Hello,
I bought my Mac and it had iMovie built in. I have deleted it before, and without any problems, I was able to download and install it again from the Mac Appstore. However now, i have to purchase it.. Why?
MacBook Air, OS X El Capitan (10.11.4)
Go to the App Store, make sure you're signed into the Apple ID you used when you purchased the device, then click the Purchased tab. iMovie will appear here unless you are using the wrong Apple ID. iMovie and other apps that you get for free when you buy the device are all available to download for free from the Purchased tab as long as you are logged into the correct Apple ID.
The real question is, why are you deleting iMovie so many times?
Thank you for the reply!
I deleted it once when I realized that i don't use it that often. Later, in a school project, I reinstalled again without a problem. A similar situation happened again a few months after that.
This might also help. I have never had a bank account registered to any of my apple accounts. It happened once that my dad bought an app as a gift for me, however it was in the South African Store. With the redeem code, I was able to switch to the South African store. I have tried changing back to the US store however now it is asking for my bank information. Do I need to do this in order to switch back to my US account? If so, will I be able to reinstall iMovie?
In order to switch to another country's App Store, you need to provide a valid address and valid payment information for that country. You can always remove the payment information immediately after adding it to the App Store, but it is required when setting up an Apple ID or switching countries.
You will not be able to download an app that was purchased/downloaded from another country's App Store unless your Apple ID is tied to that country. So you would have to download iMovie while tied to the South African App Store. To prevent any legal issues with Apple's App Store agreement, it may be better to have an Apple ID for the South African store and one for the US. If you switch once to download iMovie, and then switch back, you should be fine. They only look into country switching if it happens often and is used to purchase apps for less than in your current country. Like I said, you should be fine since you are simply redownloading an app that has already been paid for.
The issue with having multiple Apple IDs is that you would have to switch between the two if you ever needed to download iMovie again. It's probably best to download it once and then just keep it on the computer. Then switch to the US store and only use the US store. It will look sketchy if you are switching to another country to download apps. If you think you will need to switch a lot, or have a bunch of apps in the SA store, it is probably better to have one SA Apple ID and one US Apple ID.
You may want to contact the Apple ID support team to get an official answer from Apple.
Alright, Thank You! I'll let you know if I can get everything right again
Why should I pay for a Built In app?
