El Capitan: Cannot Connect to the App Store

This worked out for me too.

1. Opened KeyChain Access app from the Launcher
2. Selected "Certificates" in the left panel
3. Sorted by name so all the Verisign ones were grouped
4. Deleted the ones with "login" in the final column and "Verisign" in the name
5. Quit KeyChain Access
6. Restarted the Mac

This fixed an inability to connect to the App Store, an inability to connect to the iTunes store (multiple servers), and inability to connect to some SSL (https address) websites depending on the browser (especially in Safari). Plus email browsing in Apple Mail now shows inline images (which were likely to have been https references and so prey to the same problem as in Safari).

Thanks, KK4BCX.

Trying this from Apple. OS X: "Cannot connect" or "Cannot connect to the App Store. An internet connection is required" - Apple Support

Edit your Keychain.

The Keychain holds passwords and certificates used to create authenticated connections from apps such as Mac App Store. If the issue still happens after following the previous steps, try editing your Keychain.

1. Open Keychain Access located in /Applications/Utilities/
2. Select Certificates from the left hand column under Category
3. Type Class into the search field in the top right corner of the Keychain Access window and press return.
4. Look through the list of results for any certificates that have a blue + over the icon.
5. Double-click on a certificate that has the blue + over the icon to ‘Get info’ on the certificate.
6. Click the disclosure triangle to the left of the word Trust to reveal the certificates permissions.
7. Change Secure Sockets Layer (SSL): to ‘No Value Specified’ then close the window.
8. Confirm the Administrator password in the window that will appear.
9. Double-click on the same certificate that was opened in step 5.
10. Again Click the disclosure triangle to the left of the word Trust to reveal the certificates permissions.
11. Change When using this certificate: to ‘Use System Defaults’ then close the window.
12. Again confirm the Administrator password in the window that will appear.
13. Repeat steps 5 through 12 for any certificates that have a blue + over the icon. (Generally there are only one or two that will need to be edited.)
14. Restart the system and test for the issue.

Important: If the certificates do not allow themselves to be modified as is needed in steps 5 through 11, you need to reinstall OS X. After reinstalling, attempt these steps again.

I had a similar problem. My computer couldn't log into iCloud nor app store. I had a corrupt plist file that was even there when I restored my computer back to an earlier time via time machine when it was still working good. After spending 8 hours in apple chat with a tech one day and 2 hours on the phone today, here is what we discovered:

Here is an FYI for anyone interested in the trouble I went through and how we finally resolved it. You mileage may vary.

What had happened, and it probably wasn’t the fault of El Capitan, was a plist file got corrupted be they had no idea how it could corrupt that same file even in a time machine backup that was working fine back then. Here are the steps we used to solve it.

1. open “finder”, click on the computer internal hard drive.

2. click on Library

3. click on preferences

4. click on systemconfiguration folder

5. inside that folder find networkinterface.plist file and drag it to trash.

Restart computer. The plist will remake itself. open app store and try to log in (be hooked up with a cable to your router). Ok that sounds simple enough, but after 8 hours in apple chat they were unable to get my computer to reconnect to my wifi (my ethernet card is dead so I can only use wifi). We finally had to delete the new plist and drag the old one back in to get hooked up to my wifi router, and of course the problem was still there. So, when I was talking to apple tech today (for 2 hours), they had me do the same thing (I told them it wouldn’t work because we couldn’t get wifi), but the new tech knew what he was doing and he took me a step further. After restarting the computer we went to step 2.

1. open system preferences in your applications folder

2. click on network

3. on the left side of network window is a list of of connections. we turned off wifi and deleted my wifi connection.

4. then click on the “+” at the bottom of list on the left and add a wifi connection (pick your router from the list)

5. click on advanced in the bottom right of the window and in the TCP/IP tab, make sure the first line “configure IPv4” line shows “using DHCP”. If it doesn’t, click on the arrows on the right and choose that

6. then click on the “renew DHCP Lease”

7. click OK

8. click “apply” in the main window.

The wifi connected and everything worked. Even though it probably wasn’t the fault of El Capitan (but it could have been), I wish the 8 hours I spent on chat with apple support could have taken me to step 2 and got it working so I wouldn’t have had to spend 2 days re-installing and restoring various OS X systems, and I would still be on el Capitan. However, I’ve gone back to Yosemite as my last resort (and it still didn’t work) so I’m going to stay on Yosemite with this computer.

After more research I found a fix.

ONLY do this with the login certificates.

I exported those 3 VeriSign LOGIN certificates (just to be safe).

Then I deleted them and rebooted.

The App Store, iBooks, and iTunes Stores all work fine now.

If you want an extra measure of safety, you could use my fix from the other post and then download El Capitan. That way you'll already have if you need to re-install. But that's unlikely as long as you only delete the "login" certificates.

Hello,

I am still having iTunes Store & App Store connection difficulties. I tried the Login Certificate solution and nothing has changed. This problem only occurs after I upgraded to El Capitan.

Any other advice/support available?

Hi Marina.

Did you export the certificates first? You can save to your documents. I then selected everything and right-clicked. It gave me the option to delete and I did. I went back to reopen app store, waited some seconds and it worked. I've inserted what my key chain looks like, and this was AFTER I had deleted the certificates there before, so obviously, the system corrected itself. When you right click, it should give you an option to delete. I hope it works this time. Try restarting your computer before trying it again.

I have the same issue on and early 2009 iMac.

I found it to be an issue with 3 - SSL Login Certificates from VeriSign. That say, "This certificate was signed by an unknown authority".

I tried editing the keychain as this article explains (Keychain section).

OS X: "Cannot connect" or "Cannot connect to the App Store. An internet connection is required" - Apple Support

But unfortunately it didn't work.

My "patch" was to change the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) to - "Always Trust" - thus creating a Custom Setting.

This gets the various App Stores back online. But I wanted it fixed.

So I once again downloaded 10.11 and re-installed (like the article indicated).

Unfortunately, nothing changed. The certificates look just the same as after I modified their permissions. Changing the permissions back just resulted in the original error message.

But at least it now works. Hopefully Apple will fix this in the first El Capitan update.

I have SOLVED this sucker - down and done! I have had this problem for a long time, as a lot of you have.

My solution may be what you are looking for. I followed the steps that have been recommended, to no avail.

What I did was - went into SETTINGS / MOBILE DATA and then there is a list of apps to which you can select in order for mobile data to be used for.

Lo and behold! - the app store application was not selected. I merely turned it on and the problem was solved. I can now enter the app store.

Edit

Same here. Details: after upgrading Yosemite to El Capitan, the first boot popped a request for me to log in with my AppleID; I tried, but it failed to connect. After a few tries I went ahead (despite warnings about possible problems with App Store, iTunes etc.) without logging in. Since then (even after a reboot clearing NVRAM) I have been unable to use WiFi (fortunately my Ethernet eventually connected fine) and Safari cannot connect to anything (although Seamonkey and thunderbird and SSH work fine!) and the App Store is unreachable as well. I have the firewall turned off, to no effect.

I suspect that it was a mistake to proceed without the AppleID login on that first reboot; but what choice did I have? It wouldn't connect to log me in!

So now what?

I had this problem on a Late 2008 I put a mew SSD in and worked up from a Snow Leopard disk to El Capitan. The installation took wi-fi information from me but appears to have lost it later. Running network troubleshooting, I reselected my router and provided the pass phrase and all was well after that. The App store seems to indicate a credentials problem but it was really just an internet access problem.

Another simple quick and dirty way to check for and install new system updates is to open the Terminal app in the Utilities folder and enter the following command after the roo# cursor

softwareupdate -iva

(nb you will need to define yourself as root user to do this - see instructions here: http://osxdaily.com/2015/02/19/enable-disable-root-command-line-mac/ )

Sorry, no other advice. But I feel your pain. I get into my gmail account, I can't download updates from the app store...If apple doesn't fix this soon I will seriously consider returning to using a PC!

If you switch to a PC, you will really find out what pain is, starting with a subscription system that will nick you for Apps that were included in previous versions. There are millions of Mac users that update without problem, even on machines 6 or 7 years ago. Try updating s 6 year old PC with a current Windows version. Without the manufacturer making sure all the drivers work, which they won't because they have had dozens of new machines since that, it is a rocky road. Especially fun when a trojan virus has usurped your machine and is preventing anything from being updated.

Apple does an amazing job considering. Could they employ more people to solve the problems that are caused by individual configurations? Sure, but the line has to be drawn somewhere.

1. Determine if your machine works correctly on a different network. If not, look for routers plugged into routers and such on your network. Routers and advanced switches cache information that has changed.

2. Remove and recreate access accounts.

3. Re-construct the keychains.

If none of that works, restore your backup and try the installation again.

good luck

After installing El Capitan i had the same problem with the App store. I updated my Kaspersky anti virus and rebooted my Macbook pro, App store working fine now. I have read of other people doing the same with Avast and Norton.

I was having this problem and I looked at all of the login certificates. There were none from Verisign, but were several expired ones from Apple and an Unknown. I deleted those and tried again - rebooted - and it worked!

Thanks!

Mindy