Has anyone, who wants to manage their apps on their PC, and using iTunes 12.6.5.3 upgraded their iPhone or iPad to iOS 13? If so, can you still use iTunes, for Windows, v 12.6.5.3 with your iOS 13 devices? If not, is there a workaround that anyone knows about.
Thanks
iPhone 7
iTunes 12.6.5.3 cannot be used to update a device from iOS 12 to iOS 13, but it should be able to add apps to devices. Since the release of iOS 9 apps delivered to a device are unlikely to be universal packages so if you're going down this route iTunes should be used for the initial download.
tt2
I wish I could remember the specific message I got, but needless to say, iTunes was not going to allow me to use 12.6.5.3 for my wife's iPhone 11 Pro Max to do the restore/setup. Now I will say her PC is running Windows 7, so maybe that's a factor.
At any rate, managing apps on iOS 13 is a lot less painful than in the old days :-)
When it comes to iTunes and iOS support there are usually no workarounds. The closest to it is substituting with what you can do through iCloud.
I don't recall explicitly testing iTunes 12.6.5.3 for Windows, but the Mac version can certainly be used with iOS 13 so I assume it would be the same.
tt2
But can she still backup and save her apps on iTunes? What I’m worried about is Apple removing an app and if I need to restore it won’t be there. From what I understand, even backing it up to iCloud won’t keep an app if Apple removes it.
And also, with multiple devices it’s much better to download to the PC once, then use iTunes to move apps to the devices, especially if you’re on a limited data plan, like we are.
Thanks for the reply.
I wasn’t referring to our phones’ data plans but rather our internet data plan. We only have 1 phone that has an unlimited data plan, all others are bare minimum data plan and the iPads are strictly download from the internet.
Our internet data plan is also very limited. We are rural and internet data plans aren’t exactly affordable around here. Up to now, it’s download once and then just use iTunes to get the app(s) on the other devices, saving on our Phone and Internet data plans.
Will have to look into some way to get the app(s) off a device and onto a PC.
You are very welcome. My only caution in response to tt2's reply is that there are reported issues on this forum regarding backing up your iOS 13 devices with iTunes 12.6.5.3. And since all my PCs are now at iTunes 12.10.2.3, I don't have a machine to test the backup on.
tt2 - have you been able to test backing up an iOS 13 device to Windows iTunes 12.6.5.3? Just curious...
My experiments have been on macOS where I have a triple boot system running variously High Sierra (iTunes 12.6.5.3), Mojave (iTunes 12.9.5.5), and Catalina (Music 1.0.x). Rolling back in Windows just to test requires a bit more effort but I might find the time.
tt2
No. The ability to manage apps and access the app store in iTunes is not available post 12.7. The Mobile Applications folder is still there if you upgrade, but is not used by iTunes.
All her apps and my apps were exactly where they were supposed to be after we restored our iPhone 11's. It will take a bit for them to install over the air but not much longer than they did from the PC.
Perhaps someone on the forum can speak to adding 'old' apps by dragging/dropping or copying/pasting them to a device. Or adding them to the Automatically Add to iTunes folder as a way of replacing a discontinued app. There may be third party applications for managing apps on iOS devices but I have not done any investigation.
And lastly, as someone who 'manages' devices for the family (I have an 89 year old mother-in-law) you will get no argument from me as to the ease of app management in iTunes. But times change and I accept that. FWIW, I do all our device management with WiFi. I do use not our data plan to do any device management.
Windows iTunes 12.6.5 and ios 13 for phone or pad
