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FURIOUS!! - Automatic iPad Sync Deleted All Apps Without Warning

My iPad, 3rd Generation (6.0), is set to wirelessly sync with iTunes (10.7) in Mountain Lion (10.8.2). Today I opened iTunes and was greeted with the a message advising me that the iPad had new apps that were not yet synced back to iTunes. I was in a rush so I declined to sync the new apps. But as soon as I pressed the button, iTunes proceeded to delete all of my apps from the iPad, including all the data associated with those apps (including PDF files with annotations). I attempted to restore from an iTunes backup, but I got nothing back.


My objections:


(1) This is seriously unpredictable and harmful behavior in iTunes.

(2) My iTunes backup utterly failed or was overwritten after I declined to transfer the apps

(3) This is not a new problem: See http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=889859


My feelings:


Now I have to spend hours recreating what I had on the iPad. I'm a patient man, and very computer savvy. But this has me wanting to throw my iPad through the window.

Posted on Dec 2, 2012 9:52 AM

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Posted on Dec 2, 2012 10:20 AM

This is a user-to-user forum. If you want your complaint to get to Apple send it to them at:


http://www.apple.com/feedback/ipad.html

37 replies

Dec 2, 2012 11:10 AM in response to Julian Wright

To JimHdk:


Will do. I checked my support options before posting, but they are fairly limited after 90 days. What I really wanted -- which is apparently too much to expect -- is for someone from Apple to engage me on this without my having to pay for additional support. My product is less than 6 months old, but Apple offers support only out to 90 days. The support tree ends in two places: (1) with my paying for telephone support or (2) submit my question to the community. That seems like pretty sparse support for a premium product.


Apologies for winding up here, but this is where I was directed by Apple. My hope was that there would be Apple reps trolling these forums with their ear to the ground. But maybe that's too much to hope for.


To Julian:


Sorry for shouting. Apple gave me no other place to go with my frustration.


What do I want fellow apple users to do? Be warned, I guess.


I now see the fine print under the notice which states:


"If you do not transfer these purchased items to your iTunes library, they wll be removed from the iPad."


It looks like that's exactly what happened. But that's very odd for two reasons:


(1) I've had most of those apps for quite a while and they've been transferred back to iTunes in previous syncronizations.

(2) Why should iTunes force delete apps that I've bought and paid for on my iTunes account, but for reasons of my own have chosen not to sync? It seems extreme. And it's a wide open window for this kind of unintended damage.

Dec 2, 2012 11:59 AM in response to bhazel

I appreciate your thoughts. I guess my question boils down to this:


Why would iTunes delete licensed apps from an iPad if the user chooses not to sync them? It's wildly unintuitive, bordering on extortionate. A more straightforward rendering of the language in the dialog box would look something like this:


"Either sync your apps now or I'll delete them along with all your data!"


Wow! Really? That's a choice? On a pirate ship maybe! But not in a civilized world.


Does anyone know how Apple might defend this approach to managing apps? What useful purpose is served?

Dec 2, 2012 1:08 PM in response to Len Flier

Len Flier wrote:


I appreciate your thoughts. I guess my question boils down to this:


Why would iTunes delete licensed apps from an iPad if the user chooses not to sync them? It's wildly unintuitive, bordering on extortionate. A more straightforward rendering of the language in the dialog box would look something like this:


"Either sync your apps now or I'll delete them along with all your data!"


Wow! Really? That's a choice? On a pirate ship maybe! But not in a civilized world.


Does anyone know how Apple might defend this approach to managing apps? What useful purpose is served?

Once again, we are users like you. We have no insight as to why Apple does anything. So we can not respond to "Does anyone know how Apple might defend this approach to managing apps? What useful purpose is served?". In addition, it is against the terms of use of this forum to discuss Apple policies.

Dec 2, 2012 2:15 PM in response to BobTheFisherman

I'm asking whether it seems reasonable to anyone that iTunes should behave this way. Maybe there's a good reason. I just don't see it.


BTW Is it really inappropriate to raise a question about the design of Apple software in an Apple forum? Is Apple's software beyond criticism here? Does my question somehow threaten the reality distortion field?

Dec 2, 2012 3:35 PM in response to Len Flier

Len Flier wrote:


BTW Is it really inappropriate to raise a question about the design of Apple software in an Apple forum?

Yes. It's Apple's forum and Apple's rules:


Submissions

Stay on topic. Apple Support Communities is here to help people use Apple products and technologies more effectively. Unless otherwise noted, do not add Submissions about nontechnical topics, including:

  1. Speculations or rumors about unannounced products.
  2. Discussions of Apple policies or procedures or speculation on Apple decisions.


https://discussions.apple.com/static/apple/tutorial/tou.html


You agreed to these Terms when you signed up.

Dec 2, 2012 6:37 PM in response to IdrisSeabright

I read that, too, but your interpretation seems unnecessarily restrictive.


Like everyone here, I have a lot invested in Apple gear. I want it to work better. But it's hard to see how that's going to happen if we can't talk about its shortcomings, here in an Apple forum.


In my experience, there is no button that I can press in a Windows or Android product, short of reformating, that does as much damage as the one I pressed this morning, which comes up any time any user downloads an app on an iOS device, uses it to create data, and then reconnects to iTunes. I literally lost hours of work because I couldn't imagine that iTunes would delete a user's data so casually.


In terms of the reaction I'm getting for bringing up this problem, I'm beginning to feel like an atheist who has stumbled into a monastery. I haven't experienced such determined attempts to silence dissent outside of a church. No critical discussion of Apple or its products here? It's hard to see how a company can stay innovative by creating that kind of atmosphere around itself. And now I am questioning Apple policies and decisions. But let them be the ones to tell me so.


LF

Dec 3, 2012 6:36 AM in response to Johnathan Burger

I'd really like to steer this thread in a more constructive direction.


I propose to have a critical discussion on this particular function in the iTunes software. Specifically, is deleting apps and data on the iOS device the best way to handle a situation where the user declines to transfer them to iTunes?


Johnathan's position, which is that there is nothing wrong with the software and that I should just read the manual is one possible answer to that question. But it seems antithetical to Apple's commitment to intuitive function and paper-thin manuals.


My position is that the behavior of the software is highly unintuitive and that it represents a very casual approach to a user's data.


Meg's position, which is a meta-argument about the use of the forum, is that users may not have this kind of discussion here.


My response to Meg is "If not here, then where?" To say that this forum is only about technical support begs the question in favor of Jonathan's view. If the software is functioning as designed, any problems I am having must therefore be my fault. But that is a very difficult position to defend. Nothing is so perfect that it cannot be improved.


My suggestion, then, is that we stop throwing buns at each other and talk about how the software could be better. Any takers?

FURIOUS!! - Automatic iPad Sync Deleted All Apps Without Warning

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