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Resolved Can't download anything from the MAS

Janichsan

Janichsan

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Oct 23, 2006
3,144
12,263
Whenever I try to download something from the MAS – including updates and previously purchases apps – I only get the error message "Could not complete your purchase" with the very unhelpful specifier "Cancelled".

I already tried several fixes I found on the internet, including:
  • restarting my Mac
  • logging out of my AppleID and signing in again
  • updating my payment information
  • rebuilding the Spotlight index
  • deleting the MAS cache (~/Library/Caches/com.apple.appstore)
No success with any of these.

Any other tips?

(I forgot to add that I'm running macOS 10.4.6.)
 
Last edited:
I meet same problem.
Its seem some changes from MAS and its happened on Mojave only.
 
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I get "We could not complete your purchase. cancelled" only in Mojave 10.14.6 (18G4032), no problem in Catalina.
cancelled.jpg
 
Yup same here. And my iOS devices are constantly prompting me with an Apple ID sign in requests which I think is related to the problem on the MacOS App Store.
 
Same here--I just reinstalled macOS (10.14.6) and am not able to get any of my previous App Store purchases reinstalled. :/ (Restoring them from backup does seem to be getting me by in the meantime.) I've tried all of the possibilities suggested in the first post, plus a PRAM reset, signging out of my account in both iCloud preferences and the deleting the entire Caches folder, not just the one for the MAS.

Given the number of people having this problem (and that's happening for me on a brand new install where I was previously convinced I'd messed something up), I'm guessing it's something on Apple's side. There are lot posts on their forum and Reddit about it now too that I find with a search. Hopefully they figure it out and get it fixed soon...

EDIT: Just started working for me (shortly before 3 PM CST on May 20). Yay!
 
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RMo said:
Same here--I just reinstalled macOS (10.14.6) and am not able to get any of my previous App Store purchases reinstalled. :/ (Restoring them from backup does seem to be getting me by in the meantime.) I've tried all of the possibilities suggested in the first post, plus a PRAM reset, signging out of my account in both iCloud preferences and the deleting the entire Caches folder, not just the one for the MAS.

Given the number of people having this problem (and that's happening for me on a brand new install where I was previously convinced I'd messed something up), I'm guessing it's something on Apple's side. There are lot posts on their forum and Reddit about it now too that I find with a search. Hopefully they figure it out and get it fixed soon...
Click to expand...
It's definitely on Apple side
I worked with 10.14.6 for a while and didn't get any issue downloading
 
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They fix it : only App store and Configurator
We are back downloading

Not iTunes though
So I guess we are hopeless on that one
 
msephton said:
I'm getting this again on 10.14.6

"We could not complete your purchase."

So tiring.
Click to expand...
I have the issue again too! Yesterday I was able to update the apps going to their main window -still in the App Store- and clicking update
Today it's just not working everywhere : yeah, well done Apple, you got the 10th issue in one week...🤪

Edited : clicked a second time the update in the main app page works, in this precise moment.
It's a roll of dice..🤬
 
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Patrice Brousseau said:
This always works for me, thanks @Mr_Brightside_@ :

forums.macrumors.com

Apple Pulls Problematic Safari 14 and Security Updates for macOS Mojave [Updated]

Now fixed for me. What I did: Quit App Store Open Terminal Copy/paste in open $TMPDIR/../C/com.Apple.appstore/ after $ Hit Enter This should open a Finder window, with the folder com.Apple.appstore highlighted Delete its contents Open App Store and run updates This worked on 3 different Mojave Macs.
forums.macrumors.com forums.macrumors.com
Click to expand...
That hasn’t worked for me, on two separate occasions.

What worked this time was cleaning my caches using CleanMyMac.
 
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msephton said:
That hasn’t worked for me, on two separate occasions.

What worked this time was cleaning my caches using CleanMac.
Click to expand...
The way it works for me:

I let the AppStore app open but disconnect from my account, then clean the folder as described. Immediately after that, I restart the update and when my password is asked, I enter it and all goes well.

Until I have to do it again...
 
After it was working with my previously posted fix for a few weeks, I am again encountering the issue sporadically on all my Macs.
 
Patrice Brousseau said:
This always works for me, thanks @Mr_Brightside_@ :

forums.macrumors.com

Apple Pulls Problematic Safari 14 and Security Updates for macOS Mojave [Updated]

Now fixed for me. What I did: Quit App Store Open Terminal Copy/paste in open $TMPDIR/../C/com.Apple.appstore/ after $ Hit Enter This should open a Finder window, with the folder com.Apple.appstore highlighted Delete its contents Open App Store and run updates This worked on 3 different Mojave Macs.
forums.macrumors.com forums.macrumors.com
Click to expand...
Thanks but it doesn't work for me either
I clicked few times on the specific app update page and then the 3rd time was the charm ..
 
Patrice Brousseau said:
The way it works for me:

I let the AppStore app open but disconnect from my account, then clean the folder as described. Immediately after that, I restart the update and when my password is asked, I enter it and all goes well.

Until I have to do it again...
Click to expand...
I tried this and it does not even ask me for my password before or after displaying the error.
 
Janichsan said:
Whenever I try to download something from the MAS – including updates and previously purchases apps – I only get the error message "Could not complete your purchase" with the very unhelpful specifier "Cancelled".

I already tried several fixes I found on the internet, including:
  • restarting my Mac
  • logging out of my AppleID and signing in again
  • updating my payment information
  • rebuilding the Spotlight index
  • deleting the MAS cache (~/Library/Caches/com.apple.appstore)
No success with any of these.

Any other tips?

(I forgot to add that I'm running macOS 10.4.6.)
Click to expand...
Hello Janichsan,
Could you please change the Resolved status of this thread to not resolved or whatever it is?
A lot of people still have the same issue.
It's giving false hope, because Apple didn't fix anything!

Thanks
 
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I concur. I also have had the intermittent problem of installing one particular app - "Facebook Messenger" by Facebook when hitting "Update" repeatedly it results in the aforementioned alert or no action with the button changing back to "Update". Helps only by uninstalling from Launchpad and re-installing from "Purchases".
However, in my case I found that the culprit is trustd process which apparently is responsible for all certification and validity checks: the new unpleasant reality is that starting with Mojave and implementation of what Apple calls "notarization" every app is run checks on by making the connection to this host: per Apple developer documentation if there's no connection notarized apps won't launch and without being notarized they can't be installed - a closed circle. trustd phones to the host ocsp.apple.com and this is the reason of why apps were slow to launch or failed to do that completely when millions of users upgraded to Sur (I don't run it and I chose to stick with Mojave but I didn't apply the latest bug-ridden Security Update because I don't want to install Safari 14 which is a loss w/o Top Sites): actually, your computer is not your. I blocked it in the hosts file and noticed that after doing that App Store lost a connection and so did the update mechanism. Every time updates come I unblock it: sometimes it requires a time to rebuild the cache, other time it works right away.
Also, bear in mind that blocking in hosts by assigning any host the address of your machine ("localhost") and denying domain resolution and outgoing connection with the network monitoring software like Little Snitch are different things: with the former, you just spoof the system into believing that a domain A is an IP-address B. With the latter, you're nixing it with brute force. With that in mind, immediately after I denied resolution and outbound connection apps' launch times jumped to a crawl, so I had to resort to the hosts method. Just so you know.
I'm also sure that the much talked System Integrity Protection contributes to this havoc. Give it a try and while testing disable it temporarily along with blocking the connection in hosts.
 
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Janichsan said:
Whenever I try to download something from the MAS – including updates and previously purchases apps – I only get the error message "Could not complete your purchase" with the very unhelpful specifier "Cancelled".

I already tried several fixes I found on the internet, including:
  • restarting my Mac
  • logging out of my AppleID and signing in again
  • updating my payment information
  • rebuilding the Spotlight index
  • deleting the MAS cache (~/Library/Caches/com.apple.appstore)
No success with any of these.

Any other tips?

(I forgot to add that I'm running macOS 10.4.6.)
Click to expand...
msephton said:
I'm getting this again on 10.14.6

"We could not complete your purchase."

So tiring.
Click to expand...
msephton said:
That hasn’t worked for me, on two separate occasions.

What worked this time was cleaning my caches using CleanMac.
Click to expand...
Thanks for this tip. Using Onyx for Mojave, I cleaned caches using Maintenance mode in Onyx. Fixed the issue!
 
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