iPhone/iPad apps won't download on Mac

[aleari11]

Hi everyone, I’m having a very specific problem with the Mac App Store.

I have a Mac with an M3 chip running macOS Tahoe 26.6.2.

Normal Mac apps download and update normally. However, apps listed as “Designed for iPhone/iPad” cannot be downloaded or updated.

The behavior is always the same:

1. I click the cloud/download button
2. I authenticate with Touch ID
3. The download appears to start
4. After a few seconds, it goes back to the cloud button
5. The app is not installed

I tested this with both:

• apps I had previously downloaded/purchased
• completely new, free iPhone/iPad apps

With a new app, the App Store actually registers it as purchased/owned, but the app still remains in the cloud state and never installs.

Things I have already tried:

• Restarting the Mac
• 200 GB+ of free storage
• Confirming the correct Apple Account
• Confirming that the same Apple Account is used for Media & Purchases
• Checking that there are no payment/billing issues
• Checking Apple's System Status — everything is green
• Trying a completely different network using my iPhone hotspot
• Enabling automatic downloads for apps purchased on other devices
• Trying from a second macOS user account — same problem
• Normal Mac apps download/update correctly

So the problem seems to be specific to the installation/download of iPhone/iPad apps on macOS, rather than the App Store in general.

Has anyone experienced this on macOS Tahoe 26.6.x, especially on an M3 Mac?

I'm particularly interested in solutions that don't require erasing the Mac or reinstalling macOS.

Thanks!

 

[WalrusCP]

Having this same issue on M4 MacBook Air running 26.6.2.

 

[njvm]

My understanding is that the developer of the app has to indicate that it can be used on macOS - if this isn't done then it can't be dowloaded.

 

[Chitos]

Adding a third data point, and I managed to capture the actual failure in the unified log.

**Environment**
- Mac Studio (Mac14,13), M2 Max
- macOS 26.6.2, build 25G83

Same symptom as OP: Mac apps install and update fine, but every "Designed for iPhone/iPad" app fails. Cloud button → briefly shows preparing → reverts to the cloud icon, nothing installs.

**What the log shows**

Captured with:

log stream --style compact --level debug --predicate 'process == "appstoreagent" OR process == "App Store" OR subsystem CONTAINS[c] "storekit" OR subsystem CONTAINS[c] "commerce"'

The purchase request goes out normally and Apple's server returns an HTTP 500 with an empty body:

Encoding request for URL: https://p27-buy.itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZBuy.woa/wa/buyProduct
Response headers: Content-Length = 0; apple-timing-app = "4072 ms"
AMSPurchaseProtocolHandler: StatusCode: 500
AMSPurchaseTask: Purchase completed with error: AMSErrorDomain, code=301
AMSPurchaseQueue: Finished purchase with error: Error Domain=AMSErrorDomain Code=301
"Invalid Status Code" AMSStatusCode=500
Canceling purchase due to error

And the UI revert everyone is seeing is just the state machine rolling back:

AppStateMachine state change from: downloadable to: waiting(for: redownload)
... 5.3 seconds later ...
AppStateMachine state change from: waiting(for: redownload) to: downloadable

**Why this looks server-side**

Everything on the client succeeds before the request is sent: account is active, `Purchase pre-authentication not required`, buy params encode and sign fine, no Screen Time restriction (`RestrictPurchase` key absent). The Anisette type 1 failure falls back to type 2 and the request goes out normally.

A legitimate rejection (not eligible on Mac, storefront mismatch, developer opted out) would come back as a structured error, not a 500 with a zero-length body after the server spent 4 seconds on it. `storedownloadd` never even gets invoked, because the purchase/entitlement step fails first — which is why filtering on it in Console shows nothing.

So local fixes (cache clearing, signing out, new user account, reinstalling macOS) are unlikely to do anything here.

**Reports so far:** M3, M4, and now M2 Max — all on 26.6.x. Different chip generations and different form factors, so this doesn't look chip-specific.

If anyone else can capture the same log, please confirm whether you also get `AMSStatusCode=500` on `buyProduct`. If it's consistent, this is worth a coordinated Feedback Assistant push.

 

[LukeFPV]

I have the same issue. With MacOS 26 and MacOS 27 Beta. M5 Pro chip and M4 Pro chip.

 

[LukeFPV]

My understanding is that the developer of the app has to indicate that it can be used on macOS - if this isn't done then it can't be dowloaded.

It's not this case. iOS apps in Mac App Store are indicate as Mac OS compatible (native or Catalina). Apps you already downloaded on your Mac stopped to update as well. With 100% of the apps. Not just one.