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Recently I moved from Russia to New Zealand. And now I'm experiencing an issue - all the applications I purchased in Russia cannot update here in NZ. I see there is a number in front of Apps in iTunes but when I click on "Check for Updates" it says that no updates are currently available. If I take my ipad and see the apps needed to update, after that download all the applications MANUALLY from app-store - it "solves" the issue. But I need to do that each time any application I've purchased being in Russia updates. It is really annoying.

How can I solve the problem and get the automatic updates really automatic?

There is a question here: iTunes shows App Updates Badge, but no updates are available with no answer though

UPD: well, looks like there is no good solution...

UPD 2: I was insistent enough in my emails to support and among 2 pages of other irrelevant lines this is what I see:

I have regranted all available Apps back to your account as a one time exception.

So, well, probably the problem is solved partially for now :-)

UPD 3:

Got 250+ updates in my itunes. Brief overview says that there are all the applications I ever downloaded. And if I delete them from the download list - they resurrect on itunes restart. Well, downloading them to delete right after (ps: it is not funny as long as I have 60Gb monthly limit)

UPD 4:

Let's all write a feedback at their http://www.apple.com/feedback/itunesapp.html !!

Community
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zerkms
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  • There are a lot of odd things happening with the store at the moment even in the US where things normally fly. Downloads pausing, waiting, not being able to install. My guess is the servers are struggling to keep up with demand. It's going to be hard to know if it's an account thing or a load issue until the new iPads all finish downloading apps from the cloud or more servers are configured on Apple's end... – bmike Mar 17 '12 at 16:44
  • @bmike: I won! ;-) – zerkms Mar 19 '12 at 19:25
  • Terrific news. You can answer this question yourself describing how the process went. It's unlikely anyone else will have the same path as you, but first hand experience is good to have and people can still vote and read the other answers and take the best from both. – bmike Mar 19 '12 at 21:06
  • @bmike: done. Hope that dozens of similar request finally will help apple engineers to make the process smoother – zerkms Mar 19 '12 at 21:23

2 Answers2

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Have you checked the normal route on this issue? First and most important is that you're on the same country store as the purchased app. No matter where you move around the world you're bound to the country store which the app is purchased from.

I have never attempted moving from one country App store to another. But this would require changing your billing information on the account and a verification of credit card billing address which has to be within the territories covered by that App store.

ismail
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  • I did change the billing information and verified new credit card and for now part of my apps has been purchased in Russia and part of the - in NZ. And Russian one cannot be updated automatically... – zerkms Mar 17 '12 at 21:17
  • That is the root of the problem. You've changed billing address and now using NZ store, but the Apps you've previously purchased in another store have not migrated to the NZ store. The normal route would have been creating a new account and managing the two as far as updates go. You've got to contact Apple and find out if there is a solution for this that is not officially out yet. – ismail Mar 18 '12 at 00:25
  • I have contacted and some support engineer replied with completely irrelevant copy-paste answer. Asked it for the second time, looking forward for the second answer – zerkms Mar 18 '12 at 05:44
  • "The normal route would have been creating a new account and managing the two as far as updates go." --- normal route is when users don't care of seller issues. I have spent thousand dollars for their electronics and expect it to work in any country – zerkms Mar 18 '12 at 05:45
  • @zerkms I understand your frustration. Please don't take it out on me. By normal route I meant what Apple is asking for and not my opinion of how it is. Personally, I wish if there was only one store for all their products. The rest of the world listens to music, uses iPhones, and reads books. – ismail Mar 18 '12 at 08:50
  • sorry if I sounded rude :-( Actually apple support also offered me to change the country back... Well, currently I have apps purchased in both countries and that is just not a solution :-S Terrible :-( – zerkms Mar 18 '12 at 09:28
  • I hope you'll like my question update 2 – zerkms Mar 19 '12 at 19:25
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The brief overview of what I have done.

I've written an email to iTunes store support. And got absolutely irrelevant answer, that just described the issue's roots and was not helpful at all. As a reply I asked almost the same but with different words and got the answer that made me angry:

Ivan, in future if you revert the country to Russia and as long as the purchased application are available in that country, you can update apps.

On this reply I replied back with the question - if I need to relocate just to get the updates for the apps I paid my money for. And as a reply got another email with another irrelevant and hopeless answer:

Ivan, your inquiry is very important to me, so I have requested assistance with the issue you reported. You will receive an email after the matter has been investigated and further information is available.

Thank you for your patience. Apple wants your iTunes experience to be as enjoyable as possible.

After that I decided to ask the question once again. So I created yet another support ticket with completely the same title and message body (I copied them as-is).

And after a day of waiting got a huge 2.5 pages letter with boring explanation how to update applications (written for completely newbies, step-by-step manual), then the magic paragraph:

You are still able to download previously purchased applications again for free if they are available on your new country's store. You will not be charged and the download will not appear on your Purchased page. If a previously purchased application is not available in your new country, you will not be able to download it again for free. I have regranted all available Apps back to your account as a one time exception.

That's it :-)

Community
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zerkms
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  • Lucky you! You've managed to pull something out of them that is against their store protocol setup! I pays off being persistent. – ismail Mar 20 '12 at 23:06
  • @ismail: I suppose they will do something to have the procedure easier, as long as they get dozens of request – zerkms Mar 20 '12 at 23:10