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iPhone [MERGED] iOS 13 - app updates stuck on "Waiting"
- Thread starter mzanker
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The only work around is to delete or offload the app and reinstall it. The later won’t lose data.
Just to add to the chorus, I’m having the same issues being discussed here, on all of my iOS devices (including an older iPhone running 12.something) and also my MacBook Pro.
I spent quite a while on the phone with Apple support today and got elevated twice to higher support levels. Currently at the stage that my case is off to engineering for review, and I’ll get a call back in a couple of days.
I did also send them a link to this thread.
Interestingly, the failure to update still happened even after I switched to a newly-created second AppleID.
And while I do have TestFlight installed on an older iPhone and was beta testing one app a while back, I haven’t used it in a couple of months. TestFlight isn’t even installed on the two iPads that are also having this issue. And apparently I haven’t created a sandbox account because I’m not even sure what that is, and there’s no indication anywhere that I’ve got one.
Will be curious to see where this goes.
—mark
I spent quite a while on the phone with Apple support today and got elevated twice to higher support levels. Currently at the stage that my case is off to engineering for review, and I’ll get a call back in a couple of days.
I did also send them a link to this thread.
Interestingly, the failure to update still happened even after I switched to a newly-created second AppleID.
And while I do have TestFlight installed on an older iPhone and was beta testing one app a while back, I haven’t used it in a couple of months. TestFlight isn’t even installed on the two iPads that are also having this issue. And apparently I haven’t created a sandbox account because I’m not even sure what that is, and there’s no indication anywhere that I’ve got one.
Will be curious to see where this goes.
—mark
Did you try to update the app on the phone after logging in as the new Apple ID? I don’t think that will work as the apps weren’t purchased under that ID.
As for the Sandbox account, as far as I can tell the setting shows up on your device if you make an in-app purchase on a TestFlight app and log in. I’ve also found that you’ll get logged into the Sandbox account if you install a beta version of an app from TestFlight that you have a current non-beta subscription for. Though you won’t see that if you’ve never made an in-app beta purchase on that device.
Also even if you sign out of the Sandbox account, you’ve already linked you real Apple ID to the Sandbox servers at that point. If that’s what’s causing the problem then there’s nothing you can do at that point to fix this. I’m not sure if that is what’s causing the problem, but I find it very odd that the majority of people having this problem have signed into the Sandbox account as that’s not something users normally do. On TestFlight testers and app developers would ever have that happen.
Yes, I was trying to update while logged into the alternate AppleID — this was one of the things the Apple support tech asked me to try.
—mark
I was hoping that the apps I have been offloading and reinstalling would get “fixed” and future updates would work for them, but no such luck. There’s a new update for an app I did this for over the weekend and it won’t update either.
This is the 5th day since I’ve been able to install updates.
This is the 5th day since I’ve been able to install updates.
Its funny you mentioned it because I do use a RSS feed app and it also refreshes all the time whenever I open it.
I have been having this problem on my iPhones, iPad and MacBooks. I've reported it to Apple via three different channels last week, including AppleCare+ and their developer Feedback app, along with supporting video showing the issue, but have not received any satisfactory responses or acknowledgement that the problem lies on their end. I agree with the sentiment that it seems to affect specific Apple accounts, because my wife does not have the issue on her iPhone.
That said, I have found a workaround that gets around the problem on my iOS devices, which others might find helpful. It involves the use of an official MacOS app called "Apple Configurator 2", available in the MacOS App Store. Using it on my MacBook Pro connected to my iPhone, it was able to detect and update the apps that couldn't be updated directly on the phone due to the bug.
Warning: it is not an easy app to understand and use. If you have any trouble with it, log out and in of your iTunes account inside the app and try again. The two operations that seem to work to circumvent the problem are "Add" and "Update". I used Add, because it is more selective and allowed me to only update the apps that I wanted to update. I am running 13.2.2 on my phone, but I'm still running Mojave (with all updates) on my MacBook Pro.
That said, I have found a workaround that gets around the problem on my iOS devices, which others might find helpful. It involves the use of an official MacOS app called "Apple Configurator 2", available in the MacOS App Store. Using it on my MacBook Pro connected to my iPhone, it was able to detect and update the apps that couldn't be updated directly on the phone due to the bug.
Warning: it is not an easy app to understand and use. If you have any trouble with it, log out and in of your iTunes account inside the app and try again. The two operations that seem to work to circumvent the problem are "Add" and "Update". I used Add, because it is more selective and allowed me to only update the apps that I wanted to update. I am running 13.2.2 on my phone, but I'm still running Mojave (with all updates) on my MacBook Pro.
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Clicking "Update" in Apple Configurator 2 yields the message:
The list of updates is persisting in the App Store app though, and the updates are not actually installed.
I’m still waiting for Apple to get back to me. The first senior advisor I spoke to never called me back. I spoke to a different one on Saturday who took ownership of my case, but he hasn’t got back to me either.
Based on what I was told, they will only reach back out to you if engineering comes back with a response. I was told 48 hours is the response time. If weekends don’t count, end of day today would be 48 since I reported the problem.
I spent over an hour over the weekend offloading and reinstalling apps to update them. I don’t want to have to keep doing that forever.
Based on what I was told, they will only reach back out to you if engineering comes back with a response. I was told 48 hours is the response time. If weekends don’t count, end of day today would be 48 since I reported the problem.
I spent over an hour over the weekend offloading and reinstalling apps to update them. I don’t want to have to keep doing that forever.
Use the Add feature, instead. Choose Apps, then scroll down (it helps if you sort the list by name) to the app you want to update and choose Add. It will tell you that the app is already installed and ask if you want to Replace it. When you opt to Replace, the latest version will be installed and the number in the red badge on the image of the your device on will be decremented by one.
When I talked to a Senior Advisor last week they told me 48 hours of business days, yeah. So the weekends wouldn't count and you should be getting a phone call tomorrow if they have some kind of resolution.
You're a better person than me. I'm not updating anything unless it's broken lol. I have multiple games on my phone that demand to be up to date for me to play them, so I have to comply. But everything else will just rot one my iPhone until the Update issue is fixed.
I also have this issue, it appeared early on in the iOS 13 beta cycle, then it magically fixed itself near the end, updates were working fine until about a week ago and now they've completed stopped across all platforms, iOS, macOS, tvOS, watchOS.... everything.
I've reported it to Apple so many times now but still nothing has been done to fix it.
I've reported it to Apple so many times now but still nothing has been done to fix it.
I updated to the newly released iOS 13.2.3 hoping it would fix the app updating problem. It didn’t. 😭
Tonight I updated my 11 Pro Max to the latest iOS but it still had this issue issue.
BUT I’ve just managed to update my apps about 2 hours later. For me the key was to go into an individual app’s listing in the App Store, update a few that way, then the Update All setting worked.
Apple could have also just fixed it on their end at the same time, of course.
BUT I’ve just managed to update my apps about 2 hours later. For me the key was to go into an individual app’s listing in the App Store, update a few that way, then the Update All setting worked.
Apple could have also just fixed it on their end at the same time, of course.
So I got a VM notification from my VOIP home phone. It was an automated message saying AppleCare was trying to get in touch with me and to contact my advisor.
The problem is that Apple doesn't give you anyway to do that. In the past I used to get emails from my advisor with the email address. The only email I got was a way to leave a voicemail with Apple. I can't find any way to talk to someone other than to call in and ask to be escalated which gets me a completely random advisor who is unfamiliar with my case or the issue.
I was going to wait, but the number of updates has continued to grow. I was at around 35 and didn't want to keep waiting otherwise it would get unruly.
I’m now sitting at 50 apps with pending updates and some of them are actually important, like one of my banking apps. Oy.
Here's something odd. Someone on Twitter mentioned that since this problem started he wasn't seeing App Store notification badges. I've never seen a notification badge on the App Store since installing iOS 13.1. I haven't had them since iOS 12. I'm not sure if it's related since I also have this problem on an iOS 12 device, but it's odd. I'll have to go check my iPhone 5s and see if it has a badge on the App Store.
Also I called back into Apple about the missed call and spoke to a senior advisor who said the notes indicated I had a call scheduled for 4 PM. I hung up and waited for the call back. It never came.
Also I called back into Apple about the missed call and spoke to a senior advisor who said the notes indicated I had a call scheduled for 4 PM. I hung up and waited for the call back. It never came.