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Is there any quick way to remove old versions of iOS apps from iTunes?

K

KTK1990

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 26, 2008
348
42
I am cleaning out my hard drive as I am reaching nearly full and found about 60% of it is iTunes apps.

There are old versions of apps in my iTunes folder, like Aim 3.0.1.11, 1.4.1, 4.3.5, 5.0.2... Is there a quick way to remove the old versions of apps from iTunes without screwing things up?

Plus there are also apps in there that i've removed from iTunes, that are still in the Mobile Applications folder.

I'd love it if I could delete everything and have iTunes automatically download the latest version only, but I doubt it would do that.
 
Yep, but I have over 1,000 apps to do and if I delete the wrong version then iTunes will ask me to locate it because it cant find it.
 
KTK1990 said:
Yep, but I have over 1,000 apps to do and if I delete the wrong version then iTunes will ask me to locate it because it cant find it.
Click to expand...
There's no simple way to go through those. You just have to do it manually. I'm curious, though: why would anyone want 1000 apps?
 
That's weird, iTunes automatically dumps previous versions when apps get updated. I didn't even know that was something that can be changed. Perhaps it has something to do with "automatically organize library" setting?
 
GGJstudios said:
There's no simple way to go through those. You just have to do it manually. I'm curious, though: why would anyone want 1000 apps?
Click to expand...

I don't necessarily have 1000 apps, but I do have almost 1000 files because iTunes is not deleting older versions of the apps. Rather, it keeps them and downloads the newer versions. Nice thing is that when iTunes installs the app to my iPhone or iPad, it installs the newest version.

It would be nice if iTunes would automatically delete older versions of the app or if there was another solution - other than me manually selecting and deleting the older versions.
 
cmdrmac said:
I don't necessarily have 1000 apps, but I do have almost 1000 files because iTunes is not deleting older versions of the apps. Rather, it keeps them and downloads the newer versions. Nice thing is that when iTunes installs the app to my iPhone or iPad, it installs the newest version.
Click to expand...
One solution may be to stop downloading the iPhone/iPad apps directly to your Mac. Go to iTunes > Preferences > Store > Automatic Downloads and uncheck "Apps". Then you'll only get apps when you sync your iPhone/iPad, which will be the most current versions.
 
I am trying to go down to about 500 or so, I've been deleting apps from iTunes and am now around 900 :).

But there is also the problem where i'd delete in iTunes and I think the previous version of the app won't get deleted in the iTunes folder. Which kinda doesnt help much as i'm trying to clean out everything and make my music folder smaller.

I did notice I have two apps folders o.0, viewing the apps in iTunes shows that some apps are located in each.

C:\Users\Travis\Music\iTunes\Mobile Applications
C:\Users\Travis\Music\iTunes\iTunes Media\Mobile Applications
 
GGJstudios said:
One solution may be to stop downloading the iPhone/iPad apps directly to your Mac. Go to iTunes > Preferences > Store > Automatic Downloads and uncheck "Apps". Then you'll only get apps when you sync your iPhone/iPad, which will be the most current versions.
Click to expand...

This is true. However, once you sync, the current version installed will be downloaded into your machine. If you update the app on your iOS device and then sync, the new version will be copied over and the older version will remain in the folder. The same thing occurs when you update the apps through iTunes.

Perhaps a 'feature' that Apple may want to consider is a way to delete or allow the user to archive older iOS app versions.
 
KTK1990 said:
I am trying to go down to about 500 or so, I've been deleting apps from iTunes and am now around 900 :).

But there is also the problem where i'd delete in iTunes and I think the previous version of the app won't get deleted in the iTunes folder. Which kinda doesnt help much as i'm trying to clean out everything and make my music folder smaller.

I did notice I have two apps folders o.0, viewing the apps in iTunes shows that some apps are located in each.

C:\Users\Travis\Music\iTunes\Mobile Applications
C:\Users\Travis\Music\iTunes\iTunes Media\Mobile Applications
Click to expand...

I only have the second folder you list (...iTunes Media\Mobile...). That other folder could be from an old backup or an import gone wrong. Depending on how many of the apps (final/latest versions) you want to keep, you could do this:
1) Move everything in the upper folder to the lower one
2) Delete the empty folder
3) Delete all the files in the "correct" (second) folder
4) Re-download the apps you actually want
This would be a pain if your goal is to end up with hundreds of apps but it's up to you. Alternately, you could sort them by date and then at least be able to delete them in small groups rather than individually.

Note: If you use either method above and delete something that is no longer in the App store, it's gone for good so be careful.
 
cmdrmac said:
This is true. However, once you sync, the current version installed will be downloaded into your machine. If you update the app on your iOS device and then sync, the new version will be copied over and the older version will remain in the folder. The same thing occurs when you update the apps through iTunes.
Click to expand...
It doesn't happen that way on mine. I never get duplicates of any apps.
 
Sedulous said:
That's weird, iTunes automatically dumps previous versions when apps get updated. I didn't even know that was something that can be changed. Perhaps it has something to do with "automatically organize library" setting?
Click to expand...

Not all the time. Sometimes iTunes leaves previous versions, especially when you choose to manually manage/sync apps to multiple iDevices. For example, I have 3 different versions of SoundHound in my ~/iTunes Media/Mobile Applications folder.

OP, in your Mobile Applications folder, make sure you have "Date Created" and "Date Modified" columns. Then, arrange all .ipa files by name and just keep deleting the versions of apps with older dates. Make sure you're deleting true duplicates, as different apps might have same or very similar filenames. Also, the default location for iOS apps should be: Macintosh HD>Users>username>Music>iTunes>iTunes Media>Mobile Applications.
 
I have two iDevices that are both set to manually manage apps.

I do like the Date created/modified tip and will use that for some of the apps. I did just find a new problem, that sometimes iTunes didnt delete the app or older version of the app when I'd delete it from iTunes.

My Mobile applications folder has 1020 apps, iTunes Media/Mobile Apps has 422 apps. But in iTunes I only have 840 apps.
 
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