iPad Witchcraft!

[Herlock Sholmes]

I have a tech question. It’s not something that’s causing me a problem, it’s just an annoyance.

The last twice that I’ve bought an album from the iTunes Store it’s downloaded ok even though during the download a box appeared 3 or 4 times telling me that a track or tracks won’t download at that time. When I click ‘retry’ it downloads. Album appears….no problem.

The issue is that a box keeps appearing at random times (the day after the download) saying Unable To Download with the options ‘Done’ or ‘Retry.’ I click on ‘done’ and the box disappears. The last album I downloaded (a couple of weeks ago) the box continued to appear a day or 2 after then it stopped appearing. I downloaded an album last night and 4 times this evening the box has appeared on my screen.

Any idea what’s causing this and is there anything I can do to stop it? As I said it’s not a serious problem but it’s irritating.

Thanks

[GUT]

Sounds like it hasn’t recognised that something has downloaded, any music tracks

[Svensson]

I have a tech question. It’s not something that’s causing me a problem, it’s just an annoyance.

The last twice that I’ve bought an album from the iTunes Store it’s downloaded ok even though during the download a box appeared 3 or 4 times telling me that a track or tracks won’t download at that time. When I click ‘retry’ it downloads. Album appears….no problem.

The issue is that a box keeps appearing at random times (the day after the download) saying Unable To Download with the options ‘Done’ or ‘Retry.’ I click on ‘done’ and the box disappears. The last album I downloaded (a couple of weeks ago) the box continued to appear a day or 2 after then it stopped appearing. I downloaded an album last night and 4 times this evening the box has appeared on my screen.

Any idea what’s causing this and is there anything I can do to stop it? As I said it’s not a serious problem but it’s irritating.

Thanks

Impossible to tell from a distance. I could speculate and come up with a list of around 10 potential causes and one or two of them will be close (but ultimately not help because identifying and fixing something are two different kettle of fish). A couple of points which are always good practice for ANY iOS issues, if I may:

1. ensure you have enough diskspace left, a minimum of 10% for normal operations should be good. Any less than that, and data-heavy apps (like iTunes) may start behaving unexpectedly. I know that on devices that have no SD expansion slot, freeing up space can be a head-ache but this is the bed you made and now you have to sleep in it (this obligatory broadside against Apple comes free of charge, btw)
2. If you have just updated to iOS 15, make sure you update all your apps as well, don't defer any longer. iOS 14.X apps are not designed to run on iOS 15.
3. iOS is not a Real-Time Operating System (probably the only one left on this planet, unsure about other planets) and is rather poor at multi-tasking. It keeps some processes in various stages of suspension to give the user an illusion of multi-tasking and not all apps are good at being treated this way (today's special offer is "2 for 1 Broadsides against Apple") but I would think that iTunes should be designed to be ok with that. So give your iPad a complete reboot from time to time.
4. Google can be your friend here. I have looked at the top half of the results and the suggested fixes are rather poor or nonsensical but you might have more luck if you dig around a little: https://www.google.com/search?q=itun...ownload+pop-up

Beyond that, you would probably have to decide if you are ok to live with the issue until an os/Itunes update comes out that resolves this issue (which is likely but impossible to tell when) OR you could start playing hardball with Apple, open a support case and start proving whatever logs (probably iOS console logs with timestamps and screenshots of the issue) they need. If they can't fix it on the spot, you will get a reference number for a future release of either iOS or iTunes.

Bonne chance, mon ami.

Edit: this one could be a leading contender for a resolution:

https://osxdaily.com/2015/05/20/fix-unable-to-download-item-please-try-again-error-ios/

[Herlock Sholmes]

Thanks Svensson

[Herlock Sholmes]

Sounds like it hasn’t recognised that something has downloaded, any music tracks

Cheers GUT,

I sometimes hate tech.

[GUT]

Unfortunately no idea how to fix it from here, have you tried turning the iPad totally off.

[Herlock Sholmes]

Unfortunately no idea how to fix it from here, have you tried turning the iPad totally off.

Ill try that one GUT. Fingers crossed though, I’ve had my iPad on for around 90 minutes and it hasn’t happened yet.

[erobitha]

Your tech grumbles should not amuse me as much they do Herlock.

[Herlock Sholmes]

Your tech grumbles should not amuse me as much they do Herlock.

I hate the complication Ero. Especially when many find tech so easy. I’m ok-ish at using it but hopeless when it comes to understanding why stuff happens because it comes in a language that I don’t speak. So if someone tells me something it just brings up half a dozen other questions. So whenever I see something unexplained happening my natural pessimism makes me suspect that something major is about to happen. It never does (touch wood) but it still irritates.

You don’t get these issues with a pen.

[mpriestnall]

I hate the complication Ero. Especially when many find tech so easy. I’m ok-ish at using it but hopeless when it comes to understanding why stuff happens because it comes in a language that I don’t speak. So if someone tells me something it just brings up half a dozen other questions. So whenever I see something unexplained happening my natural pessimism makes me suspect that something major is about to happen. It never does (touch wood) but it still irritates.

You don’t get these issues with a pen.

Or quills...

[Herlock Sholmes]

Or quills...

Yes, they should bring back quills

[mpriestnall]

Yes, they should bring back quills

[Joshua Rogan]

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/565285576/quill-stylus-for-ipad-iphone-kindle-etc

[Herlock Sholmes]

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/5652...one-kindle-etc

On my Christmas list Joshua.