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Apple Releases iTunes 12.7 With Major Changes, Including No Built-In App Store

ideal.dreams said:
Okay the App Store I get, I don't use iTunes to download iOS apps and as of a few months ago, I stopped storing IPA files on my MacBook.

But how do we go about adding our own ringtones to our phones now? The ringtones Apple sells on the iTunes Store are complete garbage and I've made a bunch of my own. How am I supposed to do that now?
Click to expand...

Apple will start forcing people off iTunes, for your ringtones buy - WALTR2

https://softorino.com/waltr/windows-guides/add-m4r-ringtones-to-iphone-without-itunes/
 
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Rare_Josh said:
As one of the guys behind WALTR 2 and SYC 2 – of course, I must recommend that for transferring custom ringtones to iPhones – you can use WALTR 2. It's much easier than what iTunes had in the previous version anyway. https://softorino.com
Click to expand...

I missed your post and just recommended your app. How about adding the functionality to back up and restore apps? Unfortunately it will mean multiple copies (iPhone vers¡on and iPad version (iPod touch version?)).
 
So just how the heck are those of us, PC or Mac, going to keep local backups for:

- restoring devices when apps aren't on the app store anymore?
- restoring an app when as previously stated, the current version is broken/bad?
- restoring our custom-made ringtones?

I'm so glad I saw this article before I was notified of an update to iTunes. :mad:
 
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adrianlondon said:
If you want to delete a custom ringtone, in phone summary tick "Manually manage music and videos" then go to the ringtones section and simply delete the ones you don't want.
Click to expand...
Little you know is you will likely need to sync everything again after completing ringtone management, which was not the case before.
 
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The only thing I do on iTunes (on my Mac) is go to the App section, go to view my purchased apps (for iPhone/iPad) that I had hidden.....how can I unhide apps for my iPad?
 
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RecentlyConverted said:
I missed your post and just recommended your app. How about adding the functionality to back up and restore apps? Unfortunately it will mean multiple copies (iPhone vers¡on and iPad version (iPod touch version?)).
Click to expand...

Thank you for the recommending WALTR :) We do have back up functionality on our to-do list. We hope to introduce it in the future. Though it may mess up the "simple drop zone" interface but we'll find a way to make it work!
 
Rare_Josh said:
Thank you for the recommending WALTR :) We do have back up functionality on our to-do list. We hope to introduce it in the future. Though it may mess up the "simple drop zone" interface but we'll find a way to make it work!
Click to expand...

Excellent. Or make it a stand alone app, like SYC2 and the excellent (and free ) iBetterCharge. I have all your apps and they do work well!
 
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I like the idea of simplifying iTunes, but have two questions:

1) Can I still populate the apps installed on my iOS devices when the device is connected to a computer? Like, can I still drop a file into it?

2) What happens with our custom ringtones now after a clean (restore) iOS device installation?

Update: I ended up installing the new iTunes on a friend’s computer and, basically, we can still backup & restore our iOS devices with it, as well as populate the apps installed on them. There is also still a tab for ringtones already on the device, so I guess that during the full backup on iTunes 12.7 those would be copied as well. Not a 100% sure on this one, though.
 
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Okay, I'm not a fan of this change. I use my Mac to manage my apps, not my iPhone. It's so much easier to do it with a screen where I can see everything I have and manage it via categories and the like. I have over 1500 apps and there's no way to manage them via an iPhone.

Seriously, not a fan of this change.
 
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This is horrible. I have over 1900 apps, 500 on my iPad alone. I also own 5 iOS devices, with 1 being older that I keep for 32-bit apps. I do everything 100% through iTunes, and I can't imagine having to manage all that on an iPad or iPhone. Not to mention how do I save apps that are no longer in the App Store and I want to temporarily take off my device? What about iTunes File Sharing which I use weekly for file transferring. And how do I keep multiple backups of my devices?

It's really insane Apple hasn't talked about this in detail. Perhaps High Sierra and iOS11 release will add new functionality to do the same tasks. I do agree iTunes is a huge mess both in design and functionality, but removing the App Store completely makes little sense to me. I'll now be waiting to upgrade anything, as well as holding off buying apps since I do all my purchasing through the Mac.
 
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MacSaves said:
Okay, I'm not a fan of this change. I use my Mac to manage my apps, not my iPhone. It's so much easier to do it with a screen where I can see everything I have and manage it via categories and the like. I have over 1500 apps and there's no way to manage them via an iPhone.

Seriously, not a fan of this change.
Click to expand...

If you are not going to buy a new iPhone, you probably can stay with the old iTunes,
otherwise you would need to update to even use the iPhone 8 or X with IOS11
 
So I have a 12.69GB Mobile Applications folder in my iTunes folder on my Mac.

Now that we iTunes has nothing to do with Mobile Apps anymore, can I delete it and free up the space?

Thanks!
 
MacRumors said:


This is a BAD surprise from Apple. The App Store was an excellent tool to manage different apps on different phones and my iPad. Now there's no one place where you can manage it all. Apple is becoming more self centered and less client centered; they want to tells us what to do, not letting us do what we want with the technology and devices we buy from them. Customers like REAL INNOVATION not this pathetic, scatterbrains updates that do nothing useful. Apple will regret this downward slide of less innovation and more annoyance.

In a day filled with surprises, Apple has shocked us once again with the release of iTunes 12.7, which entirely revamps the iTunes App. The new iTunes is designed to focus solely on music, movies, TV shows, podcasts, and audiobooks, which means there is no built-in App Store.

screen_shot_2017-09-12_at_7.37.24_pm_720.jpg

The App Store has been entirely eliminated in iTunes 12.7, as has the ringtones section of iTunes. Internet Radio is now part of Music, and iTunes U has been folded into Podcasts, as Apple announced in late August.

screen_shot_2017-09-12_at_7.36.54_pm_720.jpg

Apps can now only be downloaded on an iOS device using an iOS device, and the same goes for ringtones. In addition to the removal of the App Store, today's update adds support for syncing iOS 11 devices and includes support for new Apple Music features that allow you to follow friends and see what they're listening to. The new iTunes 12.7 update can be downloaded from the Mac App Store through the Software Update mechanism. The update is available for all iTunes users at no cost.

Article Link: Apple Releases iTunes 12.7 With Major Changes, Including No Built-In App Store
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sbcdk said:
Sure, if you aren’t a power user and only have a few apps installed, this is no biggie. But for a user like me, who have bought a gazillion apps over the last decade and keep at least 150 installed on any of our devices, just the thought of regular clean installs is making me sweat! I did my 7+ and ipp 10.5 just last week, as iOS 11 beta 10 arrived. Scrolled through the apps on pc iTunes, selected the ones I needed and arranged them in folders. Clicked on Sync and left the pc do the work. 1-2 hours later all my apps, photos and music was in place, and I could continue with the next device.
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You seem to make things a LOT more complicated than they have to be.
 
I think it's a wise decision, considering the fact that 99% of people don't centrally manage their iOS devices via iTunes and an attached USB to Lightning cable these days. My hard drive has been cluttered up for years with dozens of old, outdated iOS Apps that I'd never even want to put back on my devices, just because like most people, I just forget about them being stored in there and didn't bother to delete them.

Providing some kind of small utility to manage iOS apps as a stand-alone thing would be nice though. I'm pretty sure you can do this via 3rd. party shareware products right now, unless Apple is in the process of changing iOS itself to break those capabilities.


Appleaker said:
People are saying this is a good thing, they don’t realise the lost functionality. If they want to improve iTunes performance nd make it less cluttered, completely removing features like this isn’t the answer. I agree with it, but I also think there should be another application for syncing devices and managing apps.
Click to expand...
 
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Absrnd said:
If you are not going to buy a new iPhone, you probably can stay with the old iTunes, otherwise you would need to update to even use the iPhone 8 or X with IOS11
Click to expand...

Well, it's not iOS11 dependent, as I'm still using iTunes 12.6.2.20 on Sierra, using an iPhone 6s+ with the GM iOS 11, and it doesn't seem to have a problem. I can't speak for the 8 or the X mind you, but it is working fine with iOS 11 for me.

Also had another thought. Even if we don't update to iTunes 12.7, I wonder how long Apple will continue to support that on the back end? OK, say I never update - at some point they'll probably stop updating the iOS App Store there.
 
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Until a month ago, I had no way to manage our home's multiple iOS devices except let them update/download apps separately, so I'm OK with iTunes 12.7. *ducks* I could never get the Windows version of iTunes 12.6.x to work well, even on a 2015 PC with 32GB RAM and a 1TB SSD. (When I got a new iMac, that became irrelevant.) The use cases on this and other forums -- juggling 1000s of mostly outdated apps on 5+ devices -- are atypical. And corporate users have MDM. However, Apple should consider an "iSync" Mac app for those atypical ones. This would minimize the bad PR now coming as a result.
 
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