Store, it now said only one update was available: Twitterrific! Recall that Twitterrific was not included in the list prior to my installing the updates. Adding to this confusion, it listed Twitterrific version 1.0 as the update-in-waiting, even though I had just supposedly just synced version 1.1 to the iPhone.
Meanwhile, back in iTunes, the Applications screen continued to claim "1 Update Available." However, when I went to the Updates screen to see what app was listed, it now said "...no updates currently available"--not even the irritating Twitterrific.
I had an idea about how to resolve the Twitterrific inconsistency: I deleted Twitterrific from the iPhone, connected my iPhone to iTunes, reselected Twitterrific to sync with my iPhone and clicked Apply. Twitterrific indeed reinstalled on my iPhone. Unfortunately (although not surprisingly by now), all my previously entered Twitterrific account info and settings were gone.
More to the point, would this reinstall get the iPhone's App Store to stop erroneously listing Twitterrific as an available update? Who knows? The App Store icon in the Home screen still indicated one update available. However, when I went to the Updates screen in App Store, a message popped up that claimed "The iTunes Store is temporarily unavailable." This was more than a bit odd, as the rest of the App Store's connections to the ITunes Store (such as for new purchases) were working just fine. Others are having this same problem, with no clear solution (see this Apple Discussions thread).
For the moment, I put off trying to learn more about this latest wrinkle. Instead, I returned to my iTunes Library listing, determined to find out why it too continued to list one update as available. I decided to delete apps from the Applications screen one by one, checking each time to see if the Update listing changed. Eventually, I found the culprit. It was Now Playing. This application was previously named Box Office. With some further digging, I discovered that my Mobile Applications folder still contained the older BoxOffice.ipa file (due to what I consider to be a bug in how the update process works). This was the source of the persisting update availability listing. After moving the BoxOffice.ipa file to the Trash, iTunes' update error vanished.
Of course, there was still a lot that did not make sense here. For one thing, even though one update had been listed as available, neither Box Office nor Now Playing showed up as the lone app needing an update. Eventually, I plan to continue my efforts to disentangle this mess. For now, I give up. I have a splitting headache and need some rest. By the time I recover, maybe Apple will have found a way to fix things, saving me the trouble.
Reprinted with permission from Macworld. Story copyright 2008 Macworld Inc. All rights reserved.
Comments
Try downloading updates OTA using the app store icon on the phone. That's even more fun.
The app downloads, but fails to install, generating a message that it will be available the next time you sync to iTunes. BUT, the phone preserves the new app icon, with an empty progress bar, and will prompt for your iTunes password every time you wake up the phone. Those subsequent updates fail, too, of course.
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