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I agree with the decision to remove the iOS App Store from desktop iTunes, not necessary to have and not hard to just go on the device itself and download - meaning it is a redundant feature, and therefore bloat that iTunes doesn't need
It is not a redundant feature. It was discussed above, for those who have only cellular access to the web (no cable, no free wifi) using iTunes App Store was the only way to download large apps. iOS won't let you download an app over 100Mb in size over cellular. Earlier it was possible to enable wifi hotspot on iPhone, connect your Mac and download such apps to iTunes on a Mac and sync them back to iPhone. Now for such people there's no way to install/update apps which are bigger than 100Mb in size.
 
Yes, and if I don't want an app on multiple devices I just delete it. Much easier than hand selecting what apps to download to each.
[doublepost=1505262181][/doublepost]
DSL?

My sympathies.
But doesn't this mean if you have three devices like 2 iPads and an iPhone that every time any app is updated it has to be downloaded separately to each device? That will take at least 3 times as long as it does to just download to iTunes once.
 
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But this has been like this for many years. And as long as System Preferences still has separate settings for iCloud and iTunes (ie, you can be logged into different accounts in iCloud and iTunes on iOS), things haven't changed.

Are you 100% sure about that ? I 'm on the US App store for most apps but I switch from time to time to the French one to update some apps.
My iCloud settings is the French one. So this is a very important feature for me !
PLEASE let me know . TIA
 
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It is not a redundant feature. It was discussed above, for those who have only cellular access to the web (no cable, no free wifi) using iTunes App Store was the only way to download large apps. iOS won't let you download an app over 100Mb in size over cellular. Earlier it was possible to enable wifi hotspot on iPhone, connect your Mac and download such apps to iTunes on a Mac and sync them back to iPhone. Now for such people there's no way to install/update apps which are bigger than 100Mb in size.
Apple needs to make that 100 MB limit optional, and simply warn anyone about data usage when they try to disable it. I can't believe it's 2017 and the same strict 100 MB limit is in place.
 
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I FOUND THE APP STORE IN ITUNES 12.7.0.166

If you visit a web page like:
https://itunes.apple.com/developer/electronic-arts/id284800461?mt=8

1. Click the blue button "View in iTunes" and it launches the developer page in iTunes:
View attachment 717322

2. Then click on App Store in the top left corner:

View attachment 717323

This is so cool. Because it is much easier to browse for new apps on the Mac's big screen.

Enjoy folks.
Works like a charm.
iTunes 2017-09-13 18-56-37.jpg
 
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Really wish they let you disable the iTunes connection to the keyboard media keys so it wouldn't steal them from other apps that you might want to use like MediaCenter for example. Because of this I have to use all sort of elaborate hacks to essentially disable iTunes entirely and then re-enable it when I need to use it to sync my music or when macOs decides I need to update iTunes.
 
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This isn't about backing up and restoring data on your phone this is about removing the user's ability to store iOS apps in an environment that Apple cannot control. How many times have you updated an app and found it to no longer have the functionality you'd previously used? If you'd had the older version's IPA sitting on your computer in iTunes, you can simply drag that to you iPhone and you're happy again with the functionality you've grown to love.

This happened to me with Strava when they separated the watch and phone apps. I was fortunate enough to have found an old version sitting in a system backup disk. I could then install the version of the app that still had the functionality I used.

Also consider an app that goes from free to one containing advertising. Now if you have the old app downloaded in iTunes, you could restore that version to your device and you're happy with no ads. Apple is not happy.

This is about Apple restricting the end user. It is about control. I've said before that Apple will try to do as much as they can to lock down every OS on every device. Macs are currently very open and free with what the user can do, but with each update it gets that little bit more locked down. Soon you'll only be able to install apps from Apple's store.
 
They still haven't fixed 'waiting for Apple to deliver your Genius results' taking forever. And the infamous infinite spinning beach ball on any uploads or downloads via match or basically any time it needs to do anything over the internet.

Also interesting how a good percentage of my music that was downloaded to this computer are now once again in the cloud and showing a download icon. Are they removing tracks from the local device and pushing them to the cloud without the user's permission again? Seems like every day another track that used to be on my disk is now only in the cloud. Every time MediaCenter reindexes my itunes library folder it seems to have a handful of tracks that it can no longer find mysteriously. Someone please tell me how it's something I must be doing wrong or that I somehow opted in to a new feature I never wanted? They all seem to be tracks that I purchased off iTunes Store but were at the time of purchase downloaded to my disk and apparently no longer are.
 
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I just spent an hour on the phone with apple support. Users utilizing Itunes 12.7 can no longer sync or remove custom ringtones from their phones. They can only add them from itunes down to the phone. Here is their explanation:

"OK! I see what the problem here is. With the release of iOS 11 coming out soon, we’re prepping for our tones to make the switch to being backed up to iCloud. Due to this, we’re already rolling out the changes on iTunes with 12.7 to no longer support ringtone storage.

IVYAfter iOS 11 comes out officially and fully, all your tones will be included in your iCloud backups, rather than being managed by hand via iTunes."
 
So, everyone freaking out about having to download apps multiple times on multiple devices can relax. There's this thing called content caching.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207523

A fancy new term for saving apps on my Mac without me being able to actually manage it all or save a backup IPA file. More evidence they just don't want users to have any ability to manage or save what they pay for.
 
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This isn't about backing up and restoring data on your phone this is about removing the user's ability to store iOS apps in an environment that Apple cannot control..

When put like that, makes sense, because Apple wants to control iOS and the only way to do it would be to restrict you passing from a more open environment, to a protected one. Which only leaves the cloud.
 
Not sure if I understand everyone's problem with removing iOS apps from iTunes. Starting from iOS 9, app downloads are now thinned—meaning the binary that ends up on your device is custom downloaded from the store for the specific device and not from your Mac or PC.

So if you're syncing from iTunes on Mac or PC, I believe just the "placeholder" of the app is synced over and the actual download of the app occurs on your iOS device so that it can grab the specific portions of the app for that device.
 
Regarding the IOS app store gone in iTunes 12.7: now unable to perform a proper hard backup to the computer THEN update all my devices once:

I couldn't agree more this is the worse misstep I can remember in 30 years of Apple. Our WIFI here is so slow that like hundreds of others on here 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
 
So, everyone freaking out about having to download apps multiple times on multiple devices can relax. There's this thing called content caching.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207523
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207523
That would be nice, but it requires OS/x Server on 1 machine.

old-wiz are you sure about that. Did you read the linked article. Because I read the linked article and I can't find any reference to any requirement for "OS/x server". Here are the only requirements as listed in the article:

----------

Requirements for tethered caching
  • A Mac with macOS Sierra 10.12.4 or later, and either iTunes 12.6 or later, or Xcode 8.3 or later. The Mac should be connected to the network via Ethernet. If you use tethered caching, your Mac won’t go to sleep. If your Mac is portable, plug in the power adaptor.
  • An iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with iOS 10.3 or later.
If you want to connect multiple iOS devices to your Mac simultaneously, you’ll also need a USB hub.

----------

Did I miss something that you know about but that Apple neglected to mention in the article. Thanks in advance.
 
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I feel sorry for the folks who automatically down the newest versions of iTunes software to their Macs thinking Apple will take care of their apps in iTunes and then find out they are all gone. Apple should have given everyone a big warning in the roll out of new products. That's sorry as hell to me.

In iTunes 12.7 (the only version that I can check) the option is "Check for new updates automatically"."Check" does not mean "install". By using that option to install updates automatically Apple is being misleading, deceptive and fraudulent.
 
This is huge for me. I manage 6 iphones and 8 iPads (not to mention all the macs and watches). No, I don't want my children's iPads getting auto updates of everything I purchase. No, they cannot manage their devices themselves. Some apps are not appropriate for everyone at every time. The iPads are primarily used for schoolwork, so we heavily restrict what can be on each one. But if we go on a vacation or take a summer break, we might let them have a few frivolous apps temporarily. We are constantly changing them. They have to be managed from the Mac, or I simply will not do it anymore.

I also have 2 older iPhones that no longer have functioning wifi but worked perfectly well as app devices. So this iTunes update just bricked them completely.

I don't think I'm only in the 1%. I think there are many families and small businesses that need to manage multiple devices from a desktop computer. And Apple Configurator doesn't really work on a small scale, so that isn't the answer.

I honestly was planning to order 2 new phones and 2 new iPads tomorrow, along with a new Apple TV and 2 watches, but I honestly don't think I will now. This change makes me rethink everything, and I don't have time for that.

What do you mean Configurator doesn't work on a small scale? It worked fine for me on a scale of 1 (my iPhone).
 
A fancy new term for saving apps on my Mac without me being able to actually manage it all or save a backup IPA file. More evidence they just don't want users to have any ability to manage or save what they pay for.

Apparently they don't want customers to use their Mac to have control over their iPhone. Sure, they're still letting us use Macs to control the music and video. For now.

While this is most certainly my paranoid fearmongering speaking, it's like they want to incrementally divorce the iOS devices from the macOS ones. We've always used a Mac (or iTunes on Windows) to control our i-devices, or at least the option to do so was always there. Perhaps the next iteration of iPhone won't have a Lightning port at all, seeing as how Apple is moving to wireless charging, and all syncing of music must be done via wifi... or via iCloud. Or maybe they're planning to eventually get rid of Macs completely. When an Apple exec says an iPad can be your computer, maybe they mean an iPad WILL be your computer, citizen.

Like I said, just my paranoia talking. I hope.
 
Is it possible that *this* is the source of your problem?

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201593 excerpt:

"If you have iCloud Music Library turned on, you can't manually manage music, but you can still manage videos using the steps below."

Yes that may be part of the problem. But talking to apple tonight they did say this:

Apple support- (via online chat)
OK! I see what the problem here is. With the release of iOS 11 coming out soon, we’re prepping for our tones to make the switch to being backed up to iCloud. Due to this, we’re already rolling out the changes on iTunes with 12.7 to no longer support ringtone storage.

IVYAfter iOS 11 comes out officially and fully, all your tones will be included in your iCloud backups, rather than being managed by hand via iTunes.
 
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