Frequently Asked Questions on the Mac App Store

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Why are most of your applications not available in the Mac App Store?

Software sold by Apple through the Mac App Store underlies certain limitations with respect to content and technologies used. Such programs, called “Apps”, are restricted. For example, an application that is capable of accessing files of the operating system or of other users after entering an administrator password is too powerful to be an App, so it cannot be sold in the App Store.

It would not be in the interest of our customers to cripple our pro applications, so that they could be offered through the App Store.

I have lost one of your Apps. How can I get it back without having to pay again?

After you have purchased a license to use an App, you can download it as often as you like. Such downloads are free. Just navigate to the list of purchases shown for your account in the App Store application.

I like to use the App on more than one of my computers. Do I have to buy multiple licenses?

If you are a private consumer, the answer will be no. Licenses you purchased in the Mac App Store are valid for an unlimited number of computers that you own. So there is no need to buy more than one copy.

If you represent a company or other organization, a license bought via the App Store is valid for either one single computer or one single person using multiple computers. For details in this case, please click the link App License Agreement which is displayed on the page of each App in the App Store.

How I can purchase older versions of an App for older operating systems?

Some of our Apps are available in old versions which support operating systems down to Mac OS X 10.6.6. This is listed in the Requirements section in the sidebar of the respective app's home page. Unfortunately, Apple has shut down the App Stores of Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, OS X 10.9 Mavericks.

Until recently, it was still possible to purchase licenses for apps with older operating systems, even if the latest version of the app no longer supports that older OS. However, Apple has now blocked this possibility. You will receive an error message like the following, and Apple insists that you only use the App Store with an up-to-date Mac:

Unfortunately, there is only the following solution in this situation:

1. Check on the respective "What's New" subpage on our product page for the app you are interested in, to see if a version of the app for your older operating system actually existed in the past.
2. Determine from the error message shown above which version of macOS is currently required to purchase a license for the app.
3. Find someone with a Mac that meets this minimum requirement.
4. Log in to the App Store on that Mac with your Apple account and purchase the license for the app. Log out of the App Store on the other person’s Mac.
5. In your old operating system, go to the list of your purchases in the App Store and download the older version of the app for your old operating system. This is described in more detail in the next section.

Can I download a previous version of an App if I use an older operating system which is no longer supported by the up-to-date version of the App?

Yes, in this particular case, this won't be problem. If you are using OS X 10.10 Yosemite or later, you only have to ensure that you are using the latest version of the App Store available for the old operating system:

1. Launch the App Store application.
2. Ensure you are logged in to the App Store with the Apple Account you had used when you purchased a license for the respective App from Apple.
3. Select the “Store > View my Account” menu item.
4. In the list of purchases, click on the cloud button next to the App you like to download.
5. Confirm that you like to download an old version compatible with your operating system.

Apple automatically selects the highest version compatible with your specific operating system. You cannot choose a version manually.

What should I do when I am asked to refresh my license?

If you copy an app to a different computer, or after you have used Apple's Migration Assistant to transfer data from an old Mac to a new one, your license confirmation automatically becomes invalid. In this case, the app will open a window similar to this one and you cannot use the app temporarily:

As a simple solution, you can drag the app to the Trash, open the App Store application, log in and download a fresh copy of the app.

If you don't like to do this, you can perform the following steps to refresh your license:

1. Click the button Yes in that window. A new dialog will appear, confirming that a request to refresh your license has been sent to Apple.
2. Click the button Quit in the second dialog window. This will ensure that the App Store can install a new license confirmation for the app. It also gives you a direct proof that the app itself is not part of this procedure and cannot track any of your interactions with the App Store.
3. If you are not logged into the App Store, macOS will ask for your App Store credentials. Enter the Apple Account data of the person who originally purchased the app license.
4. While you are still logged in to the App Store, relaunch the app again. It will now receive its new license.
5. If you like, you can log out the Apple Account from the App Store or via System Settings.

In very rare cases, the app may still ask to refresh the license again. This can happen if your Mac user account has never opened the App Store application, for example. In that case, macOS doesn't “know” which App Store in which country to connect to and simply does nothing. This is a known limitation of macOS. You can resolve this problem as follows:

1. Ensure that date and time are set correctly on your Mac. App Store communication is secured by digital certificates which are only valid within a specific time range.
2. Make sure your user account has launched the App Store application at least once. If you are not sure about that, launch the App Store and log in with the Apple Account data of the person who originally purchased the app license.
3. Locate the affected app in the Finder. Use a right-click on the app's icon to open the context menu and select the item Show Package Contents.
4. In the Finder window that appears, open the folder Contents and locate its sub-folder _MASReceipt.
5. Delete the folder _MASReceipt or drag it to the Trash. You may need administrator permissions to do that.
6. Relaunch the app again.

macOS refuses to start an app because it is supposedly damaged. How can this happen?

In rare cases, you may receive an error message from macOS or the App Store stating that an app is damaged and needs to be downloaded again. The message depends on the macOS version you're using and looks similar to the following example:

The app itself is not responsible for the issue. It doesn't run in the first place because macOS blocks the start. Typically, technical errors in macOS, especially in the security component Gatekeeper, are to blame. Common causes for such issues include:

• A problem with Apple's security certificates stored in your macOS installation or communication failure with Apple's internet servers for checking revoked certificates via the protocol OCLP.
• The app was copied to an insecure or non-native storage medium, such as a file server or a storage card using a FAT file system.
• The app is started very early after logging in (e.g. as a user's Login Item) before all macOS security components are ready for operation.
• You are still using macOS 10.14.6 or an earlier version of macOS, OS X, or Mac OS X after January 24, 2025.

This list does not claim to be exhaustive, but you should check if any of these conditions apply. From our side, there is no way to prevent such system errors. Note that this case differs from other error messages where the app itself confirms to be damaged. Further information can be found in the next section.

After an update, the App itself tells me its resources are damaged. What can I do?

When you update an App from the App Store, it can sometimes happen that Apple's update installer destroys parts of the software. This can especially happen if you allow automatic updates for Apps which are supposed to run all time. Because we know of this problem, all our Apps contain a security feature to detect this type of damage. In this case, you'll see a warning message similar to one of these examples (“Warning: The resources of this application have been damaged.” or “Warning: This App has been partially damaged.”):

If the App Store application has destroyed the App, please use the following instructions to resolve this problem. All documents and settings of the App will remain intact:

1. Quit the App in case it is still running.
2. Locate the icon of the App in the Finder and drag this icon to the Trash.
3. Open the App Store application and go to the section “Purchases”. You may need to identify as the user who has originally purchased the App, using your Apple Account and password.
4. Locate the damaged App in your list of purchases.
5. Press the Download button for this App in the list to initiate a new download. The download is free. A fresh copy of the App will be installed on your system, avoiding the update mechanism of macOS which has damaged the App before.

The App should now work fine. If you still experience the same problem, your computer should be checked by a service technician.

Can I copy an App to a computer which is not connected to the Internet?

You can copy the App, but it won't work. All paid Apps require an Internet connection the first time they are started on a different computer. Apple verifies if you are the legitimate user of that App.
As of summer 2024, an Internet connection may always be required, not only for the first launch.

Can you help me if placing an order or downloading an App is not working?

Unfortunately, no. Apps are sold by Apple. It is neither legally, nor technically possible to give you any direct support regarding issues with the App Store or unlocking Apps with your Apple Account.

Who should I contact if I experience problems with the Mac App Store?

Open the App Store application and click on the item Support. It will direct you to a web page which can be used to contact the App Store. Note that there are actually five different App Stores, depending on country. The following companies are the actual vendors responsible for the transactions: