How do I restore a purchase?
Updated September 2026
Restore purchases sits in two places: the foot of the paywall, beside Terms and Privacy, and the Account section of the Settings tab. Tapping it asks Apple whether the Apple ID signed in on this phone already holds a Fold'em subscription, and reinstates it if so. It is never a second charge, and the app short circuits the paywall on its own when it already reads an active entitlement, so you cannot be billed twice by accident. It only ever finds a purchase made on the same Apple ID, because that is the whole of what Apple will tell it.
What restoring asks for
A Fold'em subscription belongs to the Apple ID that bought it, not to the app install and not to your Fold'em account. Restoring is the app asking StoreKit for the current entitlements on the Apple ID signed in to this phone, and accepting the answer. If a live subscription comes back, the app treats the phone as entitled from that moment. If nothing comes back, nothing happens and the paywall stays where it is.
The app also asks this question without being told to. A device that already reads an active entitlement short circuits the paywall rather than showing it, which is what stops a returning user paying twice. Blocking is put back in place against that same live reading, never against a purchase record the app keeps for itself.
When you need it
Three situations produce a phone that is paying but not entitled. A new phone, where the subscription is on the Apple ID and the fresh install has not asked yet. A reinstall of Fold'em on the same phone. And a sign in on a second device with the same Apple ID. In all three the fix is the same tap, and in all three the rest of your account, your term, your day count and your circle come back from the server independently of it.
A fourth situation looks the same and is not: a subscription that genuinely ended. Restoring cannot revive a subscription that has lapsed or been refunded, because Apple has nothing live to hand back. What that phone needs is a new purchase, and the app offers exactly that rather than a restore that would fail.
Why a cold app stays blocked
Fold'em treats an unreadable entitlement as blocked, never as free. An app that has never synced, one that is offline, and one that hit a StoreKit error all hold the block in place and show Restore rather than dropping the shields. Only a successful check that comes back with no subscription at all is read as ended. Restoring is therefore the safe action in every one of those states: at worst it changes nothing.
The two places it lives
-
On the paywall
Restore purchases is the third link at the very foot of the paywall, after Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy. This is the one to use if you have reinstalled and the app is asking you to buy something you already own.
Restore purchases, at the foot of the paywall
-
In Settings, under Account
Open the Settings tab and scroll past Preferences and Help to the Account section. Restore purchases is the middle of its three rows, between Manage in App Store and Delete account. While it runs the row reads Restoring, and if Apple returns nothing usable a line appears under it reading that purchases could not be restored.
Settings, with Account at the foot
What this does not do
Restoring does not move a subscription between Apple IDs, and it cannot find a purchase made on an account you are no longer signed in to; only the person holding that Apple ID can restore it. It is not a way to recover a refunded or expired subscription, and it does not unlock anything: the block is held by the server and your keyholder, so a phone that restores an entitlement returns to being protected, not to being open. It also has nothing to do with signing in to Fold'em itself, which is a separate account with its own row.
Still stuck? Email support@foldem.app and we answer within two working days.