Demo wrote:
So ...if you turn off auto sync and manually manage the songs, you can keep the apps on the iPad and prevent them from transferring into iTunes because you never performed a sync.
Does this make sense? Or am I not understanding the whole thing?
Yes I think that does make sense. When you manually manage music and video, you still auto-sync apps but only those that you've selected to sync, and any updates to those designated apps will sync. But if you're using manual mode and you buy an app directly to the device, the app won't be transferred to iTunes unless you click the Sync button.
My experience with manual management tells me that the only purpose of the Sync button is to force a sync of everything other than music and video, which probably includes the transferring of purchased items.
Not to beat a dead horse, but a couple of other observations/ comments:
The iTunes setting to prevent auto-syncing only applies to devices that are set to auto-sync, this feature has no purpose for a manually-managed device since you always have to click the Sync button to initiate a sync while in manual mode.
Also, this feature only applies to auto-sync'd devices where you've also chosen to "automatically open iTunes" when the device is connected. If you don't have this option set, the auto-sync won't initiate by itself until you click the Sync button, so this feature wouldn't be needed in this case. The only exception to this are non-iOS devices like a Nano or Classic -- those will always start an auto-sync as soon as you connect to iTunes, regardless of the auto-launch option you've set for the device.
To your point about getting a warning if you connect to another iTunes library, if you manually manage music and video you can safely connect to other libraries to drag and drop such media to your device (iPhone is the exception, for some odd reason). Will your apps or photos be affected by doing this? I'd have to say 'no' ... otherwise there'd be howls of pain from those who manually manage and connect to multiple libraries. Maybe if you clicked Sync on another library, but not if you simply drag and drop music or video from another library.
Anyway, thanks for the discussion and food for thought!