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

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!

Anyone having an issue where why the hit update doing the airplane mode work around, where the app gets stuck with the blue spinning circle in the app store update page?

Realized that sentence doesn't make sense let me try that again. Anyone having an issue where when they hit update doing the airplane mode work around, the app gets stuck with the blue spinning circle in the app store update page?

After reading some of the previous posts, putting a few things together this is what I did.

1. You will have to switch your device from WiFi to airplane mode, then go to the Apple App Store. There it will show which app needs the updating.
2. After ID'ing the app that needs updating, I quickly switched the airplane mode off and clicked the update button on the app. This immediately downloaded the update and now FINALLY the update icon is gone.
   

I too have had the badge disappear when I've had apps to download, and downloaded them.

But until the (apparent?) coding error that flags apps as needing updating or not is fixed, I suspect that none of these workarounds will last.

Yes, nammi59. This is problem is persisting is my device as well. Even after updating the app via itunes the app store badge icon notification for update doesn't go. However this problem doesn't happen when updating the same on wifi or mobile data. I had a talk with apple support they made me do something called the HARD RESTART but it didn't help. They asked me to visit one of their service centers to get the problem checked. I thought only i had this problem bcoz few days back there were no queries relating to this issue on the community.

Yes, this problem is there. Any fix found by anybody yet??

I finally just updated my iOS to 8 today and found the same issue. I found a solution that worked for me which is:

Go to settings > itunes & App Store > automatic downloads - then switch "Updates" Off and then On again.

That cleared it for me.

As a programmer, may I repeat my thoughts here, please: there really is only one way that this can work. A simple binary flag has to be set:

Does this account have any updates available/waiting for it?

•      If it does, set a flag (usually a numeric variable to either 0 or 1 (or in the 'old days' -1 or 0))
•      If it does not, clear the flag

after applying updates (either from desktop of mobile device)

•      communicate the state of needed updates or not to the other platform(s)… from mobile to desktop if mobile was (just) used to update; from desktop to mobile if iTunes was (just) used
•      clear that flag

Then - every time the screen in question is displayed, either show the updates badge of not - depending on the state of that flag.

There seems to be a bug in this code. Regrettably, I doubt that any number of 'workarounds' will (permanently) prevent it from surfacing until Apple fixes it consistently across OSX and iOS.

Mark.

Why did this start all of a sudden? And why only some of us experiencing it?

Tigervision,

I can only think that this started with a bug (or a different way to handle apps' attributes) introduced into a recent version of the iOS (or OSX).

If it weren't a bug in the OS (or in the way that (some?) apps' metadata is handled by the OS, then I can't immediately think of any way in which it can be fixed.

Could be that the bug is affecting many (most) people; but not everyone is reporting it here?

My purpose in mentioning this as what seems to me as a likely cause is only to avoid folks' frustration in attempting sequences of actions which may only appear to fix the bug because some lucky confluence of circumstances masks it. Though I'd also hate to suggest the suppression of creative thinking :-)

It worked! Thanks!

JamasianFiya is onto something. In my case, automatic updates were already set to off.  I did the toggle on/off and my iPhone 5S did a spontaneous restart. I tried it again and the same thing happened. I then reset my iPhone by holding the Home and Sleep/Wake buttons simultaneously for several seconds (does not delete any data or settings). I then tested downloading an update in iTunes on my MacBook and made sure that iPhone showed a new update flag, then synched my iPhone with iTunes and the flag now disappears! I did this twice, but will continue to monitor this situation and report if the problem reoccurs.

Can you be more specific spediteur.

You toggled auto updates off and then on immediately and restarted?

Or toggled on, restarted and then off.

Then itunes sync?

I simply followed the process suggested by JamasianFiya above. In my case, the setting for automatic downloads was off, but I toggled it to on then off again. This caused my phone to spontaneously restart by itself.  This may not happen to you. To solve that problem I did a full reset as described, but you may or may not have to do this.

In case you haven't followed this entire string, the problem of the app store update badge not clearing after update only happens when synching updated apps via iTunes. If you perform your updates over the air (OTA), the update badge does clear. To test whether the issue has been resolved, check updates on your iPhone to see if the badge appears showing an update needs downloading. Then go to iTunes and download the update, followed by synching your phone with iTunes. If you were able to resolve the problem, the App Store badge number will disappear after your iTunes synch.