Mac App Store Doesn't Sign In

Question

Level 1

26 points

Mac App Store Doesn't Sign In

The Mac App Store shows me as not signed in. Clicking the 'Sign In' link triggers the usual dialog. When I attempt to login I get a brief spinning circle in the login window (as expected), the login window disappears (as expected), but the App Store still shows me as not signed in.

When I attempt to purchase a free app the App Store asks me to sign in, and when I input my information I receive the following error:

An error occurred during purchase.

The operation couldn’t be completed.

(com.apple.commerce.client error 500.)

I am able to successfully sign in to the iTunes Store on this Mac with the same AppleID. I'm also able to successfully sign in to the Mac App Store on a different Mac with the same Apple ID.

I have tried the following actions. All produced the same results.

- Signing in with a different AppleID.

- Signing out from iTunes.

- Signing back into iTunes.

- Rebooting.

- Deauthorizing the computer from appleid.apple.com.

I'm running Mac OS 10.14.1 (18B75) on a MacBook Air (13-inch, Early 2014). I use differed AppleIDs for iCloud and the App Store. I recently (earlier this week) performed a clean install of Mojave, and was able to use the Mac App Store after that install.

How do I fix this?

MacBook Air, macOS Mojave (10.14.1)

Posted on Nov 23, 2018 7:50 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Eric Root

Level 10

684,027 points

Nov 26, 2018 8:55 AM in response to Mugosity

Might be a corrupt .plist.

Do a backup, preferably 2 backups on 2 separate drives.

Quit the application.

Go to Finder and select your user/home folder. With that Finder window as the front window, either select Finder/View/Show View options or go command - J. When the View options opens, check ’Show Library Folder’. That should make your user library folder visible in your user/home folder. Select Library. Then go to Preferences/com.apple.appstore.plist. Move the .plist to your desktop.

Restart the computer, open the application, and test. If it works okay, delete the plist from the desktop.

If the application is the same, return the .plist to where you got it from, overwriting the newer one.

Thanks to leonie for some information contained in this.

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Answer 2

Eric Root

Level 10

684,027 points

Nov 23, 2018 8:34 PM in response to Mugosity

Try the Safe Mode. Please post back on whether or not this worked.

Safe Mode - About

If it works in the Safe Mode, try running this program when booted normally and then copy and paste the output in a reply. The program was created by Etresoft, a frequent contributor. Please use copy and paste as screen shots can be hard to read. Click “Share Report” button in the toolbar, select “Copy to Clipboard” and then paste into a reply. This will show what is running on your computer. No personal information is shown.

Etrecheck – System Information

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Answer 3

Eric Root

Level 10

684,027 points

Nov 25, 2018 9:05 PM in response to Community User

You have a lot of software I don't recognize, so I can't tell if any of it is the problem or not.

Try setting up another admin user account to see if the same problem continues. Please post back on whether or not this worked.

Isolating an issue by using another user account

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Answer 4

Mugosity Author

Level 1

26 points

Nov 25, 2018 9:15 PM in response to Eric Root

I created another admin user account on the same Mac and was able to successfully sign in to the App Store from that account. That was expected, though, as I have been able to successfully sign in from other Macs.

I remain unable to sign in to the App Store from my usual account on the Mac.

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