Unable to update to Affinity 1.9 through App Store

[AlecC]

Hi,

I have two of my three desktop Affinity apps purchased through the App Store and noticed the new version 1.9 updates had come out. Until now, updating wasn't a problem but this time around I keep getting the alert 'The iTunes Store is unable to process purchases at this time. Please try again later' when I press the 'update' buttons for both apps. I've had the problem since Saturday and still no change. I've tried hard connecting my Mac to my router and loging out of the App Store, all of which made no difference. Any ideas what might be the problem? The App Store status (https://www.apple.com/uk/support/systemstatus/) is showing its fine, when I check on the Apple.com website and I'm able to get into my iTunes account and see all the App Store Features, and payment details, so it has a connection, just can't update the Affinity apps. I'm running MacOS 10.10 which I thought might be the problem but from the App Store info pages, for your app, it says the OS is supported so I'm a bit stumped why I'm having issues. A live chat to Apple Support seems to have not helped either. They've just walked me through generic troubleshooting for checking I have a connection and other unrelated issues that relate to iOS and not MacOS apps.

Please can you help as it's so annoying that such a simple issues is stopping me from downloading your fantastic apps.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Alec

Edited February 8, 2021 by AlecC

[v_kyr]

Did you already tried to logout and then back to login into the App (iTunes) Store with your Apple ID credentials?

[AlecC]

Hi v_kyr,

Yes tried that and same alert came up still.

Is there a way to change over to the downloadable version on Affinity's own website? It would solve the problem so much quicker for me.

[Alfred]

16 minutes ago, AlecC said:

Is there a way to change over to the downloadable version on Affinity's own website?

In a word, no. The Affinity Store version requires a product key but the MAS version doesn’t, because the latter is tied to your Apple ID. Since Apple and Serif don’t share individual customer data, there’s no way for Serif to verify that you qualify to install the app from the Affinity Store.

[pualv]

Same problem.

Not getting any update message on the apps themselves. Getting same 'unable to process' message from the app store. Have successfully downloaded another product from the app store. Am running 10.11.6 and 1.8.4 Designer and Photo.

[pualv]

Update: The prompt to update Publisher appeared on starting the software and that appears to be working. Designer and Photo have not shown an update prompt.

[AlecC]

After a chat with Apple telephone support I managed to fix the problem. Although I couldn't update the Affinity apps if I deleted them from my Macs 'Applications' folder, the App Store recognized them as not on the system and gave me the option of downloading them from fresh which then gave me the latest versions. As I was a bit hesitant to delete the original 1.8 versions of the apps, in case Iit didn't fix the problem and lost the apps all together, I just moved them to the trash as it seemed to hide them from the App Stores sight. Hope this works for anyone else with a similar problem.

[stokerg]

On 2/8/2021 at 2:06 PM, pualv said:

Update: The prompt to update Publisher appeared on starting the software and that appears to be working. Designer and Photo have not shown an update prompt.

That's good that Publisher has updated.  Very odd that the App Store isn't updating, have you tried the 'fix' that worked for @AlecC?  Sadly we don't have much control over the App Store so are limited to what help we can offer, other than referring you to Apple.

[pualv]

Not tried the fix yet. 

The app store does recognise that there are updates to Photo and Designer and has prompted me to update them (yet didn't for Publisher...) but then I get the 'unable to process at this time' message when I try.

Not had trouble before. I might have opted to skip the previous update and wonder if this has done something.

[AlecC]

Probably best putting Publisher app in the trash and going back to the App Store 'Purchases' tab and redownloading the app. That should allow you to download Publisher from scratch... that worked for me anyway

[Russellc]

I am also having problems with updating Affinity Photo to 1.9 using the App Store.  My App Store app tells me there is an update, but clicking the update button does nothing.  I logged in and out of App store, to no avail.  I put Photo in the trash can, no change, still can't update.  I am running  Mac OS 10.14.6 and Photo 1.8.4.  I have been trying off and on all day ( 6 attempts actually).  Any suggestions ?  

[pualv]

I've done it. Drag the app from the applications folder into the bin. Restart. Go to app store: purchases. Should be able to download it again from here. Looks like the restart is essential.

[AlecC]

Glad it worked in the end. I never needed to restart to get the fix to work but I’ll bare that in mind if I start to get issues with any further updates. I did notice that I had the same issue with another app that recently needed updating. It’s possible older versions of the App Store (on older Mac OS systems) are the issue and maybe something happening behind the scenes on updates to the App Store development for Mac OS 11 are causing the problems. Might mean that using the App Store for purchases might not be the safest way to purchase and could be coming to an end for older systems. As a few people have mentioned, might be better buying directly from the developers of the apps in future purchase if you’re running older Mac OS systems, I think you’ll find more issues with the App Store as time goes by.