How To See Your iTunes Purchase History

Jamie Read more June 27, 2021

If you have been using iTunes for any length of time, your purchase history is likely to be rather long and varied. Even though iTunes has separated into Apple Music, Apple TV, and Apple Podcasts, you can still find your purchase history in iTunes. If you would like to or dare to, you can view your iTunes purchase history using the following procedures below.

View Your Purchase History Using iTunes

Managing your purchases allows you to redownload previously bought items, ensure nobody else has gotten hold of your login, and see how much you have spent over the years. If you want to view your iTunes purchase history, it only takes a couple of seconds.

Open “iTunes” and log in with your Apple ID.
Using the Menu bar at the top, choose “Account -> View My Account.”
In the “Purchase History” section, click on “See All.”
Purchases within the last 90 days appear on the screen by default.
If you want to dig further into your purchase history, click on the red up and down caret icon to select a year.
Choose the year you want to view from the dropdown list.
You’ll now see all purchases for the selected year.
To filter the list further, click the newly appeared red up and down caret icon in the second filter option.
Choose what you’d like to view.
The newly filtered list of purchases will appear. You can click “More” on any entry to view more information.

Depending on how many purchases you have made, the filtered history list might take a while to load. Your history includes any purchases you made like movies, music, apps, etc. You’ll also see all free purchases too. Furthermore, any Blu-ray or DVD movies you added to iTunes using a code will also appear, like the example below.

View Your Purchase History on iPhone or iPad

To get the whole picture, you really need to have iTunes installed on your computer. If you don’t have access to it at the time, you can check some details with an iPhone or iPad.

Navigate to Settings and iTunes & App Store.
Enter your Apple ID if prompted.
Check payment information, and you should be able to access the last 90 days’ worth of purchases. This process doesn’t work on all devices, apparently, so your mileage may vary.

Alternatively, visit the Apple Report a Problem page to see the last 90 days’ worth of activity.

View iTunes Purchase History Further Back

Once presented with your list of purchases, you can extract a little more information should you wish to.

Select the gray arrow next to the selected purchase to see more information about it. It will display the time and date, order number, exact item, cost, and other pertinent information. From there, you can move on or report a problem with a purchase.

How to view your iTunes purchase history-3

Managing Discrepancies in your iTunes purchase history

If you are looking at your iTunes purchase history to see if your account may have been compromised you can see here exactly what was bought and when. If you see something amiss, check against your credit or debit account to see if the money was taken. If it was, select the Report a Problem button next to Done.

Before reporting an issue to Apple, it makes sense to check to see if there is another reason for the discrepancy. There are some account status that can mean your history doesn’t look like you think it should. They include authorization hold, delayed charge, subscription renewal, or a Family Sharing purchase.

An authorization hold is where your bank holds a purchase to check its validity. They may contact you to make sure it is legitimate. This usually only happens when you first purchase on iTunes or if something flags it up to the bank’s systems.

A delayed charge is often the same thing as an authorization hold. Something within your bank is holding up payment. This is rare and usually very temporary.

A subscription renewal may show up in your purchase history as a result of someone joining Family Sharing. This is a common query as someone joining Family Sharing brings their subscriptions with them, which will appear on the purchase history.

A Family Sharing purchase is where someone in the Family Sharing makes a purchase. You may not recognize it so will need to check with your family to verify.

If you see something you don’t recognize in your iTunes purchase history and have checked for those conditions, report the issue to Apple right away. Visit the Apple charges information page to learn more about managing payments.

You can also remove the payment method if you see activity happening right now too. You can always re-add it later.

So now you know how to view your iTunes purchase history and what to do if you see a discrepancy. Hope it helps!