A number of Mac consumers have said they are having issues signing into the App Store, as well as problems with purchases. Users have also mentioned this app store issue has prevented them from downloading new apps onto their devices. The error message pop-up reads as follows: “An error occurred during purchase. The operation couldn’t be completed (com.apple.commerce.client error 500.)” If you find yourself also experiencing this error, read on to find the steps to resolving your App Store download issues on Mac.
- Go to System Preferences
After starting up your Mac, go to System Preferences on your Dock at the bottom of the screen.
You can also access System Preferences by clicking the Apple menu logo in the top left corner of your screen, click System Preferences. Once your preferences open, click the iCloud icon on the left side of the page.
Now, sign out from your iCloud account. You’ll have to decide whether you would like to save your iCloud information for later, which is recommended. Once you are signing out of your account, wait for a couple seconds, then quit the App Store by pressing [Command + Q]. After quitting, open App Store and sign into your account again.
Try and start a download for an application and check if this strategy fixed the issue.
- Go into the App Store directly
If the issue persists, open App Store. Then, click Store and log out from your account. After a few seconds, try to sign in again.
- Log Out and Quit
If neither of these steps have resolved the issue, log out from your App Store account. Open App Store, click Store, then click Sign Out. Once you have signed out, close the App Store application.
Now, open Terminal, found by clicking Applications, then Utilities. You can also use the Spotlight Search feature, then try typing or copying & pasting the following command:
defaults write com.apple.appstore.commerce Storefront -string “$(defaults read com.apple.appstore.commerce Storefront | sed s/,8/,13/)”
After putting in the command, press Enter.
- Corrupted Preference Files
It is possible your problem may stem from corrupted plist files, or preference files, on your Mac. To resolve this, follow these steps:
- Exit out of all applications that are currently open.
- Go to Finder and open it.
- Hit Go, then select Go to Folder.
- Enter “~/Library/Preferences” then click Go.
- Locate these files:
- apple.storeagent.plist
- apple.appstore.plist
- apple.appstore.commerce.plist
- Remove all of these files. Saving them in another location, like your desktop, is recommended, just in case you need them later.
- Fully reboot your Mac.
- Open App Store again, then try to download an app.
- Terminal Command
If the problem still persists after trying the other steps, read on and follow these steps:
- Launch Terminal
- Type or copy & paste this command:
- open $TMPDIR../C/com.apple.appstore/
- Press Enter
- This will launch a folder named “com.apple.appstore.folder”
- Delete everything inside the folder. It is recommended you save the files in another location before deleting them, just as a precaution. Be sure NOT to delete any files outside this folder.
- Fully reboot your Mac.
- Launch App Store again and try to download an app. If the issue is still persistent, reach out to Apple Support.
To close, many users have had the same issue when trying to purchase and download applications on the Mac App Store. If you find yourself with this problem, don’t feel overwhelmed – try these steps we discussed in this article. If none of these solutions work for you, try contacting Apple Support. They will be able to better assist you.
