Keeping Apps on iOS

[Narcisus]

I have a couple of games on my iPhone that I’ve had since my iPod Touch 3 days and still play them a few times a week.

Trouble is they have been removed from the App Store so next time I blitz or upgrade my phone I’ll lose them.

This has already happened to the iPad versions when I upgraded the pad.

Is there a way to physically copy the apps from the device to manually install later ?

[colin79666]

They probably won’t run on the later iOS release/64 bit, hence being removed from the store. It used to be the case if you backed up to iTunes it included the apps but that may no longer be the case.

[mmm-five]

To save space, the backups tend to include 'stubs' as reference to the app.

It then tries to download it again from the App Store...but if it has been removed, there's nothing to download.

I've even tried the same with tools like iMazing, but it does the same.

You used to be able to 'transfer purchases' from an iOS device using iTunes, but iTunes doesn't exist any more.

[Narcisus]

colin79666 said:

They probably won’t run on the later iOS release/64 bit, hence being removed from the store. It used to be the case if you backed up to iTunes it included the apps but that may no longer be the case.

They are running fine on my iPhone 13 Pro Max as of yesterday iOS 17.1

[Narcisus]

mmm-five said:

To save space, the backups tend to include 'stubs' as reference to the app.

It then tries to download it again from the App Store...but if it has been removed, there's nothing to download.

I've even tried the same with tools like iMazing, but it does the same.

You used to be able to 'transfer purchases' from an iOS device using iTunes, but iTunes doesn't exist any more.

Mmmm I have iTunes installed on my pc and use it every day to stream music ?

[mmm-five]

Narcisus said:

Mmmm I have iTunes installed on my pc and use it every day to stream music ?

In that case, you can have a look in your iTunes Music folder for Mobile Apps and see if your app is there.

https://www.lifewire.com/install-apps-removed-from...

[Narcisus]

mmm-five said:

Narcisus said:

Mmmm I have iTunes installed on my pc and use it every day to stream music ?

In that case, you can have a look in your iTunes Music folder for Mobile Apps and see if your app is there.

https://www.lifewire.com/install-apps-removed-from...

Cheers I'll check