How to reinstall Apple App Store
The Apple Store now allows Apple to bundle applications in an easy to download “iOS” like way. Since it’s release OS X application manufactures have been slowly moving over to it as a distribution channel for their apps. Some popular apps are now only available via the App store. If you are like me, one of the first things you might have done was to remove the App Store saying “I’m not going to play that game,” thinking we’d be able to continue to download apps as we wished.
Or perhaps you are in a corporate environment where the App Store has made managing Macs nearly a nightmare when it comes to application installation and asset management.
Unfortunately it seems that more and more application authors are going this way. It makes a bit of sense for the authors. It provides a better way to make some money off their hard work. It allows them to more easily digitally distribute their apps. And it saves them money on bandwidth.
The App Store itself is not a separately downloadable application though. The best, and quickest way, to reinstall it is to simply run and see if there is a Mac OS X Combo Updater install ready.
If not, you can download any Leopard or higher version from the Apple Support page. OS X Combo Updater 10.6.8 is a good start for most people; download it from here.
After that, you need to download an application installer program. Pacifist from Charlessoft is a good one.
Mount both Pacifist and and the Combo Updater Package. In Pacifist, go to the MacOSXUpdCombo10.6.8.pkg file and then use the search box in the right hand corner to search for store.
The first option that comes up is the Apple Store. Just click on the install button, make sure the check box “Install as Admin” is clicked, then hit OK. Enter your Administrator Password and Pacifist will start installing the application. When it’s done, go to your Applications and launch the App Store.
Please post in the comments if you have any questions.
Hm… I did what you said (but with Lion, so using the Lion combo updater), and got into a strange problem:
The app seems normal, has an icon, starts up at double clicking — but then says “cannot connect to the app store”. The “store” menu at the top contains two wrong-looking items, “SIGN_IN_MENU_ITEM_TITLE” and “CREATE_ACCOUNT_MENU_ITEM_TITLE” (which are variables that should obviously should be replaced with their correct english versions). Clicking the first gives a correct-looking iTunes logon dialogue, which just says “cannot connect” after trying (with correct credentials, working on iTunes on the same machine and account). Firewall has been turned off, no effect.
There seems no good reason for this to fail? Any ideas?
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You did this on the day that OS 10.9 came out and everyone was updating. I’d try it again, but either way I’d also update to OS 10.9