App Store stuck at "checking for updates"

When I view available updates on the App Store (in OS X Yosemite), a spinner appears at the top left of the application, next to the message "checking for updates". After that the App Store becomes unresponsive.

If I force quit and restart the App Store no content is loaded, and the navigation menu (featured, top charts, etc.) is grayed out. I have to restart the computer for the app store to become responsive again, but it still crashes after I navigate to the "updates" tab.

As a result of this issue I cannot install OS X updates.

The only troubleshooting I have done so far is to repair disk permissions and look in the Console for possible errors (nothing jumped out at me, but I didn't really know what to look for.)

Any advice on how I might resolve this issue?

Thanks.

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Yosemite (10.10.2), null

Posted on Jun 16, 2015 9:22 PM

22 replies

Jul 1, 2015 7:18 AM in response to jnicol75

How long should this process take?

Jul 1, 2015 11:15 AM in response to BillGQ

Thanks. That worked for me.

JSdaSM

Level 1

22 points

Jul 1, 2015 5:47 PM in response to J0hn

Might sound insane, but I had this same issue. I've noticed over the past year that every time my app store is hung up it's because Microsoft Office has an update. So... For me, I went and updated Microsoft Office and then viola! The app store was working again. Got me, but it's the truth...

Jul 2, 2015 3:01 PM in response to jnicol75

So here is my solution! Nothing here worked right, but in combination with another step it worked for me!

Delete this file:

~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.SoftwareUpdate.pIist.plist

Go to Systemsettings/Safety:

Here I only allowed the Mac App Store to install software to my Mac and it worked!!!

The app store was opened and stuck, but when I changed this option the app store loaded every available update and was ready to go! 🙂

J0hn

Level 1

8 points

Jul 2, 2015 7:54 PM in response to jnicol75

The command line software update commands worked for me after I ran the list update command overnight. There seems to be a behavior that's taking a long time to complete.

Sam Saf.

Level 1

0 points

Jul 8, 2015 12:18 PM in response to BillGQ

This worked for me, I recommend anyone struggling with this problem gives this a shot first.

cjdenbow

Level 1

12 points

Jul 16, 2016 10:51 AM in response to jnicol75

Thank you very much! This solved a problem that I had been having for several weeks. Good olde Terminal to the rescue . . . Carl

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App Store stuck at "checking for updates"