User profile for user: Rulf Neigenfind2
Rulf Neigenfind2 Author
User level: Level 1
5 points

iPhone Synching is a PITA

As a life-long Mac user (yes, I had my first one in 1984), I cannot fathom why Apple has decided to implement synching instead of drag & drop for the iPhone. It took some googling to find out why I could no longer drag and drop music or audiobooks from iTunes into the iPhone -- it has to be synched, stupid!

Perhaps I missed something, but until I had to stop a very long synching process in the tracks and thereby lost all of the contents on the phone (which in itself is a blunder!), I could and did drag anything from the iTunes libraries directly into the iPhone. Now I cannot do it any longer.

The "Audiobooks", "Music" etc. folders of the iPhone are well displayed and can be opened, but nothing can be dragged and dropped into them. Isn't this braindead human interfacing??? Synching wouldn't be such a problem, if iTunes would not put ticks randomly at the songs which, whether I wanted them on the phone or not, would be synched over. I have not yet found out a way how to un-tick all of the thousands of songs and other files in my iTunes library with one click, I'm doing it painstakingly one by one.

Also, the iPhone related panels in iTunes are some of the worst interface programming I ever saw. Many of the important panels are "below the fold", and the only indicator that there is more is the scroll bar -- bad programming, because -- for example -- under "Video" there should be a clearly visible submenu "Rented Movies", "TV-Shows" and "Movies".

If someone contradicts me and explains to me that it is indeed possible to drag and drop instead of synching, I won't shoot my lovely and beloved dog.

MacBook Pro, iPhone G3, Mac OS X (10.5.7)

Posted on Aug 5, 2009 5:30 AM

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13 replies
User profile for user: Lawrence Finch
Lawrence Finch
User level: Level 10
229,462 points

Aug 5, 2009 9:38 AM in response to roaminggnome

roaminggnome wrote:
As mentioned you can drag and drop.

But why would you want to? The easy way is to create one or more playlists and drag/drop albums and/or tracks into the playlist. Then sync that playlist. Very easy to change the iPhone content this way, and you don't have to check or uncheck thousands of little boxes. Or drag thousands of tracks to the iPod and wait for them to transfer.
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User profile for user: Rulf Neigenfind2
Rulf Neigenfind2 Author
User level: Level 1
5 points

Aug 5, 2009 10:43 AM in response to roaminggnome

Thanks all. First of all, I promise not to shoot my lovable and beloved doggie (which, BTW, is a cat anyway)! However, creating playlists --which I knew of -- is also badly implemented since all playlists -- whether music, audiobooks or videos -- are listed under "Music" in the iPhone interface on iTunes. They do find their way into the right folders on the phone, though.

My problem seems to be that once I've synched a single portion (let's say "Music"), the Options are changed to "Synch only checked songs and videos", and then Drag & Drop is blocked, even if "Manually manage music and videos" is checked.

To those who asked "Why would I want to drag & drop?": Normally, I just add one or two items to the phone. And for that I don't want to wait until the whole content is synched.
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User profile for user: Allan Sampson
Allan Sampson
User level: Level 10
123,683 points

Aug 5, 2009 10:55 AM in response to Rulf Neigenfind2

The iPhone does not support disk mode, so you can sync music and videos, or manually manage music and videos. You can do one or the other, not both at the same time. Switching from one to the other will erase all music and videos from your iPhone.

I have always used and preferred syncing, and I have sync only checked songs and videos selected. This way I can remove a song from my iPhone by unchecking the song in the iTunes playlist in iTunes (which are located under Playlists in the iTunes source list) without having to remove the song from the playlist.

If I want to add a couple of songs to my iPhone, I can add the songs to a selected playlist in iTunes (a playlist I have selected under the Music tab for my iPhone sync preferences with Selected Playlists chosen) followed by a sync. This adds the couple of songs to my iPhone only without having to re-sync or re-transfer the entire iTunes playlist.

If I want to remove a song from my iPhone, I can remove it from the selected playlist in iTunes followed by a sync, which will remove the song only from my iPhone without having to re-sync or re-transfer the entire iTunes playlist, or with sync only checked songs and videos selected, I can uncheck the song in the select playlist in iTunes followed by a sync to remove that song only from my iPhone without removing it from the playlist.
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User profile for user: Rulf Neigenfind2
Rulf Neigenfind2 Author
User level: Level 1
5 points

Aug 6, 2009 4:38 AM in response to Allan Sampson

"Switching from one to the other will erase all music and videos from your iPhone."

Isn't this stupid -- especially since there is no warning. The iPhone is just gets sweeped clean without further notice. Never have I seen such a terrible interfacing, never have I thought that Apple would be able to inflict something like this upon us.

The rest of your post, Allan, is quite instructive. But it sounds all a bit overly complicated: Well, as I said, I'm a pampered Mac user since 1984...
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User profile for user: Randy Fast
Randy Fast
User level: Level 4
1,432 points

Aug 6, 2009 5:16 AM in response to Rulf Neigenfind2

To drag and drop music - Create a playlist. Call it "iPhone Music". Now drag, drop, delete all you want. It will tell you the size of the playlist on the bottom for easy memory management. Set the iPhone up to sync only that playlist. So you can mess with the playlist and then update the changes on the iPhone. You can also do the same for videos. That is what I do.
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User profile for user: Allan Sampson
Allan Sampson
User level: Level 10
123,683 points

Aug 6, 2009 6:39 AM in response to Rulf Neigenfind2

No, this isn't stupid, and there is most definitely a warning provided when switching from one to the other.

I hate to break it to you, but the interfacing is the same with iPods. iPods supporting disk mode is the only difference. And please - Apple hasn't inflicted anything upon me, so please don't include me with "us" with your dramatics.

The rest of your post, Allan, is quite instructive. But it sounds all a bit overly complicated:


It isn't overly complicated or complicated in the least - not to me anyway, and I doubt I'm the only one. If what I provided sounds overly complicated to you, why don't you try it first - by creating a single iTunes playlist in iTunes. Drag and drop your selected music that you want transferred to your iPhone in this playlist - this should make you feel right at home. When you have dragged and dropped all the music in the playlist that you want transferred to your iPhone, deselect manually manage music and videos under the Summary tab for your iPhone sync preferences. Under the Music tab for your iPhone sync preferences select Sync Music, and below choose Selected Playlists.

Select the iTunes playlist in the window below that you created in iTunes followed by a sync.

The initial sync will take a while, but once done, you are there. If you want to add additional music to your iPhone, drag and drop the music in the playlist in iTunes followed by a sync. If you want to remove select music from your iPhone, delete the music from the playlist in iTunes followed by a sync.
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iPhone Synching is a PITA

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