Transfer Purchases no longer working

Would like to say I've found the solution , but alas , I found something worse :

Apparently Apple is aware, and it seems they designed it that way. Here's the link i found : http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/206544/cant-transfer-purchases-from-iph one-to-itunes-in-ios-9

It is sad, if Apple really did design iOS 9 to purposely not copy apps to your iTunes library.

But it seems to also relate to a previous discussion I read, where iOS 9 would be able to install itself on your device, even if there wasn't enough space, as it would delete apps in order to install itself, and then re-install the apps it removed. This may mean the iOS 9 no longer relies on iTunes backups, but rather on the iCloud backups, and installs missing apps through the cloud.

I do however hope that my assumption is incorrect, and the feature will reappear in an update.

Manesh

Same problem here.

Downloaded latest version iTunes. Then proceeded to try and back up my apps on iOS 8.4.1. Didn't work.

In any event I proeeded to upgrade to iOS 9. I thereafter tried to backup apps - same story.

Must be a bug in the latest version of iTunes.

I also uninstalled iTunes 12.3 and reinstalled iTunes 12.2.2. iOS 9 iPhone 5S and iPad Air no longer transfer purchases to desktop iTunes. iOS 8.4.1 iPhone 5S and iOS 5.1.1 iPad 1 do.

I hope as many users say it is only because it's not compatible with Yosemite and we need El Capitan.

This is not a bug, it's a new way of transferring apps. I spoke to an Apple technician about this problem and the story is that iOS 9 does not download the complete application to your iOS device any longer, it only downloads the components that are specific to the particular device it was downloaded on. If it did transfer to app into iTunes and it was downloaded on an iPhone, it would not have the necessary components to load it into an iPad. Because of this new behaviour which is meant to save space, newly purchased items will not be transferred to iTunes.

So what you have to do to get your newly purchased items into iTunes, is to download the app directly into iTunes. When you do this the full app will be downloaded which can then be transferred to any iOS device that supports that app.

So you need to open iTunes and click on 'Purchased' in the drop down menu to the left of the search bar, that has your name on it after you sign in. Then you click on the 'Apps' button and you will see all your apps including your newly purchased apps that did not transfer over from your iPhone. You then search for the App and then cluck the Cloud button with the downward pointing arrow and the full app will now download to iTunes and it will appear in the list of downloaded App, when you plug your iDevice into iTunes and click on it's icon and then go to the Apps item under Summary. There it will appear with the standard "Remove" or "Install" button next to it, and all will again be right with the world.

I also found out something else I did not know and that was why some of my past downloaded items that are no longer on my iPod were not on the list of app, and that is because they only ever appear there if the iDevice was synced while they were on the iDevice, if they were deleted before transferring as often happens with many apps because they are instantly recognised as rubbish, then they will not be in the list, but they will be in the list of app when you click on 'Purchased' as in the previous paragraph.

Therefore this new behaviour sort of makes the 'Transfer Purchased Items' menu item under File>Devices>transfer purchases, redundant.

Hey Buddy.

Purchases tab has always been there on the online App Store. The ability to transfer apps on to ones MacBook helped when managing space on a idevice and also managing multiple idevices. A blessing, not requiring one to spend unecessarily on bandwidth and optimise preciois space on 16/64 Gb idevices. If transfer purchases is to be discontinued why leave the option there? if they plan to discontinue firstly I'm amazed at their quality control and secondly really sad they would do this.

Also, I'd recommend you note down the name and detail of the Apple Technician. 🙂

Hi, the purchases tab in the App store only has apps for your mac, it does not have iDevice apps. I was referring to the 'Purchased' drop down in iTunes and then selecting Apps, where it has purchased apps which then downloads the app to iTunes. I agree this is badly implemented but the technician I spoke to spoke to an engineer and I do not believe the explanation has been fabricated.

Maybe because Apple is still selling the 16GB iPhone and they have demonstrably made the latest iOS 9 update much smaller, that they are concerned with unnecessary app sizes and with all the new options available for the iPad maybe with iPad components removed that it does slim down iPhone only apps. I guess there is some sense there, but it does seem to be a bit of overkill.

I have the same problem

I downloaded iTunes 12.3.0.44 for windows 10 64 bit. Also updated both my iPhone and iPad to iOS 9.0

THIS WORKS!

Another solution is to go to iTunes prefs > Store and check the Automatic Downloads for Apps, and then when you download an App to your iPhone for example, it will then download the full version of that App to iTunes when you sync. Which basically will mean it behaves exactly as you expected it to, it will appear that it has simply transferred the App from your iDevice to iTunes.

Hi. Just wanted to know; if you do as you have mentioned, does the app get transferred from your idevice to the Mac/PC. OR is it re-downloaded using the Internet? Thanks.

Same question as Pakzadan

Thanks, disco_bob, for your extensive explanation of the situation, which leads me to a few reflexions that I would like to share here.

I can understand the idea behind the space saving device-tailored (trimmed) apps, especially with the 12.9 in iPad in mind. I can't indeed imagine an iPhone 5 having to carry the new iPad's 2732x2048 images along with its own custom 1136x640 images. And the code needed to drive the iPad is obviously much heavier than that driving an iPhone 5.

I am in a location where bandwidth allowance and a slooowww connection is much more of a problem for me than disk space. I can manage the latter but I can't do anything about the former's limitations. So, having to triple-download all my apps (iTunes, iPad, iPhone) will get to be a nightmare. But then, why doesn't Apple give me the choice ? Full, or tailored downloads depending of the individual situation.

A question arises : suppose my iPhone crashes and I then have to go over a complete restore from a backup. Suppose also that its disk is almost full with trimmed apps. Either my iPhone's apps will all have to be re-downloaded afresh, or the full versions of all them stored in my local iTunes will be uploaded to the device. In the first case, it will consume a full two months of my bandwidth. In the other case, the whole purpose of this new app trimming will be defeated, as the full versions of the apps stored in iTunes will be installed on the iPhone. Which will then lead to an obvious overfill.

I venture a suggestion to Apple : why not build devices with expandable disk space, like micro SD cards, for example ?

Then, managing this whole complex situation would never have arisen.

Unless there is something I didn't catch ...

Or unless the forthcoming El Capitan deals more intelligently with it.

YM

It does not get transferred, that cannot happen any longer because the Apps are iDevice specific now, the full app is backed up to your iTunes library on the Mac. As @Yves M has noted this can cause some problem if you iPhone is filled with trimmed apps and you then back up with full Apps. Another problem is that by checking the auto download box, any new apps downloaded to your iDevice will be backed up in iTunes, even if you delete the App from your Phone before backing up. It will not download Apps from the past, but it will begin doing this from now on. For this reason I will be leaving the Auto download button unchecked and manually download the Apps I want in my iTunes library.

This is quite a bizarre change from Apple and is obviously designed to shift users further towards iCloud.

I usually download all my apps via my phone and then transfer them to iTunes for backup purposes. My understanding is that when you restore your phone from an iCloud backup your iCloud backup doesn't actually contain copies of your apps, just a link to what you have downloaded and then during the iPhone restore process they are re-downloaded from the app store. BUT what happens to apps that are no loner available in the app store, if they cannot be transferred to iTunes then essentially we lose them...unless every time we download a new app we also download it into iTunes separately?!