I have loaded Windows 8 on a couple of home PCs and I’ve been running into occasional issues here and there. Recently, I tried to open the Windows Store and I got the following error message:

We weren’t able to connect to the Store. This might have happened because of a server problem or the network connection timed out. Please wait a few minutes and try again.

Here is what the message looks like in Windows 8:

After fiddling with a few settings, I was able to get the Store working again. In this article, I’ll show you the various solutions I tried and hopefully one of them works for you.

Tip 1 – Check Date & Time

The first thing you need to do is make sure the date and time on your Windows 8 PC is set correctly. You will not be able to connect to the store if your system time is not accurate. You can fix the time by opening the Charms bar (Windows Key + C) and then typing in Date and Time.

Now you can click Change date and time to set the system to the correct time. Also, make sure you’re set to the correct Time Zone also. 

Or you can click on Internet Time, click on Change settings and then click on Update now. This will automatically sync your computer with time.windows.com. 

Now try to open the Windows Store app and see if you are able to connect. Hopefully so!

Tip 2 – Proxy Server

The other thing you want to check is if your system is going through some proxy server. If it is, you can try to disable the proxy server and see if that lets you connect to the store. You can do this by clicking on the gear icon at the top right, then clicking on Internet Options.

Then click on the Connections tab and click on the LAN Settings button.

Go ahead and uncheck the Use a proxy server for your LAN box.

Now try to connect to the Windows Store and see if it works. If not, keep reading.

Tip 3 – Log Off/Use Local Account

The next thing you can try is logging off your account and then log back in, especially if you are using a Microsoft account. Also, go to http://login.live.com/ and make sure you can login with your Microsoft credentials. If you are locked out for any reason like your password being hacked, etc, then you will have to restore access to your Microsoft account and then login again in Windows 8.

The other thing you can try is to switch from a Microsoft account to a local account and then try to open the Windows Store. You can do this by going to the Charms bar, clicking on Settings, then clicking on Change PC Settings and then clicking on Users.

Tip 4 – Refresh Your PC

The last thing you can do is refresh your PC. This is not ideal as it will reset all of your apps from the Windows Store and remove any third-party programs you installed from a CD/DVD or the Internet. However, if nothing else is working, then this might be your only option.

You can go to PC Settings like shown in Method 3 and click on General. Scroll down and you’ll see Refresh your PC without affecting your files.

Hopefully one of these methods fixed the cannot connect to Windows Store problem on your Windows 8 machine. If not, post a comment here and I’ll try to help.

Enjoy!

Via helpdeskgeek