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This guide is about Fix ‘Frozen App Store Issues on MAC’. So read this free guide, Fix ‘Frozen App Store Issues on MAC’ step by step. If you have query related to same article you may contact us.
Fix ‘Frozen App Store Issues on MAC’ – Guide
The App Store app on your Mac is a place where you can find and download new and old apps for your machine. While this doesn’t happen all the time, sometimes the App Store gets stuck in one spot for no reason. A download may have been paused and will not proceed, or the Store may not show anything on your screen. There can be many reasons for this to happen.
Fix ‘App Store Frozen Issues on MAC’
Missing App Store Purchases
Apps that you purchase from the Mac App Store are collected in the Purchased section. Apps are linked to your Apple ID, which means that if you have multiple Mac computers, you can install your apps on all of them. The apps are always available for update and you can reinstall them whenever you want. The shopping page lists all apps in chronological order. You can open or install them directly from this page, but sometimes you will notice that they are gone. Several reasons can cause this:
When an app is hidden, you will no longer see it on the Purchased screen and you will not receive update notifications for it. But you can still see these hidden apps with a little digging. Open the App Store and click Store > View My Account. Log in to view your account information. Then, on the Account Information page, scroll down to the Hidden Items section and click Manage.
Now click on the Unhide button button for each app you want to show again. With this fix, you will be able to restore all the missing apps. Just note that if the app is not available, clicking on that app will do nothing. Check the developer’s website or social media pages to see if the developer is still active.
Apps displayed incorrectly Up as installed
The Mac App Store has all the information about your Apple ID. It knows which account you are using and tracks your app ownership. Sometimes, you may encounter an issue where the App Store falsely informs you that a specific app is installed and therefore does not allow you to download it. You may also see the misleading message You have updates available for other accounts even if you use an Apple ID. This type of error can happen for several reasons.
Problem with cache folder
In that case, you must clear the cache folder manually to fix the issue. Before proceeding with these steps, make sure you have backed up up your Mac. Exit the Mac App Store with the shortcut Cmd + Q. Open Terminal and type the following command:
open $TMPDIR../C/com.apple.appstore/
Press Enter and the com.apple.appstore folder will open in Finder. Delete the contents of this folder. Restart the Mac App Store.
Beta apps on other units
This type of issue occurs when you install a beta version of macOS on another partition or external drive. The apps you install on it are indexed by Spotlight. The index the system creates will make the App Store think that there is a duplicate copy of the app on another drive. It will refuse to download or update the app on the primary partition. Fixing this problem is simple; you must delete the duplicate copy of the application and rebuild the Spotlight index. Open the Apple Menu and select System Preferences. Choose the Spotlight entry and switch to the Privacy tab.
Click on the More tab at the bottom of the list. A new Finder window will open. Add the Macintosh HD (or whatever name you gave it) to this list and close the System Preferences window. I also recommend logging out of your account and logging back in. Indexing will stop for this drive. Now go back to the Privacy tab and click on the minus sign to remove the Macintosh HD drive. Close the System Preferences window. The system will start re-indexing everything on the disk drive, which will take some time.
Application updates in other user accounts
If you use a computer shared with another user account, you may experience a similar issue. Apps you install on other accounts shouldn’t pose a problem. But if you delete the user account, the App Store will not know that you have done so and will encounter similar issues. To fix this issue, follow the steps in the section above to rebuild the Spotlight index.
Stuck app updates or downloads
The App Store provides regular updates for system and third-party apps. In some cases, the download does not complete and may crash in the middle of the process. You may see a familiar Waiting or Installing Calculating message just below the download progress bar. To address this issue, let’s look at what happens behind the scenes.
Delete cache folder
When the download starts, the App Store creates a lot of temporary files in the cache folder. They include a Spotlight metadata file, an incomplete installation file, and a PLIST file with details of the application you are downloading. In the first step, you have to clear the App Store cache folder as mentioned above. Exit the Mac App Store, open a Terminal window and type the following command:
open $TMPDIR../C/com.apple.appstore/
Press Enter and the com.apple.appstore folder will open in Finder. Erase everything inside. Next, you must delete the user’s com.apple.appstore folder. To do this, access and delete all files in the fsCachedData folder.
~/Library/Caches/com.apple.appstore
Delete the contents of the updates folder
When an application is downloaded, the package is moved from a temporary cache folder to If an application crashes during installation or becomes corrupted for some reason, clear the contents of that folder. Otherwise, skip this step.
MacintoshHD/Library/Updates
Kill the culprit App Store processes
After deleting the contents of the cache folder, you will need to eliminate the culprit processes from Activity Monitor. This will ensure that when you re-download the update, the processes will not crash again. Open Activity Monitor and set its view to All Processes. Type store to look for processes related to the App Store and force-quit all these daemon processes:
Don’t open the App Store just yet as there is one more step to fix this issue.
Delete the preference file
Go to Finder and press Cmd + Shift + G to open the Go to Folder box. Go to the following folder:
~/Library/Preferences
Here, delete the following files:
now go to
~/Library/Cookies
And delete this file:
After deleting all preference files, choose Apple Menu > Shut Down. Then press the power button to start your Mac again and the problem should be gone.
Blank App Store Page
One of the most notorious problems with the Mac App Store is when it displays the error message Cannot connect to the App Store. This has several causes, but you can resolve them. First, you must check your Internet connection. Open Apple Menu > System Preferences. Choose the Network item and check if there is a green icon next to the network in the left sidebar. If there is a red icon next to the network, your Internet connection is down.
Sometimes the problem may not be a problem on your end. Check Apple’s system status page. Here, you can see information about the status of Apple services such as iCloud, App Store and more. If a specific service has a red icon next to it, it is inactive. If you still see the error message even with green lights, choose Store > Logout and exit the App Store. Restart the app and log in again.
Errors when buying apps
You may rarely see a peculiar Could not complete your purchase: Unknown error message when purchasing apps. This issue occurs when you update macOS or use multiple Apple IDs. Open the App Store and iTunes and make sure you use the same Apple IDs for both apps. If you use two separate Apple IDs, sign out of the apps, close them, and sign in again with a single Apple ID.
If you still see the same error message, you may have an issue with iTunes Terms and Conditions. When you make a significant macOS update, Apple wants you to accept the conditions again. In that case, exit the apps, accept the new Terms and Conditions and restart them. A reboot may be required to display the acceptance dialog.
Final note
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