What to do when the apps you have paid for are pullled down from app store? - Magzium

shravya | On 25, Jan 2013

Its not so uncommon to find some of your favorite apps being pulled down by the app store. So after getting an new phone and going to the app store just to find out that the app you have paid for is no longer available definitely gives raise to remorse.

The apps could be pulled down either because of acquisition of company or developer by a bigger company or the app store people may yank it down as it went afoul. Unfortunately these situations are not in users control but that doesn’t mean the user has no options other than just to accept. Be it android or IOS, you can always back up the apps you have paid for. You obviously won’t get bug fixes or updates since the app is dead but atleast you will always have the version you own available to you.

Android Users:

Users may choose to back up their entire phone or just the app of their choice.

Titanium Backup: If you choose to backup your entire phone you may choose an app like Titanium backup. It backs-up all your apps to SD card or Dropbox depending on your choice. So when you wish to use a new phone all you have to do is install Titanium Backup and point to the dropbox folder or your SD card which has your backups to restore your apps. But this method requires rooting of your android device.

File Explorer: You can use file explorers like ES File Explorer or Astro File Manager or File Expert to backup and install specific apps. If you already have a file explorer installed on your device navigate to where your phone apps are installed and copy it to your SDcards or dropbox folder. Here each app is still an APK so when you download it to a phone where the app isn’t installed it will prompt you automatically.

IOS Users:

Iphone and Ipad users make sure you have backed up your devices either to iCloud or iTunes on your computer. If you have never backed up until now here’s how you do it. Connect your device to your PC and launch iTunes. When you see your device on the side bar right-click it and choose ‘Transfer Purchases from’ to get those apps onto your computer. Upon transferring go to apps tab in iTunes, choose the app you wish to backup, right-click it and select ‘show in explorer’ (for windows) or ‘show in finder’ (for OS X) to reveal its file location. Now copy the IPA file to any safe folder. Now when you are ready to install it on another app just side load it. You will need to log into your Apple account for iTunes to install it onto your device on next sync.

Incase you plan on using iCloud backups you can’t restore specific applications using it instead you will have to restore new device as a copy of another device or restore your current device back to the time when the app was available on it.

Refund policy:

If the app you have paid for has been removed from the app-store you may ask the store people (Google or Apple) or the developer to refund your amount. Though none of them are obligated to pay you any amount there have been instances where refund was given. So you can give it a shot.

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