Mac App Store launch notes

By Steve on January 7, 2011

You may have spotted this already: SourceTree is now on the Mac App Store! I’m very pleased to have been able to get SourceTree there for launch day, and am looking forward to seeing how it goes.

This is all new territory though, and there are some important points of note that have become clear over the last 24 hours. Although OS X 10.6.6 was available to us developers early, the Mac App Store itself wasn’t, so in addition to general clarifications I knew I’d have to make anyway, there are a few things I’ve discovered since launch which I’ll pass on.

• Q: If I bought SourceTree outside of the App Store, can I update it / re-download it from the App Store?
  No. If you bought SourceTree directly from this site, you will continue to receive your updates through the in-application update process (the menu item ‘SourceTree > Check for Updates…’ or the automatic check in Preferences). It’s currently not possible to transfer an external purchase into the App Store.
• Q: I have a SourceTree trial version and I can’t buy in the App Store, it says ‘Installed’ already!
  This was something I wasn’t expecting – basically the App Store searches your Mac for matching apps and therefore thinks that your trial version is an App Store version, even though it isn’t. I’m working on resolving this for the next release. You can get around it for now either by simply buying from this site instead, or deleting your trial version and re-opening the App Store to buy there.
• Q: Is there any difference between the App Store version and the version from sourcetreeapp.com?
  Functionally at the same version number they are identical; the only difference is that the App Store version has the internal auto-update and registration modules replaced with the App Store’s own functionality. However, the App Store review policy introduces a delay to releases, so at any one time the version on the App Store may lag behind the version you get directly from us by a short period. This is especially true right now, because the review process for the busy App Store launch took longer, meaning the version on the App Store at the time of writing is a little over two weeks old (1.1.2, compared to the latest 1.1.4). The latest version is awaiting approval with Apple right now so this difference will be resolved soon.
• Q: Can I use SourceTree on multiple Macs if I bought from the App Store?
  Yes. You will need to log in to your App Store account on the other machine to do so, and either re-download it, or if you copy the application from another machine there will be a once-off activation process with your App Store account.

I hope that helps make things clearer. I’m grateful to Apple for providing such a great store for Mac developers!