How to refresh the App Store Updates tab on iPhone or iPad

Learn how to refresh the App Store Updates page on your iPhone or iPad to force it to show all the new app updates that are not already showing.

App updates on iPhone

Have you ventured into the App Store only to find app updates you were expecting have not yet appeared? Worry not, as Apple provides an officially sanctioned way to refresh the contents of the store’s Updates tab.

Fun fact: On iOS 10 and earlier, you could either force-quit and relaunch the App Store app itself or tap any bottom tab ten times repeatedly, which would purge the store cache and force a refresh. This trick no longer works because the App Store offers a more convenient way to refresh any pending items located in the Updates tab.

Refresh the app updates screen in the iOS App Store

  1. Open the App Store app on your iPhone and tap your profile picture from the top right to get to the Account screen, which shows your pending app updates. Alternatively, you can touch and hold the App Store icon on the Home Screen and choose Updates.
  2. Pull down on the Account screen with one finger, then let go. This will refresh the updates screen, and any expected items not showing there should be pulled through from Apple’s servers.
Refreshing App Store updates screen on iPhone

This is useful if your device, for some reason, stops showing the number of available updates on the App Store icon badge or the store itself won’t refresh when relaunched. I’ve found this gesture particularly helpful in situations when my App Store kept showing an app that needed an update but would never actually update.

You can only pull-to-refresh the Updates tab. Apple has not implemented this system throughout the App Store, which I find regretful given the sheer popularity and familiarity of the downward-pulling gesture in other apps.

On a related note: