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Umm ok - iTunes has lost ALL of my apps. WTF?

Asked by Technique,

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Grand Master

Technique

Posted
Posted

I'm running 11.0.1.12 version.

I have/had plenty of apps on my PC. They were listed in the library in iTunes. I've just opened iTunes now as a stack of them need updating so i was going to check out which are ok to update & which aren't - when i noticed i apparently have NO apps at all.

Under the library heading on the left, i have:

Music

Films

TV Programmes

But NO apps. What the hell is going on with iTunes? I haven't deleted them, so something has happened.

EDIT: When i plug in my iPhone, select it & then select the apps tab - where i used to have a big list of all the apps i have, i now have nothing. Only the apps that are installed on the phone, but nothing at all on the left hand side.

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Grand Master

Technique

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Posted

They are in home/music/itunes/itunes media/mobile applications or something like that. You might just have to readd the folder.

I don't have the mobile applications folder. I used to though, i know that much.

In fact, right clicking my iTunes folder & hitting properties tells me the entire folder & sub folders come to only 5.54MB, yes, MB, not GB.

Something has gone seriously wrong. I most certainly have NOT deleted anything & nobody else has access to this computer. In fact, only one other person has access to the room the PC is in - that's my wife, and even she doesn't know my password, not that she'd even want to try it. What i'm saying is - i haven't deleted it, not even by accident & nobody else has deleted it because they don't have access.

Have you got Apps ticked to show under Preferences in iTunes?

I hadn't, but i have done now - nothing showing.

I updated iTunes recently. Surely that wouldn't have deleted all my apps too?

Why would all these apps have been deleted off the PC? More importantly - how do i get them back? Because there's some .ipas i really need as they're old (due to all updates of certain .ipas getting horrendous reviews).

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Experienced

Manish

Posted
Posted

I updated iTunes recently. Surely that wouldn't have deleted all my apps too?

Why would all these apps have been deleted off the PC? More importantly - how do i get them back? Because there's some .ipas i really need as they're old (due to all updates of certain .ipas getting horrendous reviews).

Did you try a restart and/or reinstalling iTunes to see if that fixes it?

If that fails, you could try this: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1967?viewlocale=en_US

Do you have a recent backup that you could use to repopulate iTunes?

Worst case scenario, you could just download the apps again from iCloud on iTunes by accessing your account history on the iTunes Store or by right-clicking your iPhone in iTunes and selecting Transfer Purchases.

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Mentor

einsteinbqat

Posted
Posted

I don't have the mobile applications folder. I used to though, i know that much.

In fact, right clicking my iTunes folder & hitting properties tells me the entire folder & sub folders come to only 5.54MB, yes, MB, not GB.

Something has gone seriously wrong. I most certainly have NOT deleted anything & nobody else has access to this computer. In fact, only one other person has access to the room the PC is in - that's my wife, and even she doesn't know my password, not that she'd even want to try it. What i'm saying is - i haven't deleted it, not even by accident & nobody else has deleted it because they don't have access.

I hadn't, but i have done now - nothing showing.

I updated iTunes recently. Surely that wouldn't have deleted all my apps too?

Why would all these apps have been deleted off the PC? More importantly - how do i get them back? Because there's some .ipas i really need as they're old (due to all updates of certain .ipas getting horrendous reviews).

This is odd. I've never heard about iTunes deleting stuff. I hear iTunes making copies and duplicates, but deleting would be a first. If you are not storing the iTunes media on an external drive, I don't know where they could have gone to.

Like Manish wrote, you would have to download all your contents again if you lost them. Sorry mate.

Something must have gone wrong, but what? I don't think anyone knows.

  • 0
Rising Star

Packet1009

Posted
Posted

has your windows profile changed by any chance?

try doing a search for *.ipa - does that find anything?

you could also try running a file recovery tool on your system.

something isn't right - but it's not itunes - this goes beyond that - at an os / disk level.

updating itunes will not delete any library content.

also, last thought - if you do not have a backup and cannot restore, etc - you can transfer all the apps from your phone to your pc

  • 0
Grand Master

episode

Posted
Posted

So just out of curiosity, as these are all stored in 'iCloud' now, why is this an issue? I deleted all my Apps from iTunes ages ago, even my Music Syncs via the cloud.

The only issue becomes if you want a certain version of an app or an app that is no longer available, such as one of the pulled tethering apps.

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Grand Master

protocol7

Posted
Posted

The only issue becomes if you want a certain version of an app or an app that is no longer available, such as one of the pulled tethering apps.

This is why I sync my apps folder to an external drive regularly. I have it set to add any new files to the backup folder so I can keep my apps up to date in iTunes and still have all previous versions.

  • 0
Grand Master

CPressland

Posted
Posted

This is why I sync my apps folder to an external drive regularly. I have it set to add any new files to the backup folder so I can keep my apps up to date in iTunes and still have all previous versions.

Pulled Applications continue to download via iCloud, for example, the Suicide Girls applications were pulled from the AppStore ages ago, when I restore my device I still get them auto'magically'.

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Grand Master

Technique

Posted
  • Author
Posted

True but if the last version released was buggy, added ads or other crap that ruined the experience etc and you want to play the previous version you're out of luck. Sometimes updates aren't for the better.

And this is the very reason i no longer update blindly.

I have "MyFreeCarCheck" which was a great app. But v.3.7 ruined it totally. Thankfully i had an old .ipa on a very old backup which i was able to rescue. From that point on i always read reviews of an update before i actually update the app.

Anyway, this iCloud thing - is it automatic or do i have to configure it? If the latter then i'm out of luck as i've configured nothing to my knowledge.

I've right clicked the phone & selected transfer purchases. In the process of downloading them now. I found that iFunBox could sort the problem too. Will see how far iTunes gets.

  • 0
Experienced

Manish

Posted
Posted

Anyway, this iCloud thing - is it automatic or do i have to configure it?

It's automatic. Follow the instructions in my earlier post (in iTunes: iTunes Store > Purchased (under Quicklinks on the right) > Apps > Download All or manually download the ones you want).

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