Preventing automatic app offloading and loss on iPad

Expanding upon advice offered by razmee209 - you need to change just one setting on your iPad:

Settings > Apps > App Store > Offload Unused Apps - set to OFF

TodFromIndiana wrote:

I use my iPad (Air M2 11”) for 90% of my computing use. It has ~60 apps on it.

Today I began using it and quickly discovered that some 25 apps had been disabled. The way to fix this is to tap the icon and wait for them to be reloaded from Apple.

Unfortunately five of these apps are no longer in the app store, so I have lost them permanently. Two of them were paid apps that no longer appear in the app store.

I realize that I can recover everything from a backup but the extra time to do this is time lost for other things.

What can be done to prevent this from happening in the future?

Thank you.

Tod

Turn OFF offload unused apps.

TodFromIndiana wrote:

I realize that I can recover everything from a backup but the extra time to do this is time lost for other things.

Unfortunately, you will not be able to recover apps from a backup. Apps are not (and never have been) part of a backup.

You might try going to the App Store, tapping on your avatar in the upper left corner, then Purchase History. Next to "Showing" you'll see the current filter options. Tap on them to change it. If you can find the app in your Purchase History, you may be able to re-download it if the developer has elected to make that an option. I'm not very sanguine about it but it's worth a try.

You are very welcome.

Be aware that any data associated with unrecoverable Apps are unlikely to be recoverable unless the associated App can be re-installed from the App Store.

This is one of the few negative aspects of the iOS/iPadOS sandboxed system architecture and device backups; the App must be installed before its any backup data can be re-associated with it. Insofar as your backup is concerned, without the App that created it, the backup data cannot be recovered.

TodFromIndiana wrote:

@ razme209:

Thank you for your very helpful and quick reply. It's really valuable advice.

Tod

You're welcome.