Windows 8.1 'App couldn't be installed. Error Code 0x80073cfb'

I am in serious problem and require some urgent help from you guys. Yesterday night i installed Windows 8.1 Preview on my already running Windows 8 Sony laptop. I downloaded the preview directly from the the Microsoft store. After installation i found that most of my applications are not working. After troubleshooting i found that these apps need to be updated in order to make it work.

Now the problem is when i try to update any of those applications, the store gives me following error message:

"Something happened and this app couldn't be installed. Please try again later. Error code 0x80073cfb"

I tried restarting the laptop, running other troubleshooters and few more things but none of these seems to be working. Can anyone please tell me what is wrong and how can i fix this error to update the apps? Many Thanks.

This is a very well known problem with many users and even Microsoft team (probably). As the Windows 8.1 is still in preview mode, there are many more such problems appeared and that is obvious to be as this is released for testing purpose. I read somewhere about this error message where the Microsoft guy was saying that they are aware of this issue and working on the same. Probably this will be fixed soon. You need to wait for some more days.

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Originally Posted by Fal@gun

when i try to update any of those applications, the store gives me following error message:
"Something happened and this app couldn't be installed. Please try again later. Error code 0x80073cfb"

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One of my friend has this exact problem on his laptop after upgrading to Win 8.1 Preview. We tried several things for couple of days and finally reached the working solution. What we had to do is uninstalling every application for which we were getting that error message, restarted the computer and re-installed them again from the Store itself. Which means after uninstalling all applications, problem with Microsoft Store got fixed automatically.

So what you have to do is instead of updating, simply remove those applications by going to Add and Remove applet, restart the computer and try to download them again. Hopefully you wont be getting anymore errors.

I appreciated your help Svana, but that doesn’t seem to be working for me. I tried removing and installing them again one by one but yet the same result, I still get the error saying “Please try again later. Error code 0x80073cfb”.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Fal@gun

I appreciated your help Svana, but that doesn’t seem to be working for me. I tried removing and installing them again one by one but yet the same result, I still get the error saying “Please try again later. Error code 0x80073cfb”.

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Count me in too guys, Me too getting the same error, tried several things but nothing worked. Not even reinstalling the apps seems to be making some difference. Any other help please?

Somehow the problem is with the apps itself, may be with store app itself. Hence what you guys need to do is simply perform a “System Refresh”. This will surely remove the installed application but I don’t think that should matter as you guys have already removed them.

Performing System Refresh has been proved to be fixing most of the problems that came into view after Windows 8.1 Preview upgrade. Let me know if you still face the problem.

I though System Refresh will remove the upgrade hence I was not doing the same. Anyways, it has fixed the problem and now I am able to download without any problem from the Store. Help appreciated.

For those who don’t know, System Refresh wont remove your Win 8.1 . If in case you want to remove it then the only way is factory restore which means you are re-installing the windows again. This is the built-in setting in windows 8 or 8.1.