So, I’ll give a somewhat long explanation that might sound a bit weird, so please bear with me for a bit.

Back in 2010, I was in Europe, when by the end of the trip I decided to purchase a (then) brand new original iPad. I loved it, used it a lot, and also spent A LOT on apps and games for it. My favorite games were Infinity blade I and II, Plants vs Zombies, and a Tap Tap rhythm game, but I had hundreds others.

The iPad lasted a bit more than 2 years, when with no warning the screen went totally black in only HALF of it, and fix people would charge a fortune for a new one. It was almost the cost of a brand new device.

This lack of durability for such a premium product (or what should be, at least), together with a broken expectation that previous Apple users made me have that their products were built to last, made me become totally against other iOS based machines. At the time (2012), things were not as clear as today about the duration of devices and so, and the price Apple charged for tablets did not seem to grant them the benefit of doubt.

So, for 10 whole years I kept myself away from iOS machines, and went full Android for mobile devices.

A month ago, I had an opportunity to choose a company phone, any model, so I for some reason decided to go for an iPhone 14.

One of the first things I decided to search for was my old app purchases.

To my surprise, most of them GONE. Pretty much 95% of them.

They don’t appear in my purchase history at all. Only apps that, apparently, are still supported (like some productivity ones).

And, the most incredible thing of all: the invoice e-mails that used to go to a dedicated folder on my Gmail ARE ALSO GONE! (And I wouldn't know about that since I had no reason to check that folder before now.)

Freaking unbelievable!

Thousands of dollars that seem to have gone to waste!!!!

I decided to ask here, since the community is wide and knowledgeable in many different subjects, before sending a very unpolite letter to Apple (and probably also to Google).

Any takes on the situation? Are those situations completely covered by the terms of use?

I’d just check with their customer service. They’re usually fairly good (at Apple and Google, and other big services too, such as Microsoft, Amazon, Netflix, etc…).

I’m not sure about the gmail thing, the email address for apple accounts used to be .me.com, and for the past decade or so has been .iCloud.com. Maybe that can help.

Just as someone who once upon a time worked in customer service before, being rude at employees won’t get you anywhere faster, that’s where the term Karen came from.

Seriously, you bought thousands of dollars worth in apps? But I guess all those addictive Kairosoft games add up (there’s like, what? 900 of them now?):D

Yeah, it's sad, I know. XD. But it was the very beginning of this type of purchases for me, and I went for some very expensive apps back in the day, like MOOG synthesizer app for instance.

I don't know but mine still knows I once downloaded Doodle Jump and Temple Run at some point (just checked), which was on my iPod Touch 1st Gen back in 2008 or something. These purchases or downloads are all connected to your AppleID, so if you use the same one as back then it should be good and things should be redownloadable. Unless something's been removed from the store in the meantime for whatever reason or something's not supported anymore (which would be on the developer) I guess, but that's the hazard of digital I'd say. The email thing sounds like a Google Gmail issue. Beyond that, like I said I don't know but I'd follow Jumpin's suggestion and just contact customer support.

I don't know if this is possible with apps on iPad, but if the apps are still present on my old phone even when they are removed from app store, they get transferred if I select to not set up up my new phone as a new phone and instead use a safety copy on iTunes for my new device.

I have noticed that a few things have disappeared from my downloaded list in app store as well, but at least my receipt have still been present in my mail.
But for a few songs I bought a long time ago that's not the case, cannot find any proof of my actually buying them even if i used one of them as my wake up ringtone for several years. But that was just a few bucks, so it did not bother me as much.

This is interesting t know. Thanks. Still not much data but a path similar to what I described.

I just checked and both those games are still supported and appear on the App Store as downloadable options. Can you check for some games that are not supported anymore, if you have any, and see if they still appear on your account? Thanks in advance.

When I go to the list of purchased apps on my iPhone (in the in the account menu in the App store, icon/your AppleID avatar top right) and then 'All purchases", it seems to list everything; from the most recent thing up until my supposed very first app from 2008. Side-note, jeez you really needed apps for every standard thing back then, I mean I once downloaded an alarm clock app, and a flashlight app among lots of other basic stuff.

But anyway, next to all those is either "Open" for those that are currently on my iPhone, or an iCloud logo with a down arrow, for those that aren't. By far most are coloured and I can tap them and it goes to that app's page where I can download them, but indeed some, especially older ones, are greyed out, and I can't tap them (anymore). Or actually I can but it says "can't connect" when I do. So yeah it seems some old stuff is no longer available to download, or missing, but they're still named, dated and have their icon in this list at least. The newest thing that's greyed out for me is from 2013, while I can still download my second-to-oldest app, also from 2008. Still, I do remember I once had a public transport app and a ‘Darts’ game on my iPod Touch, which I can't seem to find in this list. And if those are missing, maybe more's missing. I don't know if either things older than 2008 aren't in this list, or that I maybe downloaded those pre-AppleID and it has something to do with how I backed-up and transferred those things to newer devices, or if it is missing because of something else..

In light of that Pajderman's suggestion of setting up a new phone from a safety copy seems worth investigating, if you still have the old iPad and it is still in working order, but I wouldn't know if that still works across such a big generational gap.

The apps you bought 10 years ago were 32-bit apps, they can still be downloaded to iOS versions up to iOS 10
Only the popular ones were ported to 64-bit later.

iOS 11 and above don't support 32-bit apps. That's why I kept my iPad Air 1 with iOS 10.3.3 for these older apps/games.

Thank you so much for going through the trouble of looking into this! I'll investigate further and keep you posted.