General Updated iPad & iPhone apps not transferring to iTunes?

[Cassady]

Hello all,

Anyone else experiencing this? Not sure if something has changed in iOS or iTunes?

Of late (after the latest iTunes & iOS 9.02 updates), when I fire up iTunes, I might see 97 (or whatever) apps listed as requiring updates.

Thing is, the vast majority of those, have already been updated by me, manually, on my iPad and iPhone. After syncing, they are not being copied back over to iTunes. Pretty sure that prior to iOS 9/latest iTunes updates - the updates would be copied back, and as they were - the total of updates that iTunes would tell me I needed to make, would diminish - leaving only those that have not been updated on my devices.

Anyone know where to toggle whatever switch to bring this back?

PS - Googled - they suggested I go to File/Device >> transfer purchases. That only copied across the odd book that was in iBooks on the iPhone, back to iTunes. Did nothing to the app updates...

Would appreciate some suggestions...

 

[Cassady]

Anyone?

 

[WB2Colorado]

Hello all,

Anyone else experiencing this? Not sure if something has changed in iOS or iTunes?

Of late (after the latest iTunes & iOS 9.02 updates), when I fire up iTunes, I might see 97 (or whatever) apps listed as requiring updates.

Thing is, the vast majority of those, have already been updated by me, manually, on my iPad and iPhone. After syncing, they are not being copied back over to iTunes. Pretty sure that prior to iOS 9/latest iTunes updates - the updates would be copied back, and as they were - the total of updates that iTunes would tell me I needed to make, would diminish - leaving only those that have not been updated on my devices.

Anyone know where to toggle whatever switch to bring this back?

PS - Googled - they suggested I go to File/Device >> transfer purchases. That only copied across the odd book that was in iBooks on the iPhone, back to iTunes. Did nothing to the app updates...

Would appreciate some suggestions...

I bet it has something to do with the new App Thinning feature in iOS 9.

 

[Cassady]

I bet it has something to do with the new App Thinning feature in iOS 9.

Ah. Thanks. That wouldn't have occurred to me - could be? Just wondering if other's are seeing the same?

 

[rigormortis]

when you connect your device to itunes. click on file , device, "transfer purchases "

usually if i download an app update. and it does not get synced back to tunes, "transfer purchases" usually does it

it seems to me that "backup" might not update the apps, but "sync" will.

i usually just backup and then click on "transfer purchases" to make sure it went back to iTunes

 

[mreddys10]

I have the exact same issue, as do a lot of people. There is a growing thread in Apple Discussions as well. Seems to be an issue with iOS 9.0 - 9.1b3. Manually transferring purchases does not work. It says 'transferring purchases' at the top of iTunes, changes to 'determining apps to sync', and then finishes the sync without transferring anything.

 

[Cassady]

I have the exact same issue, as do a lot of people. There is a growing thread in Apple Discussions as well. Seems to be an issue with iOS 9.0 - 9.1b3. Manually transferring purchases does not work. It says 'transferring purchases' at the top of iTunes, changes to 'determining apps to sync', and then finishes the sync without transferring anything.

This!! Thanks for confirming it's not just me.

 

[Cassady]

Anyone still experiencing this?

Quite frustrating. Granted – haven't yet upgraded to El Cap – that might fix it – but on Yosemite, still not working.

iPad and iPhone up to date, 173 apps in iTunes requiring updates....

 

[Yongkykun]

I think it's pretty much confirmed that you have to update your apps via iTunes so that you can sync the updates to your devices but can't do it the other way round due to app thinning. App thinning basically updates an app with data that corresponds to your device signature which means that the updated app you have on the device itself is an incomplete app package and therefore can't be transferred to iTunes. Even though some app developers haven't implemented this, iTunes has been setup to accommodate app thinning and thus doesn't transfer your updated app to iTunes altogether even for apps that have yet use the app thinning thing.

 

[Cassady]

I think it's pretty much confirmed that you have to update your apps via iTunes so that you can sync the updates to your devices but can't do it the other way round due to app thinning. App thinning basically updates an app with data that corresponds to your device signature which means that the updated app you have on the device itself is an incomplete app package and therefore can't be transferred to iTunes. Even though some app developers haven't implemented this, iTunes has been setup to accommodate app thinning and thus doesn't transfer your updated app to iTunes altogether even for apps that have yet use the app thinning thing.

Thanks for confirming...

Goodness. OCD-tendencies are kicking in strong on this one... Cannot stand having 'to-be-updated' apps in iTunes, which means I'll need to open iTunes more frequently, so as to not sit with too many to do at any given time...

 

[nicho]

i have apps from my old apple id on my phone (used since, well, before the app store) and also my icloud apple id (used since i moved to china last year). it's not a problem updating both on the same phone - and it was OK before iOS 9 because i could just transfer the purchased apps back to itunes. and also for a time afterwards it was fine, i was signed into the old apple id on itunes, for apple music from back home.

now apple music is in china, and so i'm on the new apple id. the majority of my apps are from the UK store - so now they won't update in itunes (although i'll never know they need an update). i'm wondering what the best option is? i think if i sign into my other account, all my offline apple music will be deleted? so i'm left with i think two choices:

1) delete every single app from itunes, forget about backing up in itunes and just rely on icloud backups (i used to do itunes backups all the time, now i use icloud backups with the occasional extra itunes one).

2) does it matter if an older version of an app is restored from a backup? i could always update it after i've restored from the backup, on the device?