Mac – App Store says app is “INSTALLING” but nothing happens

installmac-appstorexcode

I upgraded an old MacBook Pro to Mavericks, and I am now trying to download Xcode.

In App Store I searched for "xcode", found it, clicked "Install".

It is now saying "INSTALLING", but nothing happens, CPU at 0%.
If I let the computer unattended, it falls asleep (disk stops).
While waiting I tried to install MacPorts, but it says Waiting for other installations to complete..., so the installation is still going on somehow.

What should I do? Restarting App Store and does not fix the problem.

I rebooted and re-clicked INSTALL, and still the same problem.

It is a bit similar to this question but I have no /Library/Preferences/com.apple.SoftwareUpdate* file to delete.

Best Answer

Maybe this thread on Apple Support Communities is what you're looking for.

It sounds like it is, indeed, a cache problem. From the thread above, it'd seem you'd need to find the cache in the /private directory. I'll include specific instructions, inspired by the thread:

  1. Open Terminal (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app)
  2. Type in this command: sudo find /private/var -iname "com.apple.appstore" and press Enter
  3. For each of of the found directories run rm -r <dir path>/* (For the brave: sudo find /private/var -iname "com.apple.appstore" | xargs sudo rm -r)
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