How do I determine what date I first downloaded an app on my iphone?

December 6, 2018 9:08 AM

How do I find out what date I downloaded an iOS app on my iphone? I have an app on my phone. I want to know what day I downloaded it. I also have iTunes on a mac on the same account. (Twist, will these methods work on apps I downloaded, deleted, and downloaded again?)
posted by andoatnp to Computers & Internet (7 answers total)

Is this a free app or did you pay for it? If you paid for it, you may have an email with the receipt from iTunes or you may be able to view the transaction in your account history. Log into the iTunes store on the Mac and look around for your history. If you have any credit on your account (from a gift card, for example) or you can see a balance of $0.00 anywhere, you might be able to click on it for your history.
posted by soelo at 9:17 AM on December 6, 2018

Response by poster: I don't believe I paid for it.
posted by andoatnp at 9:25 AM on December 6, 2018

I'm pretty sure your iTunes account has your complete app download activity, including free and paid apps (but not updates). Have you looked there?
posted by Winnie the Proust at 10:50 AM on December 6, 2018

Using the iTunes app on Mac, I can get full purchase history via the Account-->View My Account menu item. Once inside, go to purchase history --> See all and use the dropdown (it defaults to last 90 days) to see all the history you want. Mine shows free items, but I imagine the date is the original 'purchase' date and not the most recent download date.
posted by jeffch at 10:52 AM on December 6, 2018

Response by poster: I saw that purchase history. I have 11 years of apps there, with more than a thousand downloads. Do I need to scroll through every one until I see it?
posted by andoatnp at 10:54 AM on December 6, 2018

Best answer: but I imagine the date is the original 'purchase' date and not the most recent download date.

That is correct.

And on iOS, you can view a list of "purchased" apps and the associated date by going to the App Store app, Today tab, tap on your icon/picture at the upper right, then Purchased, then My Purchases. If you have a lot of apps and the search bar isn't immediately visible, pull the screen down a little bit and you can search by name.

If you've hidden an app from your purchase history, you'll need to use iTunes to view it again. Go to Account > My Account and click Manage across from Hidden Purchases. For whatever reason, purchase dates are not visible in this area, so you'd have to unhide the item and then view your Purchased list again to see the date.

Deleting an app from your device has no effect on its purchase date because you are not undoing the purchase, you're simply removing it from your device.
posted by tubedogg at 11:03 AM on December 6, 2018 [2 favorites]

Do I need to scroll through every one until I see it?

There doesn't seem to be a way to search through purchase history in iTunes any more, which is bizarre, but you can definitely do so on iOS with the method I listed above.
posted by tubedogg at 11:05 AM on December 6, 2018 [1 favorite]