Whether it’s a game, a password manager, a photo editor, a weather app, or any of the millions of apps available, the App Store is now the only place where you can download them to your iPhone, iPad and Mac. Sometimes, you may have to look for a specific one that has already been purchased and cannot find it. Don’t worry, nothing is lost.
Sometimes, an already purchased or downloaded app may disappear from the app store. Apple has, however, prepared a way to find them easily from any device. Below we explain how to do it with iOS 15.
How to re-download previously purchased apps on iPhone and iPad
First, start the “App Store“ app, then click on your account icon visible at the top right. Then select the item “Purchases” from the new page and filter those not yet downloaded to the device by selecting the “Not on iPhone” (or iPad, in case you are following the guide for the tablet) tab.
At this point, you will find at hand the list of all the apps you have bought and downloaded for this category of devices. All you have to do is scroll from the list and click on the icon marked with an arrow pointing downwards inside a cloud on the same line as the app concerned to start the download. If you have many applications, you can also speed up your search by typing a keyword in the search bar visible at the top of the section.
How to re-download apps already purchased on Mac
You can do the same thing from the Mac, following similar steps. First, you need to open the “App Store” app. You can find it in the taskbar at the bottom. If you have removed it from here, you can search for it using the Spotlight (the magnifying glass icon at the top right of the status bar, or by pressing the shortcut Cmd + space bar).
On the app’s main screen, in the lower-left corner, there is the icon of your account. By clicking on it, you access the “Purchases” page. Here, you will find all the applications purchased and downloaded compatible with Macs. Same thing for iPhone and iPad. Click on the arrow-in-the-cloud icon to download the app concerned.
Be careful though
If in the past you have purchased an app that you can’t find even from here, there is a reason. It means that that app has been completely removed from the App Store by the developer or by Apple (a recent example is Fortnite). In these cases, you will not be able to do anything to download the app again.
