Cannot Install or Update Apps in App Store - Error 13

Question

I can currently no longer update or purchase software in the Mac App Store.

I have cleared Safari's cookie cache, cleared ~\Library\Caches\com.apple.appstore logged in and out again, but none of these help.

The error message is:

We could not complete your request. There was an error in the App Store. Please try again later. (13).

Anyone else experienced this? Any fixes?

In the console I am seeing:

17/08/2011 15:30:15.384 com.apple.SecurityServer: Failed to authorize 
right 'system.install.software' by client 
'/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/PackageKit.framework/Versions/A/Resources/installd'     

[6043] for authorization created by '/Applications/App Store.app' [9337]

Update: I logged in as admin and the App Store works fine. So some sort of Prefs file is hosed in my main user. Does anyone know which one it would be?

Answer 1

I seem to have fixed the problem.

I used opensnoop to follow all file accesses while the app store was running. I spotted that ~/Library/Cookies/com.apple.appstore.plist was being accessed - this file had not been deleted by Safari when I cleared all cookies! The file had incorrect permissions - I deleted it. Now the App Store seems to be working again.

Opensnoop is a great tool!

Answer 2

This post seems relevant: http://www.ryanragle.com/index.php?/site/comments/where-does-the-mac-app-store-download-temp-files-to

What worked for me in the end was this:

1. Per post above, enable debug menu via

   defaults write com.apple.appstore ShowDebugMenu -bool true

2. Sign out

3. Clear cookies AND reset the app, using debug menu
4. Select Menu->Store->Check for unfinished downloads
5. Wait for the downloads to finish and then
6. restart the app store app.