How To Skip Backup When Syncing an iPhone on Catalina

@Barney-15E

Because of the limitations of this forum, unlike say StackExchange, I can't edit my posts after a short time interval, so I have to scatter my corrections about the place.

I didn't mean IN the new Music App, I meant WITH. That is, if I want to use the Music app to organise my music and then sync parts of it onto my iPhone, then whatever the particulars of how Catalina does that, there really should be the ability to do it separately from backing up.

AGuyOnWheels wrote:

Make sure that the "...this Mac" option is not selected

On my system it's a choice between "this Mac" and "iCloud". They're not tick boxes, they're toggled options, you have to have one or the other.

Come on Apple, why does this have to be so restrictive and difficult?

This is not helpful. I know what I can do as an alternative to using the new Music app, but what I need is a definitive answer from someone who knows about how to do this in the new Music app. Surely there either is a way, or there should be.

@AGuyOnWheels

You're not using sync though are you? We used to be able to skip backup when syncing on previous systems.

The definitive answer I'm looking for will be that either (1) the skip backup, while syncing, functionality, in Catalina, is broken and will be fixed at some point or, (2) Apple, in it's wisdom, has decided to drop that feature.

@AGuyOnWheels

It was a question, that could have been answered with "No, I am using sync as normal". Questions with negatives are tricky. I just wanted to clarify that, because I have suggestions of turning backup off before, that involved doing the song updating manually, which is real backward step from the convenience we had previously.

So, you're saying that if your iPhone doesn't back up on the computer in question, you can still sync it as usual? If so, your input is helpful, thanks. At least it's a workaround until Apple comes up with something better.

You used to be able to click on an icon to skip the backup process. If you click on the cross in the new finder interface, it doesn't stop, which is why I brought up the possibility of the process being broken.

I'm also not impressed with Apple's handling of the process of moving from an old music library file into the new Music format. There's a lot of grief out there on there internet about how it's affected many people. I've had some trouble with it, but now seem to have crossed that bridge. I got my first Mac, a second hand SE, back in 1989 and I'm not feeling the Apple thing these days, the way I used to.

@AGuyOnWheels

AGuyOnWheels wrote:

In the "General" tab for syncing your iPhone in Finder, uncheck the box that says "Backup to this Mac", then eject and reconnect your iPhone.

I don't have a check box to do that in my iPhone's finder window.

AGuyOnWheels wrote:

I’m trying to assist, but your last response didn’t give me any information to work with.

My apologies. This isn't the first thread on this question and I only started this because I couldn't add to any of the others. I really don't like Apple's community forum setup. Stack Exchange has a much better forum model.

You have been helpful, thanks.

I was assuming too much in my last post. I just assumed you'd read between the lines. The fact that it's a toggle is a problem if you don't want either option. You should just be able to turn off "backup to this computer" without having to choose iCloud backups.

I've spent at least two decades looking forward to and then relishing new MacOS versions, but not any more. I have had some huge problems with the last few. Since iTunes has been a thing I've been building up an iTunes library with hours and hours of effort building a system that makes it straightforward to use directly and sync a suitable subset to my iPhone. It appears to me that Apple is showing less and less regard about upgrade difficulties.

It seems to me that Apple is going to have to fix this situation, or I will be forced to have to find, and pay for, a decent third party alternative. I could use iMazing, but as we've seen you can't totally separate syncing from some form of backup. I will use the iCloud backup method for now, but I'm not happy about it.

Managing music and iPhone backup really should be separate. After this post I'll be posting a bug report about the skip backup button (the cross next to your phone in the phone in the Finder Sidebar ) not responding. I'll also be giving some feedback about the backup versus sync situation. I won't be holding my breath, because I've done that before to no avail.