Can you remove apps from purchased list?

I totally agree! I found out that one of my kids was downloading some naughty apps. They were the free versions and I never saw an itunes invoice on them... We had a talk about inappropriate apps and web content. But, I can still see the "purchases" that were made even on my younger child's ipod touch... Parental controls block the ability to download them, but it doesn't stop the child from seeing what was purchased. UGH!

So, I sent some feed back requesting the ability to permanently delete or hide these apps. (BTW, Barnes and Noble allow you to easily do this for you book purchases). It doesn't seem like it would be that difficult of an option/feature to add to your account! Come on Apple! Get back to being family/user friendly!

Barring that, another person suggested signing out of the account on the device. It was simple to do! After syncing my youngest child's ipod. I went to settings, store and signed out of the account. Now, the purchased list doesn't appear. But, all the apps work like normal! I guess for the moment... this is the best solution to protecting younger kids from inappropriate app purchases!

Then again, if they know your user name and password, they can still re-sign back in.... So, for now, I am changing the password and no one else will be able to download anything! Loss of privilege was a a good idea in this situation anyway.

I have to say that's absolutely BULL and here's why.

First I found it very annoying to see my entire purchase history list because many of those purchases were free apps I tried and did not like or those 'download for more in-game points in another game' apps.

I'm not embarassed over anything I downloaded but now, when trying to update my new Iphone 4, I have this cluttered list and it's a pain to find the apps I want, the apps I downloaded and the apps that sucked.

The thing is this - the person that created the Purchase History in iphone 4 was nothing more than a lazy programmer. And now what could be a very useful feature is nothing more than annoying and even for some embarassing.

Two simple things could make this turn around the Purchase History tool and make it a powerful feature.

1. In the Settings put a 'HIDE-ALL'/'VIEW-ALL' switch feature. If people don't want it at all just hide it. That does not mess with the accounting information. Just because I turn my light switch off doesn't mean the lamp suddenly disappear into thin air
2. For people who want to customize it simply create a 'swipe to delete' feature that doesn't necessarily delete the app from the list but hides it. I don't care where those unwanted purchases go just make them go away.

That's a BS they can't permanently delete purchase records from the history just because it's tied to their accounting. All they need is to add a single Boolean field to the accounting record that if set means, never ever for any reason transfer this record to any customer device (including Macs and PCs with iTunes). And if such record was alredy transferred to some of the devices it is to removed (form device) during the next AppStore update session. That's it, problem solved.

And for added convenience Apple might as well add LOCAL hiding of unwanted history records (with an option to "unhide everything") so different devices on the same account may hide different stuff (so parens could could be spared of scrolling through hundreds of silly free games ther kids deleting and reinstalling several times every day). That would, however, require to mantain a local copy of the purchased list that might not exist now since it isn't accessible while not connected to the internet. Still, it's too a rather trivial task.

You are correct, that Apple should hold a record of all the apps you purchased, but they dont have to throw it in my face the whole time. I suggest adding an AppTrash to the store where you can drop junk that no longer want to see. They dont have to add the option to ever be able to empty the trash. This way, Apple can keep the records forever, and I dont have to ever see the junk app again. This also solves the potential issue of accidentily deleting an app from the purchase list... if this happens, its in the AppTrash and you can simply restore it to your purchase list. Its basically just a matter of splitting the purchase list in two. stuff I want to see, and stuff I dont.

Please Please Please Apple, do this.

PS. From a user perspective, because I know that currently, any app that I try and then dont like will be forever stuck in my purchase list, I am hesitent to try apps... this is not good for sales.

Ya that is completely correct. But then again apple doesn't appreceate it's "valued customers" enough to let them remove something from the purchased list. Very unfortunate apple convinces people to buy "great products" without telling them you can't dete an item from purchase history. lol FAIL

I do also see the need for this feature. A friend of mine buyed some free apps (as a joke!!!) that I don't want my kids to see!!!! I already deleted them from the ipad and from my mac, but sooner or later they will see them on the purchased history...

Apple, do it pls.

I sort of have to agree with Demo about the records keeping requirement. But, a lot of accounting systems have the ability to "archive" older records. I would think Apple could bring that to its community. This way, they still have thie required records in their system and we do not see the records (we want to forget?) and that make our lists almost too long to go through (I have almost 400 apps on my iPad thanks to my grandkids that lived with me for 7 months).

Remember though, "those who do not remember their history are bound to repeat themselves." 🙂

What do youthink, Apple?

Adding myself to the list wanting the ability to delete unwanted apps from the purchased list that shows up in iTunes (Note: Not the same as removing from their internal accounting records, they can keep that)

Let me make sure I understand this correctly. Everyone wanted this function. Now we have it. Now you don't like it because it shows you everything? How exactly do you alter a purchase history without it being illegal? How/why is it such a problem to swipe your fingers a few times, to scroll past the ones you don't want? Are your fingers really that delicate? Bah. Consumers will NEVER be satisfied with anything they get.

If i decide to throw out a pair of socks that i bought last week, I can throw away the reciept too, and there is still a record of my purchase at the department store (at least). I do not have to stumble over a pile of receipts everytime I open my wallet.

We're talking digital, highly flexible, and Apple does not have to, and actually could not possibly, delete all traces of the transaction. It is a simple on/off code that does not continue to report the deselected apps to my phone. Apple still and always will have a reciept - in fact, so does my email app, and my bank account or CC. So there is not any Borg-like bookkeeping neccessary between my phone and Apple's bank account. Besides, Apple does not do their bookkeeping via my phone. There must be some other conspirisy behind this oversight.

Anyway, who care's what the reason is, it's about privacy, and I agree, it's annoying to sort through the crap i've deliberately wasted my money on, let me delete it.

Demo, Apple, it's really some simple coding. A toggle to Hide/Trash and to "Show all" enter passcode. But i'm not a coder. anyway, someone can make an app. Send the royalties to dw_bone@...

end transmission.

Hey Guys heres an idea i canme up with for people on family plans. go to your account and change the apple id email to your personal email acct. then create a new acct using the old email addy u had listed. use same billing info and that atleast is a temp fix until apple comes to their senses.

Maybe someone can deliver the replies of this post directly to Tim Cook. Many posts here are making sense.

I understand the need to keep a consistent record of purchases, so, of course, that shouldn't be messed with. I wonder if there is, instead, a way for us to 'hide from list' any purchases that we no longer need access to? That would help.

I'm sure the original thinking is that once you download an app, you don't need to download it again and the list is just for 'emergency' purposes. I doubt they expected us to all use it so much. Personally, I am responsible for the iPad accounts and support at my work, so I'm constantly installing an app, deleting it, reinstalling it later, deleting it...and so on. Yet there are a LOT of apps I know I'll never need to install again. It would be great to be able to hide those ones from my list so I can access the others more quickly.

A suggestion for Apple...I would love to hide some apps completely, but if I could at least hide them from my list in iTunes (you know, the App page when I'm organizing my iPad), that would be a tremendous help. When I'm on the app store and go to the purchase list, it isn't as big a deal, although it would be nice there, as well.

Having the ability to hide an app we don't use might actuallly be a way for Apple to track apps that are downloaded by not actually used or kept. More fun stats!

IVE FIGURED IT OUT GUYS!!! go to app store and click on featured and scroll all the way to the bottom. Click on your apple ID and then view your account. In there, there is option to turn off iTunes cloud beta.

THIS IS MY BEST DISCOVERY YET!!

nooooo..i tried but i couldn't find this option!! maybe is because my iTunes version (10.4) isn't for US?

anyway i hope you really found a solution for hiding apps from purchased list, i'll keep on trying...