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.