22 Apr 10 Moving iPhone Apps to New Computer
One of many reasons I loath iTunes is the difficulty in moving your iPod or iPhone to a new computer. I won’t bother with tips on moving music and such, there are plenty of blogs and sites out there to help with that. My main goal is to record for myself and others how to sync your iPhone’s apps to a new computer without losing the apps’ data and settings.
Before you do this, make sure you have a good backup of your phone on the old computer.
For those snoozing in the back, BE SURE TO BACKUP YOUR IPHONE FIRST. Caps = Important.
- Install iTunes on the new computer. Simple, but it needs to be said.
- Get the apps to the new computer. They should be at C:\Users\<USERNAME>\Music\iTunes\Mobile Applications on Windows Vista or Windows 7. Copy that to your new computer. Location doesn’t matter on the new computer right now.
- Start iTunes. I have iTunes set to copy files to my iTunes library when I add things to it. The setting is in Edit >> Preferences >> Advance >> Copy files to iTunes Media folder  when adding to library. I have this setup to let iTunes handle saving all my apps, music, and video to the same location. I  have a habit of leaving the files all over my computer if I don’t have this setup. Having the files in one location makes backup and file management easier.
- Drag the apps that copied onto your computer into iTunes to the Library. If you have the setting from step 3 enabled, you can delete the apps you copied over from your old computer.
- Plug in your iPhone
- In iTunes, click on your iPhone and then the Apps tab
- Ensure all your apps are listed here. If they are not, you did not import them correctly.
- Check the Sync Apps checkbox
At this point, iTunes will give you a warning that doing this will delete all the apps and data from your iPhone. iTunes is a lying liar. If you are syncing the same apps that are currently on the iPhone, it will not delete the apps’ data. However iTunes will take it upon itself to arrange all your apps in alphabetical order. If you have a lot of apps, it will take some time to move everything back to how you want it. The important bits, the data, will be there at least. The exception to this is if the app is on your iPhone, but not your new computer. If that is the case the app and the data will be deleted. Before you sync the phone to the new computer, make sure all the apps on the phone are also on the new computer.
Finally, click Apply. After the sync, your apps and data will still be on the iPhone and the apps are associated with your new computer. You can now start moving your music and other goodies over.
Your mileage will vary. I did this from Windows Vista to 7 and it worked for me. If it did not work for you, you still are able to restore your iPhone to your last backup. You did do a backup right?
