Unable to purchase.

I deleted the apps from both iTunes and my iPhone. When I download a new app, I still get the message as well as faded icons of the deleted apps that say waiting. After the new app downloads I tap one o the faded apps and they all disappear until next time.

Had the same issue on both my iPad and then my iPhone after trying to download Polymagic. This issue is not related to the specific app but might have been triggered by the app going through change in the app store (i.e. is was changing from free to paid after the promotion was over).

This is what I did and seem to have corrected the issue on both devices.

I turned off WIFI sync (not sure why this matters but it seem the sync's were cleaner).

Perform a sync with your devices (strongly advice to let it backup as well).

Update ALL apps that are currently on iTunes.

Perform another sync.

Go over all your apps either on iTunes or device and remove the ones you don't want any more.

Perform another sync.

Once both iTunes and your devices are completely in sync the error messages will go away.

Good Luck!

I dont know if this will help, but i have noticed that the problem occurs with apps that i tried to download while they were being modified in the app store. So i got the "unable to download because the app is being modified" error message. Then the app never download itself but appears in the other error message " unable to download x +y other apps this time".

Ps: i am french so i dont know if i am clear and hope you will excuse my english.

I spoke too soon. The error has reappeared about the same apps.

So, I guess I'll have to try the backup and restore option. GRRRR!

Yeah, the error came back on my device, too, after I thought it was fixed. I'm going to try sticking it out until Apple puts out a software fix. (Anything to avoid a looooong backup and restore on my iPad 1.)

For me, this steps worked like a charm so far:

1. Click the option "Reset all warnings for buying and downloading" in your iTunes account settings

2. Delete the problematic App from iTunes (move to Trash) and from your iDevice

3. Logout from the iTunes account

4. Login in your iTunes account

5. Sync your iDevice with iTunes

6. Download the App again

Do let us know if the error is still there even after restore is done. Thanks.

For me this problem is happening at random. Just when I think it's gone the error message comes up and mentions another app. I have no idea what is causing it. I have synched & resynched. I've checked "Reset all warnings for buying and downloading" ,signed out of iTunes from my computer and my iPhone & iPad. I've deleted apps and reinstalled....the problem is just not going away but isn't preventing me from purchasing or downloading any apps at the moment. I haven't tried shutting off wifi synching...maybe that'll do the trick?

tdferreira wrote:

For me, this steps worked like a charm so far:

1. Click the option "Reset all warnings for buying and downloading" in your iTunes account settings

2. Delete the problematic App from iTunes (move to Trash) and from your iDevice

3. Logout from the iTunes account

4. Login in your iTunes account

5. Sync your iDevice with iTunes

6. Download the App again

I did all those steps except deleting the problem app from iTunes. I'll try that next, though originally the problematic app wasn't in iTunes to begin with. Considering only one of the problematic apps is listed by name though I'm not sure how to delete all of them. Also I don't even really want the app so I'll probably skip step #6.

I will mention that the problem on my iPad only occurs after I sync with iTunes. After that I go through my log out of iTunes, reboot iPad, log back in and that fixes my iPad until I sync again. Since the problem app is an iPad app, it's not affecting my iPhone.

I`ve done both sync with the cable and sync over wi-fi, so far the error hasn`t returned.

I believe that the main step is restoring the device from a backup as this will clear any corrupted data that may have happened when the said app was 1st downloaded.

I, too, have done it both ways and now it's over a week that I haven't seen the error. But my App Store app is not working right.

I just went through this as well. I've had the "Unable to purchase ..." message for the last month with the number of items steadily growing. Eventually I started to get greyed out "waiting" icons which I could only remove by synching with iTunes or redownloading the app. This was only a temporary solution because they would reappear if I tried to delete the app on the iPhone or uncheck the app from the iTunes list. Nothing worked for me including resetting iTunes, rebooting the phone, and a restore from backup.

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. A restore from backup will not always solve the problem (it didn't for me) because it restores the bad data. Without a way of accessing this folder and deleting the contents the only solution is to restore the phone and set it up as a new phone. I realize this is a real pain but for people who are still having problems after trying all the solutions listed here I think this is the only solution.

In response to ya1950 info.

Using iExplorer (free for mac & pc) I found the Downloads folder under the Media folder. I selected everything in that folder and deleted it. Weirdly the folders re-populate but the sqlitedb file was new. I rebooted the iphone and so far, fingers crossed, I've not had the error message or the ghosted waiting apps.

I actually did the same thing, I just wasn't sure that we can discuss accessing the phone in this way here. I was able to clear the entire directory and my phone has been fine for several days now.

So after about two weeks error-free, the message showed itself again on my iPhone (full count from where it left off). Just like I don't know what I did to stop it (which obviously wasn't a permanent fix), I don't know what I did to start it up again. It was shortly after I updated all the apps on my iPad for the first time in a while. I had also synced the iPhone with the iTunes recently before that.... I don't know. 😢