PadGadget How-To Guide: How To Manage Your Apps
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We app reviewers have literally hundreds of apps in our account. Sometimes even thousands. We download, play with, update, and delete apps from our iPads every single day. Sometimes, an app account may seem overwhelming. What do you do if your app has been removed from the app store, but you don’t want to lose it? How do you know what apps need updates? We’ve got a couple of tips for how to manage your apps that might make your account seem a little less daunting.
You can see every single app you’ve ever purchased by going to the “Purchased” section of your iPad’s iTunes library. Apps can be sorted by most recently purchased or alphabetically. You can either see all apps you’ve ever purchased, or only apps that are not currently being stored on your iPad. What if you want to find a specific app on your iPad that you’ve purchased, but don’t remember which folder you stuck it in? You can hide apps. In the Purchased section, hide an app by swiping from right to left across the cloud or “installed” button. You can manage your apps by hiding everything except what is on your iPad this way.
If you really want to see what your app account looks like, check out the “Apps” folder on your computer’s iTunes account. Here, you can easily see a list of every single app you’ve ever downloaded. You can also permanently delete apps from your account this way, too. If your computer is bogged down with 1,200 apps that you’ll never use again, you can delete them from your account by dragging them to the trash from your Apps folder in iTunes on your computer.
You can also organize apps alphabetically by title or seller. If you want to see how many apps by Chillingo you own, select the “Seller” category at the top of your list and see what comes up. Do you remember what the first app you ever downloaded was (mine was iRockGuitar Lite)? Select the “Date” category and reorganize from oldest to newest.
If you are looking for an app that you’ve deleted from your iPad, but you want to know if it had an update since you last deleted it, you can find out by scrolling to the bottom of the iTunes screen. At the bottom, you’ll see a message that reads, “[X number of] updates available for download.” If you click on that message, you’ll be shown a list of every single app that has an update, whether it is on your iPad or not. You can update everything at once, or just pick the ones you want to update and then add them to your iPad manually when you are ready.
If you want to restore an app that Apple removed from the App Store, you can still do so. Keep in mind, however, the app has to have been backed up to your computer in order for you to still have it. This is why it is so important for you to back up your iPad on a regular basis. Once it is stored on your computer, you have more control over what happens to it.
To restore an old app on a Mac computer, go to your “Macintosh HD” folder and open the “Users” folder. Then, open your username, for example, mine is “Lory.” Then, open the “Music” folder, followed by the “iTunes” folder and finally, the “Mobile Applications” folder. On a PC, open your “C” drive instead of Macintosh HD and open the following folders: Users > Username > My Music > iTunes > iTunes Media > Mobile Applications. Here you will see a list of your apps, even ones that have been removed from the App Store. Simply drag the app from that folder into your iTunes app library and it will load back into your account.
If you have any more questions about how to manage your apps, let us know in the comments below and we will bring up our most expert writers out of the dungeon to answer your questions.
