How to fix itunes store not connecting

In rare instances, you cannot connect to the App Store on your iPhone or iPad. As a result, downloading and updating apps becomes impossible. Thankfully, this is a known issue, and many easy solutions exist. First, let us briefly know about these alert messages and then see how to fix them.

Following Error Message Occurred:

You might see one of the following error messages when you can not connect to Apple online stores and services like the App Store, iTunes Store, Apple Music app, TV app, News app, Books app, or the Game Centre.

• “Cannot connect to the iTunes Store. An unknown error has occurred.”
• “We could not complete your iTunes Store request. The iTunes Store is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later.”
• “Could not connect to the iTunes Store. Make sure your network connection is active and try again.”
• “We could not complete your iTunes Store request. The network connection could not be established. There was an error in the iTunes Store. Please try again later.”

The fixes that you read below will help you solve problems related to all the above issues.

Make Sure that Your Device is Connected to the Internet

First of all, make sure your iPhone is connected to decent Wi-Fi or mobile data. To check this, open a website in Safari or try to play a YouTube video. If you face problems, head over to our specific guides on how to solve this.

Note: If you are on cellular data, make sure it is enabled for App Store, iTunes Store, and any app in question. For this, open the Settings app → Cellular → scroll down and under CELLULAR DATA ensure that App Store is enabled.

Is the app you are trying to download using cellular data over 200 MB in size? If yes, head over to our article to know how to increase the download limit for mobile data.

Check the System Status Page

The next step is to ensure that everything is okay on Apple’s end. To check this, visit Apple’s System Status page. Here, make sure that there is a green dot next to App Store, Apple ID, iCloud Account & Sign In, and iTunes Store. Sometimes, if some other service is not working, it might degrade the experience for online stores as well.

In case something is not working from Apple’s end, you will have to wait for it to get fixed. If everything is okay here, read the next solutions.

Force Quit the App Store or iTunes Store

When an app freezes or refuses to work correctly, consider force closing it. After that, relaunch it, and it should work smoothly. To force quit the App Store or iTunes Store, etc.:

On iPhone with Face ID, swipe up from the bottom of the screen; on iPhone with Home Button, quickly press it twice. Next, drag the app card up to force close it. After a few seconds, open the app again.

The date and time on your iPhone must be correct. The easiest way to fix this is by letting the device set the appropriate time accordingly. To do this:

1. Open the Settings app and tap on General.
2. Tap on Date & Time.
   
3. Enable the toggle for Set Automatically.
   

Now, wait for a few minutes and try to use the App Store, iTunes Store, etc.

Restart Your iPhone

Restart means turning off your device and then turning it back on. It is a simple but effective way to address many regular issues. To restart your iPhone, use the button(s) to switch it off. After a minute or so, switch it back on. Additionally, you can also do so by going to the Settings app → General → Shut Down.

Log Out of Your Apple ID and Re-Login

1. Open the Settings app and tap on iTunes & App Store.
2. From the top, tap on your Apple ID. Next, tap Sign Out.
   
3. Tap on Sign In. Enter your Apple ID and password to sign back in.
   

None of the above solutions worked? Make sure your iPhone is running the latest version of iOS.

For this, open the Settings app and tap on General. Next, tap on Software Update. Give it a minute to process. If you have a pending update, tap on Download and Install.

Reset Network Settings

This step will erase your saved network settings, so you will have to sign in again. Hence, make sure you know your network ids and passwords.

1. Open the Settings app and tap on General.
2. Scroll down and tap on Reset.
   
3. Tap on Reset Network Settings.
4. Enter the iPhone passcode.
5. Confirm your action by tapping Reset Network Settings.
   

After the process completes, connect to a Wi-Fi network or cellular data, and the problem mentioned above should be history now!

Wrapping Up…

These are some solutions to fix the errors with App Store, iTunes Store, and other similar issues. I hope one of the methods worked for you. If it did not, contact Apple Support.

It is also worth knowing that sometimes an app is removed from the store by the developer, banned or suspended by Apple, or even blocked by the region’s Government. In such cases, the best solution is to find an alternate app that performs the same task.

READ NEXT:

Can’t connect to the App Store to download apps on your iPhone or iPad? Is your device refusing to sign in? Or are you having problems downloading 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

From time to time Apple suffers from a server outage. It could be that the App Store is down and nobody can access it. Read more here: Is the App Store down?

The App Store – along with Apple Music, Apple Radio and the Mac App Store – went down on Tuesday 4 June 2019, for example. Apple noted the outage at 1.06pm and said it was working on fixing the problem.

The quickest way 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. Note that 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.

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 you click on that link you’ll automatically search Twitter and the results should indicate if others are having problems.)

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, which should happen quickly.

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 Wi-Fi turns out to be the issue, here’s how to fix Wi-Fi problems so you can get online.

3. Try another Wi-Fi network

Even if the Wi-Fi 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 Wi-Fi network and see if that fixes the problem.

4. Are you set to download over 3G or 4G?

Perhaps you aren’t on a Wi-Fi network at all. If you are accessing the App Store over your 3G or 4G connection, that may be the root of your issue.

While using your mobile network connection shouldn’t stop you from accessing the App Store entirely, if your iPhone is set to only download apps over Wi-Fi you won’t be able to download apps over a 3G/4G connection.

Try connecting to a reliable Wi-Fi network and see if this allows downloads to go ahead. Or, as long as 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).

While we’re on this topic, there is a separate option that dictates whether your device can automatically download app updates as soon as they appear on the App Store, as long as your iPhone is connected to the internet via Wi-Fi. This could be a handy setting if you are frequently finding apps aren’t working because they need to be updated. But it could prove annoying if you have a lot of apps and feel that your iPhone is always downloading updates (and wasting battery life doing so). Go to Settings > iTunes & App Store, and turn the slider to green beside Updates.

There is even a setting that allows your iPhone to use mobile data to automatically download app updates. Before you turn this on beware that it could mean that your iPhone uses a lot of data downloading updates. If you think that the risk of using up data is worth it, Go to Settings > iTunes & App Store, and tap the slider next to Use Mobile Data at the bottom.

5. 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 a good idea to check the terms of your contract to see how much data you’re allowed and to find out the date on which your data allowance is reset.

If you know this information you can reset the Mobile Data statistics on your iPhone in Settings > Mobile Data on that day of the month and at least keep tabs on how much data you are using, and which apps are the biggest data swallowers.

If it turns out you need more data then you might have to pay for more, but before you do, you might find that you can manage your data usage better if you follow the tips in this article: How to manage mobile data on an iPhone.

6. 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.

Try searching for the app in the App Store, if it isn’t showing up it’s likely that it’s been removed.

7. Is the app too large to download over 3G?

A final note for those unable to download apps: remember that iOS stops you downloading really large apps over a cellular connection, so check the size of the file. Here’s how to download apps over 200MB.

8. Try logging out and logging in again

Okay, let’s try some simple resets to see if this jogs the App Store into working. First, try logging out and then log back into the App Store on your iPhone – that should fix it:

• Go to Settings > iTunes & App Store.
• Tap on Apple ID at the top of the screen, then hit Sign Out.
• Log in again using your Apple ID and password.

Perhaps it’s a memory issue (older iPhones, especially those with less RAM and less storage are prone to this). Double-tap the Home button and swipe up on the App Store to close the app. Reopen it and see if that fixes the problem.

If it doesn’t, close all open apps and turn your phone on and off again to clear the memory. You can find some other tricks to free up your iPhone RAM here: How to clear cache on iPhone & iPad.

10. Force-refresh the App Store

It used to be possible to force-refresh the App Store app by tapping ten times on the navigation bar at the bottom, but that feature was removed in iOS 11. However, if you’re trying to get updates to load you can force a refresh by dragging down on the screen until a spinning icon appears.

11. Check your Data & Time settings

Your Date & Time settings are unexpectedly relevant to this issue, because the App Store uses them to check on your location (probably).

Go to Settings > General > Date & Time and choose Set Automatically. (This setting means that if you travel from, say, London to San Francisco, as soon as your iPhone recognises it is in a new territory it will automatically change the time accordingly.)

12. Reset your network settings

Try resetting your network settings. Go to Settings > General > Reset > Reset Network Settings and see if that fixes the problem.

There might be a known issue with the way the App Store is accessed by your iPhone that has been fixed in an update to iOS, so it’s worth checking you’re on the latest version.

Go to Settings > General > Software Updates and see if there are any available updates. For more information on this process, see How to update iOS.

If all else fails you could contact Apple (here’s the company’s UK contact page) and seek further advice.