imac os x 10.8.5 the app store is temporarily unavailable

Question

imac os x 10.8.5 the app store is temporarily unavailable

I've been battling for the last several months an issue with not being able to update my iMac.

The only way to get updates to work is to boot into safe mode.

I've tried so many different suggestions....many regarding spotlight, and nothing has worked.

I'm to the point where I'm ready to format and reload OS X. I really want to get to Yosemite but I don't want this odd problem to come along with the upgrade.

Here is the log from the console when I start the app store and then click update. I sure hope someone can help! Otherwise I am reloading OS X

4/26/15 2:38:49.436 PM App Store[7320]: No alternate URLs found for packageId MobileDevice

4/26/15 2:38:58.224 PM storeagent[223]: CKSoftwareMap: updateRequestBodyData:includeInstalledApps:includeBundledApps:conditionally:had UnadoptedApps:waitUntilMapIsLoaded: timed out waiting for mdSemaphore

4/26/15 2:39:07.079 PM App Store[7320]: CKSoftwareMap: updateRequestBodyData:includeInstalledApps:includeBundledApps:conditionally:had UnadoptedApps:waitUntilMapIsLoaded: timed out waiting for mdSemaphore

4/26/15 2:39:17.155 PM App Store[7320]: CKSoftwareMap: updateRequestBodyData:includeInstalledApps:includeBundledApps:conditionally:had UnadoptedApps:waitUntilMapIsLoaded: timed out waiting for mdSemaphore

4/26/15 2:39:17.593 PM App Store[7320]: FRWebDelegate: Received http status code 500 on response.

4/26/15 2:39:27.221 PM storeagent[223]: CKSoftwareMap: updateRequestBodyData:includeInstalledApps:includeBundledApps:conditionally:had UnadoptedApps:waitUntilMapIsLoaded: timed out waiting for mdSemaphore

iMac (27-inch Mid 2011), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.4)

Posted on Apr 26, 2015 11:42 AM

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Answer 1

Apr 26, 2015 12:43 PM in response to Carelesscreek

If the App Store works when booted in Safe mode, it means that something in login items or one of the other items like fonts that is disabled by safe boot mode is conflicting. See this link to see what happens during Safe Mode.

Mac OS X: What is Safe Boot, Safe Mode?

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1564

Your sig show you are running 10.8.4. The latest update for Mountain Lion is 10.8.5.

You might want to consider running the combo updater over your install to refresh your files.

OS X Mountain Lion Update v10.8.5 (Combo) 831.81 MB

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1676

If you have enough free space on your drive or have an external drive, we could look at partitioning your drive and installing Yosemite in the new partition and doing a manual move of data over to the new install. Use Disk Utility in Applications/Utilities to find how much free space on your drive.

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Answer 2

Apr 26, 2015 5:45 PM in response to dianeoforegon

I saw it showed 10.8.4 but that's not what I see when I check the version. It shows 10.8.5

I'll check out the Safe Boot info to see if I can glean something from that.

I don't have enough drive space to do the Combo Install.

If I can't get it, I will get a new drive to install on and then mount the old drive as an external to get the data off. I need an SSD anyways !!!

Thank you for the insight. Much appreciated.

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Answer 3

Apr 26, 2015 6:15 PM in response to Carelesscreek

If you don't have enough free space to download the combo then we need to start cleaning files on your drive.

Depending on size of drive it's recommended that you have 10-20% free. Once you get below 10Gb, you should start a clean up. If you drive gets too full it will fail to work.

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Answer 4

Apr 26, 2015 7:13 PM in response to dianeoforegon

I should have read that more closely. I do have space. 190 Gig free at the moment.

Thanks for calling that out!!

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Answer 5

Apr 26, 2015 7:49 PM in response to Carelesscreek

With 190GB free you have enough room to create a second partition to install Yosemite. It's possible to make a second partition with enough room so you can move all your data over. This would give you a dual boot setup. Until you are comfortable with Yosemite and have moved all data over you can go back and forth between Mavericks and Yosemite.

How large is the drive and how much is currently being used?

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