Transfer apps from iPhone to iPad
October 16, 2015 6:55 AM   Subscribe

The title says it all, with two caveats: 1. Don't want to have to enter in all the passwords to various password protected apps. Number two is below the fold.

2. The phone is 32 gigs, the iPad is 16. I don't care about transferring photos or music.

Is there any way to pick and choose which apps I want to copy to the iPad? Currently, it seems to be an all or nothing deal. Yeah, I can restore the iPhone backup to the iPad, but the small size of the Pad means it doesn't work. I tried using the application iAmazing to copy just the Apps and their data, but that really didn't work. The Apps transferred, but not all of their data. With some apps it worked, others it didn't.

Surely, there's an easy and simply way to transfer only certain Apps and their data, including passwords, from an iPhone to iPad? I've logged into both with iCloud account info.
posted by Brandon Blatcher to Computers & Internet (10 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
What operating system are you using? If you have 9.0.2, you have the benefit of App Slicing creates per-device customer binaries to save space.

If you have a large number of photos or videos in your photo library, you should make sure you have iCloud Photo Library turned on, and also select "Optimize iPhone/iPad Storage". This will move the originals of your photos and movies into the cloud, and keep only thumbnails on your devices. (The originals are loaded on demand as you view items, and then stored locally until you need the space for something else.)

Beyond that you may just have to slim down the iPhone before backing up and restoring to the iPad. Are there a a few very large items you could easily remove and then later reinstall, such as movies or particularly large games without a lot of state?
posted by alms at 7:55 AM on October 16, 2015


Best answer: Assuming you're using the same Apple account on both devices, have you tried logging-in to the App Store on the iPad and seeing if your apps show up on the Purchased page?
posted by Thorzdad at 8:08 AM on October 16, 2015 [1 favorite]


Best answer: I've had success using iTunes to selectively load apps from my "app library" to an iPad that had to be reset.

I have 2 iPhones and 1 iPad (and use the same Apple ID on all) and all have some combination of iCloud settings that whatever app I load on to any of them shows up on the others. When the old 8M 4s get full it just stops downloading apps.

Unfortunately I'm not aware of any solution to your #1 problem, unless something like a password manager solves it.
posted by achrise at 8:23 AM on October 16, 2015


If you restore from encrypted backups your passwords will transfer. If you use iTunes to manage the music (i.e. tell it to not synch music, movies, and such) and then do a backup you can maybe get your apps below the 16 gigs.
posted by cjorgensen at 8:27 AM on October 16, 2015


Best answer: The way to do this is as Thorzdad says. Use the Purchased page in the App Store to pick and choose. This may be more effort than you're looking for, but I don't know of any other way.
posted by humboldt32 at 9:54 AM on October 16, 2015


Response by poster: Assuming you're using the same Apple account on both devices, have you tried logging-in to the App Store on the iPad and seeing if your apps show up on the Purchased page?

Yep, this does allow me to pick and choose, but have to re-enter passwords. Boooooo Apple!
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 10:55 AM on October 16, 2015


...this does allow me to pick and choose, but have to re-enter passwords

fwiw, if you use iCloud (and the apps are competently-written) you shouldn't have to ;)
posted by frijole at 11:45 AM on October 16, 2015


I'm kind of puzzled by the password thing. Typically, when you're DLing from the App Store, you're prompted for your Apple ID at the beginning, but it doesn't prompt you each and every DL in the session. I've not had the apps themselves require passwords, either. Weird.
posted by Thorzdad at 11:54 AM on October 16, 2015


Best answer: If you turn on iCloud keychain many of your passwords will be carried over from device to device. That will depend on the specific apps supporting it, though.

This also lets you share passwords across iOS and OS X.
posted by alms at 12:12 PM on October 16, 2015


Response by poster: Ah, that's what it was, the iCloud keychain wasn't turned on, despite being logged into the iCloud account on both devices.

All fixed now, thanks ya'll!
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 12:26 PM on October 16, 2015


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