Why can't I download or update apps on iPad running iOS 8

After fixing this, I re-registered my Apple Pay card (again, I had to call the bank to activate.) 2 days later my phone got back in that state where I can't see or do updates, can't download previously purchased apps, or buy anything in the App store. I turned off Passcode Lock, rebooted, and the problem was fixed again. Unfortunately this deactivates the Apple Pay card.

So I did some troubleshooting and figured out the following:

1) This has nothing to do with ApplePay or TouchID. I can reproduce this without registering an Apple Pay card, and without turning TouchID on for anything.

2) This happens after rebooting the phone. That is, app downloads and updates work, then you reboot the phone, you enter this bad state.

3) Turning of Passcode lock on the phone always resolves the problem.

So even without activating an Apple Pay card, registering fingerprints, or turning on TouchID for any service, I can create the problem by simply enabling passcode lock and rebooting the phone.

I tried to reproduce this on my factory reset iPhone 4S with no success. So it's either only a problem with iPhone 6, or there is another variable that comes into play. On the iPhone 4S I even logged the phone into my iCloud account including the keychain (then rebooted) and that didn't make a difference.

In the past I have connected my phone to iExplorer and manually deleted files out of the media partition to resolve iTunes out of sync issues (files in the "other" state,) so there is a slim chance I got rid of something (like a key file) that doesn't come back unless I factory reset. I don't think that's the case.

In the mean time, turning off passcode lock and rebooting always fixes it. I don't know how I'll ever successfully use Apple Pay like this because something inevitably causes me to have to reboot (or the phone crashes) reboots within 2-4 weeks. That would require me to have to constantly re-register my Apple Pay card.

I'm at the point where I may consider doing a full DFU restore and set up as new phone. That's obviously very disruptive and takes a lot of time to get all of my apps re-registered and logged into their various services so I'm reluctant. But it could fix the problem (or it may not.)

I am a registered developer and can file a bug with Apple. But I'm reluctant to do so until after I've tried the full restore in case my phone is in a unique state. I want a 100% reproducible case.

Also before the restore I may try iOS 8.2 beta first. I don't expect the problem to be fixed in 8.2, but if it is I'll report back so everyone know.

I had this problem on my iPad Air on 8.0.2...just as 8.1 was being released. I could not update apps and I could not update to 8.1. I was able to update to 8.1 via iTunes, but my apps were still not updating. I tried a number of things, but after reading this thread, I changed my setting to stop automatically downloading app updates, then I rebooted my iPad and then I double-clicked the home button and deleted everything that was running...and it was a massive number of apps.

Before doing this, I had 72 apps waiting for updates. Once I did this, apps started updating. I'm down to my last four and they are still working. Some apps seem to progress all the way to a "full circle" and they start downloading again. Two tries appears to be the most I've seen. Most make it on the first try.

Ah...all done now. Zero left to update.

The above was my problem solution from many weeks ago. I recently returned from a vacation and had powered down the iPad while I was away. I powered it up today and found that I had 62 updates to process. I opened Applications, selected "updates" and manually started one. It worked with no problem. Then randomly updated a total of 7 apps with no problem. Then I touched "update all" and watched it process the remaining 55 updates. In the next 6 minutes, it had updated 20 apps. (My connection is around 60Mb download speed). The rest updated in the next 16 minutes.

My problem had nothing to do with ApplePay nor Touch ID since this is an iPad Air 1. What I did as detailed above appears to have fixed the problem for me since it has not returned for well over a month now.

As a follow up to my last post.

8.2 beta didn't fix the problem.

What fixed the problem for me permanently was to do a restore on the phone. I was even able to restore my backup.

So back up, restore, upon setup, restore from your backup. Now I can no longer reproduce this state.

I don't know what it is that got gummed up, but somehow this restore process fixed it once and for all.

Now I haven't yet re-registered an Apple Pay card, so perhaps when I do, then something else happens, it could come back. I don't know.

I think I'm going to do a full nuke. Restore, set up as new, and go from there. But in the future if I get in this state I'm going to backup-restore-restore from backup to fix it.

What did it for me was simply to turn off the autoupdate in the appstore settings, restart the ipad, and it worked.

Interestingly it sent me 2 error messages that "Minecraft PE cannot be updated at this time" when I rebooted, leading me to think that there is indeed some queueing system in place for the updates that can somehow get stuck, and maybe changing the status from autoupdate to manual update clears the process.

It seem to have done if for me, and knowing the kids, they would have tried to update at least 100x times before asking me to do it for them !

I had the same issue and like many after uninstalling the WSJ app and rebooting I was able update and install new apps again. So my question to Apple is, why are you letting a single app hold, what has been to date a highly efficient means of deploying new software to a massive community, hostage? I am responsible for my company's mobile apps and am very concerned that my end users are not able to get latest versions of my software which they are paying for. What is Apple going to do about this? Someone from Apple could very easily apply some pressure to Dow Jones since the issue seems highly correlated to the WSJ app.

Unfortunately, I never had the WSJ app, so there is no solution for me.

I work for a local wireless internet provider in a rural area, and the techs are constantly being called by iphone and ipad users who are having this issue. It is really really hard for them to explain to their customers what the issue is, and that unless they have the WSJ app and can delete it, the situation is pretty much hopeless.

Have you tried the other solutions offered on this thread? I have the WSJ app, but I never deleted it and I fixed the problem on my iPad Air 1.

I just shut off automatic updates and deleted all of the running apps as noted above in this long and growing thread.

I have iPad Air updated to iOS 8.1.1. I have automatic updates turned off. When I get notice of an app update, I update it manually. Works just fine.

What Ancient Geek suggested works for awhile, but eventually the 'waiting' game begins again.

Sorry to hear that. It seems to have been more permanent for me. I fixed it once and I've been "wait free" for two months or more. I'm even had my iPad turned off for about three weeks and when I turned it back on, I had 50 or 60 updates to catch up on. They all went through just fine.

Do you have a device unlock code setup on your device?

I was having the same issues until I turned off the Passcode. Since making that change I havent had an issue yet! (Two+ weeks, multiple reboots)

FYI - I have passcode turned on (with an alphanumeric passcode). So that was not a factor for me. I never turned it off.

This is a weird problem. I wonder if there are several possible sources of the problem and therefore an equal number of required solutions.

Just an update (no pun intended). I was able to do 4 queued updates wirelessly yesterday. after following Ancient Greek's instructions.

I saw that there was an update waiting this afternoon, so I tapped on Update. the circle spun around once, then went into 'waiting' mode. I closed all the running apps, restarted the iPad, and went back to the updates section in the App Store, and the update started immediately.

I have passcode on again after doing a factory reset earlier in the week (which made things worse, thank God I had a backup from October in iTunes to restore it to it's previous condition). When I had it disabled, it didn't seem to make any difference.

Congratulations! I hope it stays working for you.

I Wouldn't say restarting everytime it needs to update or download an app is working, but at least it is doing it wirelessly.