Question about app purchases

[Eric8199]

So here's the deal. I recently purchased an iPod Touch that I am using until this June/July when my Alltel contract finally runs out and I can get an iPhone. At that time the iPod Touch will become my wife's.

I have a few apps I would like to purchase, but I am going to want them on my iPhone. If I purchase them now on the Touch, can I put them on my iPhone later, or will I have to buy them again? Does iTunes allow you to put the same purchased app on multiple devices, if they are your own personal devices? The iPhone and Touch will be synced with the same computer. I'm thinking this shouldn't be a problem, but I want to make sure before I blow $3 on LineRider (for boring business meetings of course), and I can't transfer it over to my iPhone when I get it in a couple months.

Anyone have any insight on this?

 

[iFerd]

You won't need to purchase your applications a second time when you get your iPhone, so long as the iPhone is synced to the same iTunes account. Even if you have to download them again, you can do so for free as often as you wish.

I think the same will apply for the touch when it becomes a second device, so long as it is also synced to your iTunes account. If your wife has her own iTunes account, she won't be able to run apps you purchased if she syncs her "new" touch to her own account.

I'm not sure what to say about two devices being synced to the same computer and the same account though. Perhaps someone else with that experience can weigh in.

Edit: There is another relevant thread here in this forum: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/664549/

 

[Small White Car]

As long as they're synced to the same iTunes store account, you can put the app on multiple devices.

In fact, I can buy an app on my iPhone, call my wife and say "get this app" and she can go onto her iPod and download it for free at that point!

Otherwise, I can sync it to the computer later and then her iPod after that, but even without doing that the store knows that your account owns that app and lets you download it for free.

Also, when you get your phone, backup you iPod first. You can restore the phone using the iPod's backup, thus getting nearly everything set the way you like it.

 

[Eric8199]

Awesome, thanks a ton for the advice about backing up too. I never would have thought of that! Then I won't have to redownload all of my apps.

Thanks guys, I appreciate it.

 

[Small White Car]

Awesome, thanks a ton for the advice about backing up too. I never would have thought of that! Then I won't have to redownload all of my apps.

Make sure all the apps on your computer. The backup doesn't backup the actual apps and music. It simply backs-up the data of WHICH ones you should have in the pod or phone. (It does backup the personal data within the app if it's something you enter data into.) So they still have to transfer from the computer, it's just that you don't have to tell it what playlists and what apps to copy.

So be sure, before upgrading, to right-click your iPod in iTunes and tell it to transfer purchases back to the computer. Then right-click it and force it to backup AGAIN before you plug the phone in.