Delete a gazillion apps from iTunes library. But they'll get deleted on my iPhone?

[patent10021]

So I have a gazillion apps in my iTunes library that I'm about to delete to start fresh for the new year.

When I select apps and click delete iTunes gives the usual "This app will also be deleted from any iPod or iPhone which syncs to your library" warning.

That's a bit scary. I'm thinking that I might get away with deleting all of them if I Transfer Purchases BEFORE I attempt to do any syncing ->But what if your phone is set to auto sync when you connect?

I can't stand that iPhone Applications tab in iTunes either. Takes forever to do any kind of organizing in there when you have 400 apps or so. Gotta scroll down the long list and choose what you want to be synced or not one check box at a time. That's why I want to delete all of the apps from my iTunes library first.

EDIT1: And let's say I decided I wanted some of those apps back. There is a permanent record at Apple/iTunes so when I search for it in the store using my phone the app will still show as previously purchased even though I deleted it from my iTunes library right?

EDIT2: Well I went ahead and deleted all apps from my iTunes library and connected my iPhone and selected Transfer Purchases to iTunes so that the only apps that are in the iTunes library are the ones that were on my iPhone. Copying 328 apps to iTunes. A lot better than the 500 I think I had before. Next up is my iPad.


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[miss.manson]

So I have a gazillion apps in my iTunes library that I'm about to delete to start fresh for the new year.

When I select apps and click delete iTunes gives the usual "This app will also be deleted from any iPod or iPhone which syncs to your library" warning.

That's a bit scary. I'm thinking that I might get away with deleting all of them if I Transfer Purchases BEFORE I attempt to do any syncing ->But what if your phone is set to auto sync when you connect?

I can't stand that iPhone Applications tab in iTunes either. Takes forever to do any kind of organizing in there when you have 400 apps or so. Gotta scroll down the long list and choose what you want to be synced or not one check box at a time. That's why I want to delete all of the apps from my iTunes library first.

EDIT1: And let's say I decided I wanted some of those apps back. There is a permanent record at Apple/iTunes so when I search for it in the store using my phone the app will still show as previously purchased even though I deleted it from my iTunes library right?

EDIT2: Well I went ahead and deleted all apps from my iTunes library and connected my iPhone and selected Transfer Purchases to iTunes so that the only apps that are in the iTunes library are the ones that were on my iPhone. Copying 328 apps to iTunes. A lot better than the 500 I think I had before. Next up is my iPad.


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wow what size iphone do you have?

 

[patent10021]

wow what size iphone do you have?

Just a regular 32GB iP4. Why?

 

[labman]

How many of those Apps do you use?

 

[eagandale4114]

Check the screenshot. If your box is unchecked deleting stuff on your computer will not affect your iDevice.

 

[bandofbrothers]

Im still getting my head around 328 apps ! Wondering how much you've spent in total for the charged apps assuming your not jb.

 

[patent10021]

Im still getting my head around 328 apps ! Wondering how much you've spent in total for the charged apps assuming your not jb.

I'm not JB right now. Not since iOS5 came out. I was JB on 4.3.3 and MyWi was the only app I bought and installed for tethering to my iPad. For me, I find most other JB apps useless.

My apps are mostly language & photography apps. Have you seen how many apps there are in those categories? Countless. The ones remaining on my device are the ones I use since I deleted the ones I don't use yesterday. I have a max of about 10 games.

Most of my apps are free but I've spent ￥ on the hard core power user Japanese, Chinese and photography apps. Not more than ￥20,000 though.

These ￥10,000 iTunes cards are awesome.

 

[Jordan921]

That's alot of apps to go through.

 

[patent10021]

That's alot of apps to go through.

A little bit. I'm looking at my phone right now. 2 1/2 pages of full folders of mostly Japanese, Chinese and photography apps. Now that they're all in folders they're all quite easy to manage. Actually Ill be deleting more today. Im guessing I'll end up deleting around 50 apps today. I can use those 50 but it gets to the point of diminishing returns. If you have so many Japanese apps for example, it becomes difficult to focus on the prime most useful apps I've paid for. The pain is syncing and updating OSs. I always have to wait for long backups. That's the only drawback.

EDIT* And for anyone else who's wondering, I cleaned house yesterday and nothing got deleted. Selected all the apps in the iTunes sidebar apps folder and deleted and trashed them. After cleaning up my iPhone I connected my iPhone and Transferred Purchases to iTunes. All nice and clean again. Doing the same with my iPad.

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[tarasis]

Im still getting my head around 328 apps
Image

I've similar or more (think closer to the 500 mark but can't check ATM as I'm in boot camp). Over 4-5 years (has it really been that long), with iPhones & iPads picking up that many (mostly free, some paid) apps is easy; particularly when following free-app-a-day.

[edit] I do know my library is 48GBs worth of apps which I need to seriously purge to get space back.

 

[cambookpro]

I've similar or more (think closer to the 500 mark but can't check ATM as I'm in boot camp). Over 4-5 years (has it really been that long), with iPhones & iPads picking up that many (mostly free, some paid) apps is easy; particularly when following free-app-a-day.

[edit] I do know my library is 48GBs worth of apps which I need to seriously purge to get space back.

Well, it's really only 3 1/2 years but I get your point

 

[tarasis]

Well, it's really only 3 1/2 years but I get your point

Oops, yay I was back counting to when I got my iPhone 2G (Xmas 07) and added a year for the 3G (I've had 4S, 4, 3GS and 2G) hence suddenly thinking 4-5.

Rather than when, of course, the AppStore appeared.

 

[tarasis]

Checked my library, there are currently 1001 apps in my iTunes library, probably another 20-30 or so that aren't and 239 (mostly unused) apps on my Phone and 249 on the iPad.