Dave Burrows – Tech / iPhone Blog – Technical Evangelist

I woke up this morning to see that I had one iPhone app ready to update on the AppStore. It was a big one (Sygic) so rather than downloading directly on the iPhone I decided to go and download it on the PC.

Much to my dismay (or joy – I’m not sure which) when I restart iTunes it says I have 16 apps waiting for update. Wow I thought, that’s good. Then suddenly the penny dropped. Why was I only seeing one app (Sygic) on my iPhone showing it was ready to update? So I launched the App Store again on the iPhone, went into updates and now I see two. Sygic and NetNewsWire. I then check back to the PC (screenshot below) and yes NetNewsWire is available for update. So now I have 2 apps ready for update on the iPhone but the PC still shows 14 more apps available for update that the iPhone does not.

Something is strange here, the iPhone is using the same WiFi connection so it’s not some sort of speed issue. It looks like iTunes on the PC/Mac is much more quicker to show there are app updates than the iPhone is….!

Has anyone else experienced this? Both iTunes on the iPhone and iTunes on the PC are pointing to the UK App Store with the same iTunes login account (logged in).

UPDATE: I think I’ve worked out why there is such a discrepancy. I purchased (or downloaded the apps) on my iPhone, and some I have since removed, they’re still showing on the PC in iTunes as iTunes always keeps a backup of the apps you purchase/download even if you delete them off the iPhone . That might explain why there’s a huge discrepancy but it does make it somewhat confusing for the iPhone user.