How To Get An App Store Refund On Your Mac Or iPhone

Hi, this is Gary with MacMost.com. Today let's look at how to get an App Store refund from Apple.

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So from time to time you make a purchase from Apple and you need get a refund. Maybe it was an accidental purchase. Maybe the app or whatever it is you bought just doesn't work very well. You can request this a couple different ways depending upon if you're on your Mac or on your iPhone. This works for any iTunes Store purchase. So that's Mac apps, iOS apps, songs, movies, books. Anything that you buy from Apple using one of the online stores that's a digital product. But there's no guarantee that you'll actually be able to get a refund. Let's take a look.

Now you think if you made a purchase in the Mac App Store that there would be a way to request a refund in the Mac App Store. Instead you want to go to iTunes. iTunes is still the place you go for accessing all of your purchases across all the digital stores. Now if you're running macOS Catalina by the time you see this, then you go to the Music App. Believe it or not the Music app is where you go for the same exact functionality. So even if you purchased an app you want to go to iTunes or the Music app to request a refund.

Start by going to the Account Menu at the top. There you'll see an option for View My Accounts. Select that. Then you'll be asked to sign in. On the next screen you'll scroll down and you'll see Purchase History and there will be a button for See All. Here you can see your purchase history and there will be a little menu here where you'll be able to select a range. So you can go all the way back in time to see some of your earliest purchases. But if you're requesting a refund you're going to want to stick with the last ninety days because you're not going to be able to get a refund for anything that you purchased more than ninety days ago.

So here's an app, an app that I quite like. But let's say I wanted to try and get a refund. I can see here the Order ID and a More button. If I click More I can see a little more information about the app. Where I purchased it. When I purchased it. There's a Report a Problem button. Click that. Now you'll actually be taken to a website here where you have to sign on again. Once you're signed on you'll go to a page where you'll see Purchases and it will be focused on this one purchase here and there will be a popup menu here and you can request a refund.

Note that there is a little field here. Now somebody is most likely going to review this request and it will take a couple of days. You may want to put something in here especially if you have a really good reason for a refund. Like the app has misrepresented itself or maybe it didn't download or  doesn't work on your particular piece of hardware. You want to make sure you give a decent reason. There are a lot of reasons your request can be rejected. Now there's no definitive list of what to put here or anything. But a lot of people have reported their experiences online. 

It definitely seems like if you request too many refunds you're eventually going to start getting denied. That's to prevent people from using this as a way to try an app and then just request a refund if you don't like it. Apple doesn't want you doing that. They want you to make sure that it is an app you want before you buy it and only request a refund if there's an actual real problem.

Now note what this screen is actually showing you is a search for the order number here. This is actually a full site, reportaproblem.apple.com. If you go to the main page for it you're actually see all of your purchases here and you can break it down by apps, subscriptions, movies, TV shows, all that kind of thing. It's only going to show recent purchases. Ones that qualify for you being able to report a problem and get a refund. So you can skip the whole iTunes things and go right to reportaproblem.apple.com to get a refund.

So how about on your iPhone. On your iPhone you'll actually go into the Settings app. Under there, if you scroll down enough, you'll see iTunes & App Store. Go into that and you tap on the top where it says Apple ID. Then it's going to have you sign in. On this screen look for Purchase History. Now you'll see something very similar to what you saw on iTunes on the Mac. At the top you'll see Last 90 Days and you can change that but there's no point if you're trying to get a refund. Then you can look through the apps that you've purchased. 

When you see the app tap where you see Total Bill. That will take you to the order. Then tap the app icon here on this screen. This will take you to a page where there's a Report a Problem button. Tap that and guess what. It launches Safari and it goes to the Report a Problem site. The same place that you end up on the Mac. You can actually go to reportaproblem.apple.com in Safari on your iPhone and get right to a list of all your apps and look through them there. You eventually end up at the app here where you can choose the problem just like before. You can write a description of the issue and you can submit a request for the refund.

Here's some things that you should know. First of all don't bother requesting an app refund from the developer. The developer has no power to actually issue a refund. The store is owned by Apple. All the processing, all the payment handling is owned by Apple. The developer doesn't even know who you are, who purchases the app and there's no way for them, on their end, to request a refund for you. So just go directly to Apple.

I've already said that it has to be within ninety days that you request a refund. The option isn't even there for anything older. But even then you may not get your refund. Results really vary if you read people's experiences online. I definitely here that people who request lots of refunds eventually get denied. So you want to do this sparingly. 

One of the main reasons people request refunds is another family member has made a purchase without their permission. You can easily prevent this on your iPhone by using Touch ID or Face ID. Either one of those means you're going to have to use that authentication method with each purchase. In the App Store app on your Mac there's a setting under Preferences for how often a password is required for purchase. The only two options are every fifteen minutes or for every single purchase.

Now I know I'm going to be asked about subscriptions. You see it in the same place in iTunes that you go to look at your purchases except it's under Settings and you'll see Subscriptions right here. Click Manage to see all your current subscriptions and expired ones as well. You can go to Edit. You can use the Cancel subscription button. Then you won't get charged the next time. In the Settings app under iTunes and App Store you'll find a Subscriptions button there as well.

It doesn't look like anybody has had much luck getting a refund for a subscription. It sounds like once you authorize a subscription to be charged you're stuck with it. If you forget to cancel the subscription before the next month or year or whenever it is you're stuck with that as well. If you really don't want that subscription to renew make sure you cancel it well ahead of time.