Transferring apps to a new Mac when you have lost the licences
· 5 min read
Applications bought from the App Store reinstall on a new Mac by signing in. Everything else needs proof, and the proof is usually an email from four years ago.
The good news is that most of it is recoverable, and much of it is recoverable from the old Mac itself, which is the argument for doing this before erasing it.
First, list what you actually have
ls /Applications
Go through it and mark each as App Store, bought direct, subscription, or free. The direct purchases are the only ones needing work.
To see which came from the App Store, the receipt is inside the application bundle:
for a in /Applications/*.app; do
[ -e "$a/Contents/_MASReceipt" ] && echo "App Store: $(basename "$a")"
done
Anything not listed by that came from elsewhere.
Where the licence usually is
In rough order of how often it works.
Your email. Search for the application name, then for words like “licence”, “license key”, “order confirmation”, “your receipt”. Most vendors send a key at purchase and it is still in your mail.
The application itself. Many applications display the registered name and key in an About or Registration window while still activated. This is the strongest reason to look before erasing the old Mac: an activated application will often show you the key it is using.
The vendor’s account page. If you created an account when buying, the key is usually listed there. Password reset gets you in.
The payment processor. A great deal of Mac software is sold through resellers. If you can find the charge on a card statement, the processor’s name is usually in the description, and their support can locate the order from the card and date.
Your password manager. Worth checking; many people saved keys there and forgot.
Where the key is stored on disk
Some applications keep the licence in a file you can copy across. There is no universal location, and two places are common:
ls ~/Library/Application\ Support/ | head -40
ls ~/Library/Preferences/ | grep -i <vendor>
If you find a .plist or a licence file for an application, copying it to the same location on the new Mac sometimes reactivates it without a key. It is worth trying, and it does not always work, since many applications tie the licence to a hardware identifier.
Deauthorise before you erase
This is the step that is genuinely hard to undo.
Applications that allow a limited number of activations count the old machine until you deauthorise it. Erase without doing so and you may find the new Mac refused, with support the only route back.
Look for Deactivate, Deauthorise or Sign Out in each application before erasing. Unpairing everything before a Mac leaves you covers the wider list.
Applications that will not come back
Be realistic about a few categories.
Vendors that no longer exist. If the company is gone and the licence server with it, an application requiring online activation may be unrecoverable. If it still runs on the old Mac, that machine is the only place it works.
Very old software. Applications built for Intel without an update may not run on Apple silicon at all. Check before spending an evening chasing a key.
Subscriptions you stopped paying. No key exists; you resubscribe or you do not.
The practical order
- List applications on the old Mac and identify the direct purchases.
- For each, open it and look for the key in About or Registration. Write them down.
- Search email for anything you could not find in the application.
- Deauthorise each one.
- Then erase.
Doing steps one to three after the erase turns a twenty-minute job into a week of support tickets.
Questions
Do App Store apps need any of this? No. Sign in on the new Mac, open the App Store, go to your account, and install from your purchase history.
Can I copy applications directly from the old Mac? Yes, dragging an application to an external drive and onto the new Mac usually works. It will still ask for its licence, and it may be an old version. Reinstalling current versions from the vendor is generally better.
What if I bought it through a bundle years ago? The bundle vendor usually keeps a redemption page tied to the email you used. Search mail for the bundle name.
Is there a way to list every licence at once? No, because there is no standard for how applications store them. The About window and your email are the reliable routes.