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How do I prevent an app from being re-downloaded?

Hi Community,


My middle school aged child downloaded Snapchat and insta before I realized that family sharing allows children to download any apps that other members of the family(parents) have without getting approval. I fixed the setting to disallow this going forward and deleted the social media apps from the phone, but since these were downloaded to my child’s phone before, they can still be downloaded. Does anyone know if there is a setting that requires approvals for redownloads?


Also, does anyone else feel that Apple owes it to us to offer parental control training courses since setting them up properly is so difficult? Surely a $1000 phone should get a little help from a human 😒


Thanks for your help.


PS- Parental controls isn’t even a topic one can select when posting a question to the community.


Posted on May 19, 2023 5:58 PM

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Posted on May 19, 2023 6:34 PM

If you hide the app, family members will not be able to redownload it. Set the information in Hide purchases from the App Store - Apple Support

including the following:

When you hide an app in your purchase list, it no longer appears in the list of your purchases that's in the App Store. The app will still appear in your complete purchase history in Settings. And if you use Family Sharing, family members can't redownload the app from your list of shared purchases.


2 replies
Question marked as Best reply

May 19, 2023 6:34 PM in response to Protectkids

If you hide the app, family members will not be able to redownload it. Set the information in Hide purchases from the App Store - Apple Support

including the following:

When you hide an app in your purchase list, it no longer appears in the list of your purchases that's in the App Store. The app will still appear in your complete purchase history in Settings. And if you use Family Sharing, family members can't redownload the app from your list of shared purchases.


Feb 18, 2024 6:28 AM in response to FoxFifth

This is not accurate. I hid the purchase from my child’s phone and looked it up in the App Store again. It showed a GET download button and I was able to install it again WITHOUT having to request permission. This is a significant loophole Apple needs to fix.


There are apps that push out updates that no longer make an app appropriate for minors and there is no way to prevent them from being reinstalled

How do I prevent an app from being re-downloaded?

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