Trouble downloading XCode 6.1 on Mac OS X Yosemite

Question

after upgrading my Mac to Yosemite I've had trouble downloading XCode 6.1

Every time I tried I got an error saying:

This item is temporarily unavailable. Try again later.

I have tried again later, for a couple days, with no luck.

I have found this Apple forum post really helpful, but I did not want to download the third party tools.

I have solved the problem by searching for XCode:

sudo find / -name *XCode*

Which returned:

/private/var/folders/zn/ltz89cf17wj09s3bz6rnrwyc0000gn/C/com.apple.DeveloperTools/5.0.2-5A3005/Xcode/CachedSpecifications-xcodebuild
/private/var/folders/zn/ltz89cf17wj09s3bz6rnrwyc0000gn/C/com.apple.DeveloperTools/5.1-5B130a/Xcode/CachedSpecifications-xcodebuild
/private/var/folders/zn/ltz89cf17wj09s3bz6rnrwyc0000gn/C/com.apple.DeveloperTools/5.1.1-5B1008/Xcode/CachedSpecifications-xcodebuild
/private/var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n0000000000000/C/com.apple.DeveloperTools/5.0.2-5A3005/Xcode/CachedSpecifications-xcodebuild
/private/var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n0000000000000/C/com.apple.DeveloperTools/5.1-5B130a/Xcode/CachedSpecifications-xcodebuild
/private/var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n0000000000000/C/com.apple.DeveloperTools/5.1.1-5B1008/Xcode/CachedSpecifications-xcodebuild

By renaming all of the com.apple.DeveloperTools folders/files above to aaacom.apple.DeveloperTools I have managed to get my App Store to download the new XCode.

What I wanted to ask was, has Yosemite changed the way that the Mac cache works?

I ask this because I noticed that some people had not managed to fix the issue by removing the usually recommended folder named com.apple.appstore. I can't say if this would/would not work since this is the first thing I tried so I'm asking if the Mac cache has changed, and if so in what way?

Edit 1:

I have only now noticed the really useful command that was posted by Elliott Slaughter in the same thread which is a slightly more general cache deletion than my command:

rm -rf "$(getconf DARWIN_USER_CACHE_DIR)/com.apple.appstore"

Where on my machine:

...$ echo $(getconf DARWIN_USER_CACHE_DIR)
/var/folders/zn/ltz89cf17wj09s3bz6rnrwyc0000gn/C/

Edit 2:

So my assumption is that deleting com.apple.appstore wouldn't work because XCode seems to be referenced in the com.apple.DeveloperTools folders. Am I right?

Answer 1

I was dealing with this same problem, but I have not yet updated to Yosemite (Still on Mavericks).

To be specific my problem was I started to download Xcode 6.1.1, and then paused it, or got disconnected for some reason (I don't remember), and then could not download the app for days. From that point forward I received the error message.

This item is temporarily unavailable. Try again later.

I followed the comment by Danilo Muñoz on the second page of the Apple form Post Nonsensickle posted.

Go to the "App Store" > "Store" > "Check for Unfinished Downloads ..."

This fixed the bug.

As for your question, It doesn't seem that Yosemite changed the way that the Mac cache works, because I seem to have had the same problem on Mavericks.