App Updates Not Showing in the iOS App Store? Here’s a Solution for iPhone & iPad
If you’ve ever launched the App Store in iOS to discover the “Updates” tab is empty, but you know for certain that an app update is widely available, you may have run into a peculiar and frustrating bug within iOS. Unlike the Mac App Store with Command+R, there is no easy way to ‘refresh’ the App Store in iOS, and while quitting out of the app sometimes works, it often doesn’t, and you’re left with an empty updates screen on the iPhone or iPad.
If you run into an empty Updates section of the App Store despite knowing with certainty that updates are available to your installed apps, try one of the two following solutions to resolve the problem and to download the newest versions of the apps in question.
Solution 1: Change the Date & Time to Trigger App Store Updates Refresh
Sometimes sending the date into the distant future and then setting it back will cause the App Store Updates section to refresh. We say sometimes because this doesn’t always work, but it’s easy so you may as well try it:
- Go to the Settings app and then to “General”
- Find “Date & Time” and turn ‘Set Automatically’ to OFF
- Toggle the date to sometime in the distant future, months ahead
- Tap back to the “General” section and wait a moment
- Relaunch the App Store and go to “Updates” – usually nothing will appear right now
- Now go back to “Settings” and back to “General” and “Date & Time”, flipping ‘Set Automatically’ back to the ON position to get back to the real date and time in iOS
- Exit out of Settings and return to the App Store app, then back to “Updates” – you should see the proper updates available now
Why this works isn’t entirely clear, but presumably it forces the App Store to rescan for available updates for the apps that are currently installed. You must have internet access for this to work, which shouldn’t be an issue for an iPhone as long as there’s either a signal or wifi connection, whereas an iPod Touch or iPad will need to be on wi-fi.
Unfortunately, that date switcheroo doesn’t work every time, so if you get stuck in a situation where the Updates section is still not showing anything, your next choice is to be a little more aggressive.
Solution 2: Delete the App & Re-Download Newest Version
The date-toggle trick didn’t work to show the newest version of the app in the App Store Updates page? Then the solution is to confirm the availability, delete the old app, then download the new one:
- Open the App Store and use the “Search” feature to find the app(s) you want to update, confirm that the newest version is available by looking at the “Version” number in the app store listing
- Go to the home screen and delete the app that is stuck on the old version
- Switch back to the App Store and download the newest version that you previously confirmed
As long as the newest version is visible in the App Store on the individual app listing page, that new version will download, despite not showing up in the “Updates” section.
I ran into this problem recently with an Instagram update, which was widely available for most users, even shown as available on the App Store page for the app, but it never properly displayed as available in the “Updates” section. The solution in this case was to delete the old Instagram app from the iPhone, then find it and re-download the newest version from the App Store. Clunky, and obviously not ideal, but it works.
This behavior is likely a bug of some sort, as it’s totally random and doesn’t happen with any certainty or under any repeatable set of conditions. An option to forcibly refresh the App Store caches and Updates list in iOS could potentially resolve the problem too (you can do that in iTunes on a Mac or PC), but in the meantime troubleshooting requires either manually trashing apps or toggling the date as described here. If you know of another trick that works to forcibly update apps when they’re not displaying in the App Store, let us know in the comments.
solution 1 worked for me well.
thanks
To force an update of ‘dropbox’ – a very well-known and respected iOS app of course – I first checked the Appstore. Nothing – it didn’t say ‘update’ just ‘open’…then I had a thought…I hit ‘open’ from right there in the appstore, and the app immediately updated.
I don’t like that an update of an app is hidden from the appstore though, could just be ‘so what’ but I’d rather it come the bog-standard way. My immediate concern, is simply that not going by the app store may leave you open to who-knows-whom sending a malicious update. Anyway, this route, means you are at least going via the Appstore.
Deleting the app and redownloading takes 2 hours for big apps like games. And they update like every 2 weeks. Not a good solution. And the first method didn’t work. Apple makes some garbage products
What a load of baloney. Didn’t work.
My iPad mini2 same problem the others apps are not updating it almost 2 months I don’t know how to fix can you help me ? Thank you
Updates stopped working a week or so ago and nothing will reinstate them. I’ll call Apple on Monday to find out why they’ve stopped them.
The only way out for me was to switch off my phone and switch back on – the updates then appeared… certainly a lot quicker fix than the 2 mentioned in the post.. not an elegant or permanent fix, but it works!
I hope this helps others with the same issue..
I resetted the appstore application cache from the iphone appstore app & it works.
For resetting the appstore cache on iPhone click on any Tab bar icon (bottom bar buttons) in Appstore app in iPhone 10 times qucikly. this will reset the cache and Icons will be downloaded again.
Can you tell me what is your solution on this problem please…
This worked!
Thank you!
When I join Wifi network my apps start to update automatically while the automatic update is off in my settings and I don’t want them to be updated.can you help me to deal with problem?
I don’t know why, but when I turned off my wifi connection then used data connection instead, all 11 updates just magically appeared. Now I often use data connection to check for updates which is somehow a hassle because I really don’t use it often before.
both solutions does not work for me.
“Reset all Settings” works but the problem would re-surface after awhile.
When it happens..
1. There’s no updates bubbles
2. Not able to download any apps(new/old). it just keeps spinning, no app icon on springboard
Does it(“Reset all Settings” ) works? I tried both solutions in here but it doesn’t work for me too. Please let me know if it is works.
Closing or quitting the App Store app through the fast app switcher (multitasking interface) (by double-tapping the home button), and then re-launching the App Store app again (to refresh) seems to work fine for me.
It happens the same with iTunes.