The Mac App Store is in the midst of a revival, with Apple focusing on both it and the apps within it much more since the release of macOS Mojave in 2018. Want to use it more? Here’s how to find all your apps.
It’s easy to forget that the Mac App Store has been around for a good while now, as few people took advantage of it for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it was just an awful app to use, and secondly, developers either never sold their apps via the Mac App Store, or removed them after concluding that either the financial or technological issues it posed were just not worth the effort.
With macOS Mojave, Apple has sought to change all that by helping big-name apps join the Mac App Store and simultaneously giving it a sizeable lick of paint. It also gets much more editorial attention from within Apple now, too, with apps regularly featured to help boost sales. That’s all great for developers, and eventually, it’ll be great for customers, too. That means you might want to venture back into the Mac App Store for the first time in a while, and if that’s the case, you’re going to need to download your old apps, too.
So where exactly do you do that? It’s funny you should ask…
Where to Find All of Your Apps, Including Free Apps
Anything you have previously downloaded from the Mac App Store, whether that was something you bought or was free, can be found in the same place within the newly redesigned Mac App Store. It’s a treasure trove of all you probably forgot all about, but it’s easy enough to find when you know where to go spelunking.
To get started, open the App Store on your Mac and then click the icon that represents your Apple ID. You may need to enter your Apple ID password to progress.
Here you’ll see a list of all of the apps you have downloaded. If you want to re-download one, click the cloud icon beside it. If it’s already installed, you can open it from here, too.
If you use Family Sharing, you can choose a family member to see all of their purchases as well.
And that’s all there is to it. Now it’s time to go and buy some of the great Mac App Store apps.