How do I bulk delete incompatible apps in iOS 11
I finally upgraded to iOS 11 and when I go to Settings > General > About > Applications I have 105 incompatible apps listed.
Is there a way for me to delete all these in bulk?
I really don't want to have to go and find these apps one by one to delete them!
As far as I know, there's no button to simply "Delete all 32-bit apps", but you can delete large numbers of apps quite quickly using iTunes.
This won't work with the latest versions of iTunes (12.7+), so if you've updated you will need to download an older version.
- Select your device next to the media type selection menu near the top of the screen.
- Go to the Apps section.
- For each app you would like to remove, click the X on its icon or find it in the list and click Remove. (iTunes won't show you which are incompatible there, but you can cross-reference with the list on your device and knock them out in a relatively speedy way.)
- When you've finished, click the Apply button at the bottom right.
Both iTunes 12.6.x and Apple Configurator allow management remotely from a computer. As suggested in timothymh's answer, but this is the perfect use case for the Offload Unused Apps feature.
This feature is designed to automatically remove apps you're not using. It's a low risk approach because even though the apps are removed, any documents and data are still kept in case you want to re-install the apps later (assuming they're still available/compatible).
To enable this feature, go to Settings > iTunes & App Stores and then swipe up to reveal the Offload Unused Apps option at the bottom. Tap the switch to enable it.
NOTES:
- I'm not exactly sure how this feature works when first enabled. More specifically, I don't know if once you've enabled it, it will wait a period of time to determine what apps you don't use, or whether it will check your past app usage to determine what you haven't been using.
- If it was me, and just to be on the safe side, I would use your iPhone for a while before enabling this. Or, depending on the number of apps you have installed, spend a day or so making sure you've opened all of them up (at least the ones you want to keep) and then enable this option.
If you have a Mac, you can download an app called ‘Apple Configurator 2’ where you can manage far more than you can/could in iTunes. Including bulk deleting apps.