Update iTunes 12.6.3 to 12.7?

[Doc69]

I have a huge iTunes library and never upgraded to 12.7 (running 12.6.3). I mainly didn't want to lose the ability to sync apps and ringtones. However, since I upgraded to High Sierra, iTunes 10.6.3 has been extremely slow, sometimes taking 10 seconds to load a new podcast window etc. My apps and music resides on additional internal drive in my Mac Pro.

I now want to try iTunes 12.7 on a second partition, still accessing the files on the additional internal drive. If I do so, will any apps or ringtones be deleted from the hard drive? Anything else I should be concerned about? My hope is that 12.7 will be faster. Now I'm getting the multi-colored beach ball all the time.

 

[techwarrior]

Nope, My Tones and apps folders are still there and I am on 12.7.3 iTunes.

i suspect iTunes 12.7 and High Sierra have a symbiotic relationship that is missing using iTunes 12.6.

 

[Doc69]

Nope, My Tones and apps folders are still there and I am on 12.7.3 iTunes.

OK, great! And do you know what happens to the tones that are currently synced to my iPhone? When I sync my iPhone the first time after the upgrade to 12.7, will my custom ringtones remain on my phone or will they be deleted?

 

[techwarrior]

I recently upgraded from 7+ to 8+ and restored from iTunes backup after tones and apps were removed from iTunes. All of my apps downloaded from the app store, but settings and tones were restored from iTunes. i think you just can no longer manage them with iTunes.

 

[Populus]

Hi!

I recently updated my iTunes to 12.7.3 and now the iOS apps are not manageable by iTunes anymore.

So, my question is as follows: I have a folder with 57GB of old iOS apps, should I erase this folder?
Or maybe I will need some of them in the future?

I'll wait for your answers before erasing them.
Thank you.

 

[techwarrior]

I think it is safe to delete the Mobile Applications folder and contents.

When iTunes backs up your iOS devices, it stores references to the apps in the backup. So, if you restore to a new device, it puts the app icons on the new phone in the folders they were in on the last backup, but then all of the apps re-download directly to your device, kind of like doing an update on every app on your device (except the stock apps). All of the App settings are preserved as well.

I noticed this when I upgraded from iPhone 7+ to 8+ with the app-less iTunes. I have since removed my Mobile Applications folder (which had very old versions of most of the apps anyways). The folder has not re-appeared despite several backups.

Since iOS is based on MacOS to a large degree, my suspicion is the iOS backups store all the app settings in a folder like /Users/Username (probably "Default")/Library/Application Support and the App bundles go in /Applications. So, when you restore, nothing from /Applications is in the backup, save for the stock apps that install with the iOS image. But the Application Support folder is restored, putting the icons and folders on the Springboard and then a script launches fresh copies of the apps to download to /Applications.

Interestingly, Application Support must also contain state information of the apps. So, all of the apps that were active on my old device were also active on my new device (as seen in App Switcher). As long as you encrypt your backups in iTunes, all of the passwords are restored to the new device as well.
[doublepost=1518048421][/doublepost]Basically, Apple is cutting the fat. In an age of smaller SSD (vs large HDD), and moving to a PC-less world, and encouraging iCloud backups of iOS devices, backing up Apps, and using App Store in iTunes is redundant and takes up a lot of space. So, App Store replaces the need to back up the apps on your Mac\PC.

 

[cruisin]

So, my question is as follows: I have a folder with 57GB of old iOS apps, should I erase this folder?

As long as the app exists in the App Store, you don't need the local version on your computer. However, if the app ever disappears from the store, then your local copy is the only way to install the app to your device (assuming your iTunes version allows for app installs). The transition to iOS 11 removed all 32-bit apps (because they apparently slow down your device somehow) and they are no longer able to be used. Any app not updated by 2015 or so will not run.

If you don't plan on keeping a version of iTunes with app support, you might as well delete those apps. At least make a list of the apps you like or paid for and then you can delete the rest (a smaller collection is much easier to store).