App Updates Stuck

Question

Level 2

390 points

App Updates Stuck

This has been going on for the past several months, though at least a couple updates to my iOS version...

On my iPhone 6 Plus around 20% of auto app updates get stuck, usually on "installing...' with the icon mostly dimmed with varying percentages of a circle being light.

When this happens the app icon will stay like this indefinitely, taping on the icon has no effect and other apps will update fine (unless they fall in the 20%).

I've left apps like this for days until I am forced to restart my iPhone which results in the app in question disappearing from my phone leaving me to re-downlowad it.

For lesser used apps this has effectively worked to fully remove the app, as if I cannot recognize the icon at the time the name "Installing..." doesn't help...

I find myself having to reboot and re-download an app an average of every 2 to 3 days. I'm pretty much out of ideas on what else to try.

Posted on Feb 16, 2016 6:39 PM

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Answer 1

Bobby T Author

Level 2

390 points

Feb 16, 2016 6:43 PM in response to Bobby T

As of right now there are three icons doing this. Two of these have been in the state they are in now since earlier this morning...

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Answer 2

dotdotuk

Level 1

0 points

Feb 18, 2016 7:18 AM in response to Bobby T

I Have exactly the same problem.

Searching around the only answers seem to be to reboot the device and try again. Or delete the app and redownload.

Not what I'd expect from an apple device.

Happens on 2 iPads and 2 iPhones that I am aware of.

Cheers,

Henry

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Answer 3

dbat777

Level 1

28 points

Feb 29, 2016 12:20 PM in response to Bobby T

I've been having this problem for months now on my iPhone with the latest iOS, been posting over in this thread Apps Stuck Updating after iOS 9 as it seems to affect both iPhones and iPads. Can't believe no one from Apple has responded to either of these threads!

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Answer 4

Bobby T Author

Level 2

390 points

Feb 29, 2016 12:24 PM in response to dbat777

Thanks, I tried to find related threads but couldn't find any

People wanting to contribute should head to the thread you posted:

Apps Stuck Updating after iOS 9

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Answer 5

Feb 29, 2016 2:02 PM in response to Bobby T

Yep this is still happening to me months later, and no reply from Apple at all.

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Answer 6

Feb 29, 2016 5:18 PM in response to The5thElephant

Been happening for months, on all my iOS devices, with all versions of iOS 9 up to the latest.

About 1 in 6 apps I update ends up stuck and then deleted! I'm losing apps I didn't even know were gone until much later.

Only reasonable course of action: DO NOT UPDATE ANY APPS until this bug is fixed.

If you must update something, take a screenshot to remind yourself which one(s), check them immediately, and be prepared to reboot and redownload.

I will say the latest iOS update did improve this issue in one very small way: SOMETIMES you can now get the app back without a reboot. But usually not. And you still have to notice the problem on your own and jump through hoops, and it's still frequent.

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Answer 7

zexpe

Level 1

4 points

Mar 1, 2016 11:53 AM in response to Bobby T

I've suffered from this problem on my iPhone 5s since I updated to iOS 9 too. It's got to the point now where I'm having to reboot my phone several times a day. It's crazy and so frustrating. Strangely my iPad 4 also running iOS 9 doesn't have this issue. Maybe it's just the 64-bit versions affected? Perhaps something to do with app slicing?

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Answer 8

Ventu68

Level 1

4 points

Mar 1, 2016 2:05 PM in response to zexpe

I Have this problem on my iPad 3 that is 32 bit. What do you mean by app slicing?

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Answer 9

zexpe

Level 1

4 points

Mar 1, 2016 2:30 PM in response to Ventu68

App slicing is the biggest change to installing app updates in iOS 9. Instead of downloading the entire app your device just gets the version of the app that relates to your device, e.g. the 32-bit version with the iPad 3 resolution graphics, rather than all the versions with all the graphics resolutions, to save space.

See here: http://www.macrumors.com/2015/10/05/ios-9-app-slicing-now-available/

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Answer 10

Ventu68

Level 1

4 points

Mar 4, 2016 10:10 PM in response to Bobby T

I did read about this new technology that would reduce the size of downloads for app updates but was never officially announced, are we sure it is used ? When I reported the problem to apple support they were not informed, I was suspecting this like you did but didn't know it's called slicing .

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Answer 11

Bobby T Author

Level 2

390 points

Mar 4, 2016 10:24 PM in response to Ventu68

I think I can confirm it, due to how I first learned about it...

A few weeks ago I noticed that apps I had bought directly on my phone had never been copped over to my computer after syncing (something that ALWAYS used to happen).

Even when I went to transfer purchases no apps could copy from the phone to the computer.

In searching for why, I ended up finding a thread that described the new technique of stripping non-essential components during install...

I can also state (in relation to the original thread) that the new iPad I picked up about a month ago has never had a locked up install.

Not sure what the difference is between my iPad and my iPhone...

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Answer 12

Aug 5, 2016 3:23 PM in response to Bobby T

I had this issue from iOS 8 till the 9.2 update, but now it's back after updating to iOS 9.3.4 today. Some apps get suck during updates, and nothing seems to work to get the stuck apps working again: I've tried restarting the update, deleting and reinstalling, power cycling and retrying, setting text to bold then retrying, reloading the App Store (tap update 10 times). Nothing has worked, and this time once the app fails installing I can't use the app at all because it will get stuck installing each time.

When updating a pop-up appears around 3/4 finished that says "unable to download"

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