Mysterious 'unable to download item' message appears periodically throughout day ever since upgrading my ipad2 to IOS8 (still happening with IOS 8.1)

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Mysterious 'unable to download item' message appears periodically throughout day ever since upgrading my ipad2 to IOS8 (still happening with IOS 8.1)

Mysterious 'unable to download item' message appears periodically throughout day ever since I upgraded my ipad2 to IOS8. It just pops up regardless what app I'm in, and can occur anywhere up to 15 times in a day. It has no app identified with it. Even upgrading to IOS 8.02, and more recently to IOS 8.1 has not solved the problem. My once fast, smooth operating iPad2 is no more. I've tried switching my iPad off and on again, and I've tried pressing the 'off' button followed by the 'home' button to force what ever is causing it to close, but without success. Not sure what to do next. Please help.

iPad 2, iOS 8.1

Posted on Oct 23, 2014 2:51 PM

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Answer 1

FayersT

Level 1

6 points

Oct 24, 2014 10:41 AM in response to Papertec

Like many, I have had this bug on my IPad Air since installing IOS8. You will see many references in the Communities to this, but there does not appear to be a definitive resolution for everyone. Many refer to the U2 Digital Booklet. Indeed, depending which WiFi network I connect to, the error message specifically refers to that booklet. So, in response to the booklet message, and in tribute to "The Prisoner" (for those around in the '60's), I have deleted, undeleted, synced, unsynced, classsified (as a book), reclassified, reset and restarted my Ipad many times to purge this error, without any success. Like you, I harboured a little bit of hope that 8.1 might expunge it, but no. However, given that Apple has addressed many of the IOS8 bugs in 8.0.2 and 8.1, perhaps they will now focus on this irritating little bug. C'mon Apple please notice the disquiet arount the Communities that this is evoking and put this right. If anyone has identified the answer, please let us all know.

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Answer 2

Rokr4

Level 1

0 points

Oct 26, 2014 11:18 AM in response to FayersT

the "unable to download item" message would pop up every 5-10 mins and was in my case caused by an album booklet (pdf) which couldn't download to iPad.

- connected the iPad to iTunes and tried copying the booklet manually, which failed due to unrecognized file type.

- Changed classification for the booklet from "music" to "book" in iTunes/purchases

- copied the booklet to the iPad (in iTunes) - success

- restarted iPad and message has been gone now for several hours. Fingers crossed.

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Answer 3

FayersT

Level 1

6 points

Oct 26, 2014 11:57 AM in response to Rokr4

Many thanks for your reply Rokr4. I have tried that before but without success for me. I got as far as the U2 booklet appearing in my ITunes book purchases on my Windows PC and this appearing as a book on my IPad after syncing, but the error message still appears.

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Answer 4

Rokr4

Level 1

0 points

Oct 28, 2014 8:13 AM in response to FayersT

Hi,

I spoke to soon, I'm afraid - the message is back. Maybe not as frequent, but still :-/

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Answer 5

Papertec Author

Level 1

0 points

Nov 6, 2014 1:43 PM in response to Rokr4

HI

i too have tried the U2 booklet solution and the Newstand solution and neither have worked. From other threads I've read, no-one seems to have found a solution. Have been totally exasperated this week as the pop up has messed up work I've been inputting. I'm also concerned that it makes my ipad2 unstable for carrying out transactions etc. I agree with FayersT, I wish Apple would acknowledge there is a problem, and let us know what they're doing about it. I've used Apple computers for many years and have rarely had any glitches like this. In fact, in the past, I've been impressed with the reliability of the software and the speed with which issues have been dealt with. I used to only get frustrated with my works laptop operating windows! (Whilst typing this message the PopUp has occurred 3 times!)

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Answer 6

Rokr4

Level 1

0 points

Mar 5, 2015 11:05 PM in response to Papertec

Hi,

Have a look at this article at "The Internet Patrol" website:

http://www.theinternetpatrol.com/how-to-fix-the-unable-to-download-item-please-t ry-again-later-ios-error/

This seems to have finally solved the issue on my iPad2.

They recommend the app "PhoneView for Mac" - I already had "iExplorer" from Macroplant and used it.

The Downloads folder is found under "Media" on the iPad.

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