The option to sync apps is no longer available in iTunes, though it used to be. Can anyone tell me how to access the sync apps button please?

As a workaround, you could add a folder action to the 'Mobile Applications' folder, that permanently deletes any file (app) that is placed in that folder (by iTunes). It works for me.

These are the steps:

1. Open Automator and select Folder Action.
2. Select the 'Mobile Applications' folder (subfolder under Music\iTunes\iTunes Music\).
3. Find the action 'Run Shell Script' from the 'Utilities' library, and drag it into the automator area.
4. Set the action to [Shell: /bin/bash] and [Pass input: as arguments].
5. Change echo into rm .
6. Save the folder action (e.g. "Permanently delete files in Mobile Applications folder").

This should permanently delete any new file being placed in this folder. As it bypasses the trash, you disk space will not be affected.

Thanks for the help Stephan. Nice to know there are people out there that want to help, instead of name calling. Anyway I found another solution too, although it is a drastic one: I just got a new computer and did not start the sync with my devices. I only do the manual sync on Music and then just back them up, and that way, none of my devices copy apps to the computer, but I still get backups. This is saving me 400Gb space on my new computer. I have not tried it, but I assume that if one were to wipe Itunes out, and reinstall it, that this would be the same as getting a new computer. This also saves time because my devices do not copy anything to my computer that needs to be deleted later.

Thanks again!

Hi Stephan. I have quite an issue with iTunes. How could I write you directly, not on the forum? Please, I need your help.

Really need that option. Without it, syncing the iPhone takes an hour when apps such as Keynote, Numbers or Pages need to be synced. These are huge apps that take a lot of time to sync and there is no point, since they are automatically updated on the phone, to copy them on a PC.

I'll ding this one up again. This is f*ing rediculous. I have a MacBook Air with extremely limited space on the hard drive and I'm now FORCED to place multiple GB of useless app backups on to my machine via the iTunes synching debacle. And it is a debacle. Now, manually editing music on the phone is an absolute nightmare in favor of all of this cloud synching garbage. I don't need a freaking "virtual copy" of some song I OWN on the cloud. I need a simple, elegant device that can serve as a SIMPLE F*ING MP3 PLAYER. Keep it simple Apple. And don't force me to put these apps on my ****** HD. I'm so sick of this garbage from Apple that after 10 years of patronage I'm thinking of leaving the Apple ecosystem.

Apple has now fixed this, at least on the PC they have. I had to do a re-install of my itunes and now whenever I plug in any of my devices, I get the a dialog box asking to "Back Up Apps" or "Don't Back Up Apps", I do the "Don't Back Up Apps" and I still get a full backup of my device, but it is not taking up all space for my apps. I don't know if this came up because I am on the latest OS version on my devices, or if it is just the newer iTunes, but it does work now. I hope you can get it working too!

Sorry but this does not work for me. Still no option to prevent apps from syncing with latest iTunes 11.2.2.3, still wasting hours copying apps from my iPhone to my PC.

The removal of this function is a bit more insidious. It appears to allow Apple to remove Apps that are are no longer available for your version of iPad or iPhone.

If you run Apply for the rest of your syncing it will Remove them, you do not have a choice. of course you can purchase a later version of your iPad or iPhone

The developers of apps are the one who pull the apps not Apple.

Yes you are correct, The issue I have is, that you cannot apply any other syncing without carrying out a delete of any App that is deemed to be removed by the developer. There are a lot of Apps I still use because I have not moved to iO7 on either my phone or iPad. There is no way of bypassing those Apps that are destined to be deleted (even though I wish to continue using them), so it bricks day to day syncing as an option. You can bypass syncing on every other function, except Apps. I would be surprised if Apple did not realise the implication of that decision, Frankly, I wish they would just leave iTunes alone, I hate the auto sequencing applied to Podcasts and the 2 clicks now needed to run a Podcast that has been partially played.

Thanks for bothering to reply ckun. Ian

All the apps you have are saved on computer iTunes, do not update using computer iTunes because you'll get the latest apps which your device IOS is not compatible with. You update the apps using the device directly on Wi-Fi. The apps you have on computer cannot be pulled by Apple.

Under the Aps TAB in iTunes (in the top left hand corner) you now get a number of Aps (explaining what will occur if you proceed) with a pulldown menu that gives the option, REMOVE and WILL REMOVE or INSTAL or WILL INSTAL (not sure of the difference there). I know the latest version of the App (WILL REMOVE) will not load unless you have iOS7 on your iPad, which I don't. I therefore assume if I proceed to remove them from my iPad, which I don't want, as I will not be able to replace them, so I wish to leave them alone and still sync movies etc, without effecting them. It is my understanding this SYNC option (On or Off) is not possible in Aps, as it is in all the other media categories, this would fix the issue. Just as an aside, there are very few Aps that will run on OSX, due mainly to Copyright and operational issues.

Thanks for your help

Apps for IOS mobile devices like iPod touch, iPad and iPhone are not compatible with OSX. They are 2 different operating systems.

Yes, I am aware of the difference between iOS and OSX, my lament was the lack of OSX Apps that I have on my iPad that are not available in OSX, there are only a half dozen or so.

The fact still remains that if I activate APPLY I will lose the Apps that I am still able to use on iOS 5.1.1 . They will be deleted, and replaced by the latest version which requires iOS 7 and not supported on my iPad, so they have gone, and in my opinion that is the intent of taking away the option to bypass SYNC like you have on every other category, it forces you upgrade your device if you want these Apps. The only way to avoid this is not to use the SYNC function for any other media.

I would be grateful if anybody can suggest a work around to continue to use SYNC on all the rest of the Media categories without deleting the end of version Apps that I still wish to use until I update my devices, I suspect there is not one. APPLE wins again.

Thanks

IAN WILSON wrote:

Yes, I am aware of the difference between iOS and OSX, my lament was the lack of OSX Apps that I have on my iPad that are not available in OSX, there are only a half dozen or so.

...

Write to the developer to port it to OSX. Most Apple apps are available on both platforms.

IAN WILSON wrote:

...

The fact still remains that if I activate APPLY I will lose the Apps that I am still able to use on iOS 5.1.1 . They will be deleted, and replaced by the latest version which requires iOS 7 and not supported on my iPad, so they have gone, and in my opinion that is the intent of taking away the option to bypass SYNC like you have on every other category, it forces you upgrade your device if you want these Apps. The only way to avoid this is not to use the SYNC function for any other media.

...

Not true, my son has an iPod touch 4th generation which can only goes IOS 6.1.6. max. and he can download the compatible version of the apps which has updated for IOS7.

Another way is not to update the apps using iTunes, update using the device directly. Syncing your device with iTunes content has nothing to do with apps upgrading.