Transfer purchases not working to update apps to iTunes

This appears to be new behaviour with iOS 9 and iTunes 12.3 and is likely related to app thinning. App thinning allows each device to download only the code and resources needed by that device. I suspect Apple will make some changes to the way this works, but in the meantime enabling automatic downloads of app purchases in iTunes should work. As long as you make sure all apps are updated in iTunes before attempting a restore there should be no loss of data.

tt2

Apologize for breaking into this thread but I'm confused by what this 'app thinning' is.

I download all my purchases and app updates to iTunes on my PC then I sync to my iPod Touch. Does this 'app thinning' mean that any app UPDATES that I download to my PC are not the same as someone PURCHASING that app for the first time? example: I download app update for v 1.2.3 and someone else purchases that app v 1.2.3 are we not downloading the same thing? I'm only getting pieces of the app while the other person is getting the whole app?

Barb

If you download to iTunes you get a universal version of the app that can be installed on any compatible device (blue box) whereas if you download on one of your devices you get the one the app variants that is specific to that device. This gives smaller footprints for each app on the device (no need for iPad retina level graphics on an iPhone 4) but it means you can no longer transfer the purchase back to iTunes and then install it on a different class of device. So far Apple have simply turned off all transfer of app purchases. Hopefully they will add something else into iTunes to ensure that a backed up device can always be restored without causing a problem.

tt2

thanks very much for the detailed response tt2.

It does make sense to download only what's needed, but if someone backs up only to the Cloud and doesn't use iTunes on a PC, then if they needed to restore their device or they want to restore to a new device, they would run into trouble, correct?

Personally, I think I'll stick with iTunes on my PC and forgo the 'cloud'.

Thanks again for the info

Barb

No, backing up to iCloud will be fine, since a restore from iCloud has access to all of the apps. (As long as you don't care too much about something that has been withdrawn from the store like Flappy Bird.) The issue is backing up to iTunes, but not having all of the apps in the iTunes library at the time that you restore. Of course Apple could be clever enough to fetch anything that is missing directly from the cloud, but so far I don't think it is working like that so there is a small risk for the unaware. Restoring a device backup also archives it, hopefully without making any changes, so if you did run into this problem there is a chance that you could download the missing or outdated apps and redo the restore.

tt2

Set iTunes to automatically download new purchases. On the devices' apps pages don't select the option to automatically include new apps.

tt2