If you take the time to explore comments left by users in the App Store, you will notice that some of the negative remarks posted are based on groundless criticism, often triggered by lack of proper understanding of how the App Store works. Thankfully, this type of negativity is only occasional; yet, the kind of misinformation accompanying it can affect negatively a developer’s sales. For most developers with one or more apps in the top ten, it’s not a big deal: unfair negative ratings are just a drop in the ocean. For smaller scale developers or relatively less popular apps though, even a couple of negative ratings can make a huge difference, thus it would be better if people learned to use the power they are given properly.
One reason people leave negative feedback in the App Store: if they delete an app from their iDevice, when they download it again, they see all their in-app purchases are gone. Instead of asking for support, they cast their one-star rating, thinking this will serve developers right. It’s true — and not very clever — that many developers don’t take the time to write accurate guides, telling users what to do in cases like the one I mentioned. Still, even if many developers are very eager to offer support, a lot of users prefer resorting the aggressive low rating method to let them know about their discontent, rather than asking for help.
More than a few apps these days offer in-app purchases: meaning that, even in the case the app comes for free, you buy some additional feature not included with the regular version of the app. In the case of photography apps, for example, through in-app purchase you often unlock new effects, higher resolution saving, ads removal, etc. When you delete the app from your iDevice, you obviously remove all its content as well, in-app purchases included. Upon downloading the app again, you are given the app without any extra in-app content, whether you have previously bought it or not. This is when the average user gets lost and, often, rushes to cast a one-star rating.
Some apps simply let you re-download your content again, charging nothing for the new downloading process: the developer has record you have already purchased that content before. At first, everything will look as it was the first time: you will not necessarily be warned that you are trying to purchase again something that you have already paid for. This might indeed be scary, but go ahead, because just before the download starts, a pop-up message will remind you that you are entitled to download the content for free, since you have already paid for it.
Other apps have a feature called “Restore Purchases”. This may look confusing when you read it, but restoring simply re-downloads or unlocks all the content you have paid for, without having to go through the process of manually selecting several items and downloading them individually. Restore is especially useful in apps where there are multiple in-app items that can be purchased. Not all apps featuring in-app purchases include a Restore Purchases action, but some do.
Anyhow, only non-consumable purchases – virtual items that you cannot use up – can be restored. Photography apps usually feature only this type of purchase, but other genres of apps, like freemium games, rely on consumable purchases like virtual credits, which cannot be restored.
Closing comments
It’s in your right to offer your feedback in the App Store and developers definitely appreciate it. However, always try to be fair before you give your rating and make sure you are not missing some important detail; if you have doubts or if you find yourself stuck, take some time to look for adequate information or, when possible, contact developers for support.
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There is a problem with Hipstamatic’s limited edition packs, films, lenses. Once they are discontinued, they cannot be restored. Users have been complaining about this, and Hipstamatic offered all their discontinued packs etc, just a few weeks ago. So be sure that your favorite lens is still on offer before restoring purchases.
Or, re-select Hipstamatic in iTunes to sync it back into the device. This should work, I haven’t tried it.
Thanks for pointing that out. However, I am quite sure that’s not 100% correct: I am not sure about issues with other users, but myself I have tried doing this in Hipstamatic and I could restore limited editions I had previously purchased before.
I tried restoring also before the RetroPak release and after the limited edition purchases were virtually discontinued, anyway, and it worked at the time. I had the whole Dali Museum GoodPak restored, in fact.
Yeah, the problem affects a small amount of users. Some have said it helps if you restore when you are on Wifi with strong signal, others have said this doesn’t help either.
I lost my old ipad a week ago, and now I brought a new ipad2, Can I restore all of my applications purchased from App store before for my old ipad? When I installed my new ipad2, I found the applications I purchased before are nolonger on my iturns’s purchased list, can I get them back? Thank you for help!
If you have a previous backup of your iPad, you can do it easily using “restore from backup”.
Anyway, iOS 4.3.3 (or later versions) keeps track of your past purchases, so even with no backup, you should be able to download all your purchases again through the “Purchased” tab in your device’s App Store. Just be sure to sign in with the same account you previously used. A complete guide can be found here.
Good advice.
As a developer it does frustrate me when people don’t read the app description, support page, or ask for help and then leave a negative review, as there is no way for us to respond. Most of the time their problem is some particular wrinkle in how their device is configured, and if they ask us we are always happy to help.
MailShot has an in-app upgrade to create up to 50 groups of 50 or more contacts, and quite a few of our customers don’t realise they can simply download a non-consumable in-app purchase again without a second charge. occasionally we have even been unfairly accused of “ripping them off” because they went and downloaded our free-standing pre-upgraded version from the App Store instead.
It is a shame we can’t respond to reviews.
Peter
Soluble Apps
Developer of “MailShot” and “MailShot Pro”- group emailing built into your favourite apps.
Trololololololol
Thanks for the advice. I searched for hours for this solution. You convinced me to go ahead with the repeat purchase of the full game unlock option and I did indeed get the message about having already purchased and do I want to reload it.