iTunes sync is too dumb

I've just spent a frustrating hour or so with an iPhone, Mac and iTunes, although it could just as easily been an iPod Touch or iPad, Windows PC and iTunes. The common factor being iTunes. It lacks an intelligent sync facility and it's just too dumb.

Here is what often happens with my computer and iOS devices - an iPhone and iPad. I delete an app I no longer need on the iPhone, such as a game I either don't like or that I'm bored with after playing it to death. Some time later I plug it into my computer and sync. Some people never sync, but it's useful because it backs up the device among other things. However, iTunes keeps a copy of all the apps on the device on the computer and when you sync it sees a missing app on the device, the one that was deleted, and copies it across. So apps you have deleted reappear on the device and you have to delete them all over again!

That's irritating and especially so when they are big apps that use up a lot of space. The reverse can happen too and if you delete an app off the computer in the Apps section of iTunes, it is copied back from the device. To guarantee that an app really is deleted you need to delete it both on the device and in iTunes and then sync them.

It seems that the way iTunes sync works is to simply make both the computer and the device the same. If a file is missing on one, it is copied from the other, ignoring the fact that you deliberately deleted it. Sync could be more intelligent and file and folder sync utilities like Dropbox handle it properly. Delete a file on one computer and when you next use another computer with Dropbox it is deleted on there too, it doesn't get synced back to the original computer. That would be just dumb. iTunes does it though.

Another irritation is that some apps work on both the iPad and the iPhone. If I download an iPad app from the iTunes store, then sync the iPad it is copied across to the computer so both locations are the same. Now when I plug in my iPhone and sync it it sees an iPhone app that's on the computer, but not on the device, so it copies it across. I now have an iPad app on my iPhone.

Both devices are different and they are used in different ways. I have different apps on each device and I don't want iPad apps on my iPhone and vice versa. For example, I have a sat-nav app on my iPhone, but because it also runs on the iPad it was copied to it when I synced. I don't use sat-nav on my iPad though and so I had to delete the app.

It would be useful if each iOS device could be treated separately so that each has its own apps. They shouldn't be copied from one to another unless specifically requested. iTunes isn't completely dumb though and after copying an app from one device to the other, if it is then deleted it stays deleted. It's just that initial sync and iTunes syncs it because it is a new purchase. There are settings to turn off automatic syncing of new apps, but that's not what is needed, it's auto syncing of apps purchased on one device with another device. Is there a setting for that? I've not seen it.