How to recover a lost iPhone app

Especially when you've paid good money for your iPhone apps, you might worry about what would happen if your phone gets lost or stolen, or if someone (maybe you) accidentally deleted one of your precious downloads.

You don't actually have to worry, for two reasons.

First, the next time you sync your iPhone with iTunes, iTunes asks if you want the newly purchased apps backed up onto your computer. If you click Transfer, then the programs eventually show up on the Applications tab in iTunes.

Second, here's a handy little fact about the App Store: It remembers your phone and what you've already bought. You can redownload a purchased program at any time without having to pay for it again.

Tip: If some program doesn't download properly on the iPhone, don't sweat it. Go into iTunes and choose Store-->Check for Purchases. And if a program does download to the phone but doesn't transfer to iTunes, choose File-->Transfer Purchases from "iPhone". These two commands straighten things out, clear up the accounting, and make all well with your two copies of each program (iPhone + computer).