I just found out that many apps on my iPhone are not in my iTunes library despite selecting and syncing from iTunes. I never had this problem with iOS 9 before.
Is Apple working on fixing this issue or is there something that I can do to transfer the purchases without having to manually download them via iTunes?
iPhone 7 Plus, iOS 10
A feature introduced with iOS 9 (over a year ago now) referred to as app thinning or app slicing allows each device to download only the code and resources needed by that device, resulting in smaller downloads and better use of storage on the device. As a consequence the device no longer holds the universal version of the app that could be installed on any device so transferring apps is no longer supported. You can however download past purchases from iTunes and/or enable automatic downloads of app purchases to make sure that iTunes always has the apps that you want on your device. A further change to the way restores are implemented means that all private app data is restored and apps that are not in the library are queued for download from the iTunes Store over Wi-Fi, in a similar fashion to the way restore from iCloud works. Not having the apps in your library isn't the drawback it once was, however you are still at risk of losing a favoured app if it is removed from the store and you don't have a local copy.
tt2
Hmm. My experience has been very different. I had iOS 9 on my iPhone 5 up until July (2016) and iTunes transferred (updated) the desktop apps no problem. This was never an issue. I doubt this is a coincidence.
Additionally, if "transferring purchases" is no longer doing just that, then why is this feature still available in the latest iTunes?
I would call Apple on this issue but I don't have the time to wait an hour or so on hold trying to reach them.
Transfer Purchases is still available as it still copies media (e.g. iTunes purchased music, films etc.) back from a device ; since iOS 9 was released it hasn't copied apps (new apps or updates) back from a device
Transfer purchases still covers purchased media. See http://www.imore.com/app-thinning-ios-9-explained for more on app thinning. If you had automatic downloads enabled in your iTunes library you might not have needed to transfer apps. Were you updating them in iTunes, or always updating on your device and then syncing back the updated copies? In principle the second approach should not have been possible after iOS9.
tt2
Duplicate thread started. transferring purchases to iTunes not working
Must not have liked my answer. 😁
I was about to add my voice over there too before realising it was the same poster. Hopefully between us and King_Penguin we've covered the topic.
tt2
iOS 10: Transferring purchases from device (iPhone) to iTunes not working
