Since iCloud now offers a way for me to download apps directly from the cloud and I only want to keep updating the apps I use on my iOS device and not all that I have, I wanted to keep all my apps only on my iPhone.
So I followed this page, but apparently on iTunes 11 I can't unsync my apps. If I want o sync with iTunes, I need to sync my apps (at least the ones that I have on my device).
The iTunes help pages, though, show a checkbox before Applications, under the Apps menu on my device section on iTunes. Is that a bug then? Or it is just a settings I can enable. I don't want to keep any apps on my Mac, but I don't want also my device to stop synching with it.
Update: I've got a bug report open since 19-Feb-2013 that got some updates from a Apple dev requesting info (which I provided), but still no further comments and fixes. Unfortunately there is not link for it, since bug reports from Apple are private, but the details are above:
Bug ID #: 13051820
Bug Title: Not being able to sync with iTunes without loading apps from iOS
Best Answer
I am not sure that is what you want but here is what I've done.
I keep my apps sync'ed and let iTunes download everything on my Mac.
However, as I do not want my main HDD to be filled by these apps, I moved them to an external backup drive.
To do this, I go to the 'Apps' section of my 'Bibliothèque' (I have a french version of iTunes, but you can find it in the listbox that is in the upper left corner of iTunes main window).
There, I choose an app, right click and 'display in Finder'.
Here you are in the directory where all apps. You can move them elsewhere or simply delete them. After that iTunes will just warn you it cannot find the app anymore, but at least the deleted apps will not be copied anymore to your Mac.
Of course, you will still have to wait that synchronization copies your newly installed apps to your Mac, but once you've deleted the app on your Mac, it will not be sync'ed anymore.