Sync Apps from iphone to itunes changes the apps layout

How is this "advice" in any way relevant?

so who wants the real answer?? its very simple... 🙂

as mentioned, first of all TRANSFER PURCHASES from iphone to itunes. check the SYNC APPS check button. yes this will cause itunes to reorganise your folders (for now), however, then close itunes. you will get a window pop up asking if you want to apply the changes. Select YES. itunes will then close. now re-open itunes and PRESTO! itunes will now show all of your apps as selected and they will all be in the same folders as in your iphone. you can now sync away without losing your personal folders...

this was done on a iphone 4S running 5.1.1 on itunes 10.7.0.21

hope that helps.. enjoy! 😉

Hi,

I just wanted to add that the tricks in this thread worked for me as well. I got some "Are you sure..."-questions that made me hesitate before trying so I wanted to share what worked for me:

1. Connect iPhone
2. Untick "sync apps" (if ticked)
3. Select "keep apps" (if prompted after step 2)
4. Right-click on iPhone and select "transfer purchases"
5. Tick "sync apps"
6. Close iTunes
7. Select "apply" (if prompted)
8. Select "delete" (if prompted)
9. Open iTunes again
10. Apps and folders on iPhone should now match what is visible in iTunes and it is just to press "sync"

I did successfully using:

iTunes 10.7.0.21 (Windows 7)

iOS 5.1.1 (iPhone 3GS) and iOS 6.0 (iPhone 4)

I can also confirm that the above method works. I had given up on syncing my apps with my previous phone because I kept getting errors. Yay. Thanks!

iTunes 10.7 (21) on a Mac running Mountain Lion

iOS 6.0 iPhone 5

samax901's method (Sept 23, 2012) worked for me after moving to a new computer. Had just about given up. Thanks!

iTunes 10.7 (21) with Mountain Lion 10.8.2

iOS 6.0 iPhone 4

2enjoy...maaaaate you nailed it!!

worked like a charm, guys take note..... worked perfectly

if apple just gave options at point of synch... 1: copy as per Itunes..or 2:copy as per Iphone...(common proceedure on all synching softares i have used since mid 90's) and re-worded the pop up warnings.... it would fall under the mantle of "it just works"

my set up iTunes 10.6.3.25 and Iphone 4 IOS4.3.1 (yes old but waiting till IOS6 sorted left my 5.1 upgrade to late..lol)

so thanks...

Yeppers! Thanks 2enjoy- this has been bugging me for a lonnnnnnng time! 🙂

Thanks for this tip Aspertine, this was exactly what I was looking for.

This also worked for me as well. Thanks so much.

Hope you get "points" for this one. Your answer is easy to understand and it works. Thanks! I've searched for a clear answer to this one for a long time. Excellent. Hey everyone, read 2enjoy's answer!!

2enjoy wrote:

so who wants the real answer?? its very simple... 🙂

as mentioned, first of all TRANSFER PURCHASES from iphone to itunes. check the SYNC APPS check button. yes this will cause itunes to reorganise your folders (for now), however, then close itunes. you will get a window pop up asking if you want to apply the changes. Select YES. itunes will then close. now re-open itunes and PRESTO! itunes will now show all of your apps as selected and they will all be in the same folders as in your iphone. you can now sync away without losing your personal folders...

this was done on a iphone 4S running 5.1.1 on itunes 10.7.0.21

hope that helps.. enjoy! 😉

Does anyone know if this solution works with iTunes 11?

I only needed to do step 4 from samax901's post to get apps synced over from the iPhone to iTunes that don't get copied over in a regular iTunes sync. This is a new bug/issue for me since I upgraed to iTunes 11. iTunes 10 and below worked just fine for app syncing during a normal iTunes sync.

This really helped thanks🙂

I think I accidently found a way to get apps into the correct folders with iOS 6.1.1 and iTunes 11. I backed up my iPhone 4s running iOS 5.1.1, transferred purchases, and then restored my iPhone 4S with iOS 6.1.1. After the backup completed, the iPhone restarted and started syncing applications from the Mac onto the newly restored iPhone. I was not watching this proces, and when I got back to the Mac, I got confused about the Mac application I was looking at, and couldn't find my iPhone in the left-hand side bar (which I had enabled to look like all previous versions of iTunes). Then, I unplugged my iPhone from the Mac, and only at this point did I relize that the iPhone was syncing apps when I pulled the plug on it. So, I plugged it back in, wondering how I can re-initiate the sync of applications back to the iPhone. iTunes 11 no longer has the check box to get it to sync all (or checked) apps to the iPhone. Instead, there's a "remove" or "install" button next to each app in iTunes. So, I decided to "restore from backup" again, and this time, when the iPhone restarted, I made sure that it downloaded (synced) all apps from the Mac. Strangely enough, all apps were in the correct folders once the sync completed.

Today, I upgraded another iPhone 4S from iOS 5.1.1 to iOS 6.1.1 by backing up, transferring purchases, then restoring the iPhone, and then selecting the backup. This time, when the iPhone restarted, I did not interrupt the syncing of apps, and let it run all the way until all the apps were synced. To my chagrine, all the apps (more than 100 of them) were scattered over 6 screens and not in the folders where they were supposed to be. There were no folders (except standard ones), either. Moreover, when I manually moved all the apps to the correct folders (while my iPhone was plugged in to iTunes), I then clicked on the iPhone in the left side bar, and iTunes prompted me with the message that the iPhone settings (or something to this effect) have changed and if I wanted to accept the change. When I answered yes, all of my work was undone and all the apps were again outside of the folders with all of the custom folders gone (just like it was after the initial app sync following the restore from the backup). I then had to spend another hour re-doing my work. This time, I unplugged the iPhone from iTunes while moving apps into folders. I think my next step will be to delete the backup from iTunes and run the backup again and then transfer purchases because when I plug my iPhone into iTunes, the latter does not reflect the way my apps are arranged on the iPhone. Again, there's no more Sync with iTunes checkbox (in iTunes 11) mentioned in this thread, so it's unclear to me how to get iTunes 11 to recognize the new layout of my iPhone besides wiping out all backups and backing up my iPhone as though this were the first backup. I have Time Machine backups of my previous iPhones' backups, so I can always go back to Time Machine and restore the backup from there (if I have to).

But, overall, this is a great shame that so many years of people complaining of this feature (ever since folders were introduced in iOS) - iOS 4? - Apple has not fixed this issue. I guess the backup and restore (with app syncing) was designed for the earlier iOS versions that did not support app folders, and Apple never modified the code to allow users to not only restore the apps, but also restore their location inside custom folders. What a shame!

This is about the closest thread I can find for my problem. I have an iPad Mini with IOS 6.1.3 and I'm using iTunes 11.0.2.26 and every time I plug my iPad into my PC and I click on the iPad button and then click APPS, immediately it says my iPad is out of space because if I scroll through and look at the APPS, some of the apps I did not want on the iPad are now checked to Will Install. I have to go through all of my apps (and there are a lot) and uncheck anything that says Will Install.

This is the default every time I open iTunes 11 with my iPad Mini. There is no longer an options to Do not sync apps, the only option under apps that you now have is Automatically sync new apps.

Now I've been searching the internet for about a week now because this is rather annoying if I want to add a song I've downloaded to the iPad Mini I also have to go to my Apps and make sure I have unselected the Apps that are trying to install, which I've never prompted to do so.

If anyone has any idea what is going on here I would be forever in your debt.

Thanks so much.

JohnnyMcElroy@outlook.com