Apps Stuck Updating after iOS 9

I'm reporting my findings, I don't think "we" have "concluded" quite yet. Curious to hear others' experiences as the dust settles on iOS 9.2.1.

I meant to type "there's *chance* it's true. And yes, "we" (us two in the posts above) concluded that it *might* be fixed.

I am still having this problem. I was so happy when I read that iOS 9.2.1 fixes app installation problems because of how frustrating it was to update apps for the last couple of months. Not only does the app gets stuck installing, my phone freezes followed by a recovery boot or whatever you guys calls it when the phone restarts with apple logo on screen for far longer than it normally takes to turn on an iPhone. For me, the recovery boot takes 15 minutes to complete. This is so frustrating for me. Does the fact I have a 64 GB iPhone has anything to do with this long wait time? I only have 1 GB or so left.

Anyway, yeah apps still get stuck installing for me so this particular iOS 9.2.1 update didn't fix the problem I am having.

FYI, I've been experiencing these sorts of problems consistently on my iPhone 6 Plus & iPad Air 2 for several months -- i.e., probably correlated with my transition to iOS 9. I've reported the problem to Apple via iTunes email support (1/16/2016), phone support (1/16/2016), and Bug Reporter (just now). The phone support specialist (front-line call handler, not a member of any engineering team) confirmed that he has personally experienced this problem and continues to, and believes it's associated with iOS 9. He indicated that he had contacted an applicable engineering team based on his own experience with problem, and would do so again based on my report. I plan to report back here and probably in at least one other relevant Internet forum discussion when/if I receive any other response(s) from Apple.

Sorry to here iOS 9.2.1 it didn't fix your problems. But it sounds to me yours problems are pretty sever. I do think it might help to free some more space if you can. It's never good to have it so close to being full. I think you should try to have at least about 2 GB free.

Anyway, these restarts you're mentioning isn't something I've seen and for me the issue seems gone since iOS 9.2.1. At least so far all installs has gone through.

Thank you for the reply. I will consider removing a few apps taking 1 GB each. Apple also needs to come up with a better way to backup specific app documents and what not. Because iCloud is not supported by all apps. Deleting an app deletes everything associated with it and iOS doesn't give an option to keep the save files.

I definitely need to get a newer iPhone. Seriously considering whether I should get a iP6S or wait for the iP7. My phone is pretty old, it is a 4S. Should not have updated to iOS 9. Apple's OS team need to get their **** together. There are more and more bugs every time they release a new OS not just for older iPhones but newer phones as well. But in their defense, I realize that bringing more features results in the possibility of the arrival of more bugs and glitches.

Sorry for the lousy English in my previous post. We typing on my iPhone while watching TV. 🙂

Yeah, the 4S might be better of on iOS 8. Which is a bit weird since the impression I got was that iOS 9 shold be more optimized. Anyway, I think the way it behaves for you isn't normal. My mother in law has a 4S with IOS 9. Seens to be okay. But she doesn't have high expectations either. Anyway, iOS 9 seems fine on iPhone 5 too, which is used by a family member. Runs surprisingly quick (with "reduced transparency" turned on, but still). I do think it would be reasonable if Apple allowed users to revert back to the previous major iOS release, though.

The 6s' seems to be very nice phones. The tech site Anandtech gave them "gold award" in their review. But who knows what's in store for 7... :-/

Had my hopes up with 9.2.1 - but today I have 2 APPs stuck in update limbo.

I had a number of issues with freezing updating apps and then read about a hidden feature to reset app store cache:

How to clear the App Store cache and refresh your content:

1. Launch the App Store app from your iPhone or iPad Home screen.
2. Tap ten times on any of the tab buttons at the bottom (Featured, Top Charts, Explore, Search, Updates)
3. Thats it ! you will see your screen flash white. Suggest you turn off/on and see how those updates go.

Hope this helps!

Sean.

Failed app update installations have become a frequent and reoccurring annoyance since iOS 9.

Fun with App Updates Log

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29 Jan 2016: Garmin Connect

I've had this issue for weeks now, so much so that a lot of apps I have are simply not there since I restart the phone to try and fix it and they delete themselves and I have forgotten what they were, or they are listed as NULL in settings > storage and I have no idea what they used to be.

However I just tried this fix I read on another post and I can't believe it worked, but it did.

Click on each app icon (not from settings) that is stuck and it will change to waiting, and a few seconds later update. If the app is missing from the home screen (icon views) and is NULL in the Settings > general > storage then there is no way to fix it, you must delete (via storage page) and re-install from the app store

I do think that it might also be related to free memory, so be sure you also have about 1gb free. I suspect the apps freeze since they are trying to install and then realize there is not enough memory to complete the install and hence get stuck.

One other observation, Spotify went bad on me today and is listed at 699mb, I know its Spotify because I checked yesterday and it was listed at 699mb and I couldn't figure out why. After deleting and reinstalling Spotify (73.2mb per app store description) its now listed at 78mb (reasonable size) on my phone... 699mb down to 78mb?! Something very weird is going on Apple! 😕

Apple you really need to fix this, or at least inform users whats happening and how to prevent it.

So I guess the issue still persists after last update for others as well?

I have tried every single "fix" that I could find even remotely associated with this issue except full clean and restore. I guess I will be forced to do that before it gets worse.

@dbatt777. Are you sure you didn't save music locally on Spotify? My Spotify app too was around 700 MB when I had the "Avaialable Offline" feature turned on. Only recently dd I turn it off to save space so that the app is less than 80 MB. By the way even when it is off, Spotify sometimes stored music on my phone. I thought that was a bug. They probably fixed it since then, it doesn't do that anymore.

So the "tap ten times on any tab in the App Store" idea didn't fix anything for me - yes, the store refreshed, but the apps were still frozen mid-download after refresh (just as they were after a hard reset, a "bold text" reset, turning airplane mode on/off, deleting the "null" apps in Settings, etc.).

However... when I went to each affected app and tapped several times rapidly on the frozen downloading icon, it eventually switched back to a cloud and then I was able to re-download. Worked for three different frozen apps for me. So bizarre.

I have had this problem for days. The update is stuck on that circle with a square in the middle icon, and hasn't started the usual loading for days. Not only updates, I can't even download and install any new apps. It will be stuck with the same circle with a square icon thing. Restarted my phone, reseted the network settings and updated my iOS, but nothing works. Please help me with this or at least tell me that these kinds of problems usually fix itself. 😟