iTunes can't download apps

TidBITS Talk
1

I’ve been dutifully using iTunes 12.6.5.3 for Windows (running in VMware Fusion) each week to download the .IPA files for iPhone and iPad updates. I also download them using iMazing, but iTunes is more reliable, and lets you read the release notes.

…until today. Now any update I try to download fails with “Redownload Unavailable with This Apple Account”, but nothing has changed with my account. Signing out and back in doesn’t help.

This has long been a sore point with me – the App Store terms of service say it is the user’s responsibility to backup the Apps, i.e. they could disappear from the App Store at any time. But Apple removed the ability to backup the apps from iTunes.

1 Like
2

You are not alone. I still use iTunes and Mojave on an Intel iMac as a media server and for backing up iPhones and iPads - the latter because I can’t use my main computer (silicon Macbook) due to its woeful storage and Apple’s insistence that these backups cannot be stored on external drives.
On topic… Sometimes iTunes wants me to log into my Apple Account several times before the nagging stops. It seems that old Mac OS iTunes and Windows iTunes are being neglected in the Apple Accounts ecosystem.

1 Like