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Question

reinstalling unwanted apps

Jul 13, 2012 12:52AM PDT

When syncing with itunes it is forcing 40 recently downloaded apps to reinstall on my phone even though I have deleted them repeatedly (including deleting the backup and creating a new one). My phone is an iphone 4s 16gb and I am running itunes 10.6.1 on a 2008 macbook with a 2.4 ghz intel core duo and OSX 10.5.8. My itunes library is installed on and external WD 1tb hard drive. How do I persuade it to stop installing these apps? They take up space I can't spare and prevent me from syncing because they are using more memory than I have available

Discussion is locked

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Clarification Request
40 apps?
Jul 13, 2012 12:53AM PDT

Name a few so folk can guess if they are forced by your carrier. Also, I wonder if you are any cloud sync.

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reinstalling unwanted apps by nmg69
Jul 13, 2012 3:35AM PDT

The apps are the last ones I downloaded free - the list grows each time I purchase new apps. While they are of no immediate interest to me I can see them being useful in the future. Included in this is Muzy, angry birds seasons, chrome and 50 blues guitar licks. Where I have deleted older apps (vCards Share for example) they have not reinstalled - it is just these new downloads (accumulated over the past 5 weeks) that reinstall. I have tried deleting them on my phone, deleting them on the apps layout on itunes, unchecking them from the apps list in itunes and deleting my backup in itunes, removing them from my phone and then syncing my phone to create a new backup. None of this has worked but I don't want to stop my phone updating new apps, as I often download freebies to see if they're any good and, with over 1,000 apps, I don't want to have to them down in order to install them. I did briefly try syncing via icloud but this is currently disabled in both itunes and on my phone.

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It sounds like a setting issue.
Jul 13, 2012 3:41AM PDT
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reinstalling unwanted apps
Jul 13, 2012 4:07AM PDT

Thanks for the tip - I'm trying an icloud backup to see if that helps - will let you know if it succeeds

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Answer
Sounds like iTunes is doing exactly what you asked it
Jul 13, 2012 5:32AM PDT

to do.
Connect the iPhone to the computer and launch iTunes.
Select the iPhone in the left pane and change the sync setting to manual.
Now go to the Apps Tab and remove the check mark from the offending apps, the ones that keep getting reinstalled.
Once done, hit the Sync button and the offending apps should go away.

P

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reinstalling unwanted apps
Jul 13, 2012 8:44AM PDT

Thanks for the tip

I have just tried it and, as with every previous occasion when I tried it, it removed the apps. Moreover syncing the iphone again while it was still connected to the computer (I tried it twice) did not reinstall the apps. Nevertheless, when I disconnected the phone and reattached it to the computer, suddenly all of the apps had been rechecked and were all installed on my phone again. Let me stress I have had the phone for nearly a year (since it was first released over here) and this is a NEW behaviour that started just 5 weeks ago.

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reinstalling unwanted apps
Jul 13, 2012 8:57AM PDT

further experimentation shows that the items remain unchecked if I do not activate automatic syncing of new apps. However, if I check Automatically sync new apps then these forty apps will be reinstalled no matter how often I delete the or how I do it. I also need to correct my timescale - it's been happening for 3 weeks, not 5 (it feels like longer).

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Which is why I suggested moving to Manual Sync
Jul 13, 2012 10:25AM PDT

in my post.

I have not idea why it suddenly started, but at least now you know how to prevent it from happening.

P