Check Download Progress on the Mac App Store

Jul 27, 2011 - 30 Comments

mac-app-store-icon Outside of watching the little progress bar on the downloading apps icon in LaunchPad or the Dock, there isn’t much of an outward display of how downloads are progressing from the App Store in OS X. Instead, more specific information about download progress and download speed is contained within the Mac App Store app itself, though it may not be completely obvious upon first glance. Here’s how you can check the transfer details in the Mac App Store:

How to See Download Progress of Apps Coming from the Mac App Store

Want a general idea of an app downloads progress? Here’s what to do:

  1. From the Mac App Store, click on the “Purchases” tab to see the active list
  2. Locate the app(s) you are downloading that you want to check

This will show you the download progress bar, the total downloaded out of the total download size, and an estimation of time remaining until the app has completed downloading and is ready for use.

Checking download progress in the Mac App Store

Here’s what it looks like in an earlier release of OS X:

Check download progress of apps in the Mac App Store

This is the same in all versions of OS X that have the Mac App Store, meaning anything beyond 10.6.

How to Determine App Store Download Speeds

You can also check the download speed of apps coming in through the Mac App Store, easily too:

  • Click on the progress bar of the app in question to see the download speed

If you’re looking at multiple apps speeds, you’ll need to click on each progress bar per app separately. Thanks for that little tip Henry! Scratch this: Somewhat disappointingly, it doesn’t show you the actual download speed but you can always obtain that information elsewhere manually.

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Related articles:

Posted by: Paul Horowitz in Mac OS, Tips & Tricks

30 Comments

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  1. Jeana says:

    Hello! What about for mojave app store? Is it possible to see the download progress this way?

  2. Ox says:

    Does NOT work with macOS 10.12.6 (16G1408) Sierra. How to check App Store speed on it?

  3. Ted says:

    Apple has broken (what a surprise) the download progress indicator with the Mac App Store 2.1.1 update. There is no longer a download progress indicator showing when you are downloading an update for an already exciting app. I have no idea what those competent (cough cough) fake engineers doing at Apple. They keep breaking everything and introduce a load of bugs in everything lately.

  4. Paul says:

    Not working on 10.6.8

  5. omer says:

    Thanks, this helped.

  6. br says:

    Go to “Active Monitor” on Network tab and down you will see “Data received” it’s the download speed you download the app.
    Thanks

  7. lzibrid says:

    This is silly, if you can see the progress bar, then you know how far along your download is… What i wanna know is, how can i check my progress if the bar isn’t there in the first place…?

    • Lolerstein says:

      If the progress bar isn’t there, there is nothing downloading. So that’s your answer.

      • A says:

        No, this is a core design flaw in the AppStore app since version 1.

        It frequently hides the progress bar for current downlaods (for various reasons, to do with Apple wanting to hide from the user what’s actually happening).

        For instance, some downloads used to be visible only by alt-clicking. They are now ONLY visible in the Launchpad, not in AppStore app. It’s stupid, but there you go!

  8. Bill says:

    I did this. No progress bar appeared.

  9. Adam Evins says:

    i tried clicking everywhere while downloading Xcode in the mac app store but doesn’t show download speed.

  10. DMH says:

    I think you guys to better when it comes to the download time. Please try a little harder.

  11. […] works for the Mac App Store as well. stLight.options({ publisher:'fe5e0a84-1fac-40de-8014-9f89fc1cbe6a' […]

  12. Konrad says:

    Thanks… i’m new to Mac and I’m downloading 2gb file…. wasn’t sure if it was downloading or hanging there … watching the bar… so this helped a lot!

  13. erijk says:

    I’m downloading it as a torrent, which turns out a lot faster than the app store and no problems with a progress bar.

  14. Felix says:

    It do not work for me either!!.
    Clicking anywhere in the progress bar, below, end etc and nothing happen.

  15. Mayur says:

    Doesn’t works! Post a screenshot to make us believe. :)

  16. Henry Kerrigan says:

    You can check the download speed, just click the below the progress bar where the size and time remaining appears and presto!!!
    The same applies to iTunes.

  17. Parakeet says:

    I’ve always wondered why they didn’t list mbps/kbps as well but I think it’s just Apple keeping it simple, that data means nothing to the average user.

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