Unable to download previously purchased V1 apps from Mac App Store

[pharmerpk]

I have purchased V1 apps years ago from the Mac App Store. But since V2 apps are released, V1 apps are no longer listed. They don’t appear in my purchased app list. I have contacted Apple, and after going through several methods of troubleshooting, their conclusion is to request the specific app from the developer. I tried contacting affinity through twitter and FB messenger, but no response. No way to contact support further? This is quite annoying that the “only” recourse seems to buy the V2 apps.

[Jey_]

I am experiencing the same issue on iPadOS. 
Affinity is honestly not making itself look professional or trustable when they sell you V1 apps "to keep", but then you find out you can no longer install them from your Purchased Apps list once V2 hits. On iPad, the app’s icons will show up in the list, but it’s not possible to (re)install them. I was fearing I had lost Designer on all of my devices because I had offloaded it from my main iPad for the last OS update, but luckily offloading seems to work via iCloud backup and therefore was able to reactivate it from there. But my other iPad can now no longer install Affinity V1 apps.

Clicking on any of the app icons from the Purchased list results in a "Cannot connect to App Store" error, also making the cloud install icon inaccessible. I really hope this is a human error or bug and will be fixed, because otherwise I have to interpret this as a glimpse of the future; we would then also be taken away V2 as soon as V3 was released. Even less trustable considering the new Suite license requires a central online activation. I’m very unhappy about this and cannot convince myself to purchase a 120€ app package (discount price) if I don’t know what license model I’m agreeing to. Please look into that. 

[pharmerpk]

16 hours ago, Jey_ said:

I am experiencing the same issue on iPadOS. 
Affinity is honestly not making itself look professional or trustable when they sell you V1 apps "to keep", but then you find out you can no longer install them from your Purchased Apps list once V2 hits. On iPad, the app’s icons will show up in the list, but it’s not possible to (re)install them. I was fearing I had lost Designer on all of my devices because I had offloaded it from my main iPad for the last OS update, but luckily offloading seems to work via iCloud backup and therefore was able to reactivate it from there. But my other iPad can now no longer install Affinity V1 apps.

Clicking on any of the app icons from the Purchased list results in a "Cannot connect to App Store" error, also making the cloud install icon inaccessible. I really hope this is a human error or bug and will be fixed, because otherwise I have to interpret this as a glimpse of the future; we would then also be taken away V2 as soon as V3 was released. Even less trustable considering the new Suite license requires a central online activation. I’m very unhappy about this and cannot convince myself to purchase a 120€ app package (discount price) if I don’t know what license model I’m agreeing to. Please look into that. 

Affinity support simply threw the problem back to Apple, and told me to contact Apple. Zero effort to even try understanding my problem and simply point fingers back at Apple. Really disappointed.

I guess I have to fork out the money for V2. But that will be my last purchase with Affinity.

[emmrecs01]

Quote

 Zero effort to even try understanding my problem and simply point fingers back at Apple

I think this is rather an unfair comment!

Apple does not share any customer data with Serif, nor Serif with Apple.  As a result Serif have no means whatsoever of making Apple understand your problem.

However, I do understand your annoyance.  I have both version 1 and version 2 of Affinity Designer and Affinity Photo, on my iPad, along with version 2 of Publisher.  I remember reading elsewhere on the forum that one could access one's purchases and redownload all the version 1 apps via the AppStore>Account>Purchased.  I checked this on my iPad and the version 1 apps do not show!   Perhaps because they are still installed?  (But then other prior purchases are still listed and installed.)

@DWright, I think it was you who posted this method to the forums (my apologies if it was not!) but there clearly is a problem; Apple seem to have "removed" the version 1 apps even for those who had previously purchased them.

[pharmerpk]

16 minutes ago, emmrecs01 said:

I think this is rather an unfair comment!

Apple does not share any customer data with Serif, nor Serif with Apple.  As a result Serif have no means whatsoever of making Apple understand your problem.

However, I do understand your annoyance.  I have both version 1 and version 2 of Affinity Designer and Affinity Photo, on my iPad, along with version 2 of Publisher.  I remember reading elsewhere on the forum that one could access one's purchases and redownload all the version 1 apps via the AppStore>Account>Purchased.  I checked this on my iPad and the version 1 apps do not show!   Perhaps because they are still installed?  (But then other prior purchases are still listed and installed.)

@DWright, I think it was you who posted this method to the forums (my apologies if it was not!) but there clearly is a problem; Apple seem to have "removed" the version 1 apps even for those who had previously purchased them.

I told Serif support that I can provide proof of purchase if required, but nope, they didn't bother. All they did was told me to read the FAQ and go ask Apple. Like I said, zero effort to even understand the issue. 

Apple support even tried giving me a specific link from their end, and it showed error that the developer has removed the app. Thus Apple support told me to contact Serif directly as they said the developer is the one in control of the visibility of the app.

So yeah, I have to purchase V2. Will be my last purchase from this company.

[emmrecs01]

Any "Proof of Purchase" from the App Store is of no value to Serif because (at the risk of repeating myself) they (Serif) and Apple share NO customer data. 

In addition, it is my understanding that, due to the rules which Apple demand that all iPad app developers follow, ALL iPad apps must be purchased only and exclusively via the App Store.  Thus, Serif cannot supply you with any download or even a link to a download of the version 1 iPad apps!

However, as I wrote above, there does seem to be a disconnect between what Serif have advised (that previously-purchased version 1 apps should still be available to download) and what is actually the situation.  Hopefully, one of the moderators will pick this up and be able to offer further guidance, @DWright, @SFurniss, @Patrick Connor?

[Jey_]

I do not believe that this was caused by Apple. 
I believe it was caused by either unintentional or intentional total removal of the apps from download sections of all App Stores, because right after posting here, I found another thread in which a customer of V1 apps described the same behavior on Windows’ Store. I also own all Windows versions 1, but used the exe installers instead.

I think it is highly unlikely that Apple and Microsoft have plotted to make Serif look bad. I think Serif either misunderstood that they have to leave the apps up but have to update them in a manner that only lets existing customers buy and use them. Considering a customer login was already previously implemented, this is roughly what I had expected. Or, it could be a technical error on one of these Stores, but not on both. The result is the same for customers who cannot access their software for work, so the issue becomes imminent for all those who just got a new device.

I am willing to believe this was a form of error, but only if Serif is willing to help @pharmerpk and others affected. Otherwise, I am unsure what existing customers like us are supposed to take away from this. Currently, I think we rightfully feel left out. Also, my apps were all registered at Serif, on Apple devices via the aforementioned login in the iPad apps, so the idea that they do not know how to track this is also unlikely. They even gave away a content pack for those who had registered iPad apps, I still have all of those. 

Overall, the current situation makes all apps that are not exe installations the opposite of future-proof, which seems to not be matching their own license concept, and that has logically upset those who are now locked out. I agree on the hope that someone can get this more attention though, so that we can improve the situation.

[loukash]

I just booted my MacBook from a Sierra partition which doesn't have Affinity installed.
No problem downloading and running APh and ADe v1 from the Apple store:

 

[walt.farrell]

20 minutes ago, loukash said:

No problem downloading and running APh and ADe v1 from the Apple store:

I just deleted Designer V1 from my iPad, went into my Account in the iPad App Store, located the previous purchase, and downloaded/installed it again. No problems at all.

So, while I don't doubt some users have experienced problems, I do not think they are caused by Serif. I think Apple has messed something up.

[Jey_]

Okay, I’ve forced-quit the AppStore and tried again. 
It seems to be slowly working again for Designer, maybe also for Photo, as the little cloud-with-arrow icons are becoming available again, but getting them to activate is taking so long that I aborted the process for now. I’ll try again later. Maybe there was some technical/human error earlier, and when the fix was implemented, the server didn’t catch up. It would explain why I experienced a short glitch on early Saturday. The AppStore came up, froze, closed and reopened. I didn’t question it at the time, but it could be related.
 

It doesn’t explain why Windows had similar issues. But if the download icons at least start showing, I hope they will fully work again in a few hours. After all, it’s possible that we simply see the servers catching up in slow motion because many people have bought new devices on Black Friday and are installing a lot of software on them all at the same time. For the record, I’m on iPad Air 2 and 3 on the German AppStore, so if anyone isn’t seeing their software yet, maybe it’s just taking longer for your region or device type.
 

I hope that closes the issue, but if you are reading along, please understand the underlying trust issue. The communication has been lacking in the months before V2 released, so users are on the edge about V1 suddenly not working one way or another. That includes the end of bug fixes, which I personally wasn’t expecting so soon since I still experienced Photo crashes quite recently. I’m not alone with being not too happy with that and therefore it’s hard to say where I want to place Serif on my reliability ranking, but maybe their communication and dev teams are just too small to achieve higher consistency. I’ll try to see if using the forums actively helps me gain some insight if I’m interested in V2. I’ve used V1 on some freelance/own projects, but my day job employer and coworkers use Adobe regardless, so lacking access to the apps for a day or two isn’t going to cost me most of my income.

I’ll update once I can get the AppStore to fully work again. It’s probably just hanging on 0% for so long because it’s very slow and the apps over 1GB.

[loukash]

3 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

Apple has messed something up.

Oh, not the first time, not the last time. A few years back, for weeks it was almost impossible to download Logic Pro or GarageBand , especially on Mojave.

[pharmerpk]

8 hours ago, loukash said:

I just booted my MacBook from a Sierra partition which doesn't have Affinity installed.
No problem downloading and running APh and ADe v1 from the Apple store:

 

That's on an old macOS. Try it on Catalina and up. I have Monterey on Apple Silicon, by the way.

In the end, for me, even Apple support's given link didn't work, thus they concluded that I should ask Serif since the developer is the one in control of the visibility of their apps. 

Serif could simply do what Pixelmator did when they released their Pro version. The old app is still available and downloadable, renamed as classic.

[pharmerpk]

4 hours ago, loukash said:

Oh, not the first time, not the last time. A few years back, for weeks it was almost impossible to download Logic Pro or GarageBand , especially on Mojave.

Sure, but I still have a valid license, and Serif's response was simply "go read the FAQ and go back to Apple" is not helping anyone, when Apple has worked closely with me (Apple support even called me) to troubleshoot several things.

In the end, as a customer, my impression is I'm being forced to buy V2, as the problem coincided with the release of V2. I had no problem accessing the V1 apps in the past before they released V2.

[pharmerpk]

9 hours ago, Jey_ said:

I do not believe that this was caused by Apple. 
I believe it was caused by either unintentional or intentional total removal of the apps from download sections of all App Stores, because right after posting here, I found another thread in which a customer of V1 apps described the same behavior on Windows’ Store. I also own all Windows versions 1, but used the exe installers instead.

I think it is highly unlikely that Apple and Microsoft have plotted to make Serif look bad. I think Serif either misunderstood that they have to leave the apps up but have to update them in a manner that only lets existing customers buy and use them. Considering a customer login was already previously implemented, this is roughly what I had expected. Or, it could be a technical error on one of these Stores, but not on both. The result is the same for customers who cannot access their software for work, so the issue becomes imminent for all those who just got a new device.

I am willing to believe this was a form of error, but only if Serif is willing to help @pharmerpk and others affected. Otherwise, I am unsure what existing customers like us are supposed to take away from this. Currently, I think we rightfully feel left out. Also, my apps were all registered at Serif, on Apple devices via the aforementioned login in the iPad apps, so the idea that they do not know how to track this is also unlikely. They even gave away a content pack for those who had registered iPad apps, I still have all of those. 

Overall, the current situation makes all apps that are not exe installations the opposite of future-proof, which seems to not be matching their own license concept, and that has logically upset those who are now locked out. I agree on the hope that someone can get this more attention though, so that we can improve the situation.

When there's more than one person having problems, that means there's something wrong. Yet Serif's cold response doesn't really give me any confidence on this company.

The new V2 requires activation using an account. What makes us think that that will be forever? For all we know, when V3 is out, they can simply disable activation on V2, and bam, we will be dead on water. Zero confidence. I am forced to buy V2 as I have projects on the format already. But this will be my last as I will start looking to transition to a different app for new projects. Zero confidence, zero support. 

[emmrecs01]

18 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

I just deleted Designer V1 from my iPad, went into my Account in the iPad App Store, located the previous purchase, and downloaded/installed it again. No problems at all.

Hi Walt.

Interesting find!

Just as a matter of interest: now that you have reinstalled it does Designer V1 still show as available to download in your Purchased items?  I'm asking because I wonder whether having it installed and operational actually causes it to disappear from the App Store.  On my iPad it's installed and NOT listed as available.

[loukash]

9 hours ago, pharmerpk said:

That's on an old macOS

Haha! Usually that makes it even worse to even connect to the App Store!

9 hours ago, pharmerpk said:

Try it on Catalina

Your wish is my command. Deleted ADe 1 and redownloading as we speak:

9 hours ago, pharmerpk said:

and up

There is no "and up" on my 2012 MacBook Pro. Sorry.

That all aside though:
You are obviously working on important projects, right?
Since you surely don't want to lose any valuable data in case something goes wrong with your Mac, surely you are also making regular TimeMachine backups, right?
Well then, simply copy your Affinity 1 apps from your backup to the hard drive. They will just work.

9 hours ago, pharmerpk said:

The new V2 requires activation using an account. What makes us think that that will be forever?

That's a valid concern.
For example, every longtime user (like me) of the advanced audio editing apps originally created and distributed by "Audiofile Engineering" (Wave Editor, Triumph, Sample Manager, Myriad, Spectre, Loop Editor, etc.) will 100% agree with you. The small company totally imploded a few years ago because, well, reasons. Anyone who has bought a new Mac or wiped their drives and tried to reinstall was out of luck, they would not work. Luckily, last year a company called Zynaptiq bought the rights to the code of all those apps and re-released them. But… now they are using ilok.com to handle licensing. So strictly technically, we're back to square one.  

13 minutes ago, emmrecs01 said:

now that you have reinstalled it does Designer V1 still show as available to download in your Purchased items?  I'm asking because I wonder whether having it installed and operational actually causes it to disappear from the App Store.  On my iPad it's installed and NOT listed as available.

Both on Mac, iPad or iPhone, previously "purchased" apps (paid or free, doesn't matter) will remain listed in your Purchased items. As long as the developer actually keeps the files on the download servers, they will be available for download, even if they are hidden in the store itself.

E.g. on Catalina, I can still download iPhoto 9 or GarageBand 6 from my purchases, even though they won't run on Catalina at all, and they are not listed in the store anymore.

[Jey_]

Regarding iPads: It is intended behavior for already installed apps not to be reinstallable, but they show in the list regardless. Either as “App name - update”, if there is an update, or as “App name - open” if it’s already installed. There is a filter to the right to “only show apps that are not on this device”, but it’s not activated when you first access the Purchased list. If the app is ready to be downloaded but not on the device, it will show a “download cloud symbol with arrow” button instead.
 

The phenomenon I saw, that the app is listed but no “download cloud”, “update” or “open” button showing, can usually only happen if the app has been permanently removed from servers or is incompatible with the device you are viewing your Purchases on. 
Hence, it is easy to assume that the app has permanently disappeared from AppStore servers.
 

Now in pharmerpk’s case, we are looking at a Mac where the OS version is rather new, so the app shouldn’t disappear. It should list itself as either installed or ready to download, since it cannot be incompatible with such a recent version. It might be incompatible on a very old Mac, but we would have to be talking one that no longer receives the latest OS. IIRC Monterey was released last year and supports all Macs except older Intel Chips. Pharmerpk being on Apple Silicon is the newer kind of chip, very recent since Apple has just started producing their own instead of getting the chips from Intel. 

[Jey_]

6 minutes ago, loukash said:

E.g. on Catalina, I can still download iPhoto 9 or GarageBand 6 from my purchases, even though they won't run on Catalina at all, and they are not listed in the store anymore.

Correct, that’s how it should work. I did notice scrolling very far down on my phone gives me a bunch of apps that show as permanently removed (name but no button). However many of those stem from my time using an iPhone 3 GS. We are now in generation 14. It’s possible those apps are removed on purpose, since they wouldn’t run properly AND might pose security risks, which often causes apps to lose their signature, and then Apple will not let you install them on i(Pad)OS. I do not know how often this might happen on Mac, since Mac doesn’t require perfect compatibility and a genuine signature to initiate an installation (on your own risk). It’s not as closed of a system than the mobile OS, but an app from a year ago or so should still show as available and install with a signature.

[loukash]

44 minutes ago, Jey_ said:

scrolling very far down on my phone gives me a bunch of apps that show as permanently removed (name but no button). However many of those stem from my time using an iPhone 3 GS.

Same here with apps that I've downloaded on our (now dead) iPad 2 back in 2011.

44 minutes ago, Jey_ said:

It’s possible those apps are removed on purpose, since they wouldn’t run properly AND might pose security risks, which often causes apps to lose their signature, and then Apple will not let you install them on i(Pad)OS.

I remember reading a few weeks months ago that that's exactly what Apple plans to implement: "auto-removal" of "old" app installers from their server if they haven't been updated in certain amount of years. And that 3rd party developers are allegedly not happy about this stupid idea at all.

Edited November 29, 2022 by loukash
how time flies…

[Jey_]

The plot thickens… what if more apps have been flagged as outdated than should’ve been? Maybe even in different ways depending on Store and OS version. You’d think the developers get warned beforehand or know about this, but I’m not getting my hopes up too much that any form of communication happened before someone decided to go ahead. 

29 minutes ago, loukash said:

Apple plans to implement: "auto-removal" of "old" app installers from their server if they haven't been updated in certain amount of years. And that 3rd party developers are allegedly not happy

I can absolutely see why devs wouldn’t be happy with that. A simple, say, calculator (which Apple themselves have never provided for iPads, only iPhones) might not get updated very often and hence would be removed, even though nothing is wrong with it. 

[loukash]

On 11/26/2022 at 5:17 AM, pharmerpk said:

They don’t appear in my purchased app list.

Thinking of that, the only immediately plausible explanation is that you have purchased them using another Apple ID.

For example, since our iPad is generally connected to my wife's Apple ID (as it serves as her "main computing device" for emails and casual browsing of Teh Interwebz), whenever I download something from the App Store that's only for my use – like Affinity 2 – I always have to remember to temporarily switch the App Store to my Apple ID. Now, even if I wouldn't do that, it wouldn't be much of an issue because we share our App Store accounts anyway, so anything I download will appear in her App Store account as well, and vice versa. But in the (very unprobable, but you never know) case, her and me would once separate, by splitting our shared family account I would lose access to all apps that I downloaded while logged into the App Store with her account.

[loukash]

8 minutes ago, Jey_ said:

The plot thickens…

Found the posts where I read about it:
daringfireball.net/linked/2022/04/27/apple-older-games-app-store
daringfireball.net/linked/2022/04/29/app-store-clarifying-criteria

But that definitely isn't the case here, as Affinity 1 is still far from being "abandoned".

[pharmerpk]

1 hour ago, loukash said:

Haha! Usually that makes it even worse to even connect to the App Store!

Your wish is my command. Deleted ADe 1 and redownloading as we speak:

There is no "and up" on my 2012 MacBook Pro. Sorry.

That all aside though:
You are obviously working on important projects, right?
Since you surely don't want to lose any valuable data in case something goes wrong with your Mac, surely you are also making regular TimeMachine backups, right?
Well then, simply copy your Affinity 1 apps from your backup to the hard drive. They will just work.

That's a valid concern.
For example, every longtime user (like me) of the advanced audio editing apps originally created and distributed by "Audiofile Engineering" (Wave Editor, Triumph, Sample Manager, Myriad, Spectre, Loop Editor, etc.) will 100% agree with you. The small company totally imploded a few years ago because, well, reasons. Anyone who has bought a new Mac or wiped their drives and tried to reinstall was out of luck, they would not work. Luckily, last year a company called Zynaptiq bought the rights to the code of all those apps and re-released them. But… now they are using ilok.com to handle licensing. So strictly technically, we're back to square one.  

Both on Mac, iPad or iPhone, previously "purchased" apps (paid or free, doesn't matter) will remain listed in your Purchased items. As long as the developer actually keeps the files on the download servers, they will be available for download, even if they are hidden in the store itself.

E.g. on Catalina, I can still download iPhoto 9 or GarageBand 6 from my purchases, even though they won't run on Catalina at all, and they are not listed in the store anymore.

I stored the projects in iCloud Drive, and have them backed up. But just my files/projects. I never back up the apps themselves. I just upgraded (sold) my old intel mac for an M1 Macbook Air, thus the reinstallation. I never thought of needing to back up the apps because every time I reset/upgrade to a new mac, I have always been able to redownload the V1 app without issues. Of course, that's before Serif released these V2.

Edited November 29, 2022 by pharmerpk

[pharmerpk]

1 hour ago, Jey_ said:

Regarding iPads: It is intended behavior for already installed apps not to be reinstallable, but they show in the list regardless. Either as “App name - update”, if there is an update, or as “App name - open” if it’s already installed. There is a filter to the right to “only show apps that are not on this device”, but it’s not activated when you first access the Purchased list. If the app is ready to be downloaded but not on the device, it will show a “download cloud symbol with arrow” button instead.
 

The phenomenon I saw, that the app is listed but no “download cloud”, “update” or “open” button showing, can usually only happen if the app has been permanently removed from servers or is incompatible with the device you are viewing your Purchases on. 
Hence, it is easy to assume that the app has permanently disappeared from AppStore servers.
 

Now in pharmerpk’s case, we are looking at a Mac where the OS version is rather new, so the app shouldn’t disappear. It should list itself as either installed or ready to download, since it cannot be incompatible with such a recent version. It might be incompatible on a very old Mac, but we would have to be talking one that no longer receives the latest OS. IIRC Monterey was released last year and supports all Macs except older Intel Chips. Pharmerpk being on Apple Silicon is the newer kind of chip, very recent since Apple has just started producing their own instead of getting the chips from Intel. 

When I was on the phone with Apple support, they actually gave me a direct link for the V1 app that they had. But then it gave me an error that the app is no longer available. Thus Apple support advised me to contact the developer directly to see if they can give me access since, according to Apple, the developer is the one in control of the visibility of their apps in the app store.

My biggest disappointment is when I got in contact with Serif, all I got was repeated replies of simply telling me to read the FAQ and ask Apple. They literally didn't even bother to work with me, troubleshoot, anything, at least in my perspective. Their responses, to me, feels like "sorry, too bad." Basically they lied about the V1 licenses being valid, as they didn't even bother to look further into the problem.

[loukash]

1 minute ago, pharmerpk said:

I just upgraded (sold) my old intel mac for an M1 Macbook Air, thus the reinstallation.

I have no personal experience with Apple Silicon Macs yet, but generally that shouldn't affect your Apple ID at all.
If anything, then there can be temporary issues accessing your account services:
apple.com/support/systemstatus
And even then, issues that affect only a small minority of users often won't even appear on that page.

How about all the other apps that you have ever downloaded from the Mac App Store? Are they all listed in your Purchased section? Only the Affinity apps are missing?