Cannot establish secure connection to Apple Store

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Cannot establish secure connection to Apple Store

I've tried all the solutions I can find to no avail, but cannot seem to establish a secure connection to the iTunes store. No error code just a blank iTunes Store screen and a never ending attempting connection. Some of what I've tried:

* Date and time correct

* SSL and TSL checked

* No proxy and tried to check and uncheck auto detect settings

* Used Autoruns to be sure no other LSP providers

* Ensured Windows Firewall has iTunes fully allowed (even reset Firewall to default and then reallowed it again)

* Removed and/or disabled all security software to test for possible blocking

* Reset Winsock and rebooted

* I CAN reach secure sites in my browser just not in iTunes

* Removed iTunes, Quicktime and any other Apple related items I could find with RevoUninstaller to look for leftover entries, rebooted and reinstalled (several times)

* Cleaned all cookies, caches and old registry entries

* Machine is free of all malware

This only happens on one computer so I know it's not my account. It happened out of the blue (well, I'm sure it was related to something...a Windows update, an update of something....but I didn't associate it at the time so I do not know what). I know another person who had the exact same symptoms out of nowhere and has very different software from me (and a totally unrelated account to mine) so I suspect a Windows Update but I don't know which one.

Specs: Windows 7 64-bit iTunes 10.6.3 AV is Microsoft Security Essentials with realtime Malwarebytes

When I open iTunes it takes a very long time to load, system becomes sluggish, and then when it finally does load, it simply will not connect to the store and it will not recognize any iPhone or iPad I try to sync. When I run the diagnostic the only information it seems to contain that is pertinent is that I can't establish the secure connections. In Safe mode iTunes will start more quickly but since I cannot start Apple service in safe mode I cannot connect to the iTunes store that way. (I have however, disabled all but the most essential startup items and the long load in normal boot still remains).

I'm at a loss. I've Googled and searched the forums here and tried every plausible thing I could find but nothing seems to work. Any further ideas are welcomed. I was going to try an older install of iTunes but older versions won't read a library created in a newer version. I would really like to sync some new items to my devices and since the computer won't sync to the cloud as it can't log in - I'm kinda stuck at the moment. It's really frustrating. I'll be glad to post diag logs if anyone things it will really help.

Many thanks for any additional ideas!

iOS 5.1

Posted on Aug 22, 2012 5:16 PM

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Answer 1

b noir

Level 9

72,324 points

Aug 22, 2012 5:33 PM in response to patndoris

It seems unlikely, but working on the principle that we haven't eliminated it yet, let's give the following document a go (even though you're using a version 10.x):

iTunes 9: "One Moment Please" or "Error (-50)" message when accessing iTunes Store

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Answer 2

patndoris Author

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Aug 22, 2012 6:51 PM in response to b noir

I tried via the command line. No joy I'm afraid. Thank you for the idea and I'm game for any other ideas you may have.

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Answer 3

b noir

Level 9

72,324 points

Aug 22, 2012 6:55 PM in response to patndoris

Okay ... one last thought.

Is there a firewall built into your router?

If so, by way of experiment, let's try disabling that. Can you get a connection with the router firewall disabled?

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Answer 4

patndoris Author

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Aug 28, 2012 12:19 PM in response to b noir

Sorry for the delay in answering. I'm afraid there was no change in the behaviour. Still took forever to load up and did not connect to iTunes store. I connected directly to my modem bypassing router completely.

Any other ideas?

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Answer 5

patndoris Author

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Sep 6, 2012 4:26 PM in response to patndoris

Another update, I uninstalled Quicktime and iTunes (yet again) and did a fresh download. Afterwards, I am able to try to connect in Safe Mode w/Networking but even there I cannot get a secure connection. I'm at a total loss here. I also tried with a clean boot of Windows with no luck.

Any other ideas welcome - this is totally crazy!

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Answer 6

jasonb b

Level 1

46 points

Sep 28, 2012 3:38 AM in response to patndoris

I have the same exact issue running on the same system you are, win 7, 64 bit. It used to work for me, now all of a sudden cant get a secure connection, and can't get to the iTunes Store within iTunes. This means the update feature won't work, the store won't, iTunes radio within iTunes, etc. help.

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Answer 7

patndoris Author

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Sep 28, 2012 4:12 AM in response to jasonb b

I finally went into my services and looked at every service that wasn't set to start automatically and read the description. If it sounded like it could be enabled safely (obviously that was a decision I had to make for myself and the security of my machine) I enabled it and set it to start automatically. Anything with regards to peer to peer, internet related, and homesharing was certainly something I considered. There was also a service called IKE that was stopped for some reason that was recommended never to be stopped. I personally enabled over 35 different services. Somewhere in there (and I have no idea which service or combination of services) it fixed my problem. The interesting part was that I never went in and stopped any of these services or changed the status on my own, so I have no idea where they got changed - and nowhere in any of the reinstalled did Apple products set the services back to what they needed them to be. Go figure.

As an aside - Bonjour was enabled AND running but iTunes kept telling me it wasn't. That is what started my search in the services to start with. I did try iTunes support but they were less than helpful and directed me back to all the same tech bulletins or to call for paid support - which I wasn't about to do for a free program that just stopped working.

iTunes is now opening like a charm and is connecting perfectly for me. Obviously, this is something you'd want to do with caution and I'd suggest that before you blanket go and do as many as I did that you might want to carefully select the ones that you look at setting. My first reboot took a bit but after that things have been running smoothly. Your mileage may vary and take this with caution. You may want to enable a few at a time and test instead of doing what I did.

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Answer 8

jasonb b

Level 1

46 points

Sep 28, 2012 4:59 AM in response to patndoris

Thanks for the reply. Hmm. So you enabled those 35 services to "start automatically"?

Your issue seems identical to mine.

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Answer 9

patndoris Author

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Sep 28, 2012 5:51 AM in response to jasonb b

Well, the first time through I just started them. I didn't actually change the status to automatic start. Then I tested it and iTunes opened beautifully with no lag and connected straight away to the store. At that point I went back in and changed the status for any service that I had started to also be start automatically.

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Answer 10

jasonb b

Level 1

46 points

Sep 28, 2012 7:35 AM in response to patndoris

Thanks. Hmm. I have a ton of services in there under services.msc. is there a way to turn them all on at once?

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Answer 11

patndoris Author

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Sep 28, 2012 7:43 AM in response to jasonb b

I just went in through Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Services. That way I as I went down the list I could read the description of each service in the left hand pane. Some were obviously for work environments (I have Windows Ultimate on my machine now - I upgraded thinking it might help but it didn't) so I didn't need those. Reading the brief descriptions helped me choose on my machine what I wanted to take a chance on starting and what I didn't. Obviously, I didn't need all the services I chose. It was probably just a combination of a few of them. But I simply don't know which ones. Unfortunately, it was a one at a time process - but compared to the countless hours I'd already spent - it was nothing.

There is no guarantee it will work for you though. So many solutions say they work for one person and don't for the next. There is also the chance that enabling all services might cause some kind of a conflict. That was my first worry at my reboot when it took so long to load my desktop the first time, but after that it seemed to be ok so I guess I didn't hurt it. Whatever you decide - make a restore point before you make changes so you can roll back if you need to!!

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Answer 12

jasonb b

Level 1

46 points

Sep 28, 2012 9:21 AM in response to patndoris

After digging more, this fixed me!

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4123?viewlocale=en_US

In my case it was the speedbit video accelerator than comes bundled with DAP (download accelerator plus) a download accerator. Go figure! The article also helps identify other conflicts. I have a feeling doing this would also find the culprit you had.

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Answer 13

patndoris Author

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Sep 28, 2012 11:10 AM in response to jasonb b

I had already tried everything in that technical bulletin. I'm glad you found what your cause was though!

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