Transfer discontinued app to a friend's iphone?

[fractal]

I have a free app on my iphone that is no longer available in the itunes store. My friend loves it and would like to get a copy on his iphone. We both have the iphone 4.

Is there some way to do this? Would it work to just copy the .ipa file from my PC to his?

 

[Applejuiced]

No. If it's bought under your itunes login you can only transfer it using your logged in iTunes library to sync it to his iPhone. And if you sync it with your library what's on from his library will be removed.

 

[Steeley]

If you're on the same wifi network you could try using home sharing in iTunes. He could then view your library from his iTunes and copy the app over. It'd probably need you to authorise it though, it'd use up 1 of your 5 machines.

 

[fractal]

I was wondering about that. I don't use home sharing currently so I'm not familiar with it. I only have 2 devices; an iphone and a PC.

If I did that, and he just copied over the one app, would his other apps be unaffected? When I sync with my itunes after that, would my apps stay intact also, does anyone know?

 

[Steeley]

I was wondering about that. I don't use home sharing currently so I'm not familiar with it. I only have 2 devices; an iphone and a PC.

If I did that, and he just copied over the one app, would his other apps be unaffected? When I sync with my itunes after that, would my apps stay intact also, does anyone know?

His other apps would be unaffected and your apps would be unaffected. The only issue is if there is an update to the app in future it might pop-up on his phone asking for the login for your iTunes account (i.e. the one you purchased the app with).

I use home sharing to copy apps and music from my sister all the time. No issues at all.