I downloaded mountain lion and in my purchases it has "download" instead of "installed" why?

Because once you install Mountain Lion, it deletes the downloaded file. You can redownload if you want to save the full install onto an external drive.

Hope this helps.

Did you miss that little tidbit in Apple's description and help files that whitewater2 pointed out? Oh, forgot, they didn't include that salient detail. Now, you'll have to waste time, electricity, and bandwidth DLing it again or when you utilize the recovery mode. Waste the resources, DL it again, quit the installer when the ML window pops up, and move the install app from /Applications to a safe place, preferably another disk. Ill-designed delivery system, IMO.

I agree with that being an idiotic method, but I merely pointing out why.

They should prompt you if you would like to delete it after a successful install, but they dont.

That was for the OP and others wandering by, not you. You understand what's going on.😉

It's also available to download onto any other Mac you own.

Also for when needed to redownload later after a dead HD. Same as Lion was. Lion downloaded the OS with whatever point release it had at the time.

Ashka wrote:

It's also available to download onto any other Mac you own.

DLing again just wastes resources. Save the installer, copy it to the other machines, and install it.

With a four GB data cap I do save the installer.

Some don't have to bother..

Just answering why it was still available for download.. As Lion still is in my purchases.

Have a good day..

That's why I posted. It's for those who are don't know, because Apple failed to tell them that it auto-deletes after installing. Not bothering just wastes resources, which is what I'm trying to get across. You, with that cap, have more reason to minimize DLing it more than once.