IOS 8 apps store badge issue on iphones after sync to Itunes

I've noticed this problem since at least iOS7. It's really just an updating bug on the notification badge. When the App is tagged "Open" in the app store, that means that you already have the update. For some reason, the App Store badge doesn't get updated when you update applications via iTunes Sync. The Badge does get updated when you download at least one app over-the-air via the Store App on the mobile device.

Solutions: The airplane mode solution above and the variants solve the problem by re-downloading a subset, or all of the out-of date applications over-the-air. This is sub-optimal, the reason that I update via sync is because the network connection to my laptop is many many times faster than the wi-fi connection to my iPad.

Under iOS 7, I used this workaround: Instead of sync-uploading all your apps, sync-upload all but one or two by canceling the sync before it finishes. Sync the last couple of apps over-the-air on your mobile device. It appears that the counter is only checked when the iTunes store App either looks at the app store for updates, or when it actually performs an update over-the-air.

Alternatively: wait a day or so until another app updates. When the iTunes Store App on the mobile checks a second time and finds out that a new app needs to be updated it corrects its count of out-of-date apps.

At the end of the day, I too am a little OCD about this. I'm tempted to turn off the badge notification but I'd rather have the notice than not.

-- Chris

I am running itunes 11.4

I have an Ipad and two iphone 4's on iOS7 that syncs perfectly for app store badge count.

I have two iphone 5's running iOS 8... that ever since iOS 8, the badge count is screwed up on both of them.

So it is crappy iOS 8.

Same problem here in this thread. I've reported a bug via the bug reporter. No solution works at all that i've read on the forum

This worked in my iPad:

1. Go to the App Store

2. Tap Purchased

3. Tap All

4. Find the Apps showing an update is neede

5. Tap the Update button ("Open" in mine) on the App

pmpsv's work around doesn't work for me.

Is there a Vet in the House?,

That is one heck of a work-around. But I cannot believe that is the only way for the iTunes to see that these apps need Syncing again for it actually Sync. Seems to be doing the Sync now, hopefully it sticks. But thanks for that.

Trying the workaround again, this is what I am experiencing:

I do the quick tap with the other finger -

the Apps show the "Stop" button with the circle update ring - some apps seem to be updating on their own -

I go to iTunes, and hit Sync - it tries to Sync ONLY 4 APPS at a time -

After those are done, I go back to doing the two-finger trick -

it again shows some Apps not updated - stop button showing - I go to Sync in iTunes - it again shows ONLY 4 APPS updating!

And all the new Apple Apps seem to be the ones causing all the problems - iTunes U, Numbers, Pages, Keynote, iMovie.......

Yah, OK, so the work around doesn't work for me, it still shows the same apps. The two-finger quick hit thing now shows the Apps with the Update button, and every time I try to do the work around the same 4 Apps keep wanting to update and it's going around in circles.......

Weird

Same problem here, iPhone 6 and iPad Air 2 both running the latest version of iOS 8. Haven't tried updating apps directly as I like downloading through iTunes and then syncing to both devices. Problem has existed for me since iOS 8 but it showed up randomly, had a similar issue with iOS 7 which eventually fixed itself. I think it's a problem server side as it didn't happen at first for me but after a few days or using iOS 8 it eventually started. Going to submit a bug report.

Same here.

iOS 8.1 on 6 Plus.

Not quick enough to get to 'Update' before 'Open' appears, though :-)

Bug report submitted…

Hi,

with the new iOS 8.1.1 on iPhone 5 and iPad Air, the problem is not solved 😠

I just posted this on a another thread but it applies here too:

I called Apple few days back and a senior support staff suggested the following steps: close all open apps and then do a force a restart (holding down the power and the home button for over 8 seconds) , then to leave the devices for around 10 hour and then the app store badge will reset. That didn't work for me as I have disabled the Auto Update app feature. In any case even if this solutions worked the apps will simply be re-downloaded by the device again. This is obviously NOT a solution

The whole idea of syncing on iTunes for me is to download the app once ON iTunes and then update it to all my devices without need to re-download the apps for each device and wasting bandwidth (as I am living a country with metered download limits on ADSL).

I believe the problem is with the iTunes and App Store syncing.

I've just updated to 8.1.1 same problem which occurs when syncing updated apps from iTunes to both my iOS devices (iPhone 5s and iPad 3).

hmh316,

I couldn't agree more: that's what I want with podcasts too: a 'control centre' on my desktop machine, which is synched once with mobile devices.

The whole idea of syncing on iTunes for me is to download the app once ON iTunes and then update it to all my devices without need to re-download the apps for each device

Im having the same issue as all of you. I download the updates on iTunes then connect my phone and it syncs all new updates, but the badge is still there. Same issue with the open/update buttons, and the airplane mode work around was working until 8.1.1. I called Apple they said it must be a software issue since I restored my new phone with the old one. there solution is to set up my phone as new lol. I can't see how this would help if the App Store app won't recongize that the newest version is already on the phone. It seems to me that they are unaware of this issue.

I just had two updates. The badge appeared. Although I prefer to control such things from iTunes, I downloaded them on the iPhone. Badges disappeared.

One conclusion that's tempting to reach is that there's a coding error that fails to unset any 'Showbadge' flag unless a download on the iPhone itself completes.

I just uncovered the weirdest workaround which worked for me on both iPhone 5S and iPad 3 to solve the badge count stuck problem, which is by updating all but one app from iTunes, in which case the app store badge count will change to 1, which you can re-download from the iOS app store again.

So let’s say you have 5 pending updates, go to iTunes and update 4 of them (keep the smallest in size as the un-updated app), then sync it with your iOS devices and it will go through as the app store will finally recognize these updates and will show only 1 update. I then updated the final app in the App Store. I also noticed that the “updated app” blue dot near app name doesn't appear with the updates are made through iTunes! A bothersome workaround, but it saved me from re-downloading some heavy app updates twice!

Would love to hear if this method worked with anyone else, please give it a try!

Finally, Apple please fix this promptly!! It’s not a critical issues but very annoying given the frequent updates the apps developers throw at us to squash the bugs!