iVerse and iBooks--Restore in-app purchases on iPad?

[SteelWheel]

So I was all ready to backup my iPad 1 for the last time, and get ready to migrate everything over to my (as yet still in the box) iPad 2. Naturally, this was the precise moment that the dock connector on my iPad 1 decided to go on the fritz. Couldn't get it to charge via the power adapter, or be recognized by my computer to start syncing.

Took the iPad over to the local Apple store, and to my surprise they presented me with a brand new 64GB, 3G, 1st Gen iPad (I was expecting they would just repair/replace the dock connector). Restoring from backup was almost perfect, except: I buy a lot of comic books on my iPad. All the various comic readers appear not to back up purchased content, but rather just keep track of that which has been purchased. Took me over a day (!) to redownload content purchased via the DC Comics/Marvel/Comixology apps (all more or less the same thing), but at least I got it all.

On the other hand, the content purchased via the iVerse apps (Comics+ app and the Archie Comics app) seems to be unrecoverable. So far I've been getting a runaround from the people at iVerse Media. They insist that I can redownload the content--whenever I attempt to do that, the damn thing tries to charge me again.

Also annoying (although much less so) my iBooks all restored fine--but I had downloaded a fair amount of samples, and those just disappeared when I opened the iBooks app for the first time.

Anyone have any experience with either of these? Help with the comics stuff in particular would be really handy right now. They're not going to get me to pay twice for the same thing.

 

[iVerse Michael]

No one here at iVerse is giving you the run-around.

Restoring your In-App-Purchases is done through your Apple ID. As long as you are using the same Apple ID you have previously purchased the comics through, you will be able to redownload them for free.

To restore your comics you just need to touch the "More" button on the bottom bar in the store...then touch "Restore In-App-Purchases" and it will ask you for your iTunes ID and password. After you enter this it will then begin to download the books you have previously purchased.

We use this feature all the time, if you do this and it does not work, you may need to contact Apple support and see if there is an issue with your Apple ID.

Alternatively, you can redownload any book you have previously purchased from the store one at a time...like all Apple In-App-Purchases it will ask you if you want to buy it, if you say yes - and you have already purchased the item - a prompt will pop-up telling you that you have already purchased this item and can redownload it for free.

 

[Night Spring]

Also annoying (although much less so) my iBooks all restored fine--but I had downloaded a fair amount of samples, and those just disappeared when I opened the iBooks app for the first time.

Unfortunately, iBooks samples aren't backed up, and Apple doesn't keep track of which samples you've downloaded, so no, there's no way to get them back.

 

[SteelWheel]

To restore your comics you just need to touch the "More" button on the bottom bar in the store...then touch "Restore In-App-Purchases" and it will ask you for your iTunes ID and password. After you enter this it will then begin to download the books you have previously purchased.

Not exactly true, as I ultimately discovered after an extremely labor-intensive near all-nighter.

In order to restore in-app-purchases, I found that I had to first attempt to open each book by hand. I would then get an error message, telling me that I needed to re-download the book. As for free books, you're right, I "merely" had to find each book and re-install it. This too was a large PITA, as the searchability of content within the Comics+ app is woefully poor. The only way to discover free content is to browse through the free section or to search for the book directly--but there's no way to search for books by title in the app as far as I can see. The only way to narrow things down a bit is to search by genre (can you please tell me what distinguishes the genres "Action" and "Adventure"?) or by publisher. Seriously? Publisher? I'm supposed to remember who published any given comic, in order to find and redownload it? Wouldn't it be better to offer the user a way to search by something really simple and obvious, like, for example, "Title"?

All of this was extremely time-consuming, and very inelegant. As Apple (presumably) rolls out more and more iterations of iOS devices, and the virtual collections of your users grow, more and more people are going to be finding themselves in my situation. There really ought to be an automagic way for people to re-download their collections--one that does not require the user to sit in front of his device, attempt to open a comic, have it go poof, and then try to remember who published the comic in question. If it becomes too difficult to migrate one's collection to new devices, then one of the great advantages of "comics on an iPad" is taken away--the immediate accessibility and portability aspect. It's almost enough to drive someone back to conventional paper comics.

btw, my redownload of Witchblade #1 is in a continual hang, and can't seem to complete no matter what I do.

Now I'm dreading unboxing my iPad2, since I know I'll have to go through this maddening process all over again.

ok, not quite a runaround--nevertheless, the first communication I had with an iVerse employee didn't quite explain the process by which one reacquires one's comics. And I still contend that this whole re-acquisition procedure should be able to be completed in a manner which is much more transparent to the user than the steps that I had to take.