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Say I've bought an app for $0.99. If I delete it, and then I require that app again, do I need to pay another $0.99?

(OK, I really don't want to waste $0.99 just to try it…)

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3 Answers

up vote 3 down vote accepted

You'll have all of your apps for the life of your iTunes account, and you can download them again at any time for no charge.

The only exception is apps that have been removed from the App Store for legal reasons -- generally copyright violation of some form -- or if they're removed by Apple due to some rules violation, both of which are very rare.

Apple has been gradually improving its App Store interfaces so it's easier to determine which apps you already own. Until recently if you saw an app in the store that you already purchased the link to access it would still have the price: if you clicked it and you already owned it you'd be presented with a dialog that indicated that you'd already purchased it and asked if you just wanted to download it again.

As of now the App Store app on the iPad now intelligently replaces the price with "installed" if you have it installed (and, I believe, "install" if you've purchased it but it's not on the device), and the very latest iPhone App Store app seems to be doing it now, too. iTunes 10.3 appears to be doing it as well.

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what do you mean for the life of my itunes account? isn't my itunes account forever? – Pacerier Jun 23 '11 at 6:18
Till the end of time? Probably not. But you can safely assume that your iTunes account will be around for as long as you actually need it. Stuff like this eventually be replaced by something else. – René Jun 23 '11 at 7:54
@Pacerier I only put it that way in an effort to make it clear that they're tied to your account; no, they don't expire. If you didn't have access to your account for some reason -- forgot your password and were unable to recover it, lost it in a divorce, whatever -- then you'd no longer have access to the apps. – Matthew Frederick Jun 23 '11 at 11:08
ok i'll take it that i will have it forever then – Pacerier Jun 23 '11 at 16:52
up vote 2 down vote

To go along with what Matthew said, there is one way you can lose access to an app: if it is malicious, Apple has a "kill switch" that will delete it off everyone's devices when they remove it from the store. To date, they have never used the kill switch.

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that's way cool, btw where did you got that info from? – Pacerier Jun 23 '11 at 6:19
I'm also curious where you learned that: I don't remember having ever heard it from Apple. – Matthew Frederick Jun 23 '11 at 11:11
@Matthew @Pacerier I thought it was common knowledge. engadget.com/2008/08/11/… Google has one, too, and they've had to use it. – CajunLuke Jun 23 '11 at 13:50
I'd heard rumors but not confirmation (definitely saw Google use it several times). Thanks for the link. – Matthew Frederick Jun 23 '11 at 17:27
up vote 1 down vote

No, you won't. If you download the app again using the same account you will not be charged again.

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