App Store consistently fails to update apps - but shows multiple installs

Not sure which updates you are referring to.

v10.9.2 for Mavericks and v7.0.3 Safari are the lastest available.

Try deleting the cache associated with the App Store

Open the Finder. From the Finder menu bar click Go > Go to Folder

Type or copy paste the following:

~/Library/Containers/com.apple.appstore/Data/Library/Caches/com.apple.appstore

Click Go then move the Cache.db file from the com.apple.appstore folder to the Trash.

Then restart your Mac.

Hi Eskimo Boy,

I have he *EXACT* same issue. I even reinstalled Mavericks completely from scratch and tried TONS of other things.

What I tried so far is (incomplete list):

• Set up new user and tried to update => failed.

  MAS consistently crashes when launched under the new user. => no solution but rather an additional problem => failed.

• Tried to update in safe mode => failed.
• Tried to reinstall Mavericks => failed.
• Tried to reinstall Mavericks and migrate all user data from Time Machine backup => failed.
• Tried PRAM reset => failed.
• Even tried the highly overrated check permissions => failed.

Whatever I try, I just can't update iBooks from 1.0 to 1.0.1 and Safari from 7.0.2 to 7.0.3. If you have any solution, then please let me know.

Cheers, Paul

P.S.: APPLE! THIS DRIVES ME NUTS! IT DRIVES ME NUTS JUST AS MUCH AS YOUR LOCATION SERVICE NOT WORKING PROBLEM!

And yet there are millions of us who don't have this issue. So rather than an Apple issue of the many, maybe it is a local issue of the few. Perhaps it's an issue with your kit or your internet service provider.

How are you reinstalling Mavericks?

How is a reinstall failure from Time Machine, that works perfectly on my kit, an Apple issue.

Hi Dahveed,

my ISP is definitely not the source of all evil. I have no download problems whatsoever. Even though I have only a 3 Mbps connection (living in a rural area), it's very stable. Nothing to complain about.

What do you mean by "how are you reinstalling"? What options are there other than to download Mavericks and launch the installer? In fact, I even went to the point of erasing the whole hard disk content (using another computer and running the Mac in target mode), and then performed a full internet recovery. So, I did this. Also, I launched the installer after download to install Mavericks "over" the existing 10.9.2, which took me back from iBooks 1.0.1 to 1.0 and Safari 7.0.3 to 7.0.1. Yes, it worked in the past. The reason for restoring the Mac in the first place was something else severely failing which works now, but also somehow related to Apples bad software inventory mechanism.

Still, both internet recovery and lauching the installer after normally downloading it leave me with iBooks 1.0 (169) and not 1.0.1 (281) as I have it on my other Macs.

In the meantime, I found a direct download link for the Safari 7.0.3 package and installed it manually. So this issue is solved now. This leaves me with iBooks, which I haven't found a download link for.

As for Apple fixing stuff, since Apple moved the updater to the MAS, it has become highly unreliable and is a complete mess. What was wrong with the old and small dedicated software updater that was built exactly for that purpose and never failed on me? In fact, Mavericks is such a bad release, just as was Lion (Mountain Lion was somewhat better), that I could write books about it by now. I'm trying to get things right for weeks now and I'm really tired of it. The quality of Apple's software has been going down the drain for the last few years. That is a fact! And that is what Apple definitely needs to improve. In fact, I fear the day when the updater will finally fail completely or will refuse to update critical packages like itself(sic!) and not only a single application.

And why doesn't Apple either provide the software packages for each application for separate download? And why are they refusing to let one restore a single application from time machine?

Ok, all this is philosophy and religion and I hate that. Still, the iBooks 1.0 => 1.0.1 issue remains.

Cheers,

Paul

Hi,

small update:

I just removed iBooks in the Terminal. Seems to be the only way that Mavericks allows the replacement of an application which is included with the OS. So I searched for the older good copy of iBooks 1.0.1 in Time Machine and restored that after deleting it in the Terminal. That seems to work but obviously requires that a good backup of the application exists and, more importantly, that the update from iBooks 1.0 to 1.0.1 has beend successful at least once in the past.

Having done this, I suspect I could have probably done the same with Safari instead of downloading the package. But this is a) a wild guess and b) I think downloading and manually installing the package is probably the cleaner way.

So, unless Software Update keeps reporting available updates, the issue is resolved for me now.

Cheers,

Paul

As for Apple fixing stuff, since Apple moved the updater to the MAS, it has become highly unreliable and is a complete mess. What was wrong with the old and small dedicated software updater that was built exactly for that purpose and never failed on me? In fact, Mavericks is such a bad release, just as was Lion (Mountain Lion was somewhat better), that I could write books about it by now. I'm trying to get things right for weeks now and I'm really tired of it. The quality of Apple's software has been going down the drain for the last few years. That is a fact! And that is what Apple definitely needs to improve. In fact, I fear the day when the updater will finally fail completely or will refuse to update critical packages like itself(sic!) and not only a single application.

Not my experience with Lion or Mavericks. Not my experience with Software Update now that it has been rolled into the Store App. Not my experience with the quality of Apple Software, so it isn't a fact. But the fact is, there are literally millions of Apple users for whom this isn't the experience. There are few folks like you who report this type of issue here in the ASC.

You appear to have Macs for which this also isn't the experience.

Hi Dahveed,

yes, there are millions for whom everything is running smothly. But there are also millions haveng all sorts of problems. Legions of which have MAS update trouble alone. Have you actually looked how many people have any sort of update problems? Just repeating that millions of people have no trouble with that doesn't make it good or bug-free. I am having trouble with this over an extended period of time and am very patient. But my patience has finally dried out. So why is anybody complaining about bad software instantly called a moron or accused of not telling the truth? Are we in the middle ages here?

And yes, I have five Macs in the house of which two make frequent trouble and another makes trouble from time to time. That's a quote of about 50%. Getting back to your millions of satisfied people, there are equally millions of unsatisfied people having all sorts of trouble.

And no, I'm not going to discuss this any further. Either a proper solution (not the kind of hacking/patching I did) is found, i.e. Apple is going to fix these things once and for all, or they lose customers. It's just that simple.

Cheers,

Paul

Hi Eskimo Boy,

I reinstalled Mavericks with a fresh download and install after lauching from the Recovery disk

tried that may times. It never worked. Just reinstalling any Mac OS "over" an existing Mac OS installation *never* fixed anything on my computers, and I have tried that loads of times! Also, this strange "fix permissions" thing is highly overrated. It *always* finds something and never repairs anything consistently. Also, why anyone would tamper with file permissions remains a mystery to me anyway. Must be software which is bad by design! A good developer doesn't do that.

Cheers,

Paul

But there are also millions haveng all sorts of problems. Legions of which have MAS update trouble alone.

A totally unfounded eragerated claim.

So why is anybody complaining about bad software instantly called a moron or accused of not telling the truth?

I haven't seen anyone calling anyone else names. You are prone to unfounded exageration. So it's best that you do move on and say no more.

Hi Eskimo Boy,

first: Check your Time Machine Backups, whether you ever had a successful iBooks 1.0.1 backup! Believing your have one does not do the job. You'll have to verify it!

To do this, open Finder, go to the Applications folder and scroll down to iBooks. Now open Time Machine. With iBooks selected, press the space bar to get the file info. You should see the iBooks version there in sort of a popup ballon.

Now, as long as this version remains "1.0", click the Time Machine window immediately behind the one in the front. You'll only see its title bar, so click there. Now check for the version of iBooks in that window by pressing the space bar. Continue doing this, until the version shows "1.0.1". If you're through all Time Machine snapshots back to the start and there wasn't a version "1.0.1", then you're out of luck.

In this case stop reading here as performing the following actions will destroy your installation and leave you with no iBooks at all!

In case, you do have an iBooks 1.0.1 in your Time Machine backup, continue as follows:

• Open Terminal from the Applications/Utilities folder.
• Enter the following command exactly as it is written here:
  sudo rm -rf /Applications/iBooks.app
  "sudo" will spit out a warning and ask for your password. Enter it and press return.
• Restore the iBooks 1.0.1 version from Time Machine by locating it the same way as you did before.
• If all goes well, launch it and verify that its version is indeed 1.0.1 (in About menu).
• Now launch that stubborn Software Update and check if it reports iBooks 1.0.1 still to be updated. It may show it as just updated, though. If it does the latter, then everything is fine. If it does the former, then you have the exact same problem, that Dahveed refuses to accept is a problem...

Note: If you accidentally restored the wrong version but are sure you have the right version in Time Machine, you can repeat the procedure.

With a little routine, the whole procedure doesn't take longer than 10 minutes or so with a Time Machine on an SSD.

Also, I don't take any responsibility if anything goes wrong beyond repair of course. So don't blame me if it doesn't work out for you. :-P

Hope, this helps.

Cheers,

Paul