Unable to log in to Mac App Store

TidBITS Talk
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Last night I shut down my computer. When I restarted it today I got an error on one app store application – it said it was damaged and needed to be deleted and re-downloaded.

I was unable to log in to the Mac App Store (MAS). Here is what I have tried:

  • Unable to log in to MAS using Mojave on a Mac Pro 2010.
  • Successfully log in to MAS using Sierra on the same Mac Pro 2010.
  • Successfully log in to MAS using Mojave on a MacBook Pro.
  • Successfully log in to MAS using Sonoma on an M3 iMac.

So the AppleID is good.

I did a Safe Boot. No change.
I reinstalled Mojave (yeah, really!). No change.

I logged into MAS using an alternate account on Mojave on the Mac Pro 2010. Success.

I logged out of the MAS. Now I cannot log in again and have the same problem as with the original account.

Not even sure where to look for the problem at this point–but it sounds like some type of corruption of plist/preference files.

Thanks.

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The complaint about an app being damaged for no apparent reason sounds like something @mjtsai wrote an app to fix for his apps. Perhaps he can shed some light on that topic.

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Update:

Today I got a notification from the “damaged” app. Apparently it’s not damaged anymore. The fact that it sent a notification is unusual as I had turned all notifications off. It appears the preferences had been set back to default.

Then I tried to sign in to the Mac App Store. Same issue. No error–just not getting signed in.

A few hours later, I tried again. Now it works. Probably an issue on Apple’s end because I certainly didn’t do anything to fix it.

Thanks for reading.