Paid, but the app still looks locked? How to restore your purchase

If you’ve paid for an app but it still shows the locked, unpaid version, the fix is almost never to pay again or reinstall from scratch — it’s to make sure the app is checking the same Apple ID or Google account that made the purchase. Purchases are tied to that account, not to a specific phone or a specific install of the app, so anything that puts you on a different account, a fresh install, or a new device can make a real, successful purchase look like it never happened. Sign in with the right account, use Restore Purchases, and confirm the subscription’s status directly in the store — that sequence resolves the large majority of “paid but locked” cases.

Why this happens

A handful of situations account for almost every case:

• A different Apple ID or Google account. This is the single most common cause. If you paid while signed into one account and the app (or the phone) is now using another — a work account, a second personal account, a family member’s — the purchase simply isn’t visible to the account currently active.
• Reinstalling the app. A fresh install has no memory of a previous purchase until it’s told to check for one. This is expected behaviour, not a bug — it’s exactly what Restore Purchases exists to fix.
• A new phone. Same underlying cause as a reinstall: the purchase lives with your store account, and a new device needs to ask that account what it owns.
• Payment still pending. Occasionally a payment method needs extra verification and the purchase hasn’t actually finished processing yet, so there’s nothing to restore until it clears.
• Family sharing. Subscriptions aren’t always included in family sharing the way one-time purchases often are, and whether a specific subscription is shareable depends on both the developer’s settings and your family group’s own configuration.
• A regional store change. Moving your Apple ID or Google account to a different country’s storefront can affect which purchases and subscriptions are recognised, since pricing and availability are region-specific.

The fix on iPhone

1. Confirm you’re signed into the right Apple ID: Settings › [your name], and check the account shown matches the one you used to pay.
2. Open the app and look for its Restore Purchases option — usually on its subscription or plans screen.
3. Tap it and wait for it to finish; it may ask you to confirm your Apple ID password or use Face ID/Touch ID.
4. Separately, check the subscription is actually listed as active: Settings › [your name] › Subscriptions. If it’s not there at all, the purchase may be on a different Apple ID.

The fix on Android

1. Confirm the right Google account is active on the device: Settings › Google, or check which account the Google Play Store app is currently signed into (tap your profile icon).
2. Open the app and use its Restore Purchases option, if it has one.
3. If nothing changes, open the Google Play Store app, tap your profile icon, then Payments & subscriptions › Subscriptions, and confirm the subscription is listed and active there.
4. If it’s active in Google Play but the app still doesn’t reflect it, that points to an app-side sync problem rather than a payment problem.

Where Restore Purchases is in IELTS Mentor AI

In IELTS Mentor AI specifically, Restore Purchases is a link at the bottom of the plans screen, next to the Terms and Privacy links. Tapping it re-checks whichever Apple ID or Google account you’re currently signed into and re-applies any active subscription or credits tied to it — it doesn’t create a new charge, and it’s safe to tap more than once.

Checking subscription status directly in the store

Whatever app is involved, the store itself is the most reliable place to check whether a subscription is actually active, since that’s the system of record — not the app’s own display, which just reflects what it was last told:

• iPhone: Settings › [your name] › Subscriptions. Each entry shows its status (active, expired, or set to cancel) and its renewal date.
• Android: Google Play Store › profile icon › Payments & subscriptions › Subscriptions. Same information — status and next billing date, per subscription.

If a subscription shows active there but an app still won’t unlock, the mismatch is between the app and the store, not between you and the store — which is exactly the situation support needs to look into.

What to send support

Whichever app you’re dealing with, a support request goes faster with a few specific details attached rather than a description of the problem alone:

• The store receipt or order number from your purchase confirmation email.
• The email address associated with your account in the app, if it has its own login separate from the store account.
• Which store you paid through (App Store or Google Play) and roughly when.
• Whether Restore Purchases was already tried and what happened when you tried it.

Support for this app is reachable at [email protected] — the receipt and account email together are usually enough to locate the purchase and confirm what should be unlocked.

When it’s the store’s side, not the app’s

If the store itself shows no record of your purchase at all — no matching order, no active subscription anywhere in your account — that’s a payment issue rather than an app issue, and a refund or investigation request goes to the store, not the developer. On iPhone, that’s reportaproblem.apple.com; on Android, it’s the order history section of the Google Play Store app. A developer can’t manufacture a purchase record that the store itself doesn’t have, so this is the correct next step rather than continuing to email support about it.