after ios 5.1 update apps won't download

I have an iPhone 4 running iOS 5.1.

2 problems:

1. Since a couple days ago, when I attempt to either update apps or download new apps, they appear on my home screen but remain stuck on "waiting" status, sometimes taking hours to finally begin to download and install. I've tried deleting the app and re-downloading it, logging out then back in to the app store, restarting my phone, even resetting all my settings and running a full restore... nothing has solved the problem.

2. As a result of running a restore on my phone to try to solve the previous problem, I've had to redownload all of the iTunes music... about 500 songs. The downloads suddenly stopped at 150 songs. All remaining song are in the iTunes store download queu, but are stuck in "waiting" status. I checked my storage to see if I ran out of space, and I still have 14 gigs available. Closing iTunes, restarting my iPhone, logging out of the store... nothing fixes the problem!

I've been an apple user for years and rely on Apple products to be non-buggy and reliable. The last couple years and after nearly every software update, Apple has not lived up to its loyal customers' expectations. I'm growing tired of dealing with problems every time I update.

This may sound crazy, but I found a very simply solution that worked for me. It doesn't make much sense, but perhaps it's related to the new Retina code.

To restate the problem, iOS 5.1 is prone to an issue when apps or app updates are downloaded from the AppStore. On the device, app icons will remain stuck in a "waiting" state indefinitely. For some, syncing with their computer works, for others more radical solutions have been documented. In my case, there were no pending updates in the iTunes app, Downloads page.

The solution for me was to rapidly "wiggle" the screen with my finger for a few seconds. This unfroze the waiting apps and they downloaded and installed successfully. Several colleagues of mine have confirmed this to be a valid workaround.

Anyway, I submitted feedback to Apple support. Hopefully this will help other iOS users until they get the problem fixed. Cheers!

So what does rapidly wiggel the screen mean?

I have the same problem with my iPad2 I have tried eveything I know all Internet connections are good only way I have found around this is to download onto mac and then sync. This however is not good when you want to access apps on the move. I think enough money is paid for the iPad that when apple release an upgrade it should at least be tested to mak sur apps can still be downloaded

I think he means just move the page of apps back and forth

Just tried it and a combination of holding the apps to delete them and moving it around. Then tapping the downloading app that usually pauses or starts the download. It actually started. Don't claim it really works, but it's still unacceptable from Apple.

Tried again. Didn't work. Must've been a lucky fluke for sure...

Same here. It also affects iTunes Match. Single song downloads are possible some times, but hitting "download all" makes it worse.

So I should not try restoring the device, which I would hate to do? (Because it seems to be a general issue, not to be solved with the same iOS 5.1...)

Having the same problem. I've try a bunch of apps and none of them are downloading. They are just saying waiting.

Just putting my experience on here. I have iPad 2 updated to ios5.1 and like most others after a few days started having issues of waiting apps.

As far as I can see there is no consistent solution. I have I'd just about every one in this thread and others and they either don't work or they work for the first app you try to update but then any subsequent apps just get stuck in the waiting mode again unless you go through the whole process of whatever the suggested solution is.

I can update via a sync on my laptop.

I am astounded that apple are seemingly not admitting there is an issue. Having only had my iPad since Xmas I am rather disappointed with this.

Surely apple will realise this when they see revenues take a dive from the iTunes and the app store if people cannot download anything. I for one will most certainly not be buying anything from the AppStore/iTunes until this is resolved.

Apple are just shooting themselves in the foot.

No, I tried resetting all settings and then running a full restore through iCloud. Neither fixed the problem. In fact, I'm now unable to get all my iTunes purchased music back onto my phone through iCloud. The songs in the download folder say "waiting" just like the apps. Pretty ridiculous.

And the wiggle method didn't work either.

Here's my update. I did the reset all settings on the phone and I believe it worked for me! I am able to buy new apps, download already purchased, and update apps. I can also download music again which is a plus. Now the only thing its done is delete my camera roll and a days worth of text messages. I've tried to restore my camera roll from my latest back up and it seems to want to refuse to download them. I really don't know what to do with that. I've thought about doing the reset again to see if it'll restore my photos and videos that are now lost. This whole not being able to download is ridiculous and I'm surprised at how widespread and isolated it seems to be.

I can confirm these devices haven't have the issues:

my iPad 2 32GB

g/f's iPhone 3GS 16GB

my friends new iPad and his iPhone 4 both 16GB

my other friends iPhone 4 16GB

my moms iPhone 4S 16GB

They're all running iOS 5.1

When iOS 5.1 came out, I did the update on my 4S over the air. I just downloaded it directly on the phone, which is only 50-90 MB's rather than the big 800+ MB's via iTunes.

Today, the Apple technicial told me, after 2 hours troubleshooting, that now the semi last chance is the restore from iTunes (full download and restore of iOS - not reset on the phone) and restoring the backup. After that, the very last chance would be the full restore but not using the backup - setting up the device as new. (That is the most painful last chance.)

I'm happy to say, I did the full restore using iTunes, downloaded the 800+ MB iOS package, and used my backup to return the device to it's desired state. I have downloaded one APP so far, only. But more important to me and obviously related is the iCloud/iTunes Match download of songs. That is working now again. In the moment I'm downloading about 100 songs and music videos from my match account.

If it continues to work fine, I would blame it on the "delta" update from 5.01 to 5.1 over the air last Friday, where only the new iOS files are transferred to the iPhone.

I have an iPad 3 downstairs, that came with iOS 5.1 last Friday and that never had such issues we are talking about. Hopefully my iOS 5.1 is now complete on the iPhone as well.

So forget all the cleanup of the download folder. I tried everything. It was only a short cure for a moment.

jPhone7 wrote:

When iOS 5.1 came out, I did the update on my 4S over the air. I just downloaded it directly on the phone, which is only 50-90 MB's rather than the big 800+ MB's via iTunes.

Today, the Apple technicial told me, after 2 hours troubleshooting, that now the semi last chance is the restore from iTunes (full download and restore of iOS - not reset on the phone) and restoring the backup. After that, the very last chance would be the full restore but not using the backup - setting up the device as new. (That is the most painful last chance.)

I'm happy to say, I did the full restore using iTunes, downloaded the 800+ MB iOS package, and used my backup to return the device to it's desired state. I have downloaded one APP so far, only. But more important to me and obviously related is the iCloud/iTunes Match download of songs. That is working now again. In the moment I'm downloading about 100 songs and music videos from my match account.

If it continues to work fine, I would blame it on the "delta" update from 5.01 to 5.1 over the air last Friday, where only the new iOS files are transferred to the iPhone.

I have an iPad 3 downstairs, that came with iOS 5.1 last Friday and that never had such issues we are talking about. Hopefully my iOS 5.1 is now complete on the iPhone as well.

So forget all the cleanup of the download folder. I tried everything. It was only a short cure for a moment.

I may try that and hope that it'll actually download everything from iCloud. I did a reset all settings without deleting data and it still deleted my camera roll. Maybe if I do a full restore and download my backup from iCloud it'll have everything back. Like you and most people doing a restore and setting it up as a new phone isn't what I have in mind!

Wait a little. If it's still good tomorrow, I will post it. Currently it downloads a lot of songs and one APP is sitting as waiting on the homescreen. The big difference with the APP, it acts on touching and switches to pause and waiting again when touching it. So after the 30 songs, it should download the app. My DSLs not the fastes, so in 20-30 minutes we should know more. I will test more tonite and post some findings tomorrow.

And yes, setting up as new is a pain.

In the future, I will consider not doing iOS updates over the air and go the extra mile via iTunes and full iOS download, rather then the delta package...

EDIT: Yes, after it has finished downloading my songs from the iCloud/match account, the app loaded as it should. Lesson learned. OTA iOS updates might cause trouble... i had that feeling always I did it...

Thanks Apple. Now I'm going to dowload 30 Gigs until my iPhone has stored the music library again as it was before your glitch with the downloads...

I've just resolved my problem over the phone with an Apple rep.

I dad many apps "waiting" for the updates and frozen for almost 24 hours. The problem was that for some reason my device wasn't registering with the App Store in order to perform the downloads.

Maybe what I did will resolve your problem.

1. Hard reset the device (hold Home and Lock buttons for 15 seconds, release when white Apple logo appears).
2. Delete all apps running in the background (double click Home button; hold one app until they all start to wiggle; hit red minus circle on all to close everything. If one of them is an app you were waiting to update, skip it and ignore).
3. Go back to home screen.
4. Go to one of the apps that are in "waiting" mode and delete it.
5. In App Store, redownloaded that app.
6. If it doesn't start downloading immediately, tap it to pause, then tap again to unpause. Should finish downloading now.
7. For the remaining apps, no need to redownload since now the connection with App Store is reset. Simply pause and unpause each app one by one (not all at once).

Hope this helps.