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Beta 4 cannot update an app purchased by another user

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BrettDS

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Nov 14, 2012
1,489
635
Orlando
So this is kind of interesting. After I installed beta 4 I noticed that I had a few apps that needed updating. On one of them I get the message "Update unavailable with This Apple ID... This update is not available for this Apple ID either because it was bought by a different user or the item was refunded or canceled".

It definitely wasn't refunded or canceled, but it likely was originally 'purchased' with my wife's Apple ID. (I say 'purchased' because it is a free app). The interesting thing is that I have set up family sharing and my wife, so theoretically I should have access to anything that she purchased anyway.

This is something that was originally downloaded to my device with my wife's Apple ID long before family sharing existed, so I'm not sure if this means that we'll need to delete and re-install any apps so that it recognizes family sharing or if it's just a beta 4 bug.
 
BrettDS said:
So this is kind of interesting. After I installed beta 4 I noticed that I had a few apps that needed updating. On one of them I get the message "Update unavailable with This Apple ID... This update is not available for this Apple ID either because it was bought by a different user or the item was refunded or canceled".

It definitely wasn't refunded or canceled, but it likely was originally 'purchased' with my wife's Apple ID. (I say 'purchased' because it is a free app). The interesting thing is that I have set up family sharing and my wife, so theoretically I should have access to anything that she purchased anyway.

This is something that was originally downloaded to my device with my wife's Apple ID long before family sharing existed, so I'm not sure if this means that we'll need to delete and re-install any apps so that it recognizes family sharing or if it's just a beta 4 bug.
Click to expand...

App sharing is not yet enabled. It has to be turned on by the developer which they cannot do until iOS 8 is released. You do not have access to all apps purchased by her apple ID automatically.
 
Stuke00 said:
App sharing is not yet enabled. It has to be turned on by the developer which they cannot do until iOS 8 is released. You do not have access to all apps purchased by her apple ID automatically.
Click to expand...

What? Since iOS 2 it was possible to log in on any other device, install any of my own purchased apps and log out. That user can then use my app and receive updates just fine, some iOS version would ask for my password though.
 
freemini said:
What? Since iOS 2 it was possible to log in on any other device, install any of my own purchased apps and log out. That user can then use my app and receive updates just fine, some iOS version would ask for my password though.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I've been doing the same thing. Before iOS 6 or 7 you had to enter the PW for the account that owned the app before it would update, but this is definitely new behavior.

I'm assuming it's related to the family sharing option as they set up the framework to support it. For me it won't really matter as its just my wife and I that have shared apps anyway.
 
freemini said:
What? Since iOS 2 it was possible to log in on any other device, install any of my own purchased apps and log out. That user can then use my app and receive updates just fine, some iOS version would ask for my password though.
Click to expand...

You are correct, I have done the same. It prompts you to enter the password of the AppleID which was used to buy that app in the first place.
 
navodwickra said:
You are correct, I have done the same. It prompts you to enter the password of the AppleID which was used to buy that app in the first place.
Click to expand...
Seems like that might have changed in the latest iOS 8 beta.
 
Can you not just log out of the App Store and log back in with the other account and update?
 
digi999 said:
Can you not just log out of the App Store and log back in with the other account and update?
Click to expand...

I would imagine I could, but I haven't tried yet. It would definitely be a bit of a pain to do so and I don't really care about this particular update. I'm interested to see if this changes or starts working again in beta 5 or if this is just how it's going to be.

I'm also interested to see if other apps fail to update in the same way. I'm reasonably certain that other apps that were purchased with my wife's apple ID have updated successfully in beta 4 (unfortunately I'm not sure that I remember for sure which apps were purchased with her ID and which were purchased with mine and there doesn't seem to be a really easy way to tell)

I wonder if it's possible that the developer of this app opted out of family sharing and that's why it's failing to update or if there's something else going on. (Although it's a free bible app, so I can't imagine why the developer would opt out of family sharing, but it seems like it might be a possibility)
 
OK, so this is getting even more interesting. I realized that I could get a reasonably good idea of whether I purchased an app with my account or if it was purchased with my wife's account by going to the app store, then purchases, then selecting My Purchases or my wife's purchases and searching for the app. If an app doesn't exist in My Purchases, but does in my wife's purchases, then I think it's safe to assume that it was purchased with her account.

So here's the interesting bit. If I go to my iPad and search for this particular app it doesn't show up at all... under my purchases or my wife's purchases. But if I go to my wife's iPad it does show up for her under her 'My Purchases". I'm thinking either there's some sort of funky bug with this particular app or family sharing is denied for it.
 
Not to spam my own thread too much, but it looks like family sharing is definitely denied. I just noticed that when I search for the app on my wife's iPad under her 'My Purchases' it says "Not Shareable" Additionally, I hadn't noticed this before, but if you go to the details of the app and scroll down to the "Information" section one of the lines says "Family Sharing" and this particular app says "Family Sharing: Not Available". Most other apps say "Family Sharing: Yes".

So, after all that, it appears that either this developer explicitly denied family sharing or perhaps they did nothing and it was not shared by default. (As I said above, it seems kind of silly for a developer to deny sharing on a free bible app, but I guess stranger things have happened;) )

It looks like the ability to sign into the app store for a friend and share apps may be coming to an end. I wonder if this would still work if my wife was not part of my 'family' or if the only way you'll be able to share apps now is with people who are part of your 'family'. Does anyone have any apps that were downloaded with another account that are still updating for them?

----------

OK, one more post on my own thread. I just started playing around in the app store and clicking on some of the featured apps to get an idea of how many apps were actually sharaeable and I came across one other option. If you look at the app "Monster High Ghouls and Jewels" (don't judge... I just clicked on it because it was on the features page;) ) it says "Family Sharing: Yes, for purchases after Jun 17, 2014"
 
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