Another update, another glitch. Why does iTunes now constantly think ALL my apps have updates? - Macenstein

Another update, another glitch. Why does iTunes now constantly think ALL my apps have updates?

Just when I was beginning to think Apple had run out of buggy behavior it could shoehorn into the iPhone/iTunes dynamic duo, they have managed to come through yet again.

First, beginning with last week’s iTunes 7.7.1 update, if I select “Applications”, then hit “Check for updates”, I am given a list of ALL my apps that have ever had an update, even the ones which were currently up to date. If I hit “download all updates”, it will download all 60 every time (over 240 MB with Apple’s Texas Hold ‘Em), and a good 70% of the time it appears iTunes is actually re-installing them on my iPhone during syncs, adding to the already ridiculous sync/backup times. I would think just to save bandwidth, Apple would have wanted to fix this glitch by now.

The work around, I suppose, is to check for app updates via the iPhone, which will correctly tell me I have 3 updates, not 60, and then transfer those to iTunes during a sync. While the updates thus far have all been free, I still get an e-mail receipt for all 60 each time it does this, so I am hoping this is fixed by the time an app I own puts out a paid update, so I do not get charged every day for any paid updates.

Attack of the clones

While I half-expected the update problem above to be fixed by the new iPhone 2.0.1 update (and it did get rid of about half the updates) I certainly didn’t expect it to create a new update problem, yet take a look at this.

Ever since upgrading the iPhone to 2.0.1, iTunes also thinks I have 2 to 6 copies of each app that need updates.

I must admit, this one made me laugh out loud when I saw it, and since I like a good laugh, I am not as angry at this glitch as others (like the way my iPhone keeps syncing 10 playlists that I do not have set to sync), but it still looks sloppy and unprofessional on Apple’s end.

Of course, I have long since given myself over to the “Cult of Mac”, so it will take more than this (and the recent MobileMe fiasco) to turn me off to Apple, but I can only imagine the reaction of folks who are perhaps being introduced to Apple products for the first time via the iPhone.

Comments
14 Responses to “Another update, another glitch. Why does iTunes now constantly think ALL my apps have updates?”
  1. Alan says:

    I am having the same problem. After update, it still says there are updates available for me as well.

  2. I have yet to install 2.0.1 on my iPod Touch (but will very soon) – I just though I’d let you know that prior to iTunes 7.7.1 I hardly got any updates through iTunes at all and if I checked the versions of the apps it had ‘updated’ they were still the old ones, unless I went to the store and ‘repurchased’ them.

    With 7.7.1 it seemed to fetch pretty much every app again, yes, but I have only have that happen that one time and while some updates was synced to the iPod, it was not all 60 or so applications, only the ones that actually *were* changed in iTunes compared to the iPod. It can be done! 🙂

    I’m sorry you are not having similar results. On the other hand, I have had 3-4 hard crashes that required a total restore, which I *really* hope 2.0.1 will cure.

    If I have one more crash I will probably have to risk not restoring my backup and see where that leaves me.

  3. Andreas says:

    I have the exact same thing here (like 5 “copies” of AIM that iTunes thinks I need). And I had the exact same old problem (every app has been updated even though it isnt true) before the 2.0.1 update.

  4. geo says:

    The complete refresh is probably DRM related as Digg/Mac had posts featuring a new hacked iPhone app every day. IF you look in the iTunes>Mobile Applications folder, you can see duplicates there and keep only the latest modified date copy of each app (do not go solely by the duplicate number at the end of the file name).

  5. MfS says:

    Good. I’m glad I’m not the only one having this issue. I got an iTunes receipt showing that I’d downloaded my free apps like 5 times. WTH?

  6. Bones says:

    Had the same problem but now everything is fine. Don’t know what was causing this, iTunes 7.7.1 or 2.0.1 but I suspect there was a server glitch. NO MORE APP CRASHES since the update!!!

  7. kmoth says:

    I witnessed the dups problem last night while updating to 2.0.1

    A buddy of mine pointed out that when you look in the Mobil Apps folder where iTunes saves your apps, there are dups in there as well. I have AIM.ipa as well as AIM 1.ipa – AIM 4.ipa.

    It looks like when you update an app it doesn’t update the contents of the app file you already have but rather re-downloads a new package. I wonder if this is linked to the dups we see in the iTunes update page?

    k.

  8. DavidE says:

    I’m glad that I’m not the only one that is having this issue…

  9. KurtM says:

    Even after the iPod touch and iTunes updates, I’m still having problems purchasing an app from the iTunes app store via the touch, and getting that app back over to my Mac via sync. I purchased an application last night, after doing the 2.01 update, did a sync with iTunes, only to see iTunes telling me that it was deleting the app from my touch (nice, very nice). Luckily I was able to go to the app store in iTunes, ask to purchase the app again, where iTunes told me I had already purchased it and could re-download it for free. Then the app properly sync’d to my touch.

  10. Mine always says I had one app to update, but then I’d click the link in iTunes and it would say “You have no updates available,” or whatever. It’s like the snake-in-a-can-of-peanuts joke: it gets old quick.

  11. R says:

    The only problem I’m having are with the phantom playlists showing up even though i don’t want them to. They now appear on my iPod mini as well.

  12. imajoebob says:

    Must be 10.5 and/or iPhone related. Not a problem with 10.4.

  13. Customer053 says:

    I am one of those new apple users and now I know that I’ll never need OSX. A company who fails for weeks to fix simple things like updates or sync-backups is in no way better than Microsoft. I use XBOX Live since the beginning and they never had such problems, even if everyone says Microsoft uses customers as beta-testers. What does this tell about Apple? Do they use us as alpha-testers?

  14. andrew says:

    fixthis shit niggaz.
    or imma come to your house
    and roast your pooch for dinner on the grill.

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