Freeing up iPhone storage space is always a good idea. One way that you may want to clear things up is to delete your app purchase history in the App Store.
However, it’s not that intuitive to do this on an iOS device, so we looked into the best ways you can clear your app download history from your iPhone.
Delete purchased apps from the App Store History (permanently)
When you purchase apps from the app store, it creates a list of all the apps you’ve ever purchased. This is your purchase history. Even when you permanently delete apps, your app purchase history will remain.
You can easily find it on the App Store app. It offers the option to showcase only the apps that aren’t currently downloaded onto your device.
There is no option for showcasing only the apps currently downloaded on your device, which can be quite troublesome when checking for app updates.
Sometimes, you may accidentally purchase an app and wish to delete it from your purchase history, or remove it for other reasons.
Unfortunately, there is no simple way to permanently delete purchased apps from your purchase history.
However, there are ways to hide purchased items on your purchase history. This will make it so that they’re no longer shown on the purchase history. Hidden apps will be shown on another list, which will only be accessible by you.
How to hide app store purchase history
This is a feature that resonates throughout different iOS purchase histories, such as the purchase history for iBooks. The processes for hiding items from the purchase history are similar across the platforms.
Removing, or hiding, apps from your purchase history is very simple to do – it’s a much easier situation than if the App Store isn’t working at all, which requires more troubleshooting.
It is also easy to undo in case you change your mind. All this can be done on the App Store app.
Firstly, open the App Store app and press on your profile picture in the top-left. This opens up your account settings.
Press ‘purchased’ to open your purchase history. This is a list of all the apps you’ve ever downloaded.
This includes apps that aren’t currently downloaded, as well as the ones that are.
You can filter your purchased apps by apps that aren’t currently downloaded on your device. Press the ‘not on this phone’ tab to do this.
Swipe left on the app you wish to remove from your purchase history. This should showcase the ‘hide’ option. Press ‘hide’ to hide the app from your purchase history.
The hidden apps should now longer appear on the list.
Whilst you cannot delete app purchase history with iPhone apps, you can remove apps from the list by simply hiding them, which still allows you to remove apps from your history.
How to unhide purchased apps
However, you may change your mind about hiding your purchased apps – you may want to add them back to your iPhone purchased list.
You need not worry, though, as you can easily reverse your actions by unhiding your hidden apps. You can do this on the app store app.
Firstly, open the app store and press on your profile picture in the top-left. This opens up your account settings.
Next, press on your profile picture at the top of the account settings. This may prompt a sign-in option if you haven’t recently signed in on the app store. Sign into your account if so.
Scroll all the way down on the settings. Press the ‘hidden purchases’ option to see a list of your hidden apps.
Press the ‘unhide’ option next to the app you wish to unhide. This will make it visible on your purchase history again.
Conclusion
Whilst there may not be a way to permanently remove purchased apps from your purchase history, you can hide apps to prevent them from appearing on your history.
It is quite simple to do this, and it can conveniently be done from the App Store app.
See also: How to turn off background app refresh
However, this does not actually delete the apps from your purchase history. Hidden apps will appear on another list, but this list will only be accessible to you.
It will be password-protected with your iCloud account unless you’ve recently signed in on the App Store. This ensures that others won’t be able to see your hidden apps.
You also need not worry about accidentally hiding certain apps, or changing your mind about hiding them. You can easily reverse your actions by unhiding your hidden apps.
This means that you can hide and unhide apps as frequently, or as frivolously, as you wish. There are no serious consequences or hardships to look out for.