Homebrewers: Solution to "App Catalog Unavailable" message when downloading paid apps 48
Tue, 06 Oct 2009 9:32 am EDT 
As you may have seen last night, there was a big problem with the paid apps roll-out in the webOS App Catalog. It seems that if you had a homebrew version of an app that was in the App Catalog, the Catalog recognized it as a potential upgrade and offered it to you for free, assuming that you had somehow already paid for an earlier version. This clearly was a bad thing for developers looking to get paid for their work, so once Palm recognized the problem they pulled all paid apps from the Catalog and got to work implementing a solution.
Come this morning the paid apps are back and it now appears that the Catalog knows what prior versions it has had and it shouts at you when you try to “upgrade” your homebrew app to the paid version. While it at least now lets you enter your password to pay to download, you may still receive the message “App Catalog unavailable. Try again later.” If this happens, you need to delete the homebrew version of the app you’re trying to buy. Remember, developers are the lifeblood of our community, be kind to them and they’ll be kind to you.
48 Comments
Where, O Where is the App Memory Limitation fix?!!?
Please Palm...Do Something!
+1
+1000
+gagillion!
+gagillion +1
+gagillion to the power of infinity squared
whatever number comes next. PLEASE FIX THIS
I obtained the latest friendsflow from the AppCatalog free yesterday since I already had the Homebrew version. After reading this I felt bad. I love their app and want them to be compensated.
Is there anyway for me to make the payment through another channel?
Read the post, I believe if you delete/remove the homebrew version of the app, then go to the App Catalog, you will be able to give the payment.
It's cool you want to do this. I hope everyone else does!
The article refers to handling the "App Catalog Not Available" error and how to get around that. That is a completely different scenario than what I am asking. In my case I have already successfully downloaded the upgrade, got it for free, and am looking for a way to pay after-the-fact.
It's only a couple of bucks for us individually but can make a huge difference to the devs. What a lost revenue opportunity for them. Opening night of the show and the tickets were given out for free.
Send the developer an email asking for the PayPal ID, then send the money directly through PayPal.
Don't do that, because you might have issues with updates in the future if you haven't really bought it but got the free version.
Delete it off your Pre just like a homebrew version and when you go back into the App Catalog it should say that you can buy it.
If it doesn't, try rebooting your phone and then going back into the App Catalog.
Thanks to jwdesselle and jhoff80. It worked! I didn't have to reboot either.
My guilty conscience is now clear.
FriendsFlow developer and Palm should now have their fare share. :-)
this is good news.
I'd like to hear how you like friend flow. I am intrested, but haven't gotten it yet. Contact me through PM if you feel like it.
I have 73 apps installed (AppCatalog + Homebrew via FileCoaster + Built-in).
What is the new limit? (old one used to be 50 apps)
I don't believe apps that ship with the phone count against the 50 app limit. They are in a different partition.
I read in many forum posts that they do count. It's on the internet so it has to be true, right? ;-)
In the absence of facts speculation runs amok.
It would be nice if Palm articulated the exact nature of the limit and let us all know they are working on it in some sort of official statement.
Developers are getting screwed by Palm and their stupid app limit. They won't get any money because many us have no memory to install new 'pay' apps.
Feel bad for the developers because they are getting the short end of the stick.
Agreed...I cant even get some of the Free app catalog ones to install...if you try to install Word Ace, Card Ace, and say Reversi....YOURE SCREWED! (of course I have Pandora, Accuweather, and Greeting Cards too)
This really needs fixing. I want lots of apps on my phone, period
"Remember, developers are the lifeblood of our community, be kind to them and they
This article misses the biggest issue: Palm uses the Applications AppID to uniquely identify it. This mean, I could fire up the SDK and throw whatever I wanted to on my Pre and, if I have the AppID the same as a paid application, it was replaced and I got the paid version FOR FREE.
I think it's incredible that this was never tested. During my development I would constantly see my applications installed via palm-install show-up under the App Catalog but I assumed Palm would use server-side data, not the client, to determine if an application was paid for or not.
Kind-of makes me worried about their other security since this was such a glaring hole.
Great comment. I was wondering the same thing. Are they using the server side app id or the client side app id? We know they use the server side app id to restore all of your apps in the event your phone needs to be factory restored via the Doctor.
Perhaps this is a unique situation because Palm would not have a server side record of apps downloaded via Homebrew. However, we do know that the list of apps is reported back to Palm periodically (I read somewhere on the forums a developer uncovered a daily log of the apps being posted back to Palm).
Hmmmm...there are quite a few test cases permutations to cover. This should have been thought through a bit more thoroughly though. This is the second major test case missed by Palm's QA team (the first being the 1.2 update that busted many EAS users - 13.6% if you go by Precentrals unscientific poll)
With all this so called good will to the developers, Palm is really screwing them and themselves with the memory limit.
Three months ago, when this problem became apparant, it only effected those loading homebrew. But with over 100 apps in the catalog now, it will effect every user. Every user. How long will Palm allow the developers to be denied $ by this?
This is what is going to happen within the next few days as more and more people run into this problem. The initial rush of money spent in the Catalog will slow to a trickle, developers will wonder if their effort in developing in WebOS was a waste of time, and abandon the platform. WebOS will die in its infancy all due to a short-sighted memory partition that Palm seems unconcerned about correcting.
This whole new app catalog is a waste of time untill palm fixes the issue with apps going into a very small preset size directory.
Since peeps are getting this issue with going from homebrew to official app, it will be our responsibility to resolve since Palm will fly the unsupported banner but should expect this when adopting a homebrew app.
wow - I haven't hit the app memory limit yet, but what are they thinking? As my parents would say growing up, "that's just it, they aren't thinking!"
Looks like the App Catalogue is down.
Again.
Not down, just balky. Try, try again.
(This post sounds a lot more sympathetic to Palm that I actually am. Every major rollout has issues (isn't that true Apple?), but the issues associated with the new app catelog are inexcusable. Palm, you are the little guy, but you're still a tech company. Show more tech competence, please.)
I wonder what paid apps are already in the App Catalog? Is Top Stocks in there? (a non-US developer without a device here)
I LOL everytime a person says palm is small company lol.
They are not so little when they are recruiting some of the best engineers out there. I am pretty sure the Mozilla & apple guys did not take a pay cut to go work for palm.
Little/small hardly they were on top before and will be again in the new few years.
Soooo, the Palm App Catalog basically went down last night because of the homebrew community? Granted, this was a glitch that needed to be fixed. And they sorta need a beta community anyway. But they just happily and quietly went about fixing a glitch caused by... the unofficials. And didn't so much as chide the homebrewers.
That's a side to this story I can appreciate.
Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. They got bad press for it but they didn't blame the homebrewers.
That's classy on Plam's part, and also represents good business sense. They realize that establishing good relationships with their developer community is the best way to get the community to support them-- and actions like this help forge good relationships.
As a recent (approximately two weeks now) Pre convert from the iPhone, I will happily use the word "refreshing" to describe my Pre experience thus far. Sure, there are some apps from the iPhone that I really miss but they're nothing that I can't live without for a while. (The Facebook app, Slacker, and Orb are my big 3.) But overall the experience has been positive-- support for a homebrew community, updates that add functionality, and communities like this go a long way toward my feelings. I may even consider development of some apps for Web OS in the future.
Why is it that when the pay app is posted to the app store, you can scroll down the list and still find the free app listed??? Shouldn't Palm remove the free "trial" app once the pay app is posted? You dev guys might want to get on Palm about this? Unless the free app is a trial version that expires after 30 days or something like that. However, I would think that a trial version should be available withing the pay app listing. IMO, Palm should remove the duplicate "free" listings in the store.
I believe that is exactly what the free version of the app is for, i.e., to allow folks to try before they buy. There is no other mechanism outside of homebrew to do this.
Plain and simple they need more space for installing apps. I'm not going to install anything if I can't try it out to see if I like it. Especially at some of the prices people are charging. And especially with limited memory real estate. It's just not worth it to eat up either my memory or my wallet, when I can't try out the app initially to see if it's something I even want.
No doubt Palm is working feverishly to fix this. While on the surface it looks like a single line of code change, it's obviously not or Palm would have fixed it already. They are extremely well incented to fix it.
They launched the catalog knowing this would impede sales because as bad as it is, not launching is worse. Launching means income for Palm and the developers, and some income is better than no income. For the vast majority of users they will probably never see this limit. We think the issue is bigger than it probably is because we are here on Precentral listening to the vocal minority and many of us have gone crazy with homebrew.
Thats true, I certainly want to be able to try things out for myself before purchasing it. And as much as I want to purchase apps on my pre it's frustrating when I get that message that I do not have enough memory.... When are they going to fix this. I thought the last update was going to fix this. But good job on syncing with iTunes once again! haha!!!
Does the iPhone have a limit on apps? (available memory)... how many out of ALL Pre users installed homebrew apps?
(Unless this is a real concern if only DIEHARD Palm Pre users have bought the Pre)
Interesting developments... man the techie Pre users are awesome for pushing Palm's limits... lol
I am also surprised that Palm did not fix the app memory limit that prevents us from loading new apps in their latest OS upgrade. Thankfully, homebrew apps don't have that restriction. I can't download anything from the official App Store because of this, unless I delete all my homebrew apps. This is my biggest gripe with the Pre.
I'm eligible for upgrade on Sprint now and will get the Pre only if the memory limit for apps is fixed soon. If not, looks like I might go for the iphone (ugghhh). Palm needs to fix this problem ASAP, not only for those who already have the Pre (as everyone's frustrations show), but also for those who are deciding which phone to get next.
From someone who has used both (had an iPhone 2G, then a 3G-- haven't tried the 3GS)... My personal opinion is that the Pre's hardware is a little slicker-- particularly the hardware keyboard. And the ability to not have to shut down Pandora because I received an email and want to read it now is worth a lot to me too.
I would be surprised if this issue was not one of Palm's top items to fix. Having this type of limitation can only serve to hurt them in the long run as people run out of space to install new apps. This hurts Palm in two ways-- loss of profits from the App Catalog, and possible losses from the ranks of their potential developer community.
I for one believe that the pre would be dull without the homebrew apps. Don't get me wrong it's a great device but a little boring without homebrew apps. And they need to update the memory limit already! I have many friends with iPhone 3Gs and hate it when they rub their 30 gig memory space in my face!
maybe it takes time to fix, maybe its hard to fix, maybe it is not going to be fixed, but no matter what it would be quite simple for palm to simply come out and say "we have a problem,we know your concerned, and this is what we are doing to fix it, and this is our time frame" i have ran businesses for years simply try talking to your customers, it will help greatly.
I down loaded the update to motion apps Classic and its been causing hell on my Pre. After using it for a few minutes my Pre freezes. Wont respond, everything locks up. Including the option to hard reboot it. I literally have to take the battery out the Pre for about 2 minutes before it will do anything. I have medical software which being in the medical field I need and Classic is locking up my Pre. Question anyone else having an issue with Classic? I am going to call motion but I wanted to know if others are having this issue.
I'm getting the App Catalog unavailable message on everything I try to download. It doesn't seem to matter whether I have a homebrew version of the app or not.
For instance, I just tried to download the NYT app, got the message. Tried to download Local Concerts, got the message.
Is this just me?
can some help me out i have yahoo messenger on my pre so i wanna delete a contact everytime i try to delete the contact it tells me IM profiles cant be deleted and it annoyes the hell out of me.
ok. Well since this page only seems to display postings for 4 days ago this may not work but I will try. Ummm yeah. Gonna have to put it out there that the apps catalog on my pre is not available. your little news reel there about it being fixed was a bit premature. Is there or is there not a specific way to fix this? Don't need a committee discussion but I do need the answer. If it helps, the app says beta at the selection screen.
Its dec 21 now and still no fix for this? i kept getting the unavailable message randomly but now it always come up how can we fix this?