10 fixes to try if iPhone won’t download apps

Last Updated on November 29, 2020 by Rick Darlinton

It may be frustrating if you suddenly find your iPhone won’t download apps such as Facebook, Youtube, Instagram or some other apps that you may just need to use immediately.  When this happens, you can try to fix the issue yourself before taking the iPhone to a customer care support center near you. So this post is just brought to you for introducing some common solutions which you can try if you can’s download apps on iPhone

Check the network

The network issue is one of the main reasons why apps can’t be downloaded on your iPhone device. When you are trying to download apps, perhaps the Wi-Fi signal within the space is just weak or it is not available at all at that moment. Or you just run out of mobile data when you seek to download apps using mobile data. Therefore, just check the network situation first of all when you find your iPhone won’t download the apps.

Restart your iPhone

Most of the time, just restarting your iPhone can fix plenty of mobile-related issues no matter it is the phone freezing issue or your iPhone can’t download apps. It just takes several minutes to finish this process and it is super easy to operate. So please just restart your iPhone and see whether you can download apps successfully again.

Update the iPhone system

It could be some kind of software bug that prevents you from downloading apps successfully on your iPhone device. By updating the latest version of iOS system,  your iPhone will be provided with some new features and security updates along with a higher ability to fix software bugs.  To update your iPhone, just tap on “Settings” and then go to general>software update to install the latest version of iOS system.

Check the iPhone storage

If there is not enough storage on your iPhone device, it is apparent that you will not be able to download apps successfully to your device.  To check the iPhone storage information, please click on ‘Setting” on the home screen and then tap on “General” and “iPhone storage” options respectively.  Just try to remove duplicate photos, videos or other documents on the device to free up some space if you find the storage is limited

Reset iPhone device settings

Another solution to try for fixing the apps download problem is to reset iPhone device settings. Note doing so will not remove data on your iPhone such as photos, videos, music files or other files but it will remove some settings.  In order to reset iPhone device settings without removing your data, just tap on “Settings” and then select the “General” option. After that, please scroll down and find the “Reset” option. Next, click on the “Reset all settings”

Sign out/in out of app store

You may also try to sign out of app store and then sign in again if you can’t download apps on your iPhone device. To sign out of the app store, just go to open Settings and then go to iTunes &App Store and tap on “Apple ID” and “Sign out” options respectively.  To sign in to the app store again, go to settings>Sign in to the device and then click on your Apple ID and password

Restart the app store

Sometimes, you can fix app download issue simply by restarting the app store, especially when you can’t download apps on the device due to some software bugs.  So just close the app store and open it again to download the app.

Pause and restart downloading the apps

The process may just freeze when you try to download some apps. If this is the case, please choose to pause the download process and then restart it again.

Check your Apple ID payment methods

You may need to add a payment method for your Apple ID to download some apps, especially for some paid apps.  So when you can’t download apps on iPhone, check whether the apps you want to download are the paid services.  To add a payment method for your iPhone device, tap on ‘Settings” on your iPhone, then click on your Name and subsequently go to “Payment &Shipping” and select your Apple ID to add a payment method.

Get professional help

After trying all of these solutions above, if you still can’s download apps on iPhone, then just ask for professional customer care support from Apple. Locate the nearest Apple authorized service center to fix the problem.