Deleted iPhone apps won't go away

June 21, 2013 9:46 AM

How do I remove deleted app history from iTunes?

I noticed that two apps that I had deleted keep appearing after I had already removed them from both my iPhone 5 and from iTunes.

I've had no problems before removing apps and then hiding them in my purchase history by going into iTunes Store and deleting them from iTunes Store/Quick Links/Purchased/Apps. But for some reason two apps keep on reappearing after I remove them from "Not on This Computer" section underneath iTunes Store/Quick Links/Purchased/Apps. I've tried everything (restoring my iPhone, re-installing and deleting again) and there doesn't seem to be an answer on the Apple Support site. The apps keep appearing in under Quick Links/Purchased.

To reiterate, the actual apps are not on my iPhone or iTunes anymore. But their purchase history keep appearing under iTunes Store/Quick Links/Purchased/Apps after I delete them over and over again. I've had no problems previously deleting apps from appearing in my purchased history under the All/Not on This Computer.

posted by cazoo to Computers & Internet (7 answers total)

Apple has been making changes to the iTunes Store, including the App Store, as they roll out iCloud and iTunes Match. The general idea is to make it easier to leave things in the cloud and still have them accessible when you want them.

For example, with iOS 7, all the movies you've ever purchased will show up in the Video app of your iPad, including the ones that aren't currently installed on the iPad. This will be similar to how iTunes Match works for songs.

It's possible that some of these changes have had the side-effect you're running into. It may not be possible to delete apps from your purchase history. This might be a bug, or it might be a feature of the new world order.
posted by alms at 10:30 AM on June 21, 2013

It used to be possible to 'hide' (and later unhide) apps so that they no longer showed up even when updates became available. I know 'cos I've done it but this feature seems to have vanished.
posted by epo at 10:40 AM on June 21, 2013

Just to be clear, are you clicking on the "X" button on the apps, and then choosing "Hide" from the resulting dialog box?

And also, are you updated to the latest versions of iOS and iTunes?
posted by Celsius1414 at 10:58 AM on June 21, 2013

The "X" that appears when you hover over the app icon, that is.
posted by Celsius1414 at 10:59 AM on June 21, 2013

Response by poster: Yes and yes, Celsius1414. I've managed to delete and hide purchased apps before but for some odd reason these keep coming back time after time.

I'm beginning to think alms might be right and perhaps this could be some kind of iCloud issue.
posted by cazoo at 12:11 PM on June 21, 2013

OK - one thing I could find to try...under Preferences > Store, there's a "Show iTunes in the Cloud purchases" selection you could turn off as an experiment. Otherwise, it's a weird issue.
posted by Celsius1414 at 1:10 PM on June 21, 2013

Response by poster: Okay, the problem seemed to have corrected itself this morning. I think it was an iCloud problem after all. Thanks for the suggestions everyone.
posted by cazoo at 12:06 PM on June 22, 2013