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borgheart Author

Level 1

8 points

New Catalina with iTunes gone

I've been using iTunes on an older Mac Pro running El Capitan (can't go newer since Apple obsoleted it) to backup and sync my iPhones for years. I still have this machine and it houses all my media such as music and audiobooks etc.

I've just bought a MacBook Pro running Catalina. If I pair/trust my iPhone Xs to the new laptop, I know how to backup/restore via finder BUT since the laptop has such a small SSD, will i still be able to plug the phone into the old machine and iTunes to sync/change music etc? In days gone by, if you a phone was tied to a given iTunes and you plugged it into a different Mac it wanted to erase the phone! Does the new Finder/Music/Podcast paradigm allow you to go to a non catalina Mac to sync media or is it locked to the Catalina machine once you've "paired" it the first time?

Thanks!

MacBook Pro with Touch Bar

Posted on Jan 11, 2020 9:28 AM

Top-ranking reply

SravanKrA

Community+ 2024

Level 10

414,098 points

Posted on Jan 11, 2020 10:37 AM

iPhones can be synced to only one Mac at any given time. If you change the Mac it will erase all synced data (not the device) from the earlier Mac and sync with the current Mac with which you have connected your iPhone.

You can only sync your device with one iTunes library at a time. If you see a message that your device is synced with another iTunes library, your device was previously connected to another computer. If you click "Erase and Sync" in that message, all content of the selected type on your device will be erased and replaced with content from this computer.

If you're using macOS Catalina, use the Finder to sync content to your iOS or iPadOS device. If you're using macOS Mojave or earlier or a Windows PC, use iTunes. Before you use your computer to sync content to your iOS

You can always sync from macOS Catalina and then sync back again with macOS Mojave or earlier BUT You can only sync your device with one iTunes library at a time.

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New Catalina with iTunes gone

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