I recall I used to be able to back up iphone apps to my computer.
However, now it seems I can't do this anymore.
I have iPhone 6 and my wife I am trying to back up since she has 5s and needs to back up to upgrade to 6s later on today or sometime this week.
Was this option removed? Or?
iPhone 4S, iOS 6
Apps have never been part of the backup file in iTunes, only their data. If you downloaded them originally on the iPhone, you can click the Transfer Purchases option in iTunes to get them into iTunes. After that the apps will be in the App section of iTunes.
When you restore a backup using iTunes, it will install the Apps that are present in your library.
If the phone is iOS 9 then apps will no longer copy back from a device, possibly due to a new developer feature called 'app thinning' (which allows only what is needed by an app on a device to be downloaded onto it, so it may not be the complete app on it). You will need to download the apps directly on the computer's iTunes (e.g. click on your name/icon towards the top right of iTunes and then click Purchased on the popup) - if you only want to download apps or their updates once you could download them on the computer and then sync them to your device(s)
Unable to Backup iPhone Apps to my Computer?
