Yeah, that makes sense. The number of price changes some of these things go through IS a bit excessive. Start at a high price, drop to mid-range, drop to 99 cents, drop to free for a one-day sale, raise back up, drop back to free but throw in ads and/or in-game payment features, raise back to a mid-range price (but keep the ads), wash, rinse, repeat. In my case, I can tell that the price change is "out of sync" when I try to get a free title and brings up the "confirm you want to buy this" window. That only happens when it thinks you need to pay for the app. Even if I agree, the system then encounters the paradox of "this app costs money, but it's priced at $0" and just gives up, saying it's being updated. Regardless, I hope they get it resolved soon - I'm up to FOUR apps including this one that I'd like to take a look at, and they're all stuck in "update limbo." Sometimes I've had the issue resolve itself before the sale ends so I can acquire it, sometimes not. One of them (Super KO Boxing 2) has been that way for a day and a half!
Still being modified here. I think it helps if the developer raises the price then lowers it again (Bomber Cat & Awesome Land people got this to work). Hypothetically, now would be an excellent time for an insincere price drop of a game the developer didn't really want to discount to flaunt marketing exposure without really having a sale.
This is a real and continual problem--Apple needs to fix it. I have had numerous apps be free but unavailable for several days--an entire weekend, e.g. The same pattern: Shows as free (for days, even!), but when one clicks on it, "Are you sure you want to buy and download 'This Supposedly FREE App'? Your credit card will be charged for the purchase" etc. etc. If one decides to click "okay", thinking maybe you will be charged zero cents or something, then it fails: either the standard "Purchase of this item is not currently available. This item is being modified. Please try again later" or (rarely) "your credit balance is not available". Tried all the ordinary things--repeated "buys", sign-out and sign-in in iTunes, restarting iTunes (with and without waiting a while), etc. The only thing that "works" is waiting for Apple to fix the issue. But this only works about half the time. I think this always happens when an item is actually being modified--I hope that Apple realizes is that this also happens a lot when an item is not being modified, and at least for some iTunes Store servers (if I'm locating the source of the problem properly), this will stay broken for some apps for days on end. I've missed sales on MapleStory Cave Crawlers, Natural Science for Kids: City of Light (Full), and many others earlier, even though the sales were well over 24 hours in length. This is not some crisis--we're only talking about iOS apps, after all. But it sure is annoying and sure is a big waste of time. Apple is great at designing the hardware, but in so many ways (e.g., iTunes' handling of iOS apps) they seem to be just another company with stuff that kinda works, kinda doesn't.
This is my situation please help I buy Maple Story Cave Crawlers but it show message like this "Are you sure you want to buy and download 'This Supposedly FREE App'? Your credit card will be charged for the purchase" and then i click ok and it show "your credit balance is not available" and my money lost to zero I hurry up to sign out and then sign in and try to load other free app and it say "your credit balance is not available" I sign out and sign in 3 time unti now I can download other free app Question? Does it has problem and effect for my account in the future? thx very much for your answer and help
i was having this problem earlier today when i tried to buy a song.... i jsut kept trying to buy it until it finally decided to work... if ur scared you might actually have to pay for the app, try this... Add it to your wish list, if it's still Free you see a message pop up saying "This app is currently free, you can download it immediately", then click on the Download Now button... if the "credit balance unavailable" message keeps popping up, just keep harassing the download button until it works... that's what i did and i had no problem
thx very much for your answer and help Can i ask you some question? i buy this app samurai tale http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/samuraitale/id423946961?mt=8 it show message like this Your account will be debited for this purchase and your application download immediately and then i click ok it say app is modify Does it has problem and effect my apple id account? because it does not happen before Why does many free app have problem today? What should i do?
so you got this by spamming the download button?? I just sat here for about 10 minutes, hitting it about 500+ times... no luck... =o(
I think this "currently modified" things is something not constant. Like, I can download MS Cave Crawlers and Parking Dash easily on my first try (while some complain that they cannot), but I cannot download Farm Frenzy 3 (while other can) from yesterday until now - frustrated.
with the "credit balance unavailable" message yeah... the modified message no... i harassed the hell out of the VR Mission HD download button, but the modified message still greeted me every time D:
ahh... I see... K thanks... Oh well... guess I'll just end up buying this one... loved the other Maple Story games... and DDD was great... so... now I just gotta wait for the freebie sale to end... =oP
at least for a dollar, i found it worth it DDD seems like the experiment while MSCC seems like the game dammit... i really wanted to get that game =/
I almost wonder if we can just take a screenshot of the itunes showing it free...buy the game and get charged..then immediately email Apple about this mistake. And if enough people do this and then email to get a refund..Apple will be quicker about fixing this problem.
Well it is a cool game. But i only played 5 or 6 levels and then went to the local shop and bought the "Metal gear solid HD Collection" for PS3 So while it is cool it made me want to play the real MGS
you could report the app by saying "I Inadvertently purchased this app" and tell them "it was free but i got charged for it"
Can you even "buy" it at all??? I get the "being modified" message even after I click "Do you want to buy....blah blah blah". It's a real pain in the ass. I even e-mailed FADD about it just to see if they could see if Apple can do something about it. No response so far. This used to happen for maybe an hour or two before an app goes free or on sale, but this past week or two has just been ridiculous. Being modified for days...ugghh.:
At least from my experience, no. Even if you WANT to pay money for a "stuck in modification limbo" title, it won't let you do so. It'll give you the same 'being modified, try again later' error. Keep checking periodically if the sale's still on, as they do sometimes "unscramble" themselves and allow a purchase. (Super KO Boxing 2 did for me after nearly two days, but this game still won't work for me, and other newly-reduced games from a few hours ago also still have issues.)
