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# 4.1.4 Mac App Store

DropDMG is available from the Mac App Store as well as direct from C-Command.

It’s Your Choice

We’re happy wherever you choose to purchase our software. The Mac App Store makes it very convenient to buy, download, and install, and you get updates via the store. The purchase is tied to your iTunes account. If you buy direct, you drag-and-drop to install and get updates via the application’s auto-updater or the Web site. Either way, you can sign up for the DropDMG News mailing list or the DropDMG RSS feed to be notified about new versions and important product news.

Prices

Pricing is substantially the same, although there will be slight differences due to Apple’s pricing tiers and currency conversions. All Mac App Store purchases are for single-user licenses. Purchasing direct, you can also buy family packs and get additional volume and educational discounts. Although you pay the same price, Apple’s higher fees mean that direct purchases send 25+% more of your money to C-Command.

Trials

DropDMG has a fully-featured 30-day trial version that’s available from the Web site. If you purchase direct, you can click a link in your order confirmation to enter your serial number and take it out of trial mode. If you purchase from the Mac App Store, you should first delete your trial version so that the store doesn’t see DropDMG as already installed. Your preferences and user data will be seamlessly shared between both versions.

Updates and Upgrades

Our standard policy has been to provide customers lots of free minor updates and 50% discounts on major upgrades. The Mac App Store does not support upgrade pricing, and Apple does not allow upgrade pricing for cross-grades out of the Mac App Store, so we can only offer the discount if you originally purchased direct from C-Command.

Updates to DropDMG will be available from the Mac App Store sometime after they are available direct from C-Command. This delay is due to Apple’s review process, which has historically taken anywhere from a few days to a few weeks. For example:

- Regular app review usually takes about a week.
- Mac OS X 10.9 introduced a bug that could prevent apps downloaded from the store from being signed (and, thus, launched). Therefore, we had to suspend submitting updates to Apple for several months in order to prevent customers from downloading updates that couldn’t be launched.
- In June 2015, there was a problem with Apple’s server that was causing it to reject the EagleFiler archive that we uploaded, even though it was valid. It took a month for Apple to fix this.
- In October 2015, it took 61 days for Apple to review an update.
- In May 2016, two Apple server bugs prevented shipping a DropDMG update for about three months. DropDMG had to be removed from sale, and previous purchasers could not download a working version from the Mac App Store.

Once an updated version of DropDMG is available, the Mac App Store does not let you download previous versions. This can make it impossible to reinstall DropDMG if you are using an older version of macOS than the new version of DropDMG supports. With the direct version of DropDMG, you can always download previous versions for use with prior OS versions.

Transfers

If you purchase via the Mac App Store, the direct version will recognize your receipt from Apple. So (barring changes in the way Apple handles receipts) you’ll always have the option of downloading the software yourself to get the full features and the latest updates. Apple, unfortunately, provides no way to transfer purchases in the other direction, for existing customers who would prefer to receive updates via the Mac App Store.

Feature Differences

We intend the Mac App Store and direct versions of DropDMG to be as similar as possible, however some differences are necessary in order to comply with the rules for Apple’s store. Our first priority is to design the direct version as best we know how; it should not be limited by Mac App Store considerations. Secondly, if a feature cannot be accepted in the Mac App Store, we will try to adapt it or make it available in another way. This may not always be possible or practical, however. Additionally, the Mac App Store rules are subject to change, and so DropDMG will change with them. If it becomes impossible to deliver DropDMG through the Mac App Store with the level of features and quality that we consider essential, we may remove it from the store and only sell it directly.

Here are the current differences between the Mac App Store and direct versions:

- The direct version has a button in the preferences for installing the Command-line tool and man page. With the Mac App Store version, you can install these manually via Terminal.
- Some files and folders have ownership or permissions such that DropDMG needs an administrator password to correctly copy them. The direct version will ask for the password as needed. The Mac App Store version will stop and report an error.
- The direct version has a checkbox in the preferences to Always run with root access. This lets DropDMG run unattended and copy the aforementioned files without asking for your password each time. With the Mac App Store version, you can enable this feature via Terminal.
- The Mac App Store version defaults to Ask Later for the destination folder, rather than Next to Source.
- The Mac App Store version has a slightly different application icon.

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