iLoungeiLounge
  • News
    • Apple
      • AirPods Pro
      • AirPlay
      • Apps
        • Apple Music
      • iCloud
      • iTunes
      • HealthKit
      • HomeKit
      • HomePod
      • iOS 13
      • Apple Pay
      • Apple TV
      • Siri
    • Rumors
    • Humor
    • Technology
      • CES
    • Daily Deals
    • Articles
    • Web Stories
  • iPhone
    • iPhone Accessories
  • iPad
  • iPod
    • iPod Accessories
  • Apple Watch
    • Apple Watch Accessories
  • Mac
    • MacBook Air
    • MacBook Pro
  • Reviews
    • App Reviews
  • How-to
    • Ask iLounge
Font ResizerAa
iLoungeiLounge
Font ResizerAa
Search
  • News
    • Apple
    • Rumors
    • Humor
    • Technology
    • Daily Deals
    • Articles
    • Web Stories
  • iPhone
    • iPhone Accessories
  • iPad
  • iPod
    • iPod Accessories
  • Apple Watch
    • Apple Watch Accessories
  • Mac
    • MacBook Air
    • MacBook Pro
  • Reviews
    • App Reviews
  • How-to
    • Ask iLounge
Follow US

News › iTunes

How-toiTunes

The Quick Guide to Trimming iTunes 8’s Applications Library

Last updated: May 15, 2021 11:32 am UTC
By Jeremy Horwitz
The Quick Guide to Trimming iTunes 8’s Applications Library

Hopefully, your iTunes Applications list isn’t anything like ours: over the past six months, we’ve tested thousands of applications, watching as our “iPhone and iPod touch Apps” collections have swelled to massive, unwieldy proportions. The rapid growth of the App Store has surprised even Apple: even if the average number of apps is estimated at five per user, it’s obvious that neither iTunes 8.0 nor the pocket devices have interfaces meant to simultaneously handle the dozens of apps many serious users are buying. iTunes today offers only an oversized, ever-scrolling matrix-style view of app icons, plus a terrible text-based list for synchronization, while the iPhone OS currently leaves users to swipe their way through pages of 16 app icons at a time, plus the ones on the bottom dock. Between iTunes and the devices it connects to, it’s just not convenient to keep everything installed at once.

Advertisements

The Quick Guide to Trimming iTunes 8’s Applications Library

So, unlike our music and movie libraries, which we keep almost entirely in iTunes, we find ourselves purging the Applications library every few months to remove all of the programs that have little chance of being used again soon. That huge collection of virtual lighter apps. Those D-rated games. And that Halloween pumpkin-carving app. But wait—mightn’t we want to pull out Carve3D again when it’s closer to October 31? Simply deleting it from iTunes wouldn’t be a great idea, right?

Advertisements

Correct. So here are a few ways you can trim down your iTunes Applications library without losing your apps altogether—until, of course, Apple releases a version of iTunes with better application management.

No matter which one you pick, we strongly recommend that you start by synchronizing your iPhone or iPod touch with your computer first, to be sure you have the most recent versions of your apps backed up before you continue.

 

The Quick Guide to Trimming iTunes 8’s Applications Library

Method #1: Purge files directly from the Mac Finder or Windows Explorer. Quit iTunes, then locate your iTunes Music folder—under Music > iTunes > iTunes Music on a Mac, C:\Documents and Settings\ \My Documents\My Music\iTunes\ on a PC—and you’ll find a sub-folder called Mobile Applications inside. That’s where all of the apps are hiding. You can scroll through this text-based list of apps quickly, pulling the ones that still interest you into another folder. Once you’ve finished, you can either archive the folder on your Mac, or move that folder to a back-up disk (hard drive, CD, or DVD), then later add the apps back into iTunes just by double-clicking on them individually.

Advertisements

The Quick Guide to Trimming iTunes 8’s Applications Library

The only problem with this method: when you reload iTunes, any apps you’ve moved out of your Mobile Applications folder will still appear to be in the Applications library. If you use the arrow keys on your keyboard, you can scroll manually through the list—we recommend left to right rather than up to down—and anything that isn’t still accessible to iTunes will be transformed into a generic black and white application icon. You can then highlight all of those files at the same time and delete them manually by right-clicking on any one of the icons. Note that this method will not necessarily eliminate apps that have merely been copied into a different folder on the same Mac; using the archive or second disk transfer tip above will avoid this. You can find information on the current location of an app by using the Get Info feature in iTunes, accomplished with a right-click on the app icon in question.

Advertisements

 

The Quick Guide to Trimming iTunes 8’s Applications Library

Method #2: Purge files directly from the iTunes Applications list. While you’re running iTunes, you can select multiple application icons at the same time, drag and drop to copy the applications into a folder on your computer, and then—without deselecting the applications that have been copied—right-click on an icon to delete them. This method is probably the least problematic in every way except speed: you get to see not just the name of the app you’re deleting, but also the icon, which may help users with large app libraries jog their memories. That Amaze.ipa app you saw in the Mobile Applications folder? Oh, that’s aMaze!, a 3-D labyrinth game. Which Blackjack game is that one? Ah, Blackjack 21, the one I want to keep.

Advertisements

 

The Quick Guide to Trimming iTunes 8’s Applications Library

The Quick Guide to Trimming iTunes 8’s Applications Library

The problem here: this method is precise, but slow. Slogging through all the icons one by one takes a while, and you may well want to make a couple of passes through a big collection to be sure you’re removing everything you don’t want to keep around any more.

 

The Quick Guide to Trimming iTunes 8’s Applications Library

Method #3: The big purge. Close iTunes, find that Mobile Applications folder, make a copy of it, then re-open iTunes, select everything under iPhone and iPod touch apps, then right-click to delete it all. Everything will be cleared out, and you can go into your Mobile Applications folder copy to select which apps you want to add back in again.

 

The Quick Guide to Trimming iTunes 8’s Applications Library

The problem here: iTunes may not properly handle synchronization of your iPhone or iPod touch’s currently installed apps while this process is underway. If you have a large library, you can be pretty sure that you’ve forgotten to re-add something that’s on your iPhone or iPod, and that iTunes will want to erase the app from your device if you don’t transfer it back.

Advertisements

Latest News
Apple AirTag 4 Pack
The Apple AirTag 4-Pack is $19 Off
1 Min Read
Apple
Apple launches new music transfer tool
1 Min Read
HBO Max
Max to be renamed ‘HBO Max’
1 Min Read
Safari
Safari Technology Preview 219 now live
1 Min Read
Beats Solo 4
The Beats Solo 4 is $70 Off
1 Min Read
C1 Modem
The C1 modem gets a security update through iOS 18.5
1 Min Read
watchOS 11.5
New watchOS 11.5 debuts
1 Min Read
visionOS 2.5
visionOS 2.5 comes with Apple TV Vision Tab feature
1 Min Read
M5 Chip
Apple Glass will be powered by special chip: Design in progress
2 Min Read
M3 iPad Air
The 11-inch M3 iPad Air 256GB Wi-Fi is $70 Off
1 Min Read
iOS 19
iOS 19 to have AI-Powered battery management feature
1 Min Read
Apple TV+
‘Knife Edge: Chasing Michelin Stars’ to arrive on Apple TV+
1 Min Read

iLounge logo

iLounge is an independent resource for all things iPod, iPhone, iPad, and beyond. iPod, iPhone, iPad, iTunes, Apple TV, and the Apple logo are trademarks of Apple Inc.

This website is not affiliated with Apple Inc.
iLounge © 2001 - 2025. All Rights Reserved.
  • Contact Us
  • Submit News
  • About Us
  • Forums
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Lost your password?