Getting a direct purchase back

Most people buy TaskForge through the App Store or Google Play. Those purchases are tied to a store account, so "Restore Purchases" always has somewhere to look.

Buying directly is different. On Windows, on a direct download of the Mac app, and on Linux later, there is no store account. The purchase is tied to an anonymous ID that TaskForge generates on first launch and sends along with the checkout link. If that ID is lost, the purchase has nothing to attach to.

Two changes in 3.0.0 close the gap.

The ID now lives in a file, not just in settings

Before 3.0.0 the ID was kept only in the app's preferences. Reset your settings, or reinstall on a machine with no backup, and it was gone.

Now it is written to a small text file in the app's application-support folder:

• Windows: %APPDATA%\TaskForge\TaskForge\direct_rc_app_user_id.txt
• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/com.azhard.taskforge/direct_rc_app_user_id.txt

If you already bought TaskForge, nothing changes for you. The first launch after updating copies your existing ID into the file. It is never regenerated, because a new ID would lose the link to your purchase.

That file is worth keeping if you are moving to a new machine. Copy it into the same folder on the new one and Premium comes back on the next launch.

"Already purchased? Recover it"

No file survives a full wipe with no backup, so there is a second path. Settings → Premium now has an entry called Already purchased? Recover it. Paste the checkout link you opened when you bought, or the ID at the end of it. The link is in your browser history and on your receipt. TaskForge looks the purchase up and switches Premium back on, with nothing to pay again, even after a clean install on new hardware.

If your purchase email has a redemption link instead, which happens when you bought through a web link without the app's ID, open that link on the machine you want Premium on. TaskForge redeems it for that installation. The link works once and expires an hour after purchase; opening an expired link emails you a fresh one.

If you have neither, send a problem report from the app and include the email address you bought with. The report carries this installation's ID, and support finds your purchase by that email address.

Launching offline no longer looks like "not premium"

TaskForge checks a direct purchase over the network. If that check has never succeeded on this installation, and you happen to launch with no connection, older versions treated the missing answer as a definite "no" and showed the free tier.

3.0.0 tells the two apart. "We have not been able to confirm a purchase on this device" is not the same as "you have not bought this," and the Premium settings screen now says so and points at recovery. Connect to the network and relaunch, and the check completes normally with no re-purchase.

What has not changed

Store purchases are unaffected. App Store and Play Store users keep using Restore Purchases exactly as before. Store "Restore Purchases" will never find a direct purchase, and a direct recovery will never find a store one: they are separate systems.