iTunes cannot sync... apps installed on the iPhone could not be determined.

I think I figured this out:

The error seems to occur when you install an app from iTunes, then down the line delete that app from the iPhone, then hook into iTunes once again to sync your phone. In iTunes, the app is still checked as one that you want to install, iTunes thinks it installed it before, but your phone is telling iTunes that you uninstalled it. And the hiccup begins.

The trick, for me, was to transfer purchases from the iPhone, and then spend a bit of time continuosly running sync, deleting partially installed apps from those various syncs until iTunes, and my iPhone, were talking to each other again. During each sync iTunes kept telling me that some of my apps could not be recognized. But it was one less app each time. Eventually, there were no unsynced apps.

I repeated the error by installing MLB At the Bat from iTunes, unplugging the phone from the computer,, deleting the app, and attempting another sync. There was the error message. As it was only the one app causing an issue, it took one more sync to correct the problem. iTunes did a partial install of the app, which I deleted from the phone. Deselected MLB At the Bat from within iTunes, then resynced. Error gone.

I guess Apple would rather you manage your apps from within iTunes, than from your phone....

Scott

by deleting the files on itunes... doesnt that mean i would lose my entire music library? 😕

Just a question I'm unsure about: is it the general library folder or the user's library folder one has to empty?

And don't let anyone have a go at you, you're doing a great job helping with this issue!

Rolaa

No, the iTunes library is in a different location (usually within Music > ). Within the Library folder are 'only' the supporting files for applications/software..

Just trying to help.

You don't have to delete any app from iTunes. The error appears to occur when you delete (or remove) apps using your iPhone. If you delete an app on the phone by making the icon dance, the next time you sync iTunes will be unable to recognize your apps.

Deleting an app from iTunes (as in actually removing it from iTunes) is actually rather tricky.

That reply wasn't probably meant for my question as I asked which library folder I would have to go to in Finder to remove the iTunes files - my question was for Alexfrompittsburg (or so).. Cheers!

🙂🙂

Soooooooo happy!! Thank goodness i perservered down the list to you Camira2!

FINALLY!!

It WORKED!!!!!

thankyou thankyou thankyou

xxxxxxxxxx

Fantastic! Good news.

All I did to fix this problem was:

1. Quit iTunes
2. Unplug USB
3. Plug USB back in
4. Start iTunes

It worked perfectly after this.

I have the same problem with my iPad. Besides that error message, I get one that says "iTunes could not backup the ipad because as session could not be started with the iPad". Any solutions out there for either error messages?

See next post instead...

I've fixed one error message and formatted this post a little bit better so it's easier to read.

Hi all,

Here's my solution that may work for some of you. I have a feeling my solution is similar to Scotto111's a few posts above this post but it's slightly different.

Problem symptoms - I'm using an iPhone 4 (and later 5) and a PC with iTunes 10.7 and 11. The problems below happened with all combinations of iTunes and iPhones.

1. When synching for the first time my iPhone 4 would usually work - the apps would sync from my PC to my phone but the transfer of apps bought on my iPhone would not. The transfer would only work for one to three apps before failing.

2. After the transfer from phone to PC failed, looking at the apps on the iPhone through iTunes would result in the message, "Loading device..." on the right side where I should see the apps. The message would never go away and any future attempts to sync would fail with the "apps installed on the iPhone could not be determined" error message.

3. All attempts at simple solutions such as rebooting the PC and iPhone, reinstalling software, restoring from a backup failed.

4. When I got my iPhone 5 and restored it (using iTunes 10.7) from my iPhone 4's backup, the iPhone 5 continued to have the exact same problems.

5. When iTunes 11 came out I continued to have the exact same problems.

6. Apple phone support was nice and polite but they could not help. Their suggestions included turning off the firewall and antivirus problems temporarily, neither of which worked. The only suggestion that did work was to set the phone up as a new phone, however then I would have to set up all my apps again and I'd lose all my game saves. This is precisely what I was trying to avoid.

My solution that I finally figured out myself:

1. I had decided that there was a problem with one or more apps installed on the phone. However I had over 600 apps on the phone at the time and I was not willing to delete or re-download all of them one at a time.

2. I moved the folder containing all of the apps on my PC out of the way to a backed up location.

3. I removed all the apps from iTunes. It did not ask if I wanted to remove the files because as far as it was concerned, they were already missing. If it had asked, I would have selected the option to keep the files.

4. I then connected my phone to my PC and transferred all apps from the phone to iTunes. This worked well and it transferred all 600+ apps without stopping. This was the first time it did this without trouble for many months. At this point the apps on my hard drive matched the apps in iTunes.

5. My problem was solved at this point. However the following steps brought back most of my apps that were saved on my PC.

6. I then moved all my backed up apps back to the original location where they should be. Many apps were already there (because of the transfer from phone to iTunes) so I selected the “Do not replace” option.

7. You can then double-click on all of the newly returned apps and it will open it in iTunes and now iTunes recogniss the app. If you are worred that one of these apps is faulty and will continue to cause trouble, you can to go iTunes and select the option to list all purchased apps that are not in iTunes and download them one by one. I could not figure out how to download them all at once.

There you go, the process is slow and takes some time but it took a lot less time than all the time I spent in the past several months trying to figure it out.

I hope this helps at least one person!

Simple - I restarted my iPhone - shutdown and restarted iTunes. POOF - all is good in the universe!

🙂 You know what. I changed my Sync Cable.. No turn off, No restart... nothing..

Its kind of weird....

That also worked for me, no shutting down the iphone, no rebooting the computer.

Thanks