"Store Unavailable. The store is currently down for updates. We'll be back shortly." Error when trying to Buy Book.

I met the same issue as you had, and I finally fixed it followed these 2 discussions:

Not able to purchase my new calendar

Unable to Buy Photos Project

The way I fixed it was just re-typing my home address, that's it! try!

Good Luck!

Apple Support to the rescue! I talked to a photos application expert named Rob. He asked me to reboot into safemode, type a command into terminal in safe mode which unfortunately I didn't write down and even if I had I would be reluctant to pass it along in case it caused other issues. That fixed everything. He said that there was some third-party software that can cause this issue. Once that was removed everything seems to be working again. Rob said that Apple is working on this issue. My advice is to contact Apple support and ask to speak with an application specialist. My faith in Apple has been renewed.

I have the same issue. I been trying to print my album for two days and I keep getting the message "Store Unavailable The store is currently down for updates. We'll be back shortly." I have no idea how to fix it. Please help

I have this problem right now! 'store is currently down for updates. We'll be back shortly.' customer support say that Apple have their servers down for maintenance - should be fixed in next 24 hours. hope so....

I had it solved in the end. Apple Customer Support first said it was the servers. But that's not right. It's an issue with your the connection between your user profile and the store. If you set up a new user profile on your computer (call it test user or whatever) you can copy the whole photo library including the photobook project over to the new profile, and order it from there. It takes a lot of complex tweaks and changes to the system settings to do this and it took a long time with apple support to get there but we got there in the end. Couldn't fix it on the original user profile but worked around it in the end. There is a great guy, Ricardo Costa in Apple Support, Lisbon, who worked all this out - worth his weight in gold. Hope that helps..

I have this problem right now and it's been like it for the past 16 hours. Having spent hours making the book it was a huge disappointment to be told I can't buy it - error message keeps popping up saying 'The store is currently down for updates. We'll be back shortly.' Have been through about a couple of hours of Apple Support since, upgraded OS to latest version, checked billing and account information, also increased iCloud storage, all at request of customer support team (who are all v pleasant). Now a senior guy at customer support has called to say that the photo print people at Apple have their servers down for maintenance and can't say how long it'll last.... but should be fixed in next 24 hours. Hope so, it's for my daughter's 18th birthday so I really need this book! C'mon Apple, sort it out....

Anyone got any bright ideas other than wait?....

I have had this message for two days now!! Had my books returned to Apple as they do not deliver to the Channel Islands so trying to get them delivered to my daughter in London and she will have to post them again to me. Daft! But now I cant even order them! Apple say check your updates are up to date and my computer says they are. Shall try the adress retype but please Apple show us your supposd IT expertise and get your postal system and Photo help up to date. I see this has been going on for years!

Seriously considering not buying Apple next time. I also do not like how they do not pay tax!

Thanks for your response and I am glad there is a workaround. Could you please provide a little more detail. For example, do you mean create a new user ID on my computer? How do you copy the projects? No detail is too small and once again thank you. It sounds like this will help a large number of people. Tom

Yes - it's a new user ID you need to create. Then you need to copy the entire photo library to the new user, which will copy over the projects. There are various settings you need to set and it was complex, I had to share my screen with the Apple support guy who told what to click on. I am sorry I can't remember exactly what we did - it was a teonand a half call! I suggest you go to Apple Support and explain what I have suggested and ask if they can get an expert to call you back. I had to escalate it to get anywhere. Good luck.

Yes, I would like like to echo that. My problem was that Photos (2.0) gave the “Store unavailable” mistake and “Print Product Store Account” was greyed out. Apple support took me thtough the following steps:

Make sure payment info is correct

1.1 Open itunes

1.2 Click Account -> View My Account

1.3 Check if region matches region in Photos -> Preferences -> Print Product Store

1.4 Check Payment info

1.5 Open App Store

1.6 Buy something for free and install (if that works, payment info is correct)

Note: in my case App Store had different Apple ID than Itunes, changed that, did not solve the issue though

2. Delete certain cookies in the system

2.1 Boot in safe mode

2.1.1 Shut down Mac

2.1.2 Start holding down Shift key (at least until Apple logo appears)

2.1.3 Login screen should show “Safe Boot” in red in top right corner

2.2 Open Terminal

2.2.1 Terminal can be found in Finder Application -> Utilities -> Terminal

2.2.2 OR you can try spotlight search

Note: My MacBook Pro 2015 (MacOS 10.12.6)

2.3 Copy the following command

rm -rf ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Photos/Data/Library/Cookies

2.4 Paste into terminal (if command-v does not work, try Edit -> Paste)

2.5 Open Photos, see if you can order, if yes, do it now

2.6 Restart normally, issue was fixed for me

My thanks go to the German Apple support and Tamerlan in particular.

Final Note: Obviously, this is just my experience, and things can go wrong when doing stuff in Terminal, so use at your own risk.

Same problem? Same answer!

LN

Same issue here! Very Frustrating. I called apple support and they said the servers had too much traffic. They asked me to try early in the morning...which i did but still no use!

Two days later and still the same problem as have many others. Have retyped address as suggested by some and put in London delivery address, all updated but no joy.

I have had exactly the same issue for almost a week now and none of the suggested solutions work. What is going on Apple? I guess they don't make enough money printing books to find a solution.

*typo - two and a half hour call