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I've been putting off from using the App Store, and now it seems I'm kind of obliged to keep doing that. Screen shots are not being loaded, and when I click the button to download an app, nothing happens. I did get the update for an app I installed a while back, I can log in normally, search, check my account, etc.

Has anyone ever seen something similar?

Update: just noticed slews of this log entry. That might at least explain why I'm not seeing any screenshots!

20110802 22:56:17 [0x0-0x165165].com.apple.appstore[14137] Tue Aug 2 22:56:17 XXX.local App Store[14137] : CGBitmapContextGetBitsPerComponent: invalid context 0x1012658d0 20110802 22:56:17 [0x0-0x165165].com.apple.appstore[14137] This isn't a bitmap context. Forcing destination format to ARGB_8 for CGContext.

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  • Which platform? iOS or OS X? Edit your title/description to make this clear.
    – Asinine Monkey
    Commented Aug 2, 2011 at 12:51
  • Well, using an iOS device without ever using its app store wouldn't have a lot of interest, would it now? :P
    – RJVB
    Commented Aug 2, 2011 at 15:01
  • You can always get help from Apple for store issues - they might know what is happening on the server end or help you with settings on your mac to speed things up. They have a vested interest in your ability to spend money there.
    – bmike ♦
    Commented Aug 2, 2011 at 18:00
  • Also - try another network in case you have some sort of network filtering / security software - that could easily clamp down on the flow of data to your app.
    – bmike ♦
    Commented Aug 2, 2011 at 18:03
  • Yeah, it's not like I need to tell them I planning to cut out the A^hp^hp^hl^he^h middle man as much as possible :) I've tried from 2 locations already, with and without my own filtering software which doesn't seem to be responsible for the disfunction.
    – RJVB
    Commented Aug 2, 2011 at 20:59

1 Answer 1

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Unless you want to try turning on the store debug menu to muck about, Here are some general tips that might help narrow down the causes.

The Mac App Store app loads in two phases.

The first just brings up whatever cached data was saved the last time the app quit.

enter image description here

The second actually paints in the artwork and may refresh the app with current data, updates, whatever else it cares to do in response to the servers on the internet.

This second part is taking between 10 and 20 seconds for me lately.

The store isn't known (of late) for being particularly speedy when launching. You can fire up iTunes - that online store should paint in about the same time as the Mac App store if your app and account are working correctly. It's more like a thin version of safari that knows how to spend your money with a secure wallet. Any network filtering, proxy, date errors, or slow servers will cause your app to poke along.

  • You could try signing out of your account to see if that is delaying the response.
  • You could also try disabling OCSP/CRL in the Keychain Access preferences. That helped in some 10.6 slowdowns, but it's not making as much of a difference in Lion as far as I can tell.

enter image description here

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  • OCSP/CRL are for online certificate verification? (I presume you mean Keychain Access, btw)? Those were already off in my case.
    – RJVB
    Commented Aug 2, 2011 at 21:06
  • 1
    Yeah, I figured the app is a sort of dedicated browser - the failure looks as if the nonfunctional 'buttons' rely on unsupported javascript! My store login isn't sticky, so I always have to log in after launching the app - but I have tried logging off and back in again several times. I do get the app icons, btw, and quite quickly too.
    – RJVB
    Commented Aug 2, 2011 at 21:13
  • Ooh - the app also uses spotlight and the receipt database to tell if you have something installed. Anything amiss there by chance? (it's a long shot, i know)
    – bmike ♦
    Commented Aug 2, 2011 at 21:38
  • I don't think so. Spotlight works fine, and what would Spotlight know about apps we do NOT yet have installed? Also, the update to the one app I installed through the store (MPlayerX) went along just fine. It even found the app where I moved it, to my astonishment. (It also put it back in the Dock, which I appreciated less...)
    – RJVB
    Commented Aug 2, 2011 at 22:32
  • The App Store reads the data for each app and can then query your spotlight database to see if that app is already installed. This is nice for some apps like Twitterrific or Skitch where I have a side loaded version of the app so it shows Installed even though I haven't yet "bought" the app. Of course the apps I "bought" are also shown as Installed when spotlight shows them resident on a mounted volume when the App Store does its checking.
    – bmike ♦
    Commented Nov 1, 2011 at 14:20

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