how to delete purchased Appstore history?

The answer is quite simple. Apple is an arrogant company. Their products are meticulously designed and are beautiful in their functionality and simplicity. However, this issue has been an ongoing problem and frankly Apple does not really care. If they would only pay a little more attention to the reasonable wishes and needs of Apple users it would go a long way in customer satisfaction. As a former die hard Apple product consumer (I have a MacBook, iPod, iPad, iPhone, and Apple TV), I've had enough. A good way to make Apple listen is to switch to other products. I'm selling my iPad and will not be buying another iPhone (would've been my fourth iPhone). I'm tired of their nonsense and arrogance. Obviously we should be able to delete App Store download history. Apple does not seem to notice but they are up against stiffer competition. I'll gladly make some sacrifices to not have to suffer Apple's ridiculousness any longer.

I guess the banks are arrogant too then..

And also the MasterCard Association, Visa International, American Express, Discover, and don't forget the US Internal Revenue service, who also will not delete payments or penalties from your account. Nor will the traffic court delete your traffic convictions. How about Amazon? Google Payments? Paypal? eBay? Home Depot? Staples? I bet your library keeps a permanent record of every book you have checked out also.

Somehow its OK for all of these to refuse to delete your purchase history, but somehow it is wrong that Apple does what everyone else does? Give me a break!

And you would be the first person to write an insulting post about Apple not letting you get back a purchase you "accidently" deleted.....

GB

I think there is the issue that all of the unwanted apps take up memory in the Cloud.... which will eventually cause one to have to pay for Cloud storage because the free space will be sucked up by apps you tried, but didn't want to keep. Or am I incorrect that the apps are consuming Cloud memory?

You are incorrect.

GB

Storage for apps a iTunes music does not count towards your iCloud data limit. And if they aren't on the phone and/or you don't back them up to iCloud they don't even take up free memory.

But that isn't the point. The original request was to delete them from the purchase history in your iTunes account, not to delete the apps from your device (which you can easily do) or from your iTunes library (which you can also easily do). I believe the OP didn't want anyone to know about an app they purchased and deleted.

Thanks. Good to know. I also don't like looking at them in my history, and am now weary of trying something because it adds to and clutters up the list of apps. I'm sure more than a few Apple users are OCD. But I'm not angry at Apple about it. 🙂

Why Apple should care

Actually I don't care about anyone seeing my purchase history; nor do I care too much about the space. What snags my wagger is the update requests. And the fact that I do not apparerly own the rights to decide what stays on products I own.

I downloaded a bunch of apps as a newbie to 'try out'. One was even an app with the same name as a freeware app I had found; but turns out that the Apple Store app didn't do what it claimed, what the freeware app did, so I left an poor eval and went to remove it. I found I couldn't, but I did learn I can 'hide' an app.

As I tried more apps, I found alot of great ones, and some that sucked. What I now resent is that, even as hidden apps, I get update requests for them. Until i agree to update it, I get the annoying reminder that I have updates available.. for apps i found out AFTER I tried them that I do not want them, and/or they don't work as advertised.

Silly? Yes? Trivial? One at a time, yes. But it has discouraged me from downloading any app "just to try", which means it impacts new software vendors or those with very few comments/votes; because when I download an app, I am marrying it to my devices forever. Heck with the history .. I have nothing to hide. I just have decided that unless I really want an app AND it has good reviews, I generally am not interested.

I'm only one person and I'm sure my not buying much hasn't hurt Apple or most app vendors. But if more people have similar experiecnes to mine, and more people become reluctant to downlad free OR paid apps, then *that* impacts app developers; and it impacts Apple as the app store gets less traffic.

Will this kill Apple or the app store? Probably not. Annoyed customers may stay around, but they are not going to become the 'delighted' fans of the future.

Actually to @lawrence finch - I think you are mistaken about cc companis not giving you oney back on returns. If i purchase a product that does not do what it says, Mastercard.Visa/Discover.etc are happy to let me get my money back if i try first to resolve the issue with the vendor. Amazon built its service repuration on lettin you return things to vendrs for just about any reason - rong siz, bad color, mistakn purchase by my dog, etc. With the Apple store, you get to keep each and every mistake you made.. forever I guess.

@Cupertino Guy, I never said cc companies won't give you your money back, and that is not the subject of this thread. The subject is removing the purchases from your purchase history on your account. If a cc gives you your money back the original purchase stays listed on your account forever, and in addition the credit for the charge ALSO appears on your account forever, so the purchase is now listed twice on your account. And the cc company will not remove it.

There are circumstances where Apple will refund your money on apps, but that isn't the subject of this thread either.

Hmm, that is a failed analogy.

All downloaded apps (also the free crap I tried once, hated and never want to see again) are permanently in the App list and can't be removed. That is just plain clutter.

If we could have a separate purchase history containing paid apps (and that one password protected) it would have been fine not to delete them.

rin6730 wrote:

Hmm, that is a failed analogy.

All downloaded apps (also the free crap I tried once, hated and never want to see again) are permanently in the App list and can't be removed. That is just plain clutter.

If we could have a separate purchase history containing paid apps (and that one password protected) it would have been fine not to delete them.

For many accounting and legal purposes, a purchase is a purchase, regardless of the price. Even if the price is 0$, you still had an agreement in force with Apple when you downloaded it. So, yes, the analogy is apt.

The main message was to separate the purchase history from the app-list.

I would have been fine in having the useless crap in a separate password-protected purchase history but don't want to see this garbage "ad vitam aeternam" in my applications.

Is that soo difficult to understand?

By the way the app store is really infested by tons of completely useless and non-working apps.

I thought they were tested?

rin6730 wrote:

The main message was to separate the purchase history from the app-list.

I would have been fine in having the useless crap in a separate password-protected purchase history but don't want to see this garbage "ad vitam aeternam" in my applications.

Is that soo difficult to understand?

But there aren't two different lists. Just the purchase history. What seems soo difficult for people to understand is that complaining here will do no good. Use the Feedback page:

http://www.apple.com/feedback

Best of luck.