Have you reverted to iTunes 12.6.4 to manage apps?

[Kenji]

When I said in a Mac user group that I missed being able to use iTunes to manage and cull the dozens of apps I have installed in my iPhone, someone suggested downgrading to iTunes 12.6.4 using the Mac installer link on this page:

 

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208079

 

I have a very large collection of music and podcasts in my iTunes library. I don't use iTunes for streaming music. 

 

It would be catastrophic to have to manually rebuild my iTunes library from scratch. 

 

Has anyone done this downgrade from iTunes 12.7.x to 12.6.4?  If so, what problems or limitations did you discover?

 

I did find relevant pages on Kirkville, but they were posted over eight months ago. 

https://www.kirkville.com/get-an-itunes-update-with-apps-and-ringtones/

https://www.kirkville.com/heres-why-removing-apps-from-itunes-is-stupid/

 

My current setup:

     -- iPhone 6s IOS 11.4

     -- Mac Mini late 2012 High Sierra 10.13.5

     -- iTunes 12.7.5.9

 

I'd appreciate any experience doing this downgrade, especially if from the latest  iTunes and High Sierra MacOS.

 

[Ralf11]

I have not gone back.  You might make a list of all "enhancements" in later iTunes versions and see what they are and if you want to do w/o.

[kirkmc]

I've honestly only heard from one person who made the change, and he did it in a virtual machine. 

 

It's worth noting that iMazing can handle app download and installation:

 

https://imazing.com/ios-app-management

 

Full disclosure: I do some freelance work for iMazing (writing and screencasting). 

[coke]

While transferring music to my iPhone works well, some of my apps transfer over and some don't. It always seems to go thru the motions. I check by looking at the current version in iTunes, and compare each app's latest release with the version found on the app's "Get Info" tab. Either way, it does not reduce the number on the badge.

 

Concerned friend: "Hey don't you ever update your phone? You got, like, 20 updates to do!"

 

Me: Yeah, yeah!!

 

(Yes, Kirk, I will try with iMazing!)

 

[coke]

Eventually, I couldn't even backup my iPhone to iTunes. What I ended up doing was deleting about all of the .plist files related to iTunes. I held my breath during a reboot and through a Terminal Spotlight reindex. These actions seemed to solve all the issues I had in relationship to iTunes. Yeah, it might be thought of as drastic, but it saved me from doing a macOS reinstall. Now, it allows me to download new app updates via iTunes, sync them to the phone, and reduce the badge number for apps available to install. I can also backup to iTunes without problems.

 

I did try iMazing, but thought it required more access to than I wanted to allow. Maybe in the future I might be willing to use iMazing instead of iTunes. However, right now, the ball is certainly in Apple's court.