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How do I move an app subscription to a new iPhone?

You don't need to pay again when you switch phones. A subscription or purchase is tied to your Apple ID, not the physical phone — but it does require you to sign in with the same Apple ID and tap "restore purchases" in the new app.

Why a purchase isn't tied to the phone

It's an easy misunderstanding to think a subscription follows the phone, because you experience it inside the app on the device you happen to be holding. In reality, the App Store logs your purchase centrally with Apple, linked to your Apple ID — the account you use for iCloud, mail and everything else across your devices. Get a new phone, and you don't lose the purchase — you just need to tell the new phone who you are.

Step by step: how to restore a purchase

1. Sign in with the same Apple ID. Check under Settings at the top of the phone that it's the same account you used when you originally bought the subscription.
2. Install the app from the App Store on the new phone, just as you did the first time.
3. Open the app and find "Restore purchases". It typically sits under settings, a profile page, or wherever subscriptions are managed in the app.
4. Wait for the confirmation. The app checks with Apple, finds your active subscription, and unlocks the features — without you paying again.

Why it doesn't happen automatically

You might think the app should discover on its own that you already have a subscription, the moment you sign in. But for good reason, that isn't how it works: the app has to actively ask Apple "does this user have a valid purchase?", and that only happens when you request it — either on first launch, or when you tap "restore". It's a safeguard that stops an app from automatically pulling up payment information without you having asked for it.

What if the button finds nothing?

• Check the Apple ID again. The most common cause is that the new phone is signed in with a different Apple ID than the one the subscription was bought with.
• Check whether the subscription is still active. Under Settings → your name → Subscriptions, you can see the status directly from Apple, independent of the app.
• Restart the app. A poor internet connection mid-check can give a false "nothing found" message. Try again on wifi.
• Wait a little after a fresh purchase. If you've only just subscribed on the old phone, it can take a moment before Apple's systems have registered it fully, ready to be restored elsewhere.

Family Sharing — when others in the household need the same access

If you've turned on Family Sharing on your Apple account, certain purchases — including many subscriptions — can be shared with the rest of the family without each person paying separately. It requires the app's provider to have switched this on for that particular subscription, and everyone in the family to be added under the same Family Sharing group in Settings. It's worth checking if several people in the household use the same app to, say, keep track of a shared home.

Data is a different matter from the subscription

It's important to keep two things separate: the subscription itself (the right to use the app's full features) and your data (what you've actually created in the app — drawings, scans, measurements). A subscription is restored via the App Store, as described above. Your data is typically restored via iCloud or a similar cloud service, if the app supports it, and this usually happens automatically once you sign in with the same Apple ID and open the app for the first time on the new phone. If you're unsure whether an app syncs your data to the cloud, it's worth checking before you switch phones — so you know whether you need to export something as a backup first.

A practical example: switching phones mid-project

Imagine you're halfway through measuring up a home with an app, and your phone breaks or gets replaced. If the data is stored in the cloud under your Apple ID, you can carry on exactly where you left off, simply by signing in on the new phone and tapping "restore purchases" for the subscription. If, on the other hand, the data is only stored locally on the old phone and you haven't made a backup, the work itself is lost, even though the subscription can easily be restored. That's why the two questions — "can I restore my purchase?" and "can I restore my data?" — need to be answered separately, not assumed to be the same thing.

What HouseSense does

HouseSense follows the same model: your subscription is tied to your Apple ID, and a button in the app's upgrade screen is called exactly "Restore purchases" — tap it after installing on a new phone, and your subscription unlocks again without paying afresh. Your home data is stored separately via iCloud, linked to the same Apple ID, so a new phone typically retrieves both your subscription and your homes back, simply by signing in and opening the app.

How to avoid problems when switching phones

1. Note which Apple ID you use for purchases — especially if you have more than one account in use.
2. Check that iCloud or similar is turned on for the app before you switch phones, so data comes along automatically.
3. Export the most important items as an extra safeguard — a PDF or file you save yourself survives whatever happens to the account.
4. Restore the subscription first, data afterwards — they're two separate processes, even though they often blend together in practice.

What if you switch from iPhone to iPad, or the other way round?

The principle is the same, regardless of which kind of Apple device you're switching to or from: purchases and subscriptions follow the Apple ID, not the device type. An app bought or subscribed to on iPhone can be restored on an iPad with the same account, provided the developer has built the app for both platforms, and vice versa. That makes it practical to use the same subscription on several of your own devices at once — the phone in your pocket and the tablet on your desk, say — without paying twice. Here it's especially worth checking whether the app stores its data in the cloud, since that's what decides whether you see the same home on both devices, or only carry the access with you.

A common trap: two Apple IDs without knowing it

Some users only discover the problem when the restore doesn't work: the phone can be signed in with one Apple ID for iCloud and a different one for the App Store, if the account has been set up a particular way, or if a new phone was set up with default settings without much thought. The symptom is that "restore purchases" simply finds nothing, even though you're sure you've paid. The fix is to check both places in Settings — both at the top under your name and under the App Store settings separately — and confirm it's the same account in both places.

Why it's safe to trust this mechanism

The system is built so you never have to pay twice for the same subscription just because you switch device. It's an advantage of buying through the App Store rather than directly from a provider outside Apple: the receipt and the right to the product sit centrally with Apple, not only in the provider's own system. If the provider's own server goes down one day, that typically doesn't affect whether Apple still knows you have a valid purchase — the two things are kept separate on purpose.