Cannot Restore Purchases

[catezan]

If I understand correctly, you have not gotten Photo 2 to open. Why don't you try 'Activate' instead of 'restore'? It signs in. Not just for apps bought from the Affinity store. You don't mention if you have an Affinity account, if you don't, you have to make one. (Maybe I'm stating the obvious, but most people mention things like 'I went to my Affinity account and it was / wasn't there.)

You bought the Universal Licence through Photo 2, it is unclear, do you have a trial version of Photo 2 running? If so, have you used the 'my account' button - all the way to the right on the toolbar? What does it show? 

There are also other threads about these problems, sorry I don't have their headers anymore. Other tips are there, that might help.

[ggeoffre]

2 minutes ago, catezan said:

If I understand correctly, you have not gotten Photo 2 to open. Why don't you try 'Activate' instead of 'restore'? It signs in. Not just for apps bought from the Affinity store. You don't mention if you have an Affinity account, if you don't, you have to make one. (Maybe I'm stating the obvious, but most people mention things like 'I went to my Affinity account and it was / wasn't there.)

You bought the Universal Licence through Photo 2, it is unclear, do you have a trial version of Photo 2 running? If so, have you used the 'my account' button - all the way to the right on the toolbar? What does it show? 

There are also other threads about these problems, sorry I don't have their headers anymore. Other tips are there, that might help.

All three apps were downloaded from the Mac App Store.  Affinity Designer 2 was the first of the three that I launched.  I then clicked on the "Buy Now" button and selected the Universal option.  Apple Pay was triggered and I confirmed the purchase.  Then nothing happened.  I was returned to the original "Thanks for Downloading" screen.  I then clicked on the Restore Purchase option.  Nothing happened.  I checked my Apple Card, the charge was pending.  I waited.  I received an email from Apple indicating that I Purchased the Affinity V2 Universal License through Designer 2 on my Mac (showed the mane of my Mac).  I launched Designer 2 again, on the same Mac, and was prompted to "Buy Now" once again.  The "Restore Purchases" still did not work.  

I went to a second Mac, downloaded all three apps, launched Designer 2 on the Second Mac, the "Restore Purchases" button did not work on this Mac either. I then tried on my iPad, same thing, except this time I was prompted that no license existed (at least the iPad version tried to restore purchases).  When you make a purchase on one authorized device through the Mac App Store, it should be available to download and install on another authorized device using the same Mac App Store account.  Especially when the license you purchases was a universal license.  The difference here is that this is an in app purchase (which is a notoriously horrible experience for such purchases I am finding out).

All this time, I did not have a serif.com account.  I have only ever purchases the Affinity apps through the Mac App Store.  I then created a serif.com 'forums' account, where I found this threaded discussion and made my post of my experience.  I tried using the Activate button, but it prompted me for a serif.com account that I did not have.  So I started a trial (thinking that there may be a working "Restore Purchases" button within the app, no such luck).  Now all I see is the "Continue Trial" screen.

Per your advice, I have since created a serif.com account.  When I used this account to "Activate", it tells me that "Unfortunately you Affinity account doesn't have a current valid license for Affinity Designer 2.  You can check your available licenses in your account."  This is likely due to the fact that I did not purchase from serif.com's online store.  I made the purchase from the Mac App Store.  I have the receipt from Apple for the App Sore purchase, and the transaction on my Apple Card is no longer pending, the purchase went through (my card was charged).

Again, thank you for trying to help.  I tried to be a clear as I could this time (step-by-step).  🙂 

[mrwilby]

I have the same issue as many others. Purchased via mac app store using Designer 2. In app purchase never registered in the app purchase at all. I have the receipt from Apple and my card was charged. What do I do? Can't make any of the suggestions mentioned here work.

Edited November 19, 2022 by mrwilby

[catezan]

sorry, I got your problem confused with the quote you used.

You bought through Design 2 Mac , so that is where you have to do the activation. You have to have the Affinity account to use the Universal licence - even when it is bought from elsewhere.

from Licence Activation and Registration Explained at affinity.serif.com

'If you in-app purchase an Affinity V2 Universal License through either the Mac App Store or the Microsoft Store you will also need to register that Affinity V2 Universal License in your Affinity Store account, or else you can’t receive any of the multi-app cross-platform benefits. After purchasing a license, you will be prompted to register your license. Registration can be skipped but will be available again in the Account panel in the application. Learn how to create an Affinity ID in the last section of this guide.

When you next start a different Affinity Version 2 application, you can immediately sign-in to your Affinity ID to activate your license, or you can start a trial and sign-in later. Activating a license will then change the trial into a retail version. That is true no matter which store you downloaded the Affinity software from (the Affinity Store/Mac App Store/Microsoft Store/iPad App Store). If you don’t sign-in to your account, you will be prompted to purchase again, even though you have technically bought a license. This is due to limitations with the Mac App Store/Microsoft Store that are beyond our control. However, by registering your Affinity V2 Universal License in your Affinity account it will then allow you to use your license on any Affinity V2 application on any operating system, including iPadOS.'

Now you have that Affinity account (not the same as this forum account) and the Universal Licence has to be recognised by it (then you can also see it in your Affinity account). The question is, how to do that. You can send your problem to affinityorders@serif.com  , they are really busy and it might take a while for an answer (they got back to me after 9 days and I'm sure they would have helped, but I had already found help here in the forum). There are other suggestions in other threads here, such as Affinity Suite Purchase problem on Mac App store and Activation Fails for V2. The last suggestions here are interesting (from querty 1000 Wednesday) Here is a link, what you see isn't the comment I was referring to. At the moment the relevant comment is the last in the thread.

You have a trail version running? Is it Design 2 Mac through which you bought the Universal Licence? Maybe you can sign in through 'my account' (toolbar) in the app, (see Dan C's answer from Nov.12 here, page 3), perhaps also the deactivation and restart trick would work. 

 

 

[ggeoffre]

I feel that the best course of action at this point is to request a refund from Apple and just purchase directly from serif.com.

Thank you @catezan for helping out.

[ggeoffre]

7 hours ago, mrwilby said:

I have the same issue as many others. Purchased via mac app store using Designer 2. In app purchase never registered in the app purchase at all. I have the receipt from Apple and my card was charged. What do I do? Can't make any of the suggestions mentioned here work.

From the email receipt from Apple, I clicked on the link that took me to reportaproblem.apple.com.  Logged in with the Apple account I made the Mac App Store purchase from, followed the instructions and requested a refund from Apple.

Then I purchased the V2 Universal License directly from the serif.com online store using my serif.com account.  Worked absolutely perfectly the very first time, no issues whatsoever.  All three apps are now registered and activated on both my Mac and my iPad.

 

[mrwilby]

Thank you ggeoffre, that's what I did too now. Appreciate the help.