NetBoy2020
Level 1 (16 points)
Notebooks

Q: Saving iOS Apps to Mac iTunes After Disabling Saving iOS Apps

I can't seem to re-enable saving of iOS apps to my Mac's iTunes. I disabled it when I had very little storage, now I have more and want to enable it. I've tried everything I have found. I use one iTunes account, and it's setup & authorized on both devices. I've re-enabled automatic downloads everywhere, Synced and Backed up the phone to no avail. There must be one checkbox somewhere that I am missing.

MacBook Pro, OS X El Capitan (10.11.4), 2012 i7, 16gb RAM, 1tb Samsung SSD

Posted on May 15, 2016 12:09 PM

by Rysz,Solvedanswer
Rysz Rysz
Level 7 (20,294 points)
iTunes
A:

With iOS 9.2 you are no longer able to move apps from a device to iTunes. iOS 9 uses a system called App Thinning. With it, when you download or update an app on a device, only the resources needed for that specific device are downloaded. This makes the download substantially smaller and quicker. That's a good thing!

 

But it also means that that exact version is useless to any other device, so it doesn't get moved to iTunes. If you do want it in iTunes, you have to download it from the App Store directly (or set this to be done automatically). Personally, I stopped keeping copies of apps in iTunes  - no reason to waste disk space. I can always redownload them from the store.

Posted on May 15, 2016 12:31 PM

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Q: Saving iOS Apps to Mac iTunes After Disabling Saving iOS Apps

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  • Helpful answers

  • by Rysz,Solvedanswer

    Rysz Rysz May 15, 2016 12:31 PM in response to NetBoy2020
    Level 7 (20,294 points)
    iTunes
    May 15, 2016 12:31 PM in response to NetBoy2020

    With iOS 9.2 you are no longer able to move apps from a device to iTunes. iOS 9 uses a system called App Thinning. With it, when you download or update an app on a device, only the resources needed for that specific device are downloaded. This makes the download substantially smaller and quicker. That's a good thing!

     

    But it also means that that exact version is useless to any other device, so it doesn't get moved to iTunes. If you do want it in iTunes, you have to download it from the App Store directly (or set this to be done automatically). Personally, I stopped keeping copies of apps in iTunes  - no reason to waste disk space. I can always redownload them from the store.

  • by NetBoy2020,

    NetBoy2020 NetBoy2020 May 15, 2016 12:37 PM in response to Rysz
    Level 1 (16 points)
    Notebooks
    May 15, 2016 12:37 PM in response to Rysz

    This makes perfect sense. I can accept it. And using this information, when I re-viewed and searched for the word apps on the page at https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201267. I realized the info is there - but Apple thought it would stand out by making this text lighter (causing me to not read any of it) instead of bold. *smacks head* It even links to articles on how to download past purchases. It's just practically invisible. Shame I can't get back to the feedback form I sent them to tell them this!

  • by Rysz,

    Rysz Rysz May 15, 2016 12:47 PM in response to NetBoy2020
    Level 7 (20,294 points)
    iTunes
    May 15, 2016 12:47 PM in response to NetBoy2020

    Link to Apple feedback form is http://www.apple.com/feedback/