iTunes 12.7

D. Hoffmann wrote:

What about getting apps onto your iOS device that are no longer on the App Store, but still function?

From Manually manage content on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch using iTunes - Apple Support:

Manually add items from your computer

If you have media on your computer that you can't redownload from the App Store or iTunes Store directly on your iOS device, such as custom ringtones or iOS apps, you can drag and drop the media from your computer to your iOS device using iTunes.

1. Connect your device to your computer.
2. Open iTunes. Make sure that you have the latest version.
3. On your computer, find the item you want to add to your device. If you're looking for Apps, Tones, or Books (for Windows) that previously appeared in your iTunes library, you can find them in your iTunes media folder.
4. Drag the item from your computer to your iOS device in the left sidebar of iTunes.

tt2

From linked Apple article above.

"The new iTunes focuses on music, movies, TV shows, podcasts, and audiobooks. Apps for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch are now exclusively available in the new App Store for iOS. And the new App Store makes it easy to get, update, and redownload apps—all without a Mac or PC."

This is not a viable change. I need the desktop feature to be able to easily manage my app folders. I have two iPhones and an iPad. By having to do all the management on each individual device is too cumbersome. It is also too difficult to search the App store only on my device and not on the desktop. As far as I am concerned, iTunes 12.7 is broken and needs to be fixed.

I sympathise with your position, look at any of Apples 'bad' decisions in the past & you will see that they take a long time to undo their mistakes, especially ones that are software based.

I'd suggest you look at restoring the older iTunes ASAP (probably from a backup). You will also need to restore the older iTunes Library as the database that references all your files can change (iTunes updates normally create a backup of the old version). Restoring gets more difficult as time passes so reverting should be a priority if you are sure you need the old features.

@busterbird, hold down on the apps & then drag the icons to rearrange How to Rearrange Apps and Folders on the iPhone. It can be slow & cumbersome but better than nothing.

turingtest2 wrote:

As given in Deploy apps in a business environment with iTunes - Apple Support:

You won’t be prompted to download new versions of iTunes after you install this version. Learn how to update to the latest version of iTunes when you're ready to upgrade manually.

tt2

I did step 2 in that document right after I installed

12.6.3, and there were no iTunes updates (did its

usual Spotlight database check).

This was just checked:

A new, downgraded, iTunes version, 12.6.3, has just been released by Apple. You can download it here: Deploy apps in a business environment with iTunes - Apple Support

Opps. With this new format I missed the first last 8 pages of this topic.

Old Toad wrote:

Opps. With this new format I missed the first last 8 pages of this topic.

The number of times I've started composing a new reply to the last post on page 1 and then realized that it is a longer thread... 😠

tt2

Svenborg wrote:

This is not a viable change. I need the desktop feature to be able to easily manage my app folders. I have two iPhones and an iPad. By having to do all the management on each individual device is too cumbersome. It is also too difficult to search the App store only on my device and not on the desktop. As far as I am concerned, iTunes 12.7 is broken and needs to be fixed.

Submit your feedback to Apple here:

http://www.apple.com/feedback

I disagree with Drew that this is a mistake. People have been complaining for years that iTunes has become bloated and moved away from being a music playing/organizing app. Many people see this as a move in the right direction. Also, it has been apparent that Apple is doing everything they can to decouple iPhones from direct connections to computers. You may not agree with Apple's decision but, only time will tell if they decide to change their minds.

What do you mean by…

emri1980 wrote:

there is no way to download just iBooks then for my computer, the way i can do it on my iphone? At least if there was that option...or even a web-based option, I could make that work...

iBooks is an app on Mac OS/ OS X. Perhaps you are also using the term to describe books or audiobooks so it makes it difficult to know what you are referring to. According to this the iBooks app has been supported in the OS since 10.6.3, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBooks

See the other Apple page, it suggest you need to drag from Finder/ Windows Explorer to move them to iOS.

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201593

If you want better help please give more info (e.g. what OS you are using etc).

emri1980 wrote:

Sorry for the lack of clarity.

Is there a way to download iBooks on a PC/Windows?

Sorry iBooks has never been made for PC's.

Please see the last section of the page I keep linking to…

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201593, specifically the "Manually add items from your computer" section.

I would try selecting the 'Books' item as shown in the image on that page (the Books item is under your device in iTunes when it is connected, it may list books on the device & may allow drag copying?). See if you can drag items from that location - I don't have Windows with iTunes to check that feature, it seems to me that Apple no longer support downloading books from iOS to PC's.

Look for a third party app if you cannot get iTunes to do it, there may be some like these…

https://macroplant.com/iexplorer

http://www.i-funbox.com

http://ecamm.com/mac/phoneview/

emri1980 wrote:

I basically need the iBooks storefront and access to see the books being sold, not books i've purchased etc. Does that make sense?

Sorry that doesn't seem possible, you will need to purchase on iOS (or purchase somewhere that isn't hostile to your needs).

Tell Apple how you need it to work…

https://ssl.apple.com/feedback/itunesapp.html

iwaddo wrote:

So presumably now is the time to remove 16Gb of data from the mobile apps folder on my hd, I'm surprised Apple did not delete this data unless of course sync will still copy apps from my iPhone or iPad to my local disk which I doubt very much.

I have no idea why Apple left it in place. If you read Apples info it explains that you can still drag apps from Finder to a device https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201593

Basically iTunes can still copy apps to iOS but Apple removed the old UI to manage it all.

I suspect that iTunes also backs up new apps to that location, so in theory you could revert apps if you have an old copy (e.g. from Time Machine). I don't have iTunes 12.7 to test that theory - update an app on iOS & then sync to iTunes to see if it updates the copy on the Mac.

Regarding unable to perform a proper hard backup to the computer THEN update all my devices once:

I couldn't agree more. Our WIFI here is so slow that I too rely on my hard backup to the computer, mainly because our internet is so slow there's no way I could do a restore backup of over 2,000+ apps to my device. I tried it one time a year ago after a problem with 10.1 installation problems. I was forced to use an iCloud back up to recover my setup.

After 3 days of continuous running, I could see it updating each of the 1,000+ apps one at a time, it definitely didn't stall, but I needed my phone for work. After 3 days I cancelled the install, gave up and just built it new from scratch using my iTunes backup on my MAC.Yes it took 9 hours but at least I got it back. It was horrendous to do it from scratch with hundreds of custom folders placing each APP one at a time, but now that's it done - that is the ONLY option for us.

Now today with iTunes 12.7 they completely get rid of the IOS APP store, the drop down menu to get access to your purchased product and the ONLY way to retrieve apps is through WIFI and the iCloud?

Who on Earth thought THIS was a cool idea?? Why didn't they do a poll online asking people "If we get rid of your computer backup and the ability to shop for and research apps using your computer, how many of you would think that's a cool idea?" Based on all these forums and the blogs all over the internet Id say close to no one would like loosing their hard backup!

In fact the common thread I have been seeing is for the first time in my 30 year Apple history I see people actually wanting to leave Apple over this and you know what? If I had not invested over $10,000 in Apps, TV Shows, Movies, Books etc... i'd be right behind them. They have taken a seamlessly easy user friendly system and trashed it in one fell swoop. We own 13 devices! Up till today (iTunes 12.7) all I had to do was open iTunes, click UPDATE APPS, wait - it only does 200 at a time, but eventually all 2,900+ get updated - then all I had to do was connect each device to iTunes and update that device with the APPs that updated. Done. When we bought a new device each year, we just connected the new device and copied the backup in about an hour per device using the backup stored on the computer. Hey 1 hour is waaaay better than 3 days let me tell you! Especially times 13 devices. LOL

On more than one occasion we have had problems trying to use iCloud, that's why we stopped completely. It just wasn't worth the days and days of wait time on a slow WIFI connection.

The only way Apple is going to "hear" is if ALL OF YOU who also don't like this tells them loud and clear. Take 3 minutes and go to the FEEDBACK page and tell them what you think. If you don't? They will assume everything fine - no one even complained. It takes each voice so please click the link and let them know what you think:

FEEDBACK:

Feedback - iTunes - Apple

jk2010 wrote:

Since I don't keep every app I've ever downloaded on my phone - how do move them back & forth to my iPhones and iPad? I can see them all in the mobile apps folder but now what? Is the expectation that I go to the app store on each device and download it all over again every time I want to add it - to any/all devices????

Sorry I don't know what the answer is. Looking at Apple's documentation you need to drag an app from Finder to a device in iTunes to copy to iOS. I can't see how you get that app from iOS though. Frankly that is a mess, but that is how Apple claim it should work.

I think Apple expect you to have an internet connection on each device so that you download every app on each device by viewing your purchase history, good luck with all that tap, tap, tapping…

Give Apple feedback if you want them to alter how it works…

Product Feedback - Apple

Mr_Bagger wrote:

Yep, this is part of what I would say, if I had the chance...

What's stopping you from writing to Mr. Cook?

1 Infinite Loop

Cupertino, CA 95014

Contact - How to Contact Us - Apple