A Handy Tip when it comes to downloading apps

[braddick]

When the app store first opened there were many apps I downloaded and then subsequently deleted as my iTunes library of apps was getting too full and unmanageable.

I know you can have practically endless pages of apps but to make it difficult to weed through the apps you're interested in placing on your iPhone and those you're not.
I'd delete the ones I wasn't interested in anymore off my iTunes page.

Fast forward a few weeks or months and I'll see an app. I'm interested in either due to an update or other modifications but not exactly sure if it is a prior app I've owned or not.

It would be the type of app I'd download for free but see it is now charging, sometimes a pretty hefty premium.

Instead of clicking purchase and hoping it was a prior erased app, I now click "review this app".

For example, I recently did this with Air Sharing. I downloaded it when it first came out (and was free), didn't really use it, erased it, but now with the recent upgrades/improvements, wanted it again- but not necessarily at the $4.99 being charged.

If you have not purchased the app then, of course, iTunes will not let you review it and a screen will pop up telling you so.

If you have purchased it or downloaded it on a prior occasion iTunes will pop up the ratings page even if you have given it a prior rating.

I click cancel for that screen when it does so and I then know I'm good to go to click the update/download for free.

 

[leandromp]

Thanks for the advise. It happens to me, a lot.

 

[ImNoSuperMan]

Thats a really neat advice. It was really obvious and we all knew the fact that we are only allowed to review/rate apps already bought by us. But to use it to check if I`ve previously downloaded that app or not is not something I ever thought of. Thanx for the tip braddick.

 

[Fedorov]

Yea good tip that, quite obvious now I think about it

 

[braddick]

I also have two iTunes accounts. I can't tell you how many times I've downloaded what I knew was an app I had previously owned only to find out as I was being charged (again!) as I had it downloaded on the account I wasn't then logged into and not the one I was on now.

Nothing like being charged twice for the same app.

 

[dukebound85]

this is why i only get free apps

 

[Randman]

Any old apps I don't use, I delete from iTunes but stick in a new folder called Old Apps. Then if I want one, I just double click and it loads back into iTunes and I can then check for updates. Easier than a list and I can see what is there.

 

[ImNoSuperMan]

this is why i only get free apps

There are a lot of very good free apps on AppStore but if you dont buy any paid app then you are leaving out atleast 80% of the apps which are worth your time.

 

[*GG*]

It had never crossed my mind to do this. A good tip.

 

[dchoe]

thanks op.. used to have to go through old itunes receipts to see if it was previously purchased

 

[Strategy]

You rule, thanks for this.

 

[rKunda]

Hah. It's so obvious, I never would have thought of it. Thanks!

 

[Pooshka]

I think you've just made some thousand people's lives much easier.

My vote for a sticky!

 

[pianoplayer1]

Genius, thanks for the super-helpful tip.

 

[Slip Jigs]

This is a good tip. But can anyone verify it? I have the same situation with Air Share. But I don't want to pay the 5 bucks. The review screen comes up. I'm stil afraid to go ahead with the purchase.

 

[DavieBoy]

good tip. The kind of great info that Tommy Lee Jones character tells a friend in any of his roles. He always seems to know what id going on...

 

[braddick]

This is a good tip. But can anyone verify it? I have the same situation with Air Share. But I don't want to pay the 5 bucks. The review screen comes up. I'm stil afraid to go ahead with the purchase.

It works 100% of the time, flawlessly. If you can rate it, you own it. If you own it, you can download it again (and, again. . .) with no additional charge.

I had deleted FlipDown because it didn't seem to ever work yet with the new 3.0 upgrade, the developer fixed the problem.

I downloaded it again this morning, for free of course, after confirming I could leave a review/rating.

 

[sushi]

Instead of clicking purchase and hoping it was a prior erased app, I now click "review this app".

Good tip.

And have done this before.

However, I prefer this methodology:

Any old apps I don't use, I delete from iTunes but stick in a new folder called Old Apps. Then if I want one, I just double click and it loads back into iTunes and I can then check for updates. Easier than a list and I can see what is there.