How do I resolve a failed download, "Use Purchases Page to download again"..

Hi Apple-Novice-Wondering,

Apple currently doesn't monitor these boards as they are community powered.

To answer your question, have you tried clearing out the caches and temporary files used by the Mac App Store?

This has worked for some people. Also, make sure iTunes is up to date. You can view the instructions of how to clear the temp files here, How to clear caches and temp files for the Mac App Store. Also, this post might be of use as well as one has to delete the folder com.apple.applestore and reboot for it to take effect.

I hope this helps and report back if it worked for you or not and we can continue troubleshooting.

Apple isn't here. Apple doesn't answer questions here. This is a user to user forum.

Can someone at Apple tell us what "Use the Purchases page to try again" means?

What is that? bad translation from a different language to English or something like that?

That's a very straight up answer to anyone looking at the Mac App Store app.

Once you have purchased something from the store it is added to the Purchased list to redownload the content. So if the content fails to download properly the first time, the Purchased page/pane is where you can redownload.

Folks here have tried to help the OP, but it appears that no suggestions have helped resolve the OP's issue.

A bit of humility and a contrite heart will help an Apple Novice go far here. You are always free to use whatever company's products that you choose. Treats to go over to MS Windows doesn't frighten or impress any of the other users here. But it often will encourage folks to ignore your comments and requests for help.

Late 2012 Mac mini, macOS 10.13.1;  Watch S3, watchOS 4.1; iPad Air 2 & iPhone 6+, iOS 11.1; TV 4th Gen, tvOS 11.1;  Airport Express

Hi Coolridge, I got the same "failed to download" error message with a couple of different app updates and an app re-install. After spending a couple of hours investigating it, I hit upon a combination of steps that worked for me. Here are the steps I followed:

Step 1. Reinstall iTunes.

Download and reinstall current version of iTunes (which is currently version 12.6.2). Here is the link: https://www.apple.com/itunes/download/

Step 2. Change your DNS setting.

Here’s how to do that: Go to Network Setting in Settings Preferences. Select your network connection, click Advanced in the lower right-hand corner, then click DNS in the top row of options. At the bottom of the left side pane titled “DNS Servers:” click the plus (+) button and 0.0.0.0 should appear as the first line in the window. Type over it and change DNS to a different setting.

One possible DNS setting is Google’s 8.8.8.8 or 8.8.4.4 DNS settings. You could also insert one of these OpenDNS settings: 208.67.222.222 or 208.67.220.220 on the first line.

Just for the record, I used a different Cox Communications (my Internet provider) DNS setting: 68.105.28.11

Step 3. Clear the App Store cache.

Open the Terminal utility (in the /Applications/Utilities/ folder) and run the following command:

open $TMPDIR/../C

A Finder window will appear that shows a number of folders. Locate and delete the folder named "com.apple.appstore," then empty the trash.

Re-start your Mac, allow all background startup processes to finish, then try launching the App Store and purchasing or updating the application again. Hopefully, it will download and install without any error messages.

Step 4. Optional: Clear the DNS setting you previously set.

It’s no big deal if you leave the DNS setting you selected but if you want to restore the default setting, simply repeat the steps in Step 2 above. Click on and highlight the DNS setting you previously typed in, then hit Delete. Close the windows and your network settings will automatically reset to the default settings (which on my Mac is to default to the Airport Extreme setting: 10.0.1.1). You may possibly have to restart your Mac.

These are the steps I followed on four out of five Macs that gave me the App store "failed to download" error for different updates and app re-installs. These steps worked for me and I hope they work for you. Good luck!

Hello Apple Team,
Is anybody there capable of answering Coolridge's question?
Does anybody care?

"macOS Hight Sierra failed to download
Use the Purchases page to try again."

Can someone at Apple tell us what "Use the Purchases page to try again" means?

What is that? bad translation from a different language to English or something like that?

I'm honestly losing hope in Apple, even typing this message is a hassle with the cursor that keeps coming back to the previous line...
Whatever man I'm frustrated with Apple now, I'm seriously going back to Microsoft Windows.

Temporarily disable anti virus software.

Apps such as Little Snitch, Net Nanny, and Hands Off can prevent apps from downloading successfully.

Open System Prerferences > Security & Privacy > General

Click the lock icon to make changes. You may be prompted for your admin password.

Select: Mac App Store and identified developers

Click the lock icon to prevent further changes.

From the App Store menu bar top of your screen click Store > Check for Unfinished Downloads

If that doesn't help, try here > Mac App Store: How to resume interrupted downloads

Keep in mind, for downloading apps from the App Store, a high speed (broadband) internet connection is strongly recommended by Apple as noted here > iTUNES STORE - MAC APP STORE - TERMS AND CONDITIONS

Downloads tend to time out on slower connections.

Don,t know if this would help you but, it worked for me.

Sign on to you App. Store account and as you see your personal information there will be a small button on the bottom right to "Restet all warnings for buying downloads". this corrected my failed download eorror message..

Hope this help.....

Coolridge,

It's happening the same thing with me. I've already tried to disable the anti virus but it was not enough.

Have you already resolved this problem?

Another approach that is working for people is to clear out caches and other temporary files used by the App Store. To do this, open the Terminal utility (in the /Applications/Utilities/ folder) and run the following command:

open $TMPDIR/../C

A Finder window will appear that shows a number of folders. Locate and remove the folder called "com.apple.appstore," and then try launching the store and purchasing Mountain Lion again.

This worked for me.

I'm having the same problem. I've cleared all my app store cache & temporary files, app store preferences files, tried downloading the app nearly a dozen times with the same result. I have no firewall in place, no virus protection software. I'm not using any 3rd party apps in my system. I'm at a loss.

I've been in touch with Mac App Store Support for the past 2 weeks with still no resolution. It seems they will refer me to Apple, and my AppleCare expired awhile ago. Hoping to discover someone else has overcome this terribly frustrating issue.

Anyone figure this out?

This also worked for me. Thank you!

This worked for me:

run

open $TMPDIR/../C

and delete the folder com.apple.appstore

Then restart Mac.

Apparently AppStore doesn't wipe some other data until you restart, so it keeps attempting to proceed with the install althout it's not possible.

I may also add that such issue could be caused by firewall rules. In my case there was restriction to download files over 1 Gb and AppStore app was not able to upgrade Xcode to the next version (it was 1.6 Gb), resulting in the same error as described above.

Can you not remove the Firewall restriction ... albeit just for the time it takes to do the download. I guess you'll be aware of the link below but if not, follow the instructions once firewall has been removed.

Mac App Store: How to resume interrupted downloads