Unable to download Keynote or Numbers apps - "purchased with a different Apple ID"

Question

Unable to download Keynote or Numbers apps - "purchased with a different Apple ID"

I just migrated from my 2011 MacBook Air on High Sierra 10.13.6 to my 2020 MacBook Pro on Catalina 10.15.5. On the 2011 Air, I have Pages, so the update to Pages on the 2020 Pro was successful. I used the migration assistant on the 2011 Air to migrate my data to the new Pro.

On the 2020 Pro, it tried to update Keynote & Numbers. NOTE that I found both the Keynote & Numbers apps in the Applications folder (Pages was also there).

I get this pop-up message:

Current Update App

Keynote cannot be updated because it was refunded or purchased with a different Apple ID

I get the same for Numbers.

I searched the Apple forums. The only tip I could find that appears to be related said I should delete the app, go to the app store, and install it.

Well, I moved Keynote & Numbers to Trash.

When I go to the App store to download these apps, it is impossible -- the only option is to UPDATE. Well, if I don't have the app, how can I update it???

Why can't I download these apps?

Also, I don't understand the message about the Apple ID being different. I did change my Apple ID from yahoo to gmail in 2014, but I didn't download Pages on my 2011 Air until AFTER 2014.

Any help is appreciated on how to get Keynote and Numbers downloaded from Apple. I found other non-Apple sites but didn't feel comfortable downloading from them.

Thanks, Lynne

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Jul 6, 2020 6:13 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Leanne_68

Community Specialist

Jul 10, 2020 9:59 AM in response to lynnelovestorun

Hi lynnlovestorun,

Thanks for your post! We understand that after migrating your data, you encountered an error when attempting to update some iWork applications. We would agree with your original plan to delete the affected applications, then reinstall them using your preferred Apple ID.

Try deleting the apps another way, such as from Finder, then empty the Trash, restart your machine. and then try to download them again.

Let us know what you find out!

Take care!

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Answer 2

Jul 11, 2020 6:01 AM in response to Leanne_68

Hello Starr.C,

Thanks very much -- it worked this time. I did the following:

Went to the Launchpad and deleted Keynote & Numbers from there (I found another tip about that)
Shutdown my MBP
Went to the App store and searched for Keynote -- this time, the option was Get (instead of Update), so I was able to select Get and then Install -- this worked
Repeated the process for Numbers
I opened both apps without problems

I think the key was that although I had moved the apps to Trash, I hadn't emptied them from Trash, and I also hadn't restarted the MBP.

Thank you for your help. Much appreciated. Lynne

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Unable to download Keynote or Numbers apps - "purchased with a different Apple ID"

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