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Manually manage files on iphone on a new computer

i managed all files (audio, video, etc) on my iphone manually over itunes. then my computer went down and i bought a new one. now i connect my iphone to the new computer and want to manage files manually again (like i did before) itunes shows a stange message.
i checked the "do not auto synch" in program-settings and if i check the "manage music and videos manually" in the iphone-settigns on my itunes a message appears wich tells me that my iphone is connected to another media library and i have to delete all the files on the iphone and resynch it with my new computer.
what i want is simple: i want to to keep all files on the iphone as they are and just manage them manually again with another itunes. i don't have any songs or other files in itunes, so i dont't synch the iphone - i just have to use itunes to drag files to the phone.
and i did NOT connect the old media library, i ALWAYS managed the files manually, that's why i don't understand why itunes tells me about the connection.

i know, this question is not new but i searched a while througt different forums and did not find a solution for my specific problem. all other users want to copy music back to a computer from an iphone or have different computers which they want to synch their iphone with. bit i dont want do do any of this, i just want to manage all files manually again!

sony vaio, Windows 7

Posted on Jan 19, 2010 9:07 AM

25 replies

Jan 20, 2010 4:26 AM in response to mezza@gmx.ch

For the last time, this has NOTHING to do with iTunes and EVERYTHING to do with the iPhone not supporting disk mode.

You can manually manage music and videos with the iPhone with an iTunes library on a single computer only. The reason you cannot manually manage music and video with an iTunes library on multiple computers with the iPhone is because the iPhone does not support disk mode, which is required for this.

With an iPod that supports disk mode, you can manually manage music and video with an iTunes library on more than one computer without the iPod being erased of all iTunes first because the iPod supports disk mode. This has NOTHING to do with iTunes.

Jan 20, 2010 6:18 AM in response to mezza@gmx.ch

So you have your music on an external HDD, but you replaced your computer. Why not just re-import your music files into iTunes, bring in your playlists (I assume you're using playlists since your music library is so large) and let iTunes and iPhone sync away? It will erase what is on there but then put the same stuff back on it.

mezza@gmx.ch Author

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Jan 20, 2010 10:08 AM in response to PatrickGSR94

That would be a possible solution but i'd have to select the 57 artists and a few albums from them (i do not have all albums from those 57 artists on my phone) and then i'd have to set most of the id3 tags again because a lot of my mp3s are very old and do not have id3 tags. so it would be a lot of work.

the best solution is to use a third parity software that loads all of my mp3s from the iphone back to the computer and then synch it. that would solve my problem.
that is the solution you'll find in all other forums on all opened questions similar to mine.

I just opened a discussion here because i thought that there has to be an official "apple"-way to do it. I heard and read about those synching-problems from so many users and even a few people around me do have or did have the same problem as i do. I just can't imagine that apple would leave all those, in other respects happy, iphone users alone with this problem!?! It seems to be a serious problem for thousands of people, so why does apple not simply solve it? I'm sure that it would be easy for apple to disconnect a connected media library and set it back to manual mode without deleting all files and without activating disk mode. I still don't believe that itunes needs disk mode for access to the iphone because there is no logical explanation for that case.
You can manage all files manually but after a synch you cannot do it again. I'm sure it would be easy to switch back from synch mode to manual mode without deleting all files. And I'm sure that this can be done by itunes and has nothing to do with the iphone.
Obviously it is not possible at the time but I'm sure it would be easy to make it possible in the future, that's why I placed a change request at "apple feedback".

@ Allan Sampson: I'm sorry but I don't believe what you tell me, because you have no logical explanation for your statements – you just say "it is as it is". You can't tell me what disk mode has to do with itunes access to the phone, that's why I think that you're wrong.
As far as I understand, the only thing disk mode does, is to enable the device to serve as a external storage device that could be managed via a file explorer of the operating system for example. If itunes handles the media files no such thing is needed. So why should disk mode be needed for itunes to add or delete some files on the phones file system?
It doesn't matter if one or more computers are accessing this Filesystem as long as they don't want to synch. ok, obviously apple blocks it but no one knows why. And no one can explain it. All that everyone is telling is just "doesn't work".
I'm sure it would be an easy thing that doesn't need disk mode and doesn't create security or copy right issues and that's why I placed a feature request at apple.
If you want to reason with me please tell me logical reasons why it shouldn't work. You can save your unfounded statements ("it is because it is").

Jan 20, 2010 10:33 AM in response to mezza@gmx.ch

@ Allan Sampson: I'm sorry but I don't believe what you tell me, because you have no logical explanation for your statements – you just say "it is as it is". You can't tell me what disk mode has to do with itunes access to the phone, that's why I think that you're wrong.

Sorry, but I am not wrong. Since you don't believe what I'm saying, please answer this.

With an iPod that supports disk mode, you can manually manage music and video with an iTunes library on more than one computer without the iPod being erased of all iTunes first because the iPod supports disk mode. If an iPod didn't support disk mode, you could manually manage iTunes content with an iTunes library on a single computer only - just as with the iPhone, which does not support disk mode.

So please answer why it is possible to manually manage iTunes content with an iTunes library on more than one computer with an iPod that supports disk mode if disk mode has nothing to do with it? If this had everything to do with iTunes, there would be no need for disk mode to be supported with an iPod.

Disk mode enables the iPod as an external storage device. You can use a disk mode enabled iPod as any other external storage device to transfer additional files/data from one computer to another.

iTunes is used to manually music and video with an iPod that supports disk mode to transfer the music and video to the iPod player. Transferring a music file to a disk mode enabled iPod is possible as with any other external drive but when not using iTunes to do this, the music file will not be available with the iPod player.

Have you ever owned and used an iPod that supports disk mode?

If not, I have.

mezza@gmx.ch Author

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Jan 20, 2010 11:35 AM in response to Allan Sampson

yes, i have an ipod with disk mode and i know what disk mode is for. that's why i describes it in my last post, exactly in the same way as you did.

as you wrote by yourself, disk mode is to use it as an external storage device. you can access the files on a ipod through any file browser and itunes does not need disk mode to access all the files on an ipod or an iphone.

manually managing is not possible any more with ipod touch and iphone and at the same time apple disabled disk mode for ipod touch and iphone for security reasons. why do you assume that those two things are depending on each other? only because they changed (turned off) at the same time? i cannot explain why it is not possible to have two computers managing files on a device with disk mode turned off but the only fact that they were both turned off at the same time does not automatically mean that they do have anything to do with each other.

i on the contrary have logically arguments why those two things don't have a relation. itunes does nothing else then accessing the file system and writing, modifying or deleting files on the iphone (and perhaps updating a database). itunes is able to access the whole file system, doesn't matter if the files are there because of a synch or because they were manually added. if i drag a file to the iphone itunes has to write it to the file system (and update the ipod-database). if i connect the iphone to another computer the other itunes has the same file access and is (at least in theory) also able to do the same. the only reason why it could not do it is because apple don't want it to. so itunes does a check if it is "the owner" of the iphone or not and then tells the user that it is not and he has to delete all files on it if he wants to manage the device with it. which does not mean that it would (in theory) not be able to add a new audio file. that's why i say that it has to be an itunes issue only and has nothing to do with the iphone. the iphone does not care which itunes is writing files to it.

disk mode on the other side enables THIRD PARITY software (like the os) to access the device and that's all it does. if it is on or not does not take influence to the ability of itunes to write to the iphone.

that is logical argumentation that everyone could understand and "both features were turned off at the same time and that's why they are depending on each other" is not!

i don't say that i understand all the mechanisms behind the communication between itunes and the iphone and it is possible that i'm wrong. but IF i'm wrong someone should at least be able to explain in a logical and comprehensible way (like i did) why i'm wrong and what the relation between disk mode and file-access for itunes is.

Jan 20, 2010 11:52 AM in response to mezza@gmx.ch

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah - way too much and too long to read.

You are incorrect, but keep believing whatever you want. This has EVERYTHING to do with the iPod Touch and the iPhone not supporting disk mode, and has NOTHING to do with iTunes.

The proof is this is possible with an iPod that supports disk mode and is not possible with the iPhone and iPod Touch which run the same OS and do not support disk mode.

End of story.

Best of luck.

mezza@gmx.ch Author

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Jan 20, 2010 12:21 PM in response to Allan Sampson

obviously the "blah blah" is necessay because otherwise you don't understand my problem fully. you just enter my thread and read something like "synch with more then one computers" and you write down your standard statement like "not possible ... disk mode ..." and if you have to explane your statement you are not able to. that's why you write "it is as it is ... end of story".

i don't want to know how much of your 56,020 threads and 81'120 posts are nonsense posts because of bad knowhow or "too fast answers" and how much of those people did not get a proper answer because they believed in your unfounded answers.

my only hope is that there are some other users or even people that work at apple and know what they are talking about.

Jan 20, 2010 12:46 PM in response to mezza@gmx.ch

I understand your problem fully - it is you who is not understanding the reason for your problem and thinking this has everything to do with iTunes, and nothing to do with the iPhone not supporting disk mode whatsoever. Maybe it is a language problem with you - your poor spelling, grammar, and punctuation indicate there is.

Although I'm not always right, I'm pretty certain I'm not wrong about this. I venture to say I can run circles around you in regards to my knowhow about the iPhone. Maybe you are right - none of the fellow users I've helped to resolve a problem had their problem resolved or question answered, but my reply was rated as helpful or as having solved their problem anyway - for no reason. I'm rated the top user here by complete accident. Right you are.

mezza@gmx.ch Author

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Jan 20, 2010 1:07 PM in response to mezza@gmx.ch

ok, i don't have the time to argue any more. i know that it is not possible at the time with the actual itunes or iphone version. i will use a third parity software to copy my music from the iphone to the computer and then back to the phone. after that my problem should (at least temporarily) be solved. i fact this is a "ugly" solution but at least it is one.

i hope that apple changes their policy handling this issue in the future. that would solve many problems of many users.

@ allan: thank you for your patience. in fact you did not solve my problem and you did not give me a comprehensive answer why it is as it is but at least you had enough patience to listen to me and my "bad" english :o)

Jan 20, 2010 1:42 PM in response to mezza@gmx.ch

Even with manually manage music and videos enabled with an iPod that supports disk mode (selecting manually manage music and videos enables disk mode with an iPod that supports disk mode), you cannot transfer all iTunes content from the iPod to another computer that was transferred to the iPod from a different computer. You can transfer iTunes content that was purchased/downloaded from the iTunes store to another computer only.

With manually manage music and videos selected with an iPod that supports disk mode, when connecting the iPod to iTunes on another computer, a warning message will be provided indicating the iPod is connected to another iTunes library. You can select cancel followed by transferring iTunes content to the iPod from the iTunes library on another computer without any of the iTunes content on the iPod that was transferred from a different computer being erased from the iPod first. This does not allow for transferring iTunes content on the iPod that was transferred from another computer to iTunes on a different computer. Disk mode does not allow for this with an iPod that supports disk mode.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1478

With disk mode enabled on an iPod that supports it, you can use the iPod in disk mode to transfer your iTunes library from one computer to another - the iTunes named folder by copying the iTunes folder to the iPod as with any other external drive. The only limitation will be the iPod's storage capacity and the size of the iTunes library - the contents within the iTunes folder. When copying the iTunes folder to an iPod with disk mode enabled, the iTunes content available within the iTunes folder copied to the iPod is not available to the iTunes player on the iPod. The only way for iTunes content to be available with the iPod player is by transferring the media to the iPod player's filing structure with iTunes.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1329

Manually manage files on iphone on a new computer