iPhone and iPad Users Seeing 'iTunes Store is Unable to Process Purchases' Error When Opening Apps

"The iTunes Store is unable to process purchases at this time. Please try again later."

If you are receiving this error when opening third-party apps on an iPhone or iPad today, you are not alone. We've been alerted to the issue by several MacRumors readers, and there are many more complaints flowing in on Twitter.

itunes store unable to process purchases
The cause of the issue is not yet known. Apple's system status page does not currently reflect any issues with the iTunes Store or App Store, but the page is often delayed. We'll update this story as new information becomes available.

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Top Rated Comments

adamw Avatar
77 months ago
Apple needs to hire better Quality Control/Assurance people who monitor and better test their software and online services/systems. I upgraded to Catalina yesterday and nothing but bugs and problems, as many others are reporting. Please Apple test and monitor your products and services better.
Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Baymowe335 Avatar
77 months ago

Apple needs to hire better Quality Control/Assurance people who monitor and better test their software and online services/systems. I upgraded to Catalina yesterday and nothing but bugs and problems, as many others are reporting. Please Apple test and monitor your products and services better.
Yeah, they probably never thought of that and this issue definitely confirms Apple doesn't do quality control.

You guys are absolutely hilarious.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
brofkand Avatar
77 months ago
What good is their silly status page if it doesn't show live issues?
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
nt5672 Avatar
77 months ago

Apple needs to hire better Quality Control/Assurance people who monitor and better test their software and online services/systems. I upgraded to Catalina yesterday and nothing but bugs and problems, as many others are reporting. Please Apple test and monitor your products and services better.
Nope that's close but not it. You have to remember that Apple is now first and foremost a marketing company. They don't care one bit about whether the product is ready, useable, or bug free. Sure they would like to have that, but it's not required. They just release on the scheduled date, no matter what.

There is no one at the top that understands how to trade off quality for marketing deadlines. When engineering is not ready to release, its just another day at Apple. Under Jobs someone would be going home, under Cook its just we'll do another update later, the users are not that important.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
mcrpanda Avatar
77 months ago
Apple Senior Advisor told me "This appears to be an ongoing issue and Apple is already aware of it. That being said, we would need to have this escalated to our Engineers. "

Attachment Image
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
falainber Avatar
77 months ago

Yeah, they probably never thought of that and this issue definitely confirms Apple doesn't do quality control.

You guys are absolutely hilarious.
Of course they thought about it. Judging by the results, however, they probably did not do it.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)