Why exactly did apple remove the option to delete my app purchase history from iTunes store?

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Level 1

12 points

Why exactly did apple remove the option to delete my app purchase history from iTunes store?

Why exactly did apple remove the option to delete my app purchase history from iTunes store? I really want to know why apple, in its arrogance, is constantly taking away many flexibility and privacy features I liked away with every update.

First, I lost most my apps because i had them saved on my PC

Then, in your arrogance you decided people don't need the 3mm jack for music anymore, rendering all expensive headphones useless.

Now, i found out i can no longer delete my own purchase history.

(I tried so hard to refrain from profanity in this post, it was harder than i thought)

iPhone 6s, iOS 11

Posted on Apr 29, 2019 3:05 PM

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Answer 1

Apr 29, 2019 3:14 PM in response to SumanthMarco

Apple removed nothing. There's never been any way to remove anything from the purchase history just as you cannot remove purchases from your credit card statement list.

This is done for fiscal purposes so Apple can link revenue with actual purchases. If Apple cannot prove revenue is tied to actual purchases because it was removed by the user, they can get into a lot of legal trouble for tax fraud. Since they would have revenue they cannot back up.

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Answer 2

turingtest2

Level 10

279,187 points

May 1, 2019 5:49 PM in response to SumanthMarco

As given you may hide apps from your purchase history, but not remove them completely. See Hide App Store purchases - Apple Support as has been pointed out. Back when apps were managed in iTunes you could delete an unwanted app from iTunes and have it hidden at the same time. Perhaps it is this that you recall. Hidden purchases now shown as Purchased in the store instead of a cloud to download them, or a price which is what would show if never purchased.

The one exception granted to remove content that been added to an Apple ID was the ability to remove the U2 album gifted to everyone, wanted or not. See https://buy.itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZFinance.woa/wa/offerOptOut. The tool wouldn't have been necessary if there was a general ability to permanently delete items from your purchase history. An exception, proving a rule.

tt2

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Answer 3

SumanthMarco Author

Level 1

12 points

Apr 30, 2019 9:36 PM in response to Phil0124

Hi Phil, I’m sorry to break it to you but you are wrong. I personally deleted apps from my purchase history before the update. After I delted some apps, it never even showed up with cloud symbol in the App Store. I’ve been apple customer for over a decade now.

We embraced the internet because cause it was different and gave us options we never had in real life. That’s the beauty of it in the first place.

This proves that, With every update apple is only making things convenient to apple itslef and not the customer. I’m sure if you try, it shouldn’t be that hard to remove an app from download history and still maintain a master record for apples tax purposes.

Now im stuck with ****** apps in my history that I downloaded out of curiosity just to check it out. I don’t want them anymore but can’t get rid of them.

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Answer 4

SumanthMarco Author

Level 1

12 points

May 1, 2019 4:39 PM in response to Phil0124

I’m positive I have done it in the past. I know, because I was curious and downloaded a lot apps that I didn’t want anyone to see. So I went to my account from my settings, and I deleted a bunch of apps and I clearly remember that I was glad it wasn’t showing up with an cloud symbol when I looked it up again from the App Store.

So really you don’t know as much as you think you do. I agree there was never a training Manuel for it. Just because you searched a bunch of articles on your apple help directory and didn’t find it there doesn’t mean I’m lying.

I cant believe apple is denying this. I too worked for apple. I was there when Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone for the first time. I worked for iPod tech support. I have owned an apple device ever since. It’s about 15 years now. So please. RRR doesn’t fix everything.

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Answer 5

May 1, 2019 6:40 AM in response to SumanthMarco

SumanthMarco wrote:

Hi Phil, I’m sorry to break it to you but you are wrong. I personally deleted apps from my purchase history before the update.

Sorry to break it to you, but no, there has absolutely never been a way to delete anything from the purchase history. You may have hid it from the list, but it cannot actually removed.

See these answers from different points in time:

How to delete purchase history on Apple I… - Apple Community

how do i delete my purchased app history … - Apple Community

delete items from purchase history - Apple Community

Delete purchase history - Apple Community

delete app from purchase history - Apple Community

The answer is always the same. It cannot be done. If you think you did it, then you are the only one that knows how you did it. Its not something Apple has ever advertised as possible, nor have they ever provided any instructions on how to do it.

You may have possibly hidden an item from your purchased list, but that is not deleting the item.

See here: Hide App Store purchases - Apple Support

You cannot, and never have been able to delete anything from the purchase history.

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Why exactly did apple remove the option to delete my app purchase history from iTunes store?

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