Deleted Apps keep re-installing

The same thing is happening to me. It started happening about 6 weeks ago. Every time I sync my phone it tries to install deleted apps. At the start it wasn't a big deal but now there are over 40 apps that I have to manually delete every time. And, some of these apps are quite big meaning 15 of them don't get installed because my phone is out of space. Very annoying.

The next time you connect the device, uncheck the apps in question from the Apps tab or completely delete them from the iTunes library.

I agree this should not happen, but when there is a simple work around, it's just silly to not take advantage of it.

Thanks... Unchecking them in the Apps tab does not work for me. I have tried than many times. I have been reluctant to delete the actual files because some of the Apps (travel Apps) I may want to install again and if they are no longer in my library I might forget I have them etc. But it might be the only option...

I'm just thinking though...before trying that I may wait a couple of weeks when there might be a new version of iTunes and iOS5. Maybe installing them will "fix" things!

I'm also having this error, I've tried uninstalling and re-installing iTunes but still no luck. Any suggestions?

@UltraJoe: Well said! If it works, fine. But if it doesn't, please don't say it's not a flaw.

This same problem came to my iPhone 4 a couple of months ago, back in the late iOS 4.3.5 times. I though iOS 5 is coming soon anyway, so lets see what happens after iTunes and iOS 5 updates and restores my iPhone 4. Sure enough, removed apps did not get synced back to my iPhone at first. But after a couple of syncs, the exact same problem comes back again. It even re-syncs apps I've removed from my iPhone months ago..

I've tried removing (unchecking) those said apps from the "Apps" tab under my iPhone 4 in iTunes, they'd still be re-synced back to my iPhone 4 on the next sync.

I've tried deleting those said apps from my iTunes library, then they'd stay removed. But I want to be able to reserve those apps and keep them updated for later times and other iOS devices I may come across.

I've tried unchecking "Auto add new apps" under the "Apps" tab under my iPhone 4 in iTunes, then they'd not be re-synced back to my iPhone 4 on the next sync. But I would rather be able to have newly downloaded apps be synced to my iPhone 4 automatically, just like most other iPhone/iPod Touch users.

I'm aware of the new over the air download of purchased apps to multiple devices. But I have four separate legitimate iTunes accounts for US, UK, Japan and Hong Kong, and iTunes only allow one account to use this function, So this function won't solve my problem.

To add to that, not only would iTunes sync removed apps back onto my iPhone 4. When I try to chose "Backup to iCloud" and enable "Wi-Fi Sync" in the "General" tab under my iPhone 4 in iTunes, it would switch back to "Backup to this computer" and have "Wi-Fi Sync" disabled. On the other hand, on my iPhone 4 with iOS 5, it seem to still be able to backup to iCloud.

I've also tried deleting and resetting sync data in the "Device" tab of the options in iTunes with no effect to the problem.

One more thing I noticed. Since around this problem began to occur, my iPhone 4 would ocationally restart itself during sync, sometimes even two or three times. But sync would complete like nothing is wrong other then this problem. I mean music, audio books, digital books, TV shows, iTunes U, Podcasts etc. all syncs correctly.

Further more, I would not consider restoreing my iPhone 4 to "as a new iPhone" status and start all over again. I can't even begin to think of losing all the app data I have all the way back to my iPhone 3G days. Nor am I going to re-sort all 1300 apps I have on my iPhone 4.

Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Hi, I just wanted to give an update on my experiences with this issue.

After the upgrade to IOS 5 I still had the same problem with my iPhone 4 (i.e. deleted apps that were originally installed within the past few months would be re-installed on the next sync with iTunes). To make matters worse the same thing started happening to my iPad 2 after it was updated to IOS 5.

Due to another issue which i won't go into here (related to cellular data not working after the upgrade), I had to make the big decision of setting up my iPhone 4 as a new phone, losing years of SMS's and settings from my 650 or so Apps. And, believe it or not, this worked for my iPhone. It now works as it used to, where I can delete Apps on my phone and they do not get re-installed on the next sync. However, I know this is a drastic solution and will not be suitable for most people.

And, I am not prepared to set up my iPad as new and lose all the settings on that. So, the only thing that works for my iPad is to uncheck the "Automatically sync new apps" check-box under the Apps tab in iTunes. I am now going to have to get used to the idea of managing my Apps solely on the devices themselves and allowing the Apps to be downloaded to multiple devices at the time. I will no longer be able to download an App in iTunes and have it installed automatically on my iPad. Again, this is not a suitable work around for some people like @GwaiJai666 with more than one iTunes account.

I am disappointed that an updated iTunes and iOS 5 didn't fix the problem though. I was wondering if the problem was with my iTunes library and that maybe some Apps are being flagged as new and that flag is not being removed when they are no longer "new" (however that is determined)? Who knows...

Glad to know I'm not the only one with this problem. I'm still on 4.3.3

It's so frustrating!! I hate having to constantly go back and delete those crappy apps that are somehow stored in my ipod's/iphone's memory. I would like to be able to COMPLETELY delete them. This is yet one reason why my husband hates Apple with a passion and refuses to buy an iphone. I should've bought a droid like he did.

Disable Automatic Downloads on your phone

Settings>Store>Automatic Downloads

Disable Automatic Downloads.

Settings>Store>Automatic Downloads

I couldn't read through everything that's been posted so I'm sorry if I'm repeating something, but I used to have the same problem and here's what worked for me: I hooked up my phone to my computer and when iTunes loaded it, I went into the apps directory (not in the phone but the iTunes library itself) and from there deleted everything that I didn't want back on to my phone (right-click and delete), There were a few things that I wanted to keep around in case I felt the need for it later and wanted to keep the data, and for those, I simply went to the apps directory in the phone itself and unchecked them so that they wouldn't show up on my phone...

Hope that made sense and might help.

having this same problem that's annoying the heck out of me now..

iTunes 11 had better be fixing this problem

have the same problem, and i just install the itunes 11 and still the same..

I have the same problem! I'm super mad and frustrated with apple and particularly ios.

I just deleted some over 50 apps last week that I realised I dont use anymore and they keep coming back! IOS is such a ******** system. I have spent over 30min in total now just to delete these apps for the second time. You cant delete several apps at the same time so you have to click at every x and then you still get to 1-2 banners one for confirmation and one for the useless gamecenter crap.

I'm increasingly dissatisfied with the my iphone (4s on ios 5.1) for so many reason, mostly software related. Its for exampel also totally counter-intuitive to get a new playlist on your iphone with the new itunes 11, i had to google it lol. On top of that apple is protecting ios 6 so badly that there is still no jailbreak, while on Android you just choose an option to allow installing "jailbreak-apps".

Anyway back to this one, disabling automatic downloads as described above doesnt help. Deleting the apps in itunes doesnt work, I see those apps but apparently they are now deleted on my phone so I can only install them from itunes. So itunes holds a list of all apps I have ever installed, *** is this?

I think I once choos an option to sync apps not by cable but by downloading and that this causes the problem. lets see whether i can find that somewhere.

Good luck to everyone