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SR71

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jan 12, 2011
1,604
372
Boston, MA
So, there were 2 notification badges on my Mac App Store icon in my dock, and I was also notified in Notification Center that I had updates available for my apps. I proceeded in downloading and installing those updates. Everything went smoothly, but the badges on the Mac App Store icon won't go away. I've restarted my Mac, checked the updates tab again, attempted to redo the updates, made sure there were no Mac App Store notifications in Notification Center, etc. Nothing works. Nothing. Zilch. Nada. Zero. The damn badges are still there lol!

Anyone have any ideas as to what I should do to make them go away?

Thanks!
 

SR45

macrumors 65832
Aug 17, 2011
1,501
0
Florida
So, there were 2 notification badges on my Mac App Store icon in my dock, and I was also notified in Notification Center that I had updates available for my apps. I proceeded in downloading and installing those updates. Everything went smoothly, but the badges on the Mac App Store icon won't go away. I've restarted my Mac, checked the updates tab again, attempted to redo the updates, made sure there were no Mac App Store notifications in Notification Center, etc. Nothing works. Nothing. Zilch. Nada. Zero. The damn badges are still there lol!

Anyone have any ideas as to what I should do to make them go away?

Thanks!

I for one cannot help with an easy fix. Happen to me as well, and I could not find a quick answer, so I just did a complete wipe, and reinstall of Mountain Lion. I know, some work involved, but since I had ML on a USB thumb drive, it only took me 20 minutes top, and it fixed the repeated download update issue. Good luck ;)
 

Xavier

macrumors demi-god
Mar 23, 2006
2,829
1,610
Columbus
Typically, unwanted App Store badges is due to having pirated or hacked apps. If this is the case, then you must delete those apps.

If not, then I don't know what to tell you. That is a strange problem!
 

SR71

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jan 12, 2011
1,604
372
Boston, MA
I for one cannot help with an easy fix. Happen to me as well, and I could not find a quick answer, so I just did a complete wipe, and reinstall of Mountain Lion. I know, some work involved, but since I had ML on a USB thumb drive, it only took me 20 minutes top, and it fixed the repeated download update issue. Good luck ;)

Eh, I've got to much on here to wipe it and reinstall lol. Nice username, by the way. ;)

Typically, unwanted App Store badges is due to having pirated or hacked apps. If this is the case, then you must delete those apps.

If not, then I don't know what to tell you. That is a strange problem!

That's odd, because these are legitimately purchased apps, and one of them is free lol. The apps in question are "Found" and "Sparrow". Found is free, and I purchased Sparrow when it was on sale for $4.99 I believe (or somewhere around that price).
 

canadianpj

macrumors 6502a
Jun 27, 2008
553
500
Typically, unwanted App Store badges is due to having pirated or hacked apps. If this is the case, then you must delete those apps.

If not, then I don't know what to tell you. That is a strange problem!

There not typical for showing updates for applications that are legit and you already have no, I'm sure they could happen not common. You would see it with something you didn't download showing up as an update.

I had this exact problem. The issue for me is I had done a SuperDuper backup which was still mounted. It seems, for me anyway, the App Store gets confused when I have the clone mounted. As soon as I disconnected the USB and then did a relaunch of the App Store that phantom update is gone.
 

talmy

macrumors 601
Oct 26, 2009
4,727
337
Oregon
I had this exact problem. The issue for me is I had done a SuperDuper backup which was still mounted. It seems, for me anyway, the App Store gets confused when I have the clone mounted. As soon as I disconnected the USB and then did a relaunch of the App Store that phantom update is gone.

+1. You must have exactly one copy of the app "visible" and it needs to be in the correct location (/Applications) for the Mac App Store to work properly.
 

Sital

macrumors 68020
May 31, 2012
2,141
932
New England
So, there were 2 notification badges on my Mac App Store icon in my dock, and I was also notified in Notification Center that I had updates available for my apps. I proceeded in downloading and installing those updates. Everything went smoothly, but the badges on the Mac App Store icon won't go away. I've restarted my Mac, checked the updates tab again, attempted to redo the updates, made sure there were no Mac App Store notifications in Notification Center, etc. Nothing works. Nothing. Zilch. Nada. Zero. The damn badges are still there lol!

Anyone have any ideas as to what I should do to make them go away?

Thanks!

I had a similar problem with iPhoto and iMovie updates. I downloaded and installed them, but the App Store kept insisting they still needed updating. When I clicked on them, sure enough the App Store downloaded and installed them again. That cleared the update badge, but now I have two copies of iPhoto and iMovie in Launchpad, but only one copy of each in my Applications folder. And both icons in Launchpad will launch the given app. I decided not to try and fix it since I rarely use Launchpad.
 

SR45

macrumors 65832
Aug 17, 2011
1,501
0
Florida
Eh, I've got to much on here to wipe it and reinstall lol. Nice username, by the way. ;)




That's odd, because these are legitimately purchased apps, and one of them is free lol. The apps in question are "Found" and "Sparrow". Found is free, and I purchased Sparrow when it was on sale for $4.99 I believe (or somewhere around that price).

:D Appears you like the SR71 BlackBird Aircraft ..... SR-71
 

smashbrochamp

macrumors newbie
Jan 12, 2013
1
0
confirmed fix

I had the same issue where you app store dock icon shows a red update badge but when you click updates, nothing is there.

Here's the fix:

Click "Finder" in the dock
Click "Go" from the task bar
Hold the alt/option key and the "Library" option should appear
Navigate to the "Preferences" folder
Delete the com.apple.SoftwareUpdate.plist file
Reboot and go back to the app store update page and it should be gone
 

jamesloker

macrumors newbie
Mar 5, 2013
3
1
UK
Apple ID

Sometimes this can occur if you have changed your apple id for the app store and the update is for a program that you downloaded with your previous apple id.

Of course apple dont allow you to merge accounts and the app with the update was downloaded with your 'old' apple id.
If this is the case, load the app store, click store along the top, sign out and sign in with your old id and try again.

Just a suggestion
 

z06gal

macrumors 6502a
Aug 30, 2011
503
16
I don't have that issue but app store downloads are pitifully slow for me today :(
 

soundsgoodtome

macrumors regular
Jun 8, 2007
202
23
Los Angeles
Click "Finder" in the dock
Click "Go" from the task bar
Hold the alt/option key and the "Library" option should appear
Navigate to the "Preferences" folder
Delete the com.apple.SoftwareUpdate.plist file
Reboot and go back to the app store update page and it should be gone

This solved a different problem for me: App-Store updates that were stuck and wouldn't complete.

Thanks!
 
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