Unable to manually manage music and videos

That is the way it is. If Apple (phones or iPods) allowed you to sync content with multiple computers, it would open up a way to transfer music from one persons library to anothers. Manual or not, it is still a sync and you can only sycn media (music, video, etc) with one machine. If you try another, it will let you but only after removing all previous content.

the Touch should have given the same message, honestly... you can only sync an iPhone or iPod with one library. Otherwise, you have to erase and sync or you can keep the library there and transfer purchased music to the computer.

That's it... it's a DRM thing. You can sync it with your one or the other... and manage the library yourself on one or the other... but you can only sync to one library. you have to pick which to sync to and from there you can manage the songs yourself.

Manually manage music and video does not allow or provide for this with an iPhone - transferring iTunes content to an iPhone from different computers. You can sync or manually manage music and video with iTunes on a single computer only with an iPhone.

infinitemobius wrote:
Apple is annoying the **** out of me with all their DRM and copy protection.

You mean the record industry that made them do it this way in order to work with Apple.

It shouldn't work with the Touch either. Are you syncing it successfully to 2 different computers? The easy way is to copy the music from your work computer to your home computer, then sync music only with your home computer. Or vice versa.

And the EASY way to sync music to your iPhone if you don't want the whole library is to create one or more playlists in iTunes, then just sync the playlist(s) to your iPhone. You can change what is on the iPhone before any sync just by changing the contents of the playlist. This is far easier than using "manually manage..." I shudder to think what a mess I would have manually managing my 6,500 tracks.

This is what I do as well... not trying to sort through thousands of songs manually with check boxes.

This irritates me to no end. I spent a few days going back and forth between my work computer and home computer trying to figure it out. This check box does not work the same way that it does with my iPod 60G. On that iPod I am able to add music from both machines. That's the really confusing/infuriating part.
I don't see how this is a DRM issue. We're taking content that already exists on two of my machines and pushing it out to the iPhone. At no point am I, or could I, tranfer that content back to another computer. I'm not trying to move iTunes purchased content, as I rarely purchase anything from iTunes. I'm just trying to move my own mp3s.
The playlist sync workaround doens't help. You can't edit the playlist on two machines either, so it's a null solution.
Apple should find a way to license the content to ME not a machine. So that iTunes is smart enough to realize that the iTunes store account at work is the same guy that is logged in at home, and he should be able to move content from any authorized machines to the iPhone.

I can confirm that manually syncing music and videos from more than one computer *does work* with the iPod Touch, and the video iPod, but not for the iPhone.

Very very frustrating. I just want to sync music from my desktop at home, and sync podcasts and video podcasts from my laptop while on-the-go without having everything on my iPhone wiped off. I had absolutely not problem doing this with my other iPod devices, so why is this limitation being imposed specifically on the iPhone?

That is NOT the way it is. iPods have been able to connect to multiple computers since day 1. I got in the habit of adding music at home and listening on my way to work and then, after finding myself in a completely different mood by the end of the day, adding new albums from my work computer to listen to on my ride home. There was never an issue with stealing music. When they added this check box I thought my dreams had come true. Alas, it doesn't seem to actually do anything but end the need to keep an iPhone playlist. I guess that's a start. I'd rather just drag my music to my phone and have it copy automatically than have to drag it to a playlist and manually sync. I can't count the number of times I just plain forgot to sync after changing my playlist. Lame.

Personally, I find this missing feature even more annoying than the lack of MMS. Get on it Apple.

I'm glad that I stopped the by genius bar last week and asked this exact question, and the ipod/iphone "expert" said "oh yeah, you can sync between two computers, all you have to do is have manually manage music checked on both computers." Umm, wrong buddy, this is so nonsensical that even the experts can't wrap their head around the concept.