Proper way to delete apps ONLY in iTunes?

[jollino]

Hello all,
over the years I accumulated over 18 GB of apps (!) and I could really use that space on my HD. Before I do anything reckless, I thought I'd ask to make sure I don't end up losing apps and whatnot.

I have already moved all 886 items to an external HD by simply dragging them out of iTunes into the folder, but when I select them in iTunes and hit delete, I am told that "These items will also be deleted from any iPod, iPhone, or iPad which synchronizes with your iTunes library." That's obviously not what I want, so... how would I proceed?

I could keep the apps that I effectively have on my phone and my parents' iPad (they use it as a stand-alone device, occasionally syncing to my computer), but I have to manually make a list of them and delete the rest?
I thought I could use the "restore purchases" feature, but deleting them on iTunes first apparently will delete them off the devices upon first sync, making that impossible.

Any hints would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[waw74]

you should be able to delete the file itself in the "Music/iTunes/Mobile Applications" folder in your home folder. It should stay in your iTunes library, but will throw an error if you try to re-sync the app (delete it from the phone, and then try to re-sync from iTunes) You would be able to re-download it though.

Try it first on one app though, make sure it works as i think it should.

also sometimes the name of the file doesn't match the app, you can right click the app in iTunes, and select show in finder.

 

[jollino]

I tried with one and it seems to work, it just adds a '!' but then syncs happily leaving that app alone. I suspect that changing anything in the "Apps" page of the device tab in iTunes would probably crack it, though. I'll run deeper tests tomorrow, thanks!

As an unrelated question: how is one supposed to properly change the computer used to sync an iOS device? I am getting a new iMac when they come out, and I suppose that hooking my iPhone to it will yield a "Do you want to use this device with this computer? I'll wipe everything for you" which is not exactly what I'd want! Would I be able to let it do that, and then restore off iCloud? Would it retain the synchronization at that point?
Of course I could bring my whole iTunes library to the new machine, though just in case...

I feel kind of stupid asking these questions, but you never know when you may need this knowledge.

 

[jollino]

Actually, it seems that it did indeed delete the app, so the solution suggested doesn't really work anymore. A friend suggested just disabling app syncing in iTunes, and it asked me "iTunes will no longer sync apps to the iPhone “Ytse Jam”. Do you want to keep or remove existing apps installed on your iPhone?" — I'll give it that try tomorrow!

 

[waw74]

migration assistant

 

[jollino]

migration assistant

YEs, but what if one doesn't have access to the old Mac any longer?