iTunes can’t verify the identity of the server

Same problem here. It took me hours to find this solution that worked perfectly:

1. Close iTunes and the App Store
2. In Finder go to Applications, Utilities and open Keychain Access
3. Click on "System Roots" under "Keychains"
4. Click on "Certificates" under "Category"
5. For every certificate listed that shows a little blue dot with a plus sign do the following:
   1. Open it up by double-clicking on it.
   2. Click on the triangle next to "Trust"
   3. In "Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) choose " no value specified"
   4. Close the certificate (you will most likely have to enter your admin password)
   5. Open the certificate again
   6. In "When using this certificate:" choose "Use System Defaults"
   7. Close the certificate (you will most likely have to enter your admin password)
   8. The blue dot with the plus sign should disappear.
6. When no certificates show this blue dot anymore, close the Keychain Access.
7. Open up iTunes or the App Store. The connection should work now.

Hope this helps.

In my case, on Windows, the error was because my system clock was living in 2099, probably due to combination of dead battery and failing to connect to a time server. SSL certificates are dated so they fail if the clock is badly wrong.

I use windows XP and faced same issue when I updated my iTunes, then I found the solution... Follow these steps... close iTunes program, check the date and time of your computer and make sure it is current year and date , if not change it, and now open itunes, that should fix it. 🙂

For those window's users, I found that flushing the dns really helped.

I was getting the error message iTunes can't verify the identity of the server "init.itunes.apple.com".

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1527

You probably need to reset your keychain:

Resetting your keychain in Mac OS X - Apple Support

Thank you - the Keychain master certificates were my issue for a iMac upgraded from 10.5.8 to 10.9 Mavericks from a Time Machine restore. I was getting "cannot download software because of a network problem" from Apple automatic software downloads (for printer drivers or Java and such) as well as a blank App Store. The Keychain Master Certificates were the issue - a tedious 20 minute fix. Thanks!

Thanks! Freedom4u2s - this fixed my app store problem! Other threads were sayin to re-install mavericks(!) and to do all sorts of dodgy commands in terminal, but this did the trick! Many thanks!

My pleasure! It really wasn't easy to find these instructions. A lot of people seem to have this problem. I am sure that Apple Care helped some of them. But why doesn't Apple post this solution??? Glad it worked for you, too! 🙂

THANK YOU SOOO MUCH!! Had tried everything including reinstalling OS which worked up until installed all updates and started having same issue. This fixed the issue and now iTunes is working like a charm!

My niece just bought the iPod touch 5th generation and we are having the same issue and want to follow your instructions. I apologize in advance for this stupid question: in number 2, what does "Finder" mean? I'm trying to get to "finder" on my PC so I can follow the rest of your instructions. Thanks much!

Thanks a lot for this solution. The problem started at my computer when I had to put in a new harddisk (old one made problems and became too small). After I had reconstrocuted my old environment from a clone, problems started, but could be fixed by the way described by you.

@Imation

The problem occured right after an update through the App Store. So if the official update from Apple caused this, I don't really think there is a risk. There are other threads about this problem. I've tried all the other suggestions (checking the date setting, reinstalling iTunes, deleting certain files, etc.) and none of these worked. AppleCare couldn't help other than suggesting try to reinstall the whole system and then transfer all the files and change the settings manually. Well, my solution works and no one has reported back any negative results. But if you have a better solution, please post it hear. We are all eager to read it.

How can you bump this thread to help people with App Store not working after Mavericks install? Because I searched everywhere, reinstalled maveriks, deleted caches, etc. and this is the only thing that worked. I just want to save People some time. Thank you so much

Thank you so much! I was getting appleplectic, trying to figure out why I couldn't access lots of websites on Chrome, then the app store, and then finally when I tried itunes. It was doing a search that included itunes that got me to this thread, and your solution was exactly the right magic one that solved all my problems. Thanks!