Why don't downloads from my iPad show up in iTunes on PC?

[budmonster]

I've purchased about 15 applications and games, some paid and some free for the App Store on my iPad. I just recently opened up the iTunes program on Windows. I clicked on Libary > Apps and there are only 3 applications listed, where are all the rest. This is my first Apple product so I'm trying to understand all this, but shouldn't everything be sync upped? Screenshot below...

 

[MoonlitSonata]

Did you plug in the device and back it up?

 

[budmonster]

Did you plug in the device and back it up?

Back it up? I plug it into my PC, what I'm suppose to do next? Go into settings and do something?

 

[leelai]

Back it up? I plug it into my PC, what I'm suppose to do next? Go into settings and do something?

Just transfer your purchases to iTunes. Have a look here
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1848

 

[twerppoet]

Also, make sure you go to the Store menu in iTunes (on the computer) and authorize that computer with your Apple ID. Once you do so you should be able to see any apps, music, etc that you've purchased with that Apple ID show up under the Purchased section of the iTunes Store (link in the right column of the main iTunes Store page). You can download them from there if you don't want to go through the Transfer Purchases and sync options Leelai mentioned.

In your iTunes preference there is a Store tab. There you can turn on App and/or Music so that all future purchases on your iPad (or other iOS devices) will automatically be downloaded in iTunes on the computer the next time you open it.

There is a similar setting on the iPad under Settings > iTunes & App Store. Whatever device and/or computer that you turn these option on for will automatically download all compatible apps purchased on other devices or computer that use the Same Apple ID.

These settings only work for things you purchase after turning the settings on; so an initial sync or manual downloads will be necessary to get older content across all devices.

 

[budmonster]

Just transfer your purchases to iTunes. Have a look here
iTunes Store: Transferring purchases from your iOS device or iPod to a computer

This seemed to work. I just clicked on Devices > Transfer Purchases from My iPad and they started to appear in iTunes. Thanks for that, I just have two other questions.

1. Is there a way to automatically add them to my iTunes on my PC without having to sync it myself each time?
2. What is the point of putting purchased/free apps on my iTunes? They are put here C:\Users\*****\Music\iTunes\iTunes Media\Mobile Applications. What is the point of this?

 

[twerppoet]

1) See my post, the second paragraph tells how to set iTunes preferences so that it automatically downloads your new app purchases when you star it.

2) It used to be essential to have your apps backed up in iTunes. Now it's just a convenience, a second way to restore apps if they go away. It can also be handy if you want to restore/sync your apps to a new device, or after restoring the old one. While you can do all this from iCloud, using iTunes with a USB cable is much faster.

As far as free goes, there is no more reason to put purchased apps in iTunes than the free ones. All apps, once purchases, can be downloaded again for free from the Purchased tab in the App Store.

I like the extra backup of my apps in iTunes. It is rarely useful, but there are occasions when it might be. For instance, if you update an app on the iPad but decide you don't like it, or it's broke, having the older version in iTunes is the only way you can go backwards. Of course, that only works if you haven't synced or manually updated iTunes since the app's update.