What to Do If Your iPhone Can't Connect to the App Store?

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Grace Liu
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What to Do If Your iPhone Can't Connect to the App Store?

Postby Grace Liu » 14 Jul 2017 14:07

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Can't connect to the App Store on your iPhone or iPad? Or are you trying and failing to download an app or an update to an app?

These are quite common problems, sadly. But more happily, there are plenty of simple solutions you can try. We recommend you work through the following steps to try and fix the problem.

1. Check if the App Store is down. It could be that the App Store is down and nobody can access it. 
The quickest say of finding out is to check Apple's System Status page, which lists problems with all of the company's online services; the App Store is first on the list. Then again, if the problem occurred very recently it may not have been noticed yet: the site's update frequency is in the order of minutes, not seconds.

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If that comes up blank, a search for relevant terms on Twitter can often be a good way of finding out if people are sharing your pain.

If the store is down, this is both bad news and good news. There's not much you can do to solve the problem, but on the other hand you can just sit back and wait for Apple to solve it.

2. Check your web connection
It's an obvious one, but you need to be online to access the App Store.
Make sure you're connected to the internet - visit Google, for example. If WiFi turns out to be the issue, here's how to fix WiFi problems so you can get online.

3. Try another WiFi network
Even if the WiFi network is working there may be a restriction on it that is stopping you from accessing the App Store. Work networks, for instance, may be set up to block certain sites and services to preserve bandwidth.

Try using an alternative WiFi network and see if that fixes the problem.

4. Check your DNS ports
The Domain Name System (DNS) enables your Mac to convert domain names (like apple.com) into IP addresses (like 17.172.224.47). If the DNS server your Mac uses is offline, slow or faulty, you may be unable to connect to any site or service by name.

It might be that your DNS server is set up incorrectly or that the server is set to block the App Store which connects using ports 80 and 443. This article explains how to check your DNS settings.

5. Are you set to download over 3G or 4G?
This shouldn't stop you from accessing the App Store entirely, but if your iPhone is set to only download apps over WiFi you won't be able to download apps over a 3G/4G connection.

Try connecting to a reliable WiFi network and see if this allows downloads to go ahead. Or, if you think you can spare the data, open the Settings app and tap Mobile Data. In the section headed 'Use mobile data for', make sure the slider beside App Store is set to on (green).

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6. Have you run out of data?
Even if your settings allow you to download apps over a cellular connection, your data allowance for the month may be maxed out.

Unfortunately it's not straightforward to monitor your data usage on iOS. It's worth checking the terms of your contract to see how much data you're allowed, and if it might be an idea to pay for more; and getting in touch with your provider to find out the date on which your data allowance is reset. (If it was always the first of the month it would be easier to know when to try again!)

7. Is the app no longer supported?
It's possible that you're trying to update an app that is out of date and no longer supported by iOS. Try downloading a different app to see if this is what's causing the update to fail.

To be continued...

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