How to Fix App Store Not Working on Mac

Mac users download and update approved applications, macOS in the App Store, Apple's app store platform. With the same Apple ID signed in, you can share your purchased apps across all your Apple devices. Most of the time, the App Store works well on Mac, but inevitably, it fails sometimes. You may encounter the issue of the App Store not working on Mac

And there are various situations when the App Store is not working on Mac, including: 

If any of these cases befalls you, you can follow our tutorial to fix the App Store not working issue on your Mac.

Why is my App Store not working on Mac?

It is terrible when the App Store performs abnormally on your Mac, blocking you from downloading and updating applications. And the reasons behind it are different according to the specific situations. Generally, the malfunctioned Mac App Store is caused by:

How to fix App Store not working on Mac?

Here, we are going to provide detailed methods to fix the dysfunctional App Store on MacBook Air/Pro/iMac. Based on the different scenarios and reasons for the Apple Store not working problem, you can choose and apply the one that suits your case to get the App Store back on track. 

1. Check Internet Connection

To update macOS and download apps in the App Store, it needs a stable internet connection to load the resources from Apple's servers. Therefore, if the App Store can't load on your Mac, perhaps, you haven't established a quality WiFi connection on the Mac. You can turn WiFi off and reconnect it, use an ethernet cable, or reset network settings.

2. Check the status of Apple servers

Perhaps, there is an outage of the Apple system. If so, you may be unable to use the Apple store for a while until the Apple system resumes work. You can head to the system status page to check whether the Mac App Store is available now. 

3. Check the date and time settings

In case the date and time are wrong on your computer, there is a discrepancy between your Mac and the Apple server. Such incompatibility may cause the App Store can't download and update applications. Check from the Apple menu > System Preferences > Date & Time, and you can simply choose Set date and time automatically to avoid clock errors on Mac.

4. Force quit and relaunch the App Store

If the App Store freezes, shows a black screen, or is stuck when updating/downloading apps, you can force quit the unresponsive App Store using the Apple menu, the Option + Command + ESC keys combination, Mac Dock, and Activity Monitor. Then, relaunch the App Store to see whether it works.

5. Check the Apple ID account

If you have multiple Apple ID accounts, make sure you have signed in to the Mac App Store with the right one. Mac App Store will not allow you to update the app that is purchased with another Apple ID. Besides, you can sign out and sign in to your Apple ID(Apple menu > System Preferences > Apple ID > Overview > Sign out) on Mac to troubleshoot the App Store not working issue.

6. Restart your Mac

Restarting Mac seems like a good rule of thumb. Whenever the Mac is undergoing malfunctioned performance such as Mac stuck on checking for updates and Safari won't open, you can give it a shot. It terminates all running programs and gives the Mac a fresh startup. And the frozen App Store may return to normal after restarting.

7. Delete App Store cache

When the apps run abnormally on your Mac such as Google Chrome keep crashing, clearing the app cache is a considerable trick to fix problematic apps. Thus, you can delete the App Store cache on your Mac to bring it back to normal. Here's how:

8. Switch to another account/create a user account

Probably, it is the error with your user account that causes the App Store not to work on Mac. If you have multiple accounts using on Mac, you can switch to another one. If there is only one account in use, you need to create a new user account.