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Some of my apps are grayed out and labeled "waiting". I tried rebooting several times but nothing seems to work. I am also unable to get new email. Any suggestions?

Some of my apps are grayed out and labeled "waiting". I tried rebooting several times but nothing seems to work. I am also unable to get new email. Any suggestions?

IPad mini with iOS 7. 0.4

iPad mini Wi-Fi, iOS 7.0.4

Posted on Feb 8, 2014 8:14 AM

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Posted on Feb 8, 2014 8:39 AM

For the apps that say " waiting", you can give these suggestions a try. For the mail issue, provide some more information - more details as to what is happening.


1. Tap the "waiting" icon and see if you can pause it. If it does pause, then tap it again and see if it will resume. If that works, repeat the same steps for each "waiting" icon.


2. Reboot the iPad by holding down on the sleep and home buttons at the same time for about 10-15 seconds until the Apple Logo appears - ignore the red slider - let go of the buttons.


3. Make sure that you do not have a stalled download in iTunes - If you have a download in there that did not finish, complete that one first.


4. If that doesn't work - sign out of your account, restart the iPad and then sign in again.


Settings>iTunes & App Store>Apple ID. Tap your ID and sign out. Restart the iPad by holding down on the sleep button until the red slider appears and then slide to shut off. To power up hold the sleep button until the Apple logo appears and let go of the button.


Go back to Settings>iTunes & App Store>Sign in and then try to update again. Tap one waiting icon only if necessary to start the download stream.


5. You can also try deleting the waiting icons - tap and hold down on an icon until it wiggles - the tap the X on the icon to delete it. Then try to download again. Apps may also be able to be deleted in Settings>General>Usage>Storage if you cannot get the X to pop up on the icon.


6. You can try resetting all settings. Settings>General>Reset>Reset All Settings. You will have to enter all of your device settings again.... All of the settings in the settings app will have to be re-entered.

13 replies
Question marked as Best reply

Feb 8, 2014 8:39 AM in response to Lindajojai

For the apps that say " waiting", you can give these suggestions a try. For the mail issue, provide some more information - more details as to what is happening.


1. Tap the "waiting" icon and see if you can pause it. If it does pause, then tap it again and see if it will resume. If that works, repeat the same steps for each "waiting" icon.


2. Reboot the iPad by holding down on the sleep and home buttons at the same time for about 10-15 seconds until the Apple Logo appears - ignore the red slider - let go of the buttons.


3. Make sure that you do not have a stalled download in iTunes - If you have a download in there that did not finish, complete that one first.


4. If that doesn't work - sign out of your account, restart the iPad and then sign in again.


Settings>iTunes & App Store>Apple ID. Tap your ID and sign out. Restart the iPad by holding down on the sleep button until the red slider appears and then slide to shut off. To power up hold the sleep button until the Apple logo appears and let go of the button.


Go back to Settings>iTunes & App Store>Sign in and then try to update again. Tap one waiting icon only if necessary to start the download stream.


5. You can also try deleting the waiting icons - tap and hold down on an icon until it wiggles - the tap the X on the icon to delete it. Then try to download again. Apps may also be able to be deleted in Settings>General>Usage>Storage if you cannot get the X to pop up on the icon.


6. You can try resetting all settings. Settings>General>Reset>Reset All Settings. You will have to enter all of your device settings again.... All of the settings in the settings app will have to be re-entered.

Feb 8, 2014 9:48 AM in response to Lindajojai

If there are multiple apps trying to download at once, only one can download at a time and the rest say "Waiting" until it is then their turn. Try this. Double tap the icon of the Waiting app, and it should resume the download.


How to Solve the Problem of An iPad App Download Stuck on “Waiting”

http://ipadacademy.com/2012/06/how-to-solve-the-problem-of-an-ipad-app-download- stuck-on-waiting


How To Get Rid Of Your iPad App Download Frozen Problem

http://www.sidelineapple.com/how-to-get-rid-of-your-ipad-app-download-frozen-pro blem-and-not-lose-years-of-your-life-video/


iTunes: How to resume interrupted iTunes Store downloads

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1725


Another thing to try - Turn the iPad Off & then back ON.


If that doesn't work:

• Log out of your iTunes store account. Go to Settings > Store > Sign Out Then press the Home button.

• Then press and hold the Home and Sleep buttons simultaneously and don't release them when it brings up the Turn Off screen; keep holding them until the Apple logo appears.

• After restart, the Waiting should be gone.



~~~~~~~~~~


Re: Mail


You may have insufficient storage space to download the apps and mail.


Go to Settings>General>About>Available How much space do you have?


 Cheers, Tom 😉

Feb 10, 2014 11:52 AM in response to Texas Mac Man

Thanks for all the suggestions. I tried them all and nothing worked. Then I went to the App Store app and saw that indeed, all the grayed out/waiting apps were waiting to update. I do think I need to make some room for them on my iPad, but I'm afraid to delete any photos until I can know for certain that they're on my MacBook Air or my Windows media computer. I have PhotoStream turned on on my iPhone, iPad and my MacBook Air, but I don't always see the same photos on all devices. I understand that they won't share until all of them are on the same WiFi connection. Is that right?

Also, here is the msg I get when I try to get my new email on my iPad:

Cannot Get Mail

The mail server "imap.gmail.com" is

not responding. Verify that you have

entered the correct account info in

Mail settings

OK

___________________________________


I've tried resetting everything I can think of. Don't understand why it would stop working. Maybe it too needs more room? Guess I'll have to take it to somebody who knows Apple products better than I do. Troubleshooting is really difficult if you're new to Apple.

It says I have 7.2GB available. Should be plenty, no?


Cheers to you!

Feb 10, 2014 12:59 PM in response to Lindajojai

How much space is used by your Other? You may be able to reduce.


How Do I Get Rid Of The “Other” Data Stored On My iPad Or iPhone?

http://tinyurl.com/85w6xwn


How to Remove “Other” Data from iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch

http://www.igeeksblog.com/how-to-remove-other-data-from-iphone/


With an iOS device, the “Other” space in iTunes is used to store things like documents, settings, caches, and a few other important items. If you sync lots of documents to apps like GoodReader, DropCopy, or anything else that reads external files, your storage use can skyrocket. With iOS 5/6/7, you can see exactly which applications are taking up the most space. Just head to Settings > General > Usage, and tap the button labeled Show All Apps. The storage section will show you the app and how much storage space it is taking up. Tap on the app name to get a description of the additional storage space being used by the app’s documents and data. You can remove the storage-hogging application and all of its data directly from this screen, or manually remove the data by opening the app. Some applications, especially those designed by Apple, will allow you to remove stored data by swiping from left to right on the item to reveal a Delete button.


What is “Other” and What Can I Do About It?

https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-5142


iPhone or iPad Ran Out of Storage Space? Here’s How to Make Space Available Quickly

http://osxdaily.com/2012/06/02/iphone-ipad-ran-out-of-available-storage-space-ho w-to-fix-quick/


6 Tips to Free Up Tons of Storage Space on iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch

http://osxdaily.com/2012/04/24/6-tips-free-up-storage-space-ipad-iphone-ipod-tou ch/


Also,

How to Clear Message/iMessage Cache on iPhone & iPad And Reclaim Lots of Free Space

http://www.igeeksblog.com/how-to-clear-message-imessage-cache-on-iphone-ipad/



 Cheers, Tom 😉

Nov 26, 2015 3:53 AM in response to Lindajojai

What ended up working for me was going to the appstore and looking at all of my 'purchased' apps. The ones that are stuck on 'waiting' all appear as if they've been deleted (a download from cloud option appears). Tapping on the download from cloud option re-downloaded the apps onto my phone and the apps are functioning and are no longer greyed out.

Aug 12, 2016 11:08 PM in response to Lindajojai

I had the same problem after I manually updated more than thirty apps directly on the phone (iPhone 6, iOS 9.3.3) and let the device unattended over night – in the morning most of those apps were greyed out.


All the hints given in this thread were helpful, but did not solve my problem: Restarting, shutting down, closing the apps, clearing the app store cache (clicking ten times a tap icon in the Appstore app), logging out from the app store, clearing left overs in the Download folder on the device (using iMazing) but I couldn't even delete the apps (the confirmation dialog appeared but the app didn't). Since I did not want to reinstall the complete device from a backup I kept on trying:


I noticed that iTunes was able to update some of the apps during a synchronization job. It looked like that with each synch job some of the apps were restored (maybe because there were new updates available?). I went on synching repeatedly and now even some of the apps I tried to delete on the device before were now gone: They could be reinstalled with the help of the Appstore app. As I read in other posts the Facebook app was among these apps (but not the only one for me). In the end all the apps were back, updated and working as expected but at the cost of almost a day work.


If you encounter this problem as well I suggest to try the following:

- close all apps (multitasking gesture)

- clear caches (hold the main switch until „shutdown“ appears, release the switch and press home until the „shutdown“ slider disappears and the home screen reappears)

- hard restart (press and hold main switch and home button simultaneously)

- shutdown the device (press main switch and swipe to shutdown)

- clear the Appstore apps cache (click ten times one of the tab icons on the bottom line within the app)

- try to delete and reinstall the app on the device (easiest way if that app doesn't contain personal data or needs credentials you might not remember)

- synch your device with iTunes, maybe there is an update of the app it can install)

- if you still have apps that don't work and you are about to delete apps with personal data and/or credentials: begin with Facebook (this might be woodoo and not the real issue solver, but anyway…)

- keep on synching with iTunes if necessary; have an eye on iTunes during the synch process which apps were updated and check which app icons are still greyed out afterwards.


If that all fails or you don't have time to play around with your device and wait over and over until iTunes finishes synching: Try to replay the backup during the following night – this might be a more convenient way for you and should solve all the issues at ones.


For the future I will update my apps on the device manually or let it be done automatically (switch in the general settings) or still doing it old-school via iTunes.


I hope these summary contains helpful grains of salt...

Dec 31, 2016 1:20 AM in response to Lindajojai

This happened to me also after restoring my iPhone 6 (iOS 9.3) profile onto a new iPhone 7 (iOS 10.1).


The way I fixed it was as follows:


1. In iTunes 12.5.4, I first upgraded -ALL- the applications. Did this by switching to the Applications view in iTunes, and clicking on the Upgrade All Apps button. It took a while to complete. Once the apps are all updated, the pane listing apps requiring updates is blank.

2. Next, plugged in my iPhone 7 after rebooting it, and ran a Sync with iTunes. Slowly the apps started changing from being grayed out to their normal, healthy icon colors- though this took considerable time. I guess there were just too many apps to update. But, eventually, after an hour or so, it worked.


Hope this helps.

Detrich.

Some of my apps are grayed out and labeled "waiting". I tried rebooting several times but nothing seems to work. I am also unable to get new email. Any suggestions?

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