iTunes 9: Manage your iPhone/iPod Touch Applications

September 11, 2009 in How-To, Tips & Tricks by Bob Faulhaber

iTunes 9 was released this past Wednesday and it adds many new features, but our favorite addition is the ability to manage your iPhone/iPod Touch applications directly from within iTunes. Many frustrating hours will be saved by no longer having to move apps one-by-one on your device.

Once you have downloaded and installed iTunes 9 and upgraded your iPhone to OS 3.1, reconnect your iPhone to your computer. Select the iPhone or iPod Touch from the Devices section and then click the Applications tab.

iTunes will display a “virtual” display of your iPhone pages along with a list of all the applications that you have ever purchased or downloaded in your iTunes library.

Using the Sync Applications pane you can tell iTunes which applications to sync with your device and also see the various sizes of the different applications allowing you to decide if you really need that particular app, especially if you are starting to run out of space on your device.

Rearranging applications is as simple as dragging and dropping between screens. You can even delete apps by clicking on the same type of ( X ) that you see on the device itself when you enter edit-mode.

You can drag applications anywhere on the current screen or to any of the other pages displayed in the right-hand column. Just remember to click Apply when you are done making you changes. If you deleted any apps, you will be prompted to confirm that deletion before iTunes will sync your changes to your device.

This new feature in iTunes 9 will save countless hours organizing your apps, plus you’ll longer have to deal with the “jiggling” icons on your device when you need to make changes to your app layout.

Tell us about your favorite new feature in iTunes 9 by leaving a comment below.