Hacker News Reader

Comment by NearAP | Hacker News Reader

If you purchase an App from the App store and then change your phone, I assume you should be able to carry over the paid app to your new phone.

Does anybody know if the App Store enforces this and what (if anything) they do to vendors who violate this?

It seems that there are numerous complaints on the review page of "word with friends" by people who paid for the Ad-free version but when they moved to a new device, they no longer have access to the Ad-free version

View on HN

This can happen, when non-scrupulous devs 'deprecate' an older version of their app in favor of the 'new' version. e.g., you buy 'CoolApp' and in-app purchase features for it. But oh no, 'CoolApp2' has come out and 'CoolApp' is no longer updated for newer devices, so sorry.

Otherwise, an app, and its in-app purchase set remain available via a user's iTunes account indefinitely as far as I can tell.

I fail to see how that's unscrupulous, as that's a new version of the app, and that's how software was sold for decades.

I mean, that's a fair point that I completely support, but I was thinking of the cases where the 'new' version has no new features other than a name change.

If you have an actual example of this happening, send a support email to Apple. They generally take this kind of thing fairly seriously (caveat: provided that the app has a large enough audience). It won't help you immediately, but they may better scrutinize later updates from this developer. And they certainly will take categorical action if they find enough bad actors doing something to screw up the App Store as an environment.

Even on a mobile platform, I think that's okay if it's a major iteration or if the software is designed for power users. e.g. the OmniGroup and their line of apps. I've happily paid for 2 iterations of their omnifocus app now.

Why is it "non-scrupulous" for a dev to charge for a new version of piece of software? Are they suppose to update an app forever without further compensation?

I personally think devs cross from scrupulous to non-scrupulous somewhere between 'this new version has no new features, but we changed the name of it so buy it again' and' 'we charge in-app for feature x, thanks for buying, but that payment is not enough to justify a free update'

Unfortunately, part of the blame is Apple's for not having a clean upgrade pricing solution. You can do it with app bundles but it's a hack.

Here's a realistic scenario. I pay for CoolApp. It works fine even though CoolApp2 is live on the store. I get a new phone. I go to download CoolApp, but it's no longer available. If I want to use CoolApp, I must use CoolApp2.

I'm not expecting CoolApp to be forever supported. CoolApp works fine for my use case, so I planned on continually using CoolApp until it made sense for me to upgrade. But now that CoolApp2 is the only version available, I have to buy the newer version alongside my new device. If I turn on my old phone, I can still use CoolApp without skipping a beat. I think that's what the other commenter was getting at.

That's the scenario I was thinking of. I think most of the debate on this thread is my use of 'non-scrupulous' to describe that scenario. Which is fair.

Except that's not correct. If you've purchased CoolApp you can always re-install it via the previous purchases section of the App Store, even if the developer has removed it from sale. So you can continue using CoolApp as long as it continues to work on your iOS version and device.

But that's not the case (at least not on iOS). Even if CoolApp has been removed from sale, you can download it on your new phone from your purchase history. The only exceptions to this are technical limitations on the old app that render it incompatible with the new phone such as 32 vs 64 bit, deprecated APIs, etc.

I have never owned an iPhone, thus I didn't know if that was possible. I suppose there's nothing to worry about.

Even better if CoolApp 1.0 has been continuously updated for new OS’s and the newest version isn’t compatible with a device stuck on an older OS, you can download the “last compatible version”. I was able to download and use Netflix, Crackle, Plex, Hulu, Spotify and Google Drive on my 2010 first gen iPad that was officially abandoned in 2012.

I reset it and downloaded older versions of apps last year.

If CoolApp was a 32 bit app. You wouldn't be able to use it post iOS 10.

Actually, even apps that have been removed from sale by the developer can still be installed by the customer through the previous purchases section of the App Store. (Assuming it's still compatible with the device and version of iOS you're trying to install on.)

Right, I was thinking specifically of a number of apps that were never updated and won't run on newer devices.

Well if an app has been abandoned then it's abandoned and there's nothing anyone can do. But if makers of 'CoolApp' release 'CoolApp2' with support for newer devices then I think that's entirely reasonable to remove the original version and ask users to pay for the upgrade.

Purchases are tied to an Apple ID, so using the same Apple ID on the new device should allow this. I’ve never had problems here even with in app purchases. (There is often an option to “Restore Purchases” for in app specifically to enable a previously purchased item on a new device.)

restore purchase is actually required in all apps which have in-app purchases.

Sounds like an issue with the app. Usually, apps have a 'redeem' button somewhere, that checks with the App Store to see if you did the purchase before, exactly for this scenario. (e.g. Monument Valley does this, and also some apps on macOS.)

I believe you can link maybe 5 devices to one account?

Most likely an issue with the app. App Store guidelines require you to have a "restore my purchase" option.

The only reason this should happen is if the Ad-free version was pulled from the App Store.

Your logic sounds right, which takes me back to my original question - is there an App Store policy that Developers have to maintain that Ad-free version or provide some form of compensation to those who paid if the developer decides to pull the Ad-free version

I’ve only seen that happen once and the app wasn’t pulled just not updated. The originsl version of Tetris that was never updated passed the iPhone 4 and then EA introduced a new ad supported version.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com