How To Redownload iTunes Purchases
Written by Heather Leister
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It seems like both Apple and iTunes get a lot of bad press for some of their policies so I thought I’d share a positive experience that I had with iTunes today.
This past weekend my husband revamped my computer and installed a new version of Windows for me – goodbye Vista!! He asked me several times if I’d backed up everything that I needed to keep. I went through my hard drive and thought that I’d gotten everything. I remembered to back up my apps but wouldn’t you know it I forgot to make a copy of my iTunes library. WHOOPS. Since the husband had turned my computer into a “new machine” I was now dealing with a brand new iTunes library. This caused trauma when I tried to sync up my phone and my daughters’ iPod Nanos because where there once was music and videos there was now nothing. Luckily the majority of our music was stored on our home server but there were plenty of videos that I’d purchased through iTunes that were nowhere to be found. I’ll admit that I panicked when I thought of having to explain to my son why there was no Phineas and Ferb next time we got stuck in a waiting room. So I did what I usually do in a panic – I googled. I stumbled upon blog posts explaining how to redownload purchases from iTunes, even though their policy states that music and video can only be downloaded once. I gave it a try last night and had the best customer service experience. I had an email within twelve hours telling me that Apple would let me redownload my purchase history. So as we speak I’ve got a disgusting amount of items downloading in iTunes right now.
Here’s how I did it. Go to the support site for iTunes, here’s the link. Now you’ll want to click on the description of what you need help with – I clicked on “video purchases”, then “lost purchases”. At this point an “Email” button appeared on the screen so I clicked on that and was taken to a form to fill out. You’ll need to provide your iTunes account information as well as the names of the items you’re missing. I also included a description of why I was asking for help. I admitted it was my fault that the items weren’t backed up but asked if there was anyway Apple could help me out. Most importantly (at least to a mom) I was polite in my request. Well, it worked and I’ve learned a lesson to always make a copy of your iTunes library.
I can’t guarantee that you’ll have the same experience but I wanted to let people know that Apple’s not heartless. They do take pity on those who let their husbands near their PCs without backup.
By CableGoldens on Oct 15, 2009
I really like your site layout. Props !
By Tessie L Biggers on Sep 16, 2010
Is there a way to retrieve lost purchase made directly from your phone but never synced? I accidentally “restored” my iPhone having never synced the phone since the day I made a few purchases. After the “restore” only the items from the last sync were there on my phone. I lost a paid APP “Hipstamatic” really don’t want to pay for it again.
By The iPhone Mom on Sep 17, 2010
Tessie – Make sure you are logged in with the iTunes account you used to purchase Hipstamatic. Then “purchase” it again. It will look like you’re going to have to pay for it but a blurb will show up saying you’ve already purchased the item and are eligible for a free update. Click accept and the app will download again. Just make sure you’re logged in with the account! I’ve done this and found out I was logged in as my husband and been charged. An email to Apple will fix that though and if you explain what happened they’ll usually refund the money. Good luck!
By ifamily on Oct 12, 2010
Thanks for this link. Worked perfectly for us. We have 3 iPhones, 2 iTouchs and and iPad. My daughter lost her iPhone and had not sync’d in over a month. I chose to use the chat feature, not email, and was connect in 5 seconds to someone. She was very helpful and reset all my daughter’s downloads so that the next time she logs into iTunes, she’ll get all her purchases back. A totally amazing customer experience!
By scott on Oct 30, 2010
Please Read Apple’s download replacement policy: Summary
When you buy a song, video, iPod Game, or album from the iTunes Store, you are entitled to download it only once.
Note: Some content types are not available in some iTunes Store countries.
By The iPhone Mom on Oct 31, 2010
True – but my experience has been that Apple’s customer service will probably work with you if you’ve lost the download. Customers shouldn’t abuse the policy and download extras excessively but it’s nice to know they’ll work with you if there’s been a goof and you’ve lost everything. They were extremely helpful when I explained my situation and it sounds like they’ve also worked with others.
By Jennifer on Jan 8, 2011
Thank you so much for posting this! I have an iPod touch and when I decided to update the software, it went into recovery mode, erasing all of my media. I was a goof for not backing up my library before I did the update, but thanks to you, I got everything back!! Thankfully! Best customer service experience ever… you are right, Apple is not heartless.
Thanks again!
By Melanie on Jan 18, 2011
Thank you so much!
I actually followed this when trying to recover 80 items I had previously purchased.
They were so kind! They uploaded all 80 onto my “Needed for Update” section, and they all downloaded within 20 minutes, without any effort! The email they sent me back was within 12 hours, and was step by step how to resolve my oops.
I did admit blame (forgot to back up) and they said no problem, one time!
Thank you so much for this!
I was so excited to get it all back!
By The iPhone Mom on Jan 18, 2011
Hooray! So glad it worked for you!
By mitchellb on Feb 17, 2011
Just finished submitting my request. I sort of knew about this, but what I was looking for was evidence that the request still currently works. Thank you.
By Sohail on Feb 26, 2011
what if all the apps, videos and music has gone, and you cant remember all the names, then what do you do? please help…
By The iPhone Mom on Feb 26, 2011
The names of everything you purchased should show up in your “Purchase History”. You can see that when you’re logged in and looking at the iTunes store. I believe I didn’t list everything I’d lost, just mentioned it was all gone.
By nunya on Apr 3, 2011
itunes sed you can only download somethign once or you gatta buy it again
By Doretta on Apr 4, 2011
Thank you for this blog. That’s all I can say. You most definitely have made this blog into something thats eye opening and important. You clearly know so much about the subject, youve covered so many bases. Great stuff from this part of the internet. Again, thank you for this blog.
By Dustin on Jun 12, 2011
I’ve had to use the iTunes Support multiple times to recover data purchased from the store. This was not out of abuse, but out of my own stupidity multiple times. They were polite and happy to let me redownload my data multiple times. As long as you are kind to them and don’t do it every single day, they will be kind to you.
By Ellen on Jul 18, 2011
Your experience with Apple was the same as mine. Apple really treats their customers like family, which is great. But, Apple did tell me that the restoral of my purchases was a ONE TIME assistance they will provide and that it is the exception, not the rule.
By Maria on Oct 25, 2011
From one mom to another – THANK YOU!!
By Dustin on Oct 31, 2011
I just updated my iphone 4 to the new 5 whatever and as soon as it downloaded, all of my apps re-downloaded with it. A few minutes later, everything was gone. Nothing showed up anywhere. Even my back-ups were gone from my computer. I had no idea what happened – still don’t.
Just wanted people to know what I did. So I use windows, I opened Itunes and connected my phone. Went to the itunes store on the left side and then on the right side I signed in and went to apps. On the far right under “app store quick links I clicked Purchased. Then I clicked apps and in the bottom right hand corner “download all.” this downloaded everything i ever downloaded to my phone on to my computer. There were around 200 apps, so it took about an hour or so. After that, i clicked on my iphone under devices on the left hand side, clicked apps on the top, clicked sync apps, and everything is back on my phone. i had tried everything anyone else had told me, and kinda figured this out on my own. it worked perfect, and i didnt have to remember what apps i downloaded and download them individually, or call or email apple. i did it all myself and it only took about five minutes of clicking and an hour or two of waiting!
By The iPhone Mom on Nov 1, 2011
Yay! You found the new “Purchased” in iTunes…so glad Apple has included that. It saved me a when I updated as well. Glad you got all your apps back! Thanks for sharing.
By Leigha on Nov 6, 2011
So, if I had purchased 50 or so songs on my iphone but never got to sync them to my computer before it broke, I can still recover those songs? How?
By The iPhone Mom on Nov 6, 2011
Leigha – Try this newer post – hopefully it’ll help – http://www.theiphonemom.com/?p=11943 – it tells how to use the new purchased feature in iTunes. ~ Heather
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