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Transferring Mac Apps to More Than One Computer
And since my wife and I both have our own Mac, we like to use a lot of the same apps. Well, as we found, there is a legal way to share your apps that you buy. Apple lets you buy an app on one computer and lets you download it onto as many computers as you like. This works the same way with iPhone and iPad apps as well.
Now, not every app developer lets Apple do this, but most of them do. I have always wondered why Apple lets people do this as they could potentially lose a lot of money, but hey, for us consumers, this is great news. Let me show you how it works.
The first thing that you are going to want to do is go and find an app that you want to download from the Mac App Store. You are going to want to make sure you know who you are logged in under. Download the app onto your computer. Then you are going to want to go to the other computer and open the Mac App Store. Then log in with the same credentials that you logged in on the original computer that you bought the app on.
Once you do this, you will now want to click on the “Purchases” tab. Here you will see all of the apps that were purchased on the original computer. All the apps that are not installed on the second computer will show up as apps that you can install on the computer. For example, I purchased Courier on my computer. Then I logged into my wife’s computer with my Mac App Store credentials and then you can see that she can now install the app on her computer.
And that is it. You are now done. I love the fact that you can share apps. You should definitely try this out.
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{ 20 comments… read them below or add one }
Isn’t the number of computers able to install limited to those authorised on your iTunes account? I thought there was a limit of 5 computers allowed to access your account.
Hello Sarah.
I only have direct access to 3 Mac that I use the App Store on and it definatly works for all of them.
I have done some more reading and from what I can see the 5 limit that iTunes has doesn’t apply to apps from the App Store. Certainly keen to hear from someone who may have tried more than 5 to validate this.
Peter
Validated! No problems at all. Doesn’t seem to be any licensing problems with the apps (yet)
do compueters have apps ?
hi Peter, I’ve just downloaded ‘pages’ onto my mac but when I tried to download it on my macbook pro it is asking me to ‘pay again’ … any thoughts, am i doing something wrong?
Ritchie,
Are you sure you’re using the same apple id on both computers?
That is probably the reason it’s not working.
Peter
I’m also prompted with the billing info page. I know for a fact I’m using the same username. Maybe the latest update has removed the install feature without paying again.
I have the same problem. Some of the apps that I bought on the old computer show up on the purchase page of the app store, but not all of them. Keynote, for instance is missing.
I had to click buy, it asks you if you want to purchase it, I clicked yes, and then it told me I had already purchased it and would I like to download it. So it looks like you’ll need to pay again, but in my case, I didn’t. I was installing the new Pages and Numbers that I’d bought on my iMac when it was first avail at the App Store. I just installed it on my Macbook today. No issues.
I have downloaded paid apps to multiple computers (5+) with no problems at all! This is good news for educators who only need to buy one copy for all students!
Mark: dont think that’s really how it’s meant to work. seems like its breaking the agreement of the install. i mean, for all students to get something for free using their teachers’ credentials.. not very morale.
BAH! It’s allowed explicitly if for personal, educational and not commercial
i need help geting it on
Thanks for sharing the information useful stuff.
thanks for the tip!! i was trying to find out how to compress files back into dmgs but this works even better!
No problem Dustin, glad you’ve got it working!
Hi Peter,
This is very useful to know. I have iPad and in next few days i will get new iPhone. So I can use same apps on bought devices. Very cool
I have downloaded several free apps from the App store onto my iPad. These apps also load onto my iPhone at the same time which is great, however they also load onto my wife’s iPhone which is not linked to my iTunes account. How do I stop this from happening?
Doug, are you sure your wife’s phone is not using the same apple id?
I would go into the App Store and sign out of the iTunes account altogether on her phone and that would stop it (Sign in to her apple id if she has one)
You must have the same Apple ID on her phone, but even if you do you can go into Preferences > Store and turn off the option to automatically download purchased apps, music, etc.
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