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Software Update Problem: Unable to check for update. An error occurred while checking for a software update, how to fix

By 51 comments Last updated September 5, 2019

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Several users have reported that they receive error messages when they try to update their iDevice’s (iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch) software wirelessly using Settings > General > About > Software Update (called an Over-The-Air update). In particular, many readers see the message unable to check for update. An error occurred while checking for a software update.

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Follow these quick tips to troubleshoot when your device is unable to check for an update or if an error occurred while checking

  • Visit Apple’s System Status page and check for any ongoing issues and problems with Apple’s Servers
  • Try another WiFi network or use iTunes or Finder (for macOS Catalina+) to update your device instead of over-the-air
  • Toggle Airplane mode on and off
  • Update your Date & Time to Set Automatically or toggle set automatically off and on
  • For iPhones and iPads with cellular service, try toggling off WiFi and use cellular data instead (this may incur additional mobile data charges as updates tend to be large files)
  • Reset your network settings
  • Restart or force restart your device
  • Remove any beta profiles, if applicable

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Check Apple Servers for a Problem

This error often happens when Apple Servers are down. To check, visit Apple’s System Status site and see if any of Apple’s services are impacted. Services include things like iCloud, App Stores, iTunes, Software Updates, Siri, Maps, Apple Pay and so forth. Services listed in green on the System Status page are working normally. Things listed in yellow are experiencing current issues.

Software Update Problem: Unable to check for update. An error occurred while checking for a software update, how to fix

 

On the System Status page, click on the particular service name next to the yellow warning icon to get more information from Apple. This data usually includes the date, time, and short description of the reported problem as well as the number or percentage of users impacted and if the issue is on-going or resolved.

Software Update Problem: Unable to check for update. An error occurred while checking for a software update, how to fix

And usually, you see the following message, “Users are experiencing a problem with the service listed above. We are investigating and will update the status as more information becomes available.”

If Apple System Status shows all green

  • That means the problem is likely on your end, so performing the steps below should help
  • Sometimes there is a small problem on Apple’s end that doesn’t show up on the System Status page. So if you try all the steps and nothing helps, check the internet for news stories about your specific problem

If Apple System Status shows some yellow

  • There is a problem with Apple’s current servers and services so check if your problem is listed with the yellow caution sign
    • If your issue is reported and cautioned, there’s not much you can do. The problem is way beyond just you and your device
  • If you want to know more, check online for news related to your problem or to Apple OR type in a news search using search terms “apple servers down today”

Apple Servers and Friends

Apple actually stores information on Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, and Amazon Web Services (the Big 3 of cloud storage with AWS in a strong lead.)

These are in addition to Apple’s own in-house data storage centers. These cloud services store things like our iCloud backups, photo storage, music streaming, and video downloads. Governments, Institutions, Companies, and even us small folks, are more dependent on the cloud than ever before so when an outage occurs, we notice (and maybe scream!)

Software Update Problem: Unable to check for update. An error occurred while checking for a software update, how to fix

Everything’s Connected–it’s the web after all

These days everything is connected, so when any of these big three cloud services experience problems or goes offline, Apple, along with tons of other companies large and small, is also affected. These outages cause a variety of symptoms from sites going completely offline, web services not available or working, website failing to load properly, an inability to unable to load assets, to major and minor slowdowns and intermittent issues.

And these problems translate all the way down to us, the actual users who no longer are able to check for software updates, download apps or iBooks, and a host of other potential downstream effects. So when you find that you are not able to update any of the apps on your iPhone or iPad today, it just might be a much larger problem with impacts around the globe.

Be mindful that when Apple Servers are down, new and recently changed content may not have updated across all your devices or at iCloud.com

How to Troubleshoot Unable to Check for Update Error

So if you determined this is not a server or Apple systems issue, the tips below should help get things back to working order.

Make sure you have a stable and fast internet connection before trying to update–do not update via a public WiFi if at all possible. 

If unsure of your WiFi’s speed, run a speed test before trying to update your iOS.

If your iOS download takes too long

Remember that iOS downloads only as fast as your internet (Ethernet or WiFi) allow. This means downloading the update varies by the size of the update itself AND your Internet speed. Even though you can use your device while downloading the iOS update, we don’t recommend it because we want to maintain the speed of the download.

Try each step until you resolve your issue

  1. Try updating your software via iTunes (Windows and macOS Mojave and below) or Finder (macOS Catalina+). Updating your software may fix this problem
  2. Settings > WiFi and turn Wi-Fi off and then on again
  3. Toggle Cellular Data OFF
  4. Toggle Airplane Mode ON and OFF (do this a couple of time)
  5. Power OFF your iDevice, wait 20-30 seconds, and power back ON
  6. Change your device’s date and time to set automatically or toggle it off, wait 30 seconds and toggle it back on again. Go to Settings > General > Date & Time toggle Date & Time set automatically off
  7. If you’re a Beta Tester, delete your Beta Profile and try again
    1. Go to Settings > General > Profiles and tap the iOS Beta Software Profile > Remove Profile 
    2. Restart and try updating again
  8. Reset network settings by tapping Settings  > General > Reset > Reset Network Settings

    Reset Network Settings warning alert pop-up window in iPad settings
    Don’t reset your network settings unless you can reconnect to Wi-Fi.
  9. Free some space on your iDevice–your iPhone etc. may not have sufficient space for the iOS update
    1. Delete some Messages to get things going
  10. Change your DNS settings. To do that, simply tap Settings > Wi-Fi then Tap the blue arrow next to your current Wi-Fi network. Tap the “DNS” field and enter the DNS servers; 8.8.8.8, 8.8.4.4 (Google’s Public DNS). After this, try a software update iPhone Podcast Download Not Working, How-To Fix
  11. Try a forced restart. Then wait for 20-30 seconds before turning your iDevice back on again. Check and see if it allows updating
    1. Perform a Forced Restart
      1. On an iPhone 6S or below plus all iPads with home buttons & iPod Touches, press Home and Power at the same time until you see the Apple logo
      2. For iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus: Press and hold both the Side and Volume Down buttons for at least 10 seconds, until you see the Apple logo
      3. On an iPhone 8 or later and iPad without a home button: Press and quickly release the Volume Up button. Then press and quickly release the Volume Down button. Finally, press and hold the Side button until you see the Apple logo how to force restart an iPad with no home button

Remove and download the iOS update again

If this error happens multiple times, check for a partial update and remove that update. Once removed, try downloading the update again, preferably using iTunes or Finder.

Check for Partial Update

  1. Go to Settings > General > iPhone Storage (or iPad & iPod Touch)
  2. Locate that iOS update in your list of apps
  3. Tap the iOS update, then tap Delete Update delete iOS 13 software update from iPhone
  4. Open iTunes or Finder and check for an update
    1. Or go to Settings > General > Software Update and try and over-the-air update again

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Show 51 Comments

  1. Reydenbert Bolante says

    Hi !

    May I ask if why i cant update to ios 13 anymore?
    I already update it but in the middle of updates i accidentally stop it. I want to delete the update on storage but i cant find it the update. Please help on how to reupdate the ios .
    Thank you

    Reply

    • Elizabeth Jones says

      Hi Reydenbert,

      Sorry to hear about your problems updating. Depending on how far the update got, it might not show up in your storage.

      If you haven’t already, power off your device then wait for a few minutes and power it back on. Then check if you can update and/or delete the partial update. If possible, update your device again using the same network you used previously.

        Go to Settings > General > Storage
        Find the update in the list of apps
        Tap the update, then tap Delete Update
        Go to Settings > General > Software Update and download the latest update

      If you encounter the same issues, reset your network settings by going to Settings > General > Reset > Reset Network Settings. Then connect back to your network and try updating again.

      Reset Network Settings

      Resets all your network connection options and sets your device’s network settings back to the factory defaults. Clears your current cellular (if applicable) and WiFi networks including saved networks, WiFi passwords, and VPN settings.

      Before you reset your network’s settings, be sure to have your WiFi network name and passwords available for re-entry.

      Finally, if you continue to not see the update or if the same issue happens again, try instead to update your device with a computer using Finder or iTunes. It doesn’t have to be your computer–it just needs iTunes (macOS Mojave and below or Windows) or Finder (macOS Catalina+)

      Reply

  2. Jordan Hansen says

    I haven’t gotten the update yet and it keeps saying that message, I don’t have WiFi at my house but when I’m at school it still won’t do it, and idk any other way to fix it

    Reply

    • Elizabeth Jones says

      Hi Jordan.

      Sorry about getting these errors when trying to update your iOS.

      First, try forgetting your WiFi network–tap Settings > WiFi > the network name > Forget this network

      Next, close all your open apps:

      1. On an iPhone or an iPad with no home button from the Home screen, swipe up from the bottom of the screen and pause slightly in the middle of the screen
      2. On an iDevice with a home button, double-click the Home button and swipe right or left to find the app that you want to close
      3. Swipe right or left to locate the app you want to close
      4. Swipe up on the app’s preview to close it
      5. Repeat for all opens apps
      6. Restart

      After restarting, connect back to a WiFi network (5GHz if available) and then with no other apps open/suspended, try to update again via Settings > General > Software Update.

      Alternatively, try updating via iTunes on a computer (it doesn’t have to be your computer–it just needs iTunes.)

      Hope something works!

      Liz

      Reply

  3. Zebwood says

    Trying to update an old iPhone that had been off for 9 months.

    After trying everything else in the list, I noticed the time was out of whack, checked the settings > general > date & time, and found the date was also 9 months previously and the time sync was set to ‘manual’ rather than ‘automatic’ – I have absolutely no idea why!

    Changed it to auto and bingo – software update and a number of other things that were causing problems (google IMAP certificates) suddenly started working fine.

    Motto: try the simple obvious things first!

    Many thanks for the exhaustive list + the comments.

    Reply

  4. Aiden says

    Still not working for me. i’ve tried everything on the list and the error still comes up. Can someone help me?

    Reply

  9. unknown bluelady says

    thanks ios ghandi tried all the steps mentioned but it didnt work for me then ive read your message and luckily it work… thanks again 🙂

    Reply

  11. Elliott Royle says

    I tried the steps mentioned above and nothing worked for me. Finally, it occurred to check how much space was available on the device. It was full. I freed up lots of space because updates can be large and it resolved the update issue.

    Reply

  16. Dea a says

    It’s worked! Thanks:)
    I prefer downloading on my iphone than itunes lol
    All i do was just turning wifi off and then on. And when i check the software update it worked!

    Reply

  17. Anon Anon says

    Step 1 should be – make sure you have enough memory. I got rid of some unused/unneeded items and it freed up enough space to allow the update.

    Reply

  19. iPhoneSavvy says

    I can use iTunes to download the update but the stupid itunes is downloading a *complete* iOS file (Worth more than 1.3GB) which is ridicoulous.. Updating through iPhone means a smaller file (iOS 9.0.2 update was a mere ~40MB if I remember right)..

    For iOS 9.1 update, as I read in other forums, is around 300MB for iPad; since I’m using iPhone 4S I bet it’ll be smaller than that.

    Not of the above methods are working for me. Apparently iTunes is the only way to go but I have such limited bandwidth.

    Would appreciate if someone has a solution.

    Reply

  28. Marie says

    Followed steps 1-4. When I checked my I-phone 5s, I had no internet access, so I had to enter my network security key to reestablish my wireless connection. Once I did that, I went back to settings and was able to download the update. What a process, but it finally worked.

    Reply

  32. GP says

    I got it to work! I followed Step 5, and then when to software update. It showed ios7 ready to download but I kept getting an error message when downloading. I changed my DNS back to what it was before by clearing the DNS and going back to the main wi-fi page. Once reconnected to my wifi, I went back to the software download page. I tried a few more times after getting the error message, but after about the third time I got it to download! As expected, it took a little while because of the overload of people.

    Thanks for this tip!! Really appreciated.

    Reply

  33. April G says

    I have followed exactly what was explained… Step by step & it didn’t work for me. So you mean to tell me only one person out of all of us got it to work? ! Please if anyone has gotten it to work let us all know… Thx so much…

    Reply

  41. olebogeng says

    Same problem here.I tried to use itunes for update but it also gives error message “you do not have permission to access the requested resources”.

    Reply

  42. Alfredo Schiavo says

    I had tried to install ios 6 everything seems to run, but after 2 hours the process do not finish. It keep showing the apple and the bar filled almost till the middle.
    Someone can help?

    Reply

  44. Greg says

    Doesn’t work. I’ve tried everything… Reset, changing the DNS, restating the settings etc. I cannot download the update to iTunes on my pc either. always gives me a timed out message after downloading for a half hour.

    Reply

    • Robert says

      I just tried it and it WORKED! I did not do the final step, the DNS entry, because once the wifi picked up the networks after the reset, I simply redid the password for the router, the password for iTunes (I reset it last night while setting up my wife’s new MacBook Pro), and away we went!

      Reply