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Home / How-to / Cannot connect to iTunes store / App Store

Cannot connect to iTunes store / App Store

Last Updated on September 20, 2012 by SK

Several users have reported that they are unable to connect to the iTunes and/or App Store. They are getting “Cannot Connect to iTunes Store” errors preventing them from buying, downloading and updating their apps.

Fix:

There may be many reasons for this problem. For instance, you may have an internet connection issues or Apple servers may be having problems. However you may also be victim of a known bug. To resolve this bug,  simply tap Settings>General>Date and Time. Set the date ahead to some time in the future. Then try to connect iTunes or App Store again.

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Filed Under: How-to Tagged With: app store, iPad, iPhone

Comments

  1. Steve Jarvis says

    September 22, 2012 at 5:02 AM

    Afraid I’m one of the sad ones stuck with a passbook that just will not work.
    Changing the date etc did nothing but kill a couple of minutes of an afternoon shift. 🙁

    Reply
  2. Tim says

    September 22, 2012 at 8:24 AM

    Tried this over and over on iPhone 5 passbook still does not connect

    Reply
  3. Erica says

    September 22, 2012 at 9:32 AM

    Tried changing the time/date and that did nothing! So frustrated with Apple right now!!

    Reply
  4. Christen says

    September 22, 2012 at 11:13 AM

    Really Apple!!?? Tried it like 10 million times….no luck, super frustrating!!

    Reply
  5. Christen says

    September 22, 2012 at 11:13 AM

    Really Apple!? Tried it like 10 million times, no luck, super frustrating!

    Reply
  6. OHMIZZ says

    September 22, 2012 at 3:52 PM

    Thank you that worked!!!

    Reply
  7. Christen says

    September 23, 2012 at 4:57 AM

    Tried playing aroud with it, switches the year all the way to 2019…and for some reason that worked. (Sidenote: I also had a wifi connection whereas the other times I was using 4G, not sure if that made a difference.) *** changing the date also turns off ur FaceTime and iMessage… Be sure to turn these back on when finished

    Reply
    • Gina says

      September 23, 2012 at 8:49 AM

      Thank you! setting it to 2013 didn’t work but setting it to 2019 worked the first time.

      Reply
    • Mike says

      September 30, 2012 at 1:41 AM

      It works!!

      Reply
      • sk7 says

        January 1, 2013 at 6:04 AM

        OHMIZZ seems to have solved the problem using the instructions given, but others have failed
        I am one of those. It is really frustrating. There must be more simple solution. I am a layman

        Reply
        • Melvin D.Oliver says

          March 6, 2013 at 9:14 AM

          I have been trying to update my apps.I recently switched cable companies.I updated my new email address to apple from my home computer.When I use my IPad,it still list my old email address as my apple ID.If you respond to this comment,do not send email to ICLOUD,it still uses my old email.My new email is moliver22@sccoast.net.My old email was moliver22@sc.rr.com.If you help me in anyway,it will be greatly appreciated

          Reply
    • Jerry says

      November 15, 2012 at 12:03 PM

      This works, I tried an tried setting only one year ahead then put my date to 2020 and followed same instruction.. Worked I can explain further if you email me

      Reply
      • Dan says

        December 1, 2012 at 9:27 AM

        After you set the date ahead do you then set it back? and how long do you have to wait?

        Thanks for any replies.

        Dan

        Reply
      • Ricky says

        May 14, 2013 at 3:44 PM

        Hi

        Been trying my iphone 5 apps but nothing happens. i tried chenging dates many times still nothing happens. Please help.

        Ricky.

        Reply
  8. Rob says

    September 24, 2012 at 8:18 AM

    This worked, any idea when Apple will fix the bug? This is very Non-Apple to have to make your calendar not working to get itunes to work. Come on guys… Steve Jobs is watching you!

    Reply
  9. Ben says

    September 30, 2012 at 4:45 AM

    Did not work. Sadly, in the post Jobs era Apple is quickly heading towards mediocrity again. Time to short the stock???

    Reply
  10. Florencia says

    October 4, 2012 at 2:20 AM

    None of this worked. Running iOS 6 on iPhone 5. Not only will iTunes not open, but I am
    Unable to playback any song I’ve purchased prior from iTunes. Looks like apple doesn’t want me buying stuff from iTunes!

    Reply
  11. Mark says

    October 8, 2012 at 8:20 PM

    No go here in NZ. One of the few luxuries I have and this won’t let other apps update, even the crucial earthquake ones! Dissapointed.

    Reply
  12. Shane says

    October 28, 2012 at 12:14 AM

    Not working for me

    Reply
  13. Kooka says

    October 29, 2012 at 2:51 PM

    Changed the date several times and tried connecting to the App Store and still no go, yet I can use my phone as a hot spot for my laptop and connect through iTunes on the laptop but it won’t work on my iphone 5.

    Reply
  14. Kooka says

    October 29, 2012 at 2:52 PM

    Still not working

    Reply
  15. Gary Perkins says

    October 30, 2012 at 2:58 PM

    Yes me too….. I tunes and app store will no longer open on my iPhone 5, can,t be network as my iPad is fine !

    Reply
  16. Jennifer says

    October 31, 2012 at 2:45 PM

    This doesn’t,t work for my iPad 3 … Help please?

    Reply
  17. Navneet says

    October 31, 2012 at 9:29 PM

    got the solution guys check this out :
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BubYYIgxTaM

    Reply
  18. Gary Perkins says

    November 1, 2012 at 11:52 AM

    Shut down router and phone, iPhone 5 then connected, although my iPad connects without any problem.
    That said my iPhone 5 stopped connecting to app store and iTunes again today …….iPad still works !
    Any help from apple would be great !

    Reply
  19. Gary Perkins says

    November 3, 2012 at 1:56 AM

    iOS 6.0.1 installed iphone5 loads app store and iTunes again………… What a coincidence !

    Reply
  20. Caitlin says

    November 5, 2012 at 12:39 AM

    I have tried every thing and nothing works someone help me please P.S my device is a iPod touch and is connected to the Internet

    Reply
  21. Nehad says

    November 5, 2012 at 10:03 AM

    Good method

    Reply
  22. Renea says

    November 9, 2012 at 7:08 AM

    I have done everything for my iPad that could possibly be done and I still can not connect to the iTunes store. I am trying to download my school app is there any solutions?

    Reply
  23. Rosemary says

    November 12, 2012 at 9:35 PM

    I can’t believe this! What a lame excuse, and I tried it and it didn’t work anyway. Was considering getting iPads for my 3 grandchildren for Christmas but no more. It will be PC laptops now — at least I can troubleshoot them. So what am I supposed to do if I have 9 year olds trying to download apps — do a workaround each time? I don’t think so.

    Reply
  24. Piyush says

    November 14, 2012 at 7:28 AM

    Tried all the tricks, like changing the date to 2019 and later.
    Still cannot connect to the App Store, after I upgraded to ios6.
    It is useless piece of device for me as I bought it new and at this time can only browse the Internet…that’s it..
    Very poor show apple. Play like a market leader, have the guts to come out of the cocoon make a statement.

    Reply
  25. Muraliand says

    November 15, 2012 at 12:10 PM

    Changing the date to 2019 and then reverting back to 2012 worked for me.

    Reply
    • Doran says

      April 16, 2013 at 9:06 PM

      Thanks!!!! IT WORKEDS!!!!!

      Reply
  26. Nico says

    November 15, 2012 at 12:27 PM

    don’t forget to close all apps(by double clicking the home button) when you change the time BACK to auto…now its working for me..

    Reply
  27. Phill says

    November 15, 2012 at 2:16 PM

    Tried all that and nothing! Comon apple play the game! I’m having to do everything back on the old faithful blackberry torch. Showed so much promise! Great at the gate but a sucker for stamina

    Reply
  28. Torie says

    November 20, 2012 at 6:02 AM

    just lost time ,did not work for me.I feel stupid now!

    Reply
  29. Mushu says

    November 25, 2012 at 1:44 PM

    I tried everything change the date n year Bt still cannot connect to itune store

    Reply
  30. Sabrina says

    November 26, 2012 at 6:35 PM

    I don’t think I have ever been this frustrated with Apple. Thank you all for the advice but nothing worked. I think maybe switching to a Samsung Galaxy may help the problem.

    Reply
  31. Jan says

    December 11, 2012 at 1:37 AM

    Temporary works on my iPad2, but iPhone 5 is with no luck. The only way I can go to the AppStore is thru Passbook.app. But even that, I still cannot download ANY APP or updte!!!!

    I also have serious issues with wifi on both iPad2 and iPhone 5. Sometime it is slow as hell, sometime it doesn’t even work.

    RUNNING 6.0.1. This is PAIN!!

    Reply
  32. judieth says

    December 12, 2012 at 5:17 AM

    i cannot still get over the problem after changing the year also could nt access to app store

    Reply
  33. Pranil says

    December 15, 2012 at 3:17 PM

    Took a loong time to resolve – brand new iPhone 5 for my gf set up yesterday. Tried a whole heap of the above, it finally worked when:
    1. Set date time to manual
    2. Set year to 2020
    3. Closed all apps, tried to access App Store and got the error message
    4. Set yea to 2012 (manually)
    5. Closed all apps, relaunched App Store.
    6. We’re in!

    Also have disabled Notes, Passbook, Photo Stream and Documents and Data from iCloud (that was a previous instruction from another thread).

    Good luck!

    Reply
    • Dave says

      December 28, 2012 at 9:41 AM

      Did Exactly step by step as you did + i’m also in. Thankyou very much for the help. Now i can quit playing around trying to access the store + get back to work now!!

      Reply
    • WajZ says

      February 1, 2013 at 7:11 AM

      Did exactly as you said, worked like a charm! Thank you so much, Pranil! And no thank you, Apple.

      Reply
  34. Alyssa says

    December 22, 2012 at 7:35 PM

    I’m really loving the theme/design of your weblog. Do you ever run into any browser compatibility problems? A handful of my blog audience have complained about my site not working correctly in Explorer but looks great in Firefox. Do you have any advice to help fix this problem?

    Reply
  35. Dakota says

    December 25, 2012 at 6:42 PM

    Nothing has worked for me. I cannot connect to the App Store, my iMessage doesn’t work, I cannot upload pictures to Instagram and twitter. All this iPhone has done for me is cause me a lot of frustration. Very dissapionted in apple right now.

    Reply
    • Bird says

      December 29, 2012 at 2:02 PM

      I’m the same, can’t download previous purchases to my iphone, have tried changing the date, so frustrated and fed up with apple, and disgusted that there is obviously a problem, but apple can’t be bothered to get it sorted.

      Reply
  36. David Masden says

    January 2, 2013 at 5:10 PM

    Iget in app store fine but when I click on apps to find out more about them I get can’t connect to iTunes it worked on dec 28/2012 now on jan 1/2013 it is giving me that error

    Reply
  37. Di Chen says

    January 4, 2013 at 11:12 PM

    Can’t connect to iTunes for my iPhone 5 and Mac book air . I have tried to change the date, it worked for a minute but when I tried to update some purchased apps, it didn’t work again. Really disappointed! It is definitely a big bug, why apple can’t fix it!

    Reply
  38. rashed says

    January 8, 2013 at 12:44 PM

    i am a loyal customer to i phone, i would not look at any type of other smart phones, but when it comes to the complication of how to connect to i tunes and did my i phone 5 not connect to i-tune i started feeling frustrated.

    Reply
  39. Xtina says

    February 12, 2013 at 4:02 PM

    After a few tries with this, it finally worked. Have to change the year to 2019 then back to 2013.

    Reply
  40. Steve yachts says

    February 13, 2013 at 3:05 PM

    I have a iPad 2 and when I updated iOS6.1 it has told me that I can’t connect to server cause I was connected to another server? I tried everything to get rid of it but there’s nothing that worked? Can someone help me?

    Reply
  41. tristan says

    February 21, 2013 at 3:14 PM

    this doesn’t work for me tried even uninstaling and reinstalling any way to fix this

    Reply
  42. Marie24 says

    February 25, 2013 at 5:22 AM

    Reset/restart phone by holding the sleep/wake button until the red slider appears. It works!

    Reply
  43. Chris Tymbas says

    February 26, 2013 at 1:23 AM

    Brand new iPhone 5 iTunes and AppStore not working and can not be fixed what do I do now

    Reply
  44. mady says

    February 27, 2013 at 4:57 PM

    is it the same if ur itouch is jailbroken

    Reply
  45. tristan says

    February 28, 2013 at 7:40 AM

    where is settings can’t find them

    Reply
  46. sushma says

    March 7, 2013 at 11:37 PM

    nothing worked for me fed up of this iphone .

    Reply
  47. Fred says

    March 8, 2013 at 2:13 PM

    I don’t think I’ll ever buy another apple product again after this…I’ve been trying for about a week now to download apps. I changed the time, didn’t work, rebooted it, didn’t work and I tried deleting all of the memory from it, didn’t work. You should be ashamed apple.

    Reply
  48. Brittney says

    March 20, 2013 at 12:33 PM

    Im kinda stupid.. how do you get to settings?

    Reply
  49. DSL 55 says

    March 24, 2013 at 4:14 PM

    I’m new to apple can anyone help me by telling me how can I link my email add to the istore

    Reply
  50. Chenda says

    April 17, 2013 at 12:25 AM

    Dear Apple,

    How is crazy of apple, I have buy Iphone 5 but I cannot connect to App Store? How can I do? Do u really crazy for this?

    Reply
  51. sam mes says

    June 7, 2013 at 6:30 AM

    well.. trying for 4 hours and a half to fix it .. and all what i had to do was to just play with the dates and the wifi connection as well as oppening the app store and the itunes loads of times one after the onther.. so u go lik ” app – itunes- app – itunes ” lol .. wtf apple , grow up

    Reply
  52. Goh SL says

    June 14, 2013 at 5:42 AM

    Account not in use of this store

    Reply
  53. Goh SL says

    June 14, 2013 at 6:24 AM

    Account not in this store

    Reply
  54. Wu says

    June 14, 2013 at 6:32 AM

    How to switch to Singapore store

    Reply
  55. Lachlan says

    December 4, 2014 at 12:40 AM

    For some reason my iPad air 2 will not connect to either iTunes store and App Store. I have tried resetting the time and date, restarting my iPad, my internet is fine what the hell is going on???

    Reply

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