Deleted Apps keep re-installing

I've had this problem for many months now, and i just figured out how to completely solve it with the latest version of itunes. First, plug in your device into your PC and open itunes. Then select your device in the upper right corner of the itunes window. Then press the APPS tab in the top middle of the screen. You will see a layout of your device on the right side of the screen, and a APPS pane on the left. First, below the APPS pane on the left, make sure 'Automatically Install New APPS' is NOT SELECTED. Then again in the APPS pane on the left, go through the long list of APPS. Next to some of the APPS it will say 'Install' and next to others 'Remove'. Even though you may not have theese apps on your device, it still says remove. Go through the list and, ONLY ON THE APPS THAT SAY REMOVE, see which APPS you already have on your device. If an APP says 'Remove' next to it, and it is not on your phone, press the remove button on that APP once. The it should change to 'Will Remove'. Once you have gone through and done this for all the APPS that are not on your device, press 'APPLY' in the bottom right corner. IT will begin to sync your device, but this time, not put on all your deleted apps.

SO RECAP

1. Plug in Device

2. Open latest version of iTunes (If dont have latest, get it)

3. Select your device from upper right corner

4. Press APPS tab

5. Make sure 'Automatically Install New APPS' is NOT SELECTED

6. Apps that are not on your device AND say remove next to them on the left of the screen, press REMOVE ONCE

7. Press APPLY at the bottom of screen.

8. Let it sync

I think for the most of us, Darkaxe99, we have done that and it doesn't work...thus this thread.

For me, I have three apps that I can't get off my phone. In the Apps list in iTunes, the buttons have but two options - "Install" and "Will Install". If the button says "Install", that means it shouldn't install it. When I sync, the button magically changes to "Will Install" and it TRIES to install the apps but they never install successfully. The icons look blacked out. So I delete them off my phone. When I sync, it tries to sync them. There are obviously some bread crumbs either on the iPhone or in iTunes that is saying to install these apps upon sync. Yes, I do have "automatically install new apps" UNCHECKED in iTunes.

Well bob.b.wasabi I had a similar problem and here is how I solved it. It was drastic, but it worked for me. I had tried everything.

I had an app that did the "Install" and "Will Install" options that you describe. I did not want the app. I have a Windows 7 computer so I used windows explorer to rename the app (just incase something drastic happened and I had to restore the app). I re-synced my iPad and iTunes said it couldn't find my problem app. After that it never warned me again and the app is forever gone from my iPad.

Here is the file I renamed "XAsphalt7 1.8.1.ipa" found in the directory - ...\iTunes Music\Mobile Applications

Hope this helps.

Update: Upon further review, this is not a great solution. Every time you sync, iTunes will remind you that the app is missing. I may have to contact the developer to find out how to correct this problem.

Ok-ok - One more post then coffee for me. My wife had the elegant solution.

The problem is with the app that was downloaded to your computer. So, lets force it to download the app again to your computer. First delete the app from your idevice - in my instance it was the iPad. Second, on the idevice open the App Store and on the bottom of the screen you will see "Purchased". On this list you should find your problem app with a cloud next to it. Download the a fresh version of the application from the icloud to your idevice. The app should be fine now on your idevice, Sync again with iTunes on your computer and your refreshed app will get uploaded to your computer.

I was having this problem, tried various ways as mention on here and none work but i figured out a fix for me.

1. I let itunes go ahead and sync all the unwanted apps ( i had to delete all my music on my phone to make space)

2. Deleted all unwanted items from my idevice(Iphone 5s)

3. Back in itunes backed-up my phone to both icloud and PC

4. Double checked all items I didnt want had 'install' selected in apps section of sync

5. re-selcted music

6. Sync phone - no more unwanted apps

I think the problem was, for me anyway, itunes was restoring my phone to the last back up, not just syncing, so making a new backup with only the required apps has done the job.

Hope this helps anyone who is still having this problem

I scanned a few replies on this subject. It doesn't look like iOS has fixed this issue. I have all latest whatever version as of today on my iPhone and iTunes. It still annoyingly syncs everything back to my iPhone. This is so stupid!

Hi, Just gotta new iPhone 5S and I was really annoyed when the iTunes versions 11.1.3.8 kept installing the apps that I had on my old 4S. I just don't need all of them anymore but it looks like iTunes wanna push them somehow on new toy. After searching fix for it online, I played with iTunes. Selected my phone in iTunes and double clicked on screen where the unwanted apps are listed. Removed apps from there by clicking on the X (cross), just like we do on our phone or tabs. Resynced the phone and it got removed.

Yea still having problems on 4s with iO 7.1.1. Just read through some of the posts there and I might try what petet said creating a new back up. Everytime I sync to itunes i get apps reinstalled that i deleted off my phone and I'm not sure how to stop it so we'll see what happens

Everytime I sync to itunes i get apps reinstalled that i deleted off my phone and I'm not sure how to stop it so we'll see what happens

In iTunes under the Apps tab, uncheck those apps for syncing... http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1386

I have apps that keep re-installing on my ipad, iphone and computer. Google Books keeps re-installing every time I do an update in any location.

I have even deleted the offending app from itunes and both ios devices, but amazimgly after an update the apps return.

I had this issue recently on iPad Mini Retina Display with iOS 8.0.2.

Fixed it by removing all files in the C:\Users\XXXXX\Music\iTunes\iTunes Media\Mobile Applications

to a new folder.

Unwanted apps no longer gets installed in iPad in subsequent syncs.

Thanks DarkAxe, this is the one that helped me. Extremely tedious and time consuming but Apple's iTunes team obviously has always had a few screws loose...

Something similar is happening to me. It's on my iPad. I was told to delete apps that I'm not using because it was completely unable to be used. It kept shutting off and restarting because apparently it was loading old apps and having problems just updating the apps that were on it already. It took forever in between cycling to delete the apps, but soon I got enough deleted to get a large quantity off my iPad and it began running again.

However, it's still occasionally doing the same thing! Because it's STILL loading all those old apps back onto my iPad!

Here's the thing, I NEVER sync my iPad to a computer! It is connected to my phone via the iCloud. So I think ITunes has a backup somewhere that is going rogue. So I disconnected it from the cloud...to no avail! What is going on?

I have 200 GB in my iCloud of which I have used 130. Mostly in photos and videos. That is the only part I haven't disconnected. I pay good money for this cloud and it's making me crazy! It all started back in September/October, and my phone is fine. HELP!!!

this is the opposite of what people are trying to solve. They want apps deleted from iOS device to not be reinstalled with every sync