About Universal Purchases

Universal Purchases

Developers who make apps that are compatible with more than one kind of Apple device (iPad, iPhone/iPod Touch, Mac, Apple Watch, and Apple TV) can choose to offer their apps as “universal purchases,” meaning that Apple allows customers to purchase the app once and then download and run the app on a number of their other compatible devices. Note that purchases are associated with your Apple ID, so you must use the same account on each device to take advantage of this feature.

App Store Issues

Currently all of our apps sold in the App Store are available as Universal Purchases. If you purchase one of our apps on one platform and then attempt to download it onto another device, you may be asked to pay again. This is an App Store error that we have already made Apple aware of. If you purchased one of our universal apps on one supported device and are being asked to pay to install it on another, please follow these instructions to download the app without being charged a second time:

  1. Ensure you’re using the same Apple ID on both devices. If you are unsure which Apple ID you used to make the original purchase, access your purchase history by following these instructions. If you proceed with the following steps using a different Apple ID, you will be charged again and while Apple usually offers refunds in these scenarios, they are wholly responsible for all transactions and we can offer no recourse if they refuse.
  2. On the second device, proceed with the normal purchase process and confirm when you see a message such as this: “Are you sure you want to buy and download [name of app]? Your payment method will be charged for this purchase and your app will begin to download immediately.” Despite the wording, you will not be charged a second time if you have previously purchased that same app on another device using the same Apple ID.
  3. After this step, you will see an alert stating: “This update is free because you own a previous version of this item. To get this update now, click OK.”

The messages quoted here appear in the Mac App Store on macOS 10.15.4, other versions may be worded differently. If you have any questions or concerns before continuing, we urge you to contact Apple directly.

Discontinued Apps

Some of our discontinued apps were sold separately and do not qualify as Universal Purchases due to Apple’s limitations and policies. These apps include separate Mac versions of our apps that were available for sale between October 2019 and March 2020. If you purchased these apps and do not already own the universal (iOS) versions of them, please contact us to ensure you continue to receive free updates.

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