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Yesterday I got my new iPhone 11 Pro Max which is an upgrade from an iPhone 6S. I backed up my iPhone 6S first (to iTunes on a Mac) and then proceeded to set up the new iPhone 11 Pro Max by restoring from the iPhone 6S backup.

After the restore was complete there were many apps that still needed to download from the App Store. Their thumbnails were on my home screen, but the apps needed to download. So I placed my new iPhone on charge and left it connected to Wi-Fi thinking that today all of the apps would be downloaded. While many of them were, quite a few (about 20) were not. They do have the cloud icon on them though and when I tap on the icon they seem to start to download but then I get a message that says

Unable to Install "App". You must purchase this app to install it.

Example screenshot follows.

Now I know I purchased them already using the same Apple ID. I also confirmed this by checking my purchased history. Furthermore, when I tap on View in App Store, it opens up and instead of getting the GET option like you do when you haven't purchased an app before, I get the dot option that you tap on to install an app again.

My problem is that tapping on the dot doesn't do anything. Clearly the app is still available, but I can't download it.

What to do?

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1 Answer 1

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You just need to delete the app (or, more specifically, the icon placeholder for the app) from your iPhone's Home screen. Then when you go to the App Store again you should get the cloud download symbol indicating you've previously purchased the app. Tap on that and it should download just fine.

To delete apps from the Home Screen on iOS 13, follow these steps:

  1. On your iPhone's home screen, long press on the app icon and let go
  2. From the options that appear, tap Rearrange Apps
  3. Now you'll see the familiar jiggle action and the associated cross at top left of the icon
  4. Tap on the cross to delete the app
  5. Now proceed to the App Store to download it again
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