Remove unused apps question

Question

Level 2

477 points

Remove unused apps question

When in the applications area of iTunes I see all the apps I have.

Great.

Only some of those apps are being used on my iPhone as I tried some and then removed the ones I did not want from my iPhone so they are no longer on my phone but are still listed and are unchecked on my iTunes/iPhone/applications tab page.

OK.

I want to delete the ones no longer being used BUT i cannot tell from looking at the applications page what apps are being used and which are not so I have to bounce back and forth between the applications page and the iPhone page/applications tab to see which apps have a check next to them and which do not.

P.I.T.A.

Is there a way on the applications page to tell which apps are actually being used on the phone?

If not is there a way to delete unused apps from the iphone/applications tab page?

24" iMac, Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on Oct 25, 2009 2:16 PM

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Answer 1

John Guo

Level 5

5,353 points

Oct 25, 2009 2:47 PM in response to Light Speed

The ones that are on the iPhone are checked, the ones that are not is not checked. You can delete the ones that are not checked.

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Answer 2

Light Speed Author

Level 2

477 points

Oct 25, 2009 2:59 PM in response to John Guo

Yup I already know that and mentioned it in my post.

My question was:

How can I delete the unchecked apps from the iTunes/Devices/iPhone/Applications tab page?

OR

How can I tell which applications are being used on the iPhone when looking at the iTunes/Application page?

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Answer 3

John Guo

Level 5

5,353 points

Oct 25, 2009 4:07 PM in response to Light Speed

When you say "being used" do you mean that which is on the iPhone or which is used commonly? And to delete your uncheck apps, you have to delete the entire app from iTunes. If I didn't understand you, please rephrase your question.

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Answer 4

Light Speed Author

Level 2

477 points

Oct 25, 2009 4:22 PM in response to John Guo

Hi John,

Thanks for taking the time to help 🙂

I only use apps on my iPhone so in my instance "being used" only applies to there. I didn't know there was another way to use an app other than on the iPhone.

I had about 40 apps that I was no longer using so since it seems the only place an app can be deleted in iTunes is from the iTunes/Applications page I was hoping there would be a way from that page to see what apps were in use (actually still on the iPhone) so I could just select those and delete them rather than going back and forth to the iPhone apps tab but I don't think there is.

Probably just a UI oversight by the iPhone dev team.

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Answer 5

Nov 5, 2009 2:11 PM in response to John Guo

John (or others). I have exactly the same issue. I have apps that I tried and deleted from my iPod. Yet they are still listed in the iTunes sync page. You say delete them, and I say, great. How? I tried hitting delete, I tried dragging them to trash, I have tried everything I know to do but these unused, unwanted, undesired apps are still cluttering up my iTunes applications listing. Unchecked, and just as impossible to delete. Can someone give me some help here?

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Answer 6

Chris CA

Level 10

82,434 points

Nov 5, 2009 2:20 PM in response to Light Speed

In iTunes on the Apps page, right click - Delete on the app to remove it from iTunes and the computer.

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Answer 7

nabu99

Level 1

0 points

Nov 11, 2009 5:03 PM in response to Chris CA

Any other way? On my MacBook, right-click does nothing, no menu. iTunes 9.

Edit: Nevermind. Was trying to right-click on the iPod tab for arranging apps. Right-click on the iTunes apps page works fine.

Message was edited by: nabu99

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Answer 8

Jan 11, 2010 12:09 PM in response to nabu99

I don't believe this question has been sufficiently answered, and I am having the same issue.

There are two places to view your apps. One is from the LIBRARY/Applications and the other is DEVICES/{my phone}/Applications tab.

From the LIBRARY/Applications option, I can see all apps I have downloaded. Apps my be deleted from there by highlighting the app and deleting it (via delete key or right click option).

From the DEVICES/{my phone}/Applications tab I can see all apps again, but this time the apps have a checkbox that indicates if the app is synced to my phone or not.

Here is the problem.

From the LIBRARY/Applications option, I can delete an app but I can't see which apps are synced to my phone. From the DEVICES/{my phone}/Applications tab I can see what apps are synced, but I can't delete the app.

So here's the dilemma that myself and other users are facing.

Using the iPhone, we decide we don't want an app anymore, so we delete it from the iPhone. This removes the app from the phone and prevents it from being synced to iTunes. However, it does NOT remove it from the master list of apps in iTunes. Over time, this list has grown quite long, and I want to clean it up.

This is a big task however, because from the area where I can delete the app, I can't see if the app is actually synced to the phone.

So is there a way around this problem?

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Answer 9

Chris CA

Level 10

82,434 points

Jan 11, 2010 1:03 PM in response to jeljeljel

You could take a screen shot of the DEVICES/{my phone}/Applications tab then go to LIBRARY/Applications and delete there.

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Answer 10

Jan 11, 2010 2:08 PM in response to jeljeljel

You can connect your iPhone to iTunes and go to the Applications tab. Then, you can double-click on the Applications library to open it in a separate window.

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Answer 11

Jan 12, 2010 8:21 AM in response to Jim VanLeeuwen

Thanks, that suggestion helps. It would be nice if you could delete from the Applications tab though. (Anyone from Apple listening to this?)

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Answer 12

Chris CA

Level 10

82,434 points

Jan 12, 2010 8:53 AM in response to jeljeljel

Anyone from Apple listening to this?

Probably not.
-> iTunes feedback

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