How can I gift an app that I already purchased?

tonefox wrote:

You do not "have" it. You have paid the licence fee to use it yourself, under your Apple ID. You own nothing you can give to somebody else. All software on all platforms has always worked like this.

Actually, you are not right. We DO *have* the App, right on our devices ... in that respect you are wrong. Maybe we don't *own* the apps outright, but we do HAVE them on our devices and in our PURCHACES. It is THIS fact that keeps us from gifting (even free Apps) to our friends. And again, I want to stress, not GIVING the Apps to friends .... gifting, even if that means PAYING AGAIN for an app to gift to a friend. Do you understand what is being said?

If I rang MS and ordered Win8 and paid for it (even though I owned it already) and said I wanted them to deliver this to a friend as a GIFT, they wouldn't turn around and tell me I couldn't do that because I have already purchased it and have it on my computer!!

I can't believe that we're unable to "gift an app" (ie purchase a license of the app for someone else) after we've already purchased it yourself. This is absolutely ridiculous.

Very disappointing. Please fix this Apple.

Also it's a bit confusing that there is an "accepted" answer here, when there is apparently no solution to the problem?

Hey! Surprise! You can gift an app you've already purchased, but via the share button rather than drop down menu.

It seems totally counterintuitive (okay, it IS totally counterintuitive) and apple has full instructions (with pictures!!) at this link: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2736

if you don't like links 😉 then... app store>app you want to gift and already own>share button>gift button>send gift!

happy gifting!

Sadly ashred ... following those instructions, if you already have an app on your device, the *Gift App* icon will not appear and as such you cannot gift an app that you have already purchased and have on your device, which is stupid to say the least. Again, I want to note here, I am not trying to transfer my app as a gift to someone else, I am trying to purchase an App for the second time and gift that to someone, but Apple just wont allow this. Thanks for the instructions anyway, it's a shame this doesn't work for Apps we already own.

I am reading the instructions properly, doing this on my iPhone, I go to the store, bring up the app I have already purchased, click the share button top right ... pop up window comes up with NO *gift*.

Am currently looking in the store from iTunes on my computer. I can't even see a share option on there.

The iTunes store on the PC is the same ..... where the price should be it has *Download* because I already have the app. Clicking the arrow to the right of that DOES NOT have *Gift App* .... sorry

For what it's worth, I am doing this for Apps ..... not music. Don't know if that makes a difference. Definetly no *GIFT* option for me with anything I have already purchaced.

Hey Crackers- I'm as baffled as you are regarding desktop iTunes. I get the gift option for and music/tv/movies I own, but not for the apps! I tried every option and workaround I could think of within the store (send from purchased list? nope. vis send gifts on home page? nope. send via app's weblink? nope!!!!)

But... you CAN logout of your itunes account, navigate to the app you want to send, click send as gift, and login when requested. It ridiculous, but works.

FYI:

itunes 11.0.2

iOS 6.1

As for the lack of gift buttons, I can confirm that my ipad doesn't show the button like my phone does. It is also running 6.1, but the OS is shown like this:

Version 6.1 (10B141)

whereas my phone says:

Version 6.1 (10B143)

I'm not sure if the discrepancy is iphone to ipad or something else. Regardless, I though you might like as much info as possible!

-ash

Same version as you both on iPad and on iPhone ... 6.1.3(10B329) Just checked gifting from my iPad, same result. No gift option.

br8thw8 wrote:

I don't think there is a way to gift app from the Mac App store, only from the iOS App store.

I think the only way to sort of gift from the Mac App store is to send them a gift certificate for close to the amount of the app that you want to gift, then to send them a link of the app you want to gift.

Yeah I understand that and see that as a way to do this, but a gift certificate for $0.99 or a *FREE* gift certificate for free apps seems sorta strange. I know there are ways around a lot of things, but you would think Apple could just make this work. Like I said, we are paying for the apps again ... not passing on apps we have.