App Store doesn't work

I've got this problem. Here's what I've done:

Called Customer service and:

1. Tried the tricks of deleteing some of the preference list and cached files in the file system which didn't work.

2. Next steps were to enable the Debug menu for the App Store and perform the Clear Cookie and Reset Application options from the Debug menu. Also didn't work.

3. Next recommendation was to reinstall 10.8.5 Combo update. Did that, also didn't work.

I was told that if the Combo reinstall didn't work that I'd have to re-install the OS.

To avoid doing that I tried the trick of using Pacifist to install just the App Store app from the Combo update and that put the App Store in a state where it won't even launch. So I guess I'm going to take a backup of the drive and do a fill wipe and re-install.

Ten years of using Linux and I've never had to do this to fix a problem. Guess Apple is going the way of Microsoft (an app doesn't work, reload your entire OS).

I found a solution. After a reinstall the system stopped working again. Following the second reinstall of the day, the App Store stopped almost immediately. I thought about the things I did after each install. There were two tasks I did after each install, though not necessarily in a specific sequence. First I disable the time machine local snapshot. That didn't seem relevant so I dismissed it. Next, I disabled spotlight indexing. I don't need to search for things since I know where they are (I'm a command line chunkie so the GUI is just eye candy and not really my primary interface, I know I'm a knuckle dragger by today's standards). Anyway, I did some googling to see if there was any correlation to the App Store and Spotlight and found this support note

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4236

Although not my specific problem it does indicate that there's a connection between the two. I re-enabled Spotlight and all was well with the world. Somewhat distrubing, but at least I have an answer.

I had the same issue earlier and found what was causing it.

I removed my external HDDs, usb devices then restarted osx logged back in and I was able to check my appstore updates.

Ive read an issue earlier about spotlight and indexing affects appstore in some way and realized I had an HDD in NTFS which I thought was not indexed by spotlight since its "read only".

I hope this info helps 🙂.