for the FIRST app I download or update after that.

If I try to download another app, it remains stuck on "waiting" again.

Sometimes, after a long time, the download may start. But only sometimes.

I don't know what to do. It seems clear to me that the file you delete with iExplorer is responsible of something.

How can it be that, when App Store recreates it, it is corrupt again?

And the other thing that I noticed is that the pop up showed up after my update to 5.1 .Is it possible that this might have caused it or is it just a coincidence,I mean if it was a matter of time depending on the number of apps you download.Also,thank you for your response!

The issue showed up after 5.1 update also for me but not immediatly.

It's happening since friday.

I'm trying to download just one app at a time.

Can someone please repeat the detailed steps for the iExplore procedure?

App Store must be open?

Do I have to do a normal reboot or a hard one.

Thanks.

Have you tried downloading the apps to iTunes on your computer then synching with your computer?

Of course it works, but this is not a solution to the issue, this is doing something else.

What I need is being able to download apps from the app store without from my iPad, without using my computer.

I had the same problem and after downloading and synching to iTunes it cleared the problem apps and I then was able to download other new apps & updates directly to my iPad.

About a month ago, I started having this problem too. Like many others, my updates still work, but the pop up is a nuissance. I read on another site someone tried simply synching to their computer and that fixed it. I didn't think it would work for me, but it seems to be working so far. I think with iCloud being out I forget to syncing too. But anyway, apparently I hadn't synced since October (which is bad for me because I used to do it every 2 weeks). So anyway, I synced and ended up with a few apps I had previously deleted. So I deleted those, and tried to update my apps to see if that annoying error went away. I got a pop up saying something about changed terms, then another one saying my account had been locked and I needed to reset my password. That was annoying since I'd had the same password for about 8 years, but I've tried downloading/updating twice since and no pop up! Hope this helps everyone else!

@SarahT: It would be nice if the problem was as simple as a physical sync with a computer. Unfortunately, it's not.

I sync every day, and sync with a physical cable to the computer at least 3 times a week. The problem persisted until I followed the iExplorer procedure.

The "Unable to Purchase" popup doesn't occur every time you purchase/download an app. The symptoms that were consistent with this problem for me were:

1. Apps that I were on my device turning Grey for a brief amount of time with a slot near the bottom for the progress bar (as if the apps was being updated/downloaded), then the icon would reappear, but the slot would stay for a second or two more, then the icons would fully restore.
2. The device would freeze for about 10 seconds a few seconds after being turned on (woke up). Ex: Wake up the device with the power button, watch the "slide to unlock" animation. After a few seconds, that animation would stop for about 10 seconds, then start up again (assuming the screen stayed on. many times it would turn off again (go back to sleep) before unfreezing).

Those two symptoms occurred pretty much every time I attempted to wake my iPhone and iPad. After applying the iExplorer fix (deleting the 'downloads.28.sqlitedb' file and the folders in the Downloads folder), my devices have been performing as they did when I first got them. No freezing, no weird icon greying/looking like they are being updated when they were not).

I can't say that your situation is the same as mine or others here, but it's likely that the iExplorer fix will clear up your situation as well. Even if not, the Downloads folder probably shouldn't have anything in it other than the manifest.plist file and the downloads.28.sqlitedb file. (deleting the sqlitedb file fixes the problem because it's corrupted.) I say this because looking at my Downloads folder two weeks after applying the iExplorer fix, I still only see the manifest.plist and downloads.28.sqlitedb files. I've downloaded several apps and songs since I applied the fix.

If your Downloads folder has anything other than those two files (manifest.plst, downloads.28.sqlitedb), it's likely that the sqlitedb file is corrupt and needs to be deleted (it will be recreated by iOS) as well as any folders (assuming you are not currently downloading an app).

I tried with the iExplorer procedure. I deleted the downloads.28.sqlitedb file. I tried also deleting the manifest.plist file but nothing changes.

Apps still remain stuck on "waiting" and only after a lot of time the download starts (and not all the times).

I experienced no freezing issues at all, my iPad works normally.

I believe it has been stated here in this thread a couple of times to *NOT* delete the manifest.plst file. However, looking at that file in my Downloads folder. It appears to be an empty plist. It matches the fact that the Downloads folder is pretty much empty (just the two files mentioned previously). I'm guessing that it will contain data durning a download.

If you are not experiencing freezes or icons greying out temporarly, even though you are not updating/sync'ing, the problem you are experiencing is not the same as the "Unable to Purchase" problem the thread was started for.

I didn't see any issues where apps would "remain stuck on 'waiting'. I have seen times when durning updates or new downloads, the icon would say "Waiting" for what appeard to be a long time. So long as the activity spinner (circle of dots animating in the upper left corner near the carrier logo) was animating, the device was downloading a different app or it was simply waiting for Apple's servers to start sending me the app.

Something I found out recently from TWiT's iPad Today show (This Week In Tech; Leo Laporte's podcast network, http://www.twit.tv/), if you double tap an app in that "Waiting" state, you are telling iOS that you want that app to start downloading now and put any other app that might currently be downloading in the "Waiting" state. Nice tip really if you want to use the app you are double tapping right away instead of waiting for it to be downloaded naturally. (May only work when restoring from a backup in the cloud. That's what was happening with his iPad at the time.)

As I said before, the iExplorer thing didn't work for me.

THEN I tried deleting the manifest.plist file and I put again in the folder where it was.

I wrote in this topic because the apps stuck in "waiting" issue seems to be present is a lot of cases I read in these 18 pages. The iExplore procedure is listed elsewhere in resolving this issue also (make a google search and you'll see that everybody say to EMPTY the "downloads" folder, so deleting manifest.plist also), so the two things must be connected in some way.

The fact that you didn't see any issue where apps would "remain stuck on 'waiting' does not mean that no one has this issue. If you make another google search you'll find that a lot of people have this problem and that there is not only one way to solve it. And not all solutions seem to work for everybody. For me, none of them. iExplorer is one of them. Worked for a lot of people, not for me.

I never metioned the activity spinner. I know that its presence means that the device is downloading but, see the point, it's not my case: the apps remain on "waiting" and there is NO activity spinner on the upper left corner. And they remain on "waiting" even if I double tap them. These are basic things about iOS that I already new and I already tried.