Reinstall Previous Apps

[southerndoc]

I'm still toying with the idea of doing a fresh installation for a new Mac Studio arriving tomorrow.

Is there a way to automatically install all purchased macOS apps from the app store if doing a clean install? Have a feeling I'll have to do it manually, but thought I would ask.

 

[Apple_Robert]

As far as I am aware, it isa a manual process.

 

[bogdanw]

Is there a way to automatically install all purchased macOS apps from the app store

All? In my case it would be thousands

You can automate the installation of apps from the App Store with mas-cli https://github.com/mas-cli/mas
Install the latest release (mas-2.3.0.pkg at the moment https://github.com/mas-cli/mas/releases/download/v2.3.0/mas-2.3.0.pkg), sign in into the App Store and use mas from Terminal to install apps. Example for iMovie:

mas install 408981434

You can include all apps in a script and run it after a fresh install. Example for Pages, Numbers, Keynote and iMovie

#!/bin/zsh
mas install 409201541
mas install 09203825
mas install 409183694
mas install 408981434

You can get the ID of each app from App Store, share button – copy link
Pages https://apps.apple.com/app/pages/id409201541
Numbers https://apps.apple.com/app/numbers/id409203825
Keynote https://apps.apple.com/app/keynote/id409183694
iMovie https://apps.apple.com/app/imovie/id408981434

 

[Daverich4]

Can you run Migration Assistant after setting up the computer to install the apps? I’ve never tried it but wondered if it’s possible?

 

[gilby101]

Is there a way to automatically install all purchased macOS apps from the app store if doing a clean install? Have a feeling I'll have to do it manually, but thought I would ask.

Not that hard to do manually. Login to the App Store. Click on your avatar at bottom left. That gives you a list of all that you have purchased or installed. Just a single click on each one. The downloads will continue in the background whilst you scroll down and click. Helps to have a list of what you really want to install.

Non App Store apps are harder/slower.

 

[southerndoc]

Not that hard to do manually. Login to the App Store. Click on your avatar at bottom left. That gives you a list of all that you have purchased or installed. Just a single click on each one. The downloads will continue in the background whilst you scroll down and click. Helps to have a list of what you really want to install.

Non App Store apps are harder/slower.

Yeah, that's exactly what I did. Only had about 5-8 apps that I had to download from the web and install.

I wish all my apps were through the App Store. I hate how MS Teams has a standalone autoupdater app to keep it updated. I prefer how the App Store handles updates.