This week, Epic Games made the decision to pull all of its Infinity Blade games from Apple’s App Store. For fans of the franchise, it was a huge bummer. An even bigger bummer: if you had temporarily removed the app from your phone, now you can’t get it back from the App Store.
While on the surface it might look like all is lost, as long as you’ve downloaded an app before, you can download it again.
The only way this one works is if you’ve downloaded an app in the past and you’re signed in under the same account you originally downloaded it under on the device. So, if you missed out on downloading something before it was pulled from the store, or you were using it on your friend’s phone, you’re out of luck.
To find your missing apps, go to the App Store and then select Updates followed by Purchased (on an iPad this is behind your profile icon at the top right).
You should see a list here of every app you’ve ever purchased using that user ID. You can tap “Not on this iPad” or “Not on this iPhone” to see everything you’ve ever downloaded that’s not currently on your device. Or you can use the search button to just jump straight to what you’re looking for.
When you find the app you want. Tap the cloud icon beside the app to download it.
My own quick perusal on my App Store account found what appears to be the first app I ever downloaded: AIM on July 11, 2008.
Keep in mind that if an app has been removed from the store, like my precious AIM, then it’s likely no longer being supported by the developer as well. That means your user experience might not be what it once was, or very pleasant at all.
With future versions of iOS, that app also might eventually become incompatible with your device.
Sadly for me, that AIM app downloads, but I can’t actually sign in and hear that iconic door opening sound once again.
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