Cannot Access App Store with Mountain Lion

I've been having problems connecting to the App Store (iTunes Store worked though) with a brand new MacBook Pro. The solution was to repair permissions on the hard drive. To do this, open Disk Utility (under Applications\Utilities), click on the hard disk, then on “Repair Disk Permissions”. It will take a couple of minutes to complete and might resolve the problem. Good luck!

OK, I was having two issues. One was the same as yours. I was able to fix this (with help from Apple phone support). You have to reset SAFARI. I guess the app store and iTunes use the safari engine -- did that and blammo no problem connecting to the iTunes store and the App store.

The other issue was more subtle.. certain sites kept timing out on me. The answer to that was that I had to lower the "MTU" on my ethernet connection. Instructions are here

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1411365

and the same ones are here

http://osxdaily.com/2012/08/02/fix-os-x-mountain-lion-wireless-connection-proble ms/ (fix #2)

Thanks Brett for this comment from you. I had exact the same problem after upgrading my MacBook Pro to Mountain Lion. Googling, 100 tips and tricks, no result at all.

You where the first to mention the Auto Proxy Discovery. And that did it for me.

Super tip.

Greetings from Belgium,

Is your wifi connection otherwise OK (e.g., are you posting on this forum from the same computer)?

If you suspect wifi might be the problem, see my post on how to solve mountain lion wifi problems here.

If you're sure wifi isn't the problem, then try resetting the App Store. Sometimes 'command-R' will do it (which is similar to 'refresh' in Safari), but otherwise, you'll need to enable the debug menu. To do that, follow the instructions here

http://osxdaily.com/2011/01/10/enable-mac-app-store-debug-menu/

From the debug menu, choose 'Reset App Store'.

(ToU Disclaimer: this post contains a link to my site which contains other links which promote my services as a technical writer)

Thanks ClarKent423. Setting the DNS servers works very well for me. Not only am I able to connect to App Store, I am also able to install Tab for Google+. Have been trying to search for a solution to my problem since yesterday.

Thanks again.

What happens when you click on the App Store icon or hit 'Software update'?

btw I had to switch to my PC laptop to access this page. My laptop connects over wifi to the same router that my iMac is plugged into via ethernet. My internet works just fine. my iMac worked just fine, before mountain lion.

I'm having the same problem. My network connection is fine - there is plenty I can do -- can check and send email with thunderbird, login to websites, etc. Things I cannot do -- access pretty much any apple page on the web, access iTunes, and some "outgoing" activities fail - for instance I can login to wikipedia and view pages but when I try to edit them, the connection times out. Nice job apple. You mostly killed your own functionality. But how do I fix this??

I had a machine in the other day (MBP 13" Running 10.8) wich was getting "App Store cannot verify a secure connection with the App Store" when trying to connect to the app store or run software update (being it was running OSX 10.8).

For this machine i found the problem was due to Proxy settings ( "Auto Proxy Discovery" was checked. Unchecked "Auto Proxy Discovery", Problem Fixed).

So besides checking Your Proxy settings( System Preferanced/Network/Advanced/Proxies), I would also check:

*Time, Date, Timezone settings.

*If you have any Anti-virus software installed it could be the perp (Im personaly not a big fan of anti-virus software on Macs as they often cause more Problems than they solve)

*check Firewall settings (System Preferances/Security & privacy)

While there are other things to consider, start with checking those.

Hope this is of some help.

I have seen similar reports of problems accessing https-sites stemming from the effects of a non-updated security software Trusteer Rapport - usually downloaded on the advice of a bank.

Having the same problem. I can't access iTunes either.

I tried to reset the app store, and I cleared the cookies.

Still won't connect.

I either get a popup that says "App Store cannot verify a secure connection with the App Store"

or a black screen or the screens says Cannot Access App Store.

iTunes behaves similarly.

This all started after installing Mountain Lion.

This was fixed for me with the 10.8.1 patch.

Magically started working again.

However, I did get an update notice from outside of the app store, before I installed 10.8.1 that allowed me to get to the updates in the App Store.

But, it has been working fine since then.

I have literally tried everything in this thread. The only thing I have not done yet is delete the Norten Anti Virus. Do you think this will make a difference?

I managed to download the 10.8.1 update on my wife's mac and installed it via USB. That worked for about 5mins and then went back to not being able to verify a secure connection to the app store and the Internet not working.

I am sure it's something to do with the wifi as I tested using my phones Internet with 3G as the router and that was fine.

Any more suggestions would be very welcome.