01-04-2011, 06:52 AM

Hi There,

A couple of months ago I bought my first Mac, and have switched everything over to it. On my PC, in iTunes, I had my Apps on my iPhone syncing with iTunes. It was like this from the beginning.

The other day, I went to move some apps around in iTunes under my iPhone tab, and I noticed they were not syncing. The sync box "Sync Apps" was not checked.

No problems, I checked it, and up came this message:

"Are you sure you want to sync Apps? All existing Apps and data on this iPhone will be replaced with Apps from this iTunes library"

Can someone please tell me what this means before I click this, as so many times in the past I have lost everything when trying to sync my iPhone with iTunes.

Of note, my new computer has no apps that I know of on it.

1) Will it wipe all my apps from my iPhone and replace all with what is on my computer (i.e. nothing, since there are none on my computer) Thus my iPhone ends up with no apps.
2) Will it keep everything on my iPhone, because it found no apps on my computer (i.e. it will only replace apps of the same type, such as a runkeeper app on my computer will replace the runkeeper app on my iPhone)
3) If it was No.2 above, will it keep the same positions and folders on my iPhone, or will it start moving things around?

Is there a way I can make a FULL backup of my iPhone, one that will have all the apps etc, so if it did wipe it, I could bring that back. I know there is a backup on my iPhone, but I have no idea how much or what is backed up. It seems to only take a few seconds which hints not much, unless there was a massive backup once which I missed.

Thanks for your help :O)

01-06-2011, 08:17 AM

Any ideas anyone? Surely many people have either been stuck on this, or succeeded.

01-06-2011, 08:48 AM

If you ctrl-click your iPhone under Devices on the left hand side in iTunes, you'll get several options.

"Transfer Purchases" will copy the apps currently on your phone onto your computer.

"Backup" and "Restore from Backup" are self explanatory.

If you do not have an app on your computer and you sync with your phone, iTunes will remove the app from your phone. Syncing takes whatever you have selected in iTunes and sets the phone up to match. "Transfer Purchases" should put the apps on your phone into your iTunes which will prevent them from being lost. As long as copies of the apps are in iTunes, you shouldn't have to worry about losing them.

Restoring your phone is a two part process. First a fresh install of the latest Apple firmware is installed, then iTunes allows you to select from a list of previously made backups which it uses to reinstall your apps.

So basically, you should first "Transfer Purchases" and then sync.

01-06-2011, 03:34 PM

Thanks Jaygray for the help :O) It seems that it should not delete any apps if I follow those steps. Do you know from experience if it will also retain the position and folders of the apps on my iPhone? I remember doing this once in the past and it moved everything about which was somewhat of a hassle. You know how we get used to where everything is located.

01-09-2011, 02:15 PM

iTunes should remember the location of your apps on the springboard. Actually, once you have synced, you can use iTunes to rearrange the apps as you see fit. Sometimes its easier to do with the mouse than it is on the phone.

01-09-2011, 08:36 PM

I done the sync and after following your instructions nothing was lost, thanks for the help there :O) However, unfortunately, all of the positions was changed as feared. I did move them back in iTunes (quicker as you say) but it was a hassle. I do wonder why Apple make this so hard.