Is there a way to transfer an app?

Was this app purchased/downloaded using the same iTunes account as the rest of your apps? If not, try authorizing your computer with the account associated with that app.

 

Well, I don't know what to tell you. I happen to have an app on my iPhone that was pulled from the app store a long time ago, and I just tried "transfer purchases" and the app transferred fine along with all the other apps I had on my iPhone.

I don't know of any way to pull an app from an iPad to a computer -- first of all, I'm pretty sure you'd need to be jailbroken, and even then, it's not so simple because when apps are on the iPad, they are expanded, and just copying the expanded app to your computer won't result in an app file that can then be reinstalled back onto an iDevice when you need to.

 

Good to know, thanks! I wonder if there is some way of getting it from your backup files though?

 

I totally don't believe that. As I said, I just saw an app that is no longer on the app store transfer from my iPhone to my computer. Also, I've downloaded ePubs into iBooks from sources other than the iBookstore which were subsequently copied to my computer when I did "transfer purchases." I know those books weren't downloaded from "the cloud" because they aren't in the cloud. And whenever I download or update an app on my iPad or iPhone, then subsequently sync with my computer, the transfer happens a lot faster than how long it takes the apps to download from the internet. I think that person at AppleCare doesn't know what she's talking about!

 

I agree. I don't believe for a minute that the 'transferring purchases from iPad' is actually downloading them from the Internet.

 

If it's really important, you could jailbrake and either try to transfer the game's actual files directly, though I'm not sure if it would work. Or you could download an IPA file for the game and install it, though some may consider it piracy, if you actually bought the game before, I see no problem. The only trouble would be finding the IPA file, it might come up on your first google search, or in some German forum on page 41 of google.