Sync iphone with new macbook without erasing info - don´t have backup

Sorry to interrupt your rant, iPeat, but just wanted to inform you that it's not "holy than now horse", it's "holier than thou horse".

Didn't want you to seem uneducated or anything 😉

Cheers.

I'm sorry... You said Leopard. I just naturally assumed you meant Leopard and not Snow Leopard.

You, sir, are a *******.

I ended up in this thread because I just now encountered the exact same problem as the rest. I do have my old Macbook still, so transferring my iTunes account won't be a problem - however, it is truly poor usability, and poor design by Apple to do it this way.

I consider myself an Apple fanboy but you guys (gdgmacguy, KiltedTim and Alan Sampson) are really something. For god's sake try to think rationally instead of defending Apple without thinking twice. Ever heard of objective thinking? You should try it out. I'm pretty sure not even Apple are proud of the way it currently works themselves, which is why they are changing it. iPhone and iPad are a lot newer than iTunes and probably weren't being considered when the logic behind iTunes, accounts and syncing was being constructed. If Apple has made something difficult and unlogical, then don't raionalize it just because It's shiny and made by apple.

To everyone seeking the answer to this thread: Solutions are on its way. Right now the only option is to either reset and lose some of the things you have on your phone, or grab your old iTunes library.

But the flaw in your "master-slave" logic comes in that the apps on the device have unique data. Think of all the game saves on all the apps being lost because a customer bought a new computer and gave Apple more money. They are then being punished by having all of their save data lost because of a process of needing to delete first rather than doing an svn-like check. Ridiculous.

Yeah. Apple is changing this in the fall, when iTunes will just be another device, rather than being a Master. I really wish they would add this functionality asap, or at least offer a band-aid solution during the gap. I haven't been able to sync my iPod Touch for five months now, due to this issue. I even had a full back up of my iTunes library to transfer to my new laptop when the old one died. Everything transfered fine into the new instance of iTunes, but it's too dumb to realize it's the same library that the Touch should be allowed to sync to with out a forced erase!

dropped my old MBP down the stairs. killed it. got a new one. i can live without the music and the photos (they were all backed up), but can i save my contacts and messages?

OKay, really usefull discussion.

Here is my question.

I am going to format my PC ( Windows ). and then How can I sync or ipad to itunes transfer ?

What are the things that I need to do before I format the PC ?

I dont have any media files. its all my office apps and its saved files

Thank in Advance guys.

"You can then either manually manage your iPhone on a second computer, or sync different data on different machines (E.g. Music at home, Contacts/Calendar at work)."

http://www.andrewgrant.org/2008/03/30/how-to-sync-an-iphone-with-two-or-more-com puters.html

• On the PC you can find your iTunes folder in your "My Music" (XP) or "Music" (Vista) directory. On the Mac it is in your Music directory.
• For the editing part, I recommend UltraEdit on the PC and a combination of TextExit / HexEdit on the Mac. Any hex editor will do, and you only need to edit files on the second machine.
• After completing these steps you will be able to sync your iPhone with both computers, either by normal syncing or choosing one machine to manually manage your music and videos. Unless you also keep your music libraries in sync, I recommend you do not attempt to normal sync the same types of data on both machines.

On the machine you want to sync with, backup "iTunes Music Library.xml" and "iTunes Music Library" (Tunes Music Library.itl on PC) to a safe location. These are the files you will be modifying.

1) Find your iTunes Library ID

On the machine your iPhone currently syncs with, open "iTunes Music Library.xml" with a text editor and find the entry between the <string></string> tags, after "Library Persistent ID". In the example below this is 8B6C633F7DACB74B. Copy this entryexactly to a piece of paper, email, temporary file etc. You can then close this file.

2) Change your Library ID

iTunes stores your library information in two places. An XML file and a binary file. You now need to change the ID in both so they match your other library.

Make sure iTunes is not running.

On the machine you want to sync with open "iTunes Music Library.xml" in a text editor. Again, find the entry between the <string></string> tags after "Library Persistent ID" and copy this entry exactly. This time you can use the clipboard if you wish.

When you have a copy, replace this entry with the one you copied in part 1. Make sure you do not change anything else, and the length of the entry is 16 characters/digits. Save this file and close it.

In the Hex Editor, open "iTunes Music Library" (Tunes Music Library.itl on PC).

Select "Find and Replace" from the Edit menu. Make sure "Hex" matching is selected (not ASCII). In "Find" enter the ID you took a note of in Part 1. In Replace, enter the ID you copied at the start of Part 2. Choose Replace All, there should be one match.

Save this file and close it.

Success!

Start iTunes on the machine you wish to sync with and plug in your iPhone. When you select "Manually manage music and videos" you will no longer be prompted to erase your data, nor will the files on your iPhone be grayed out.

Additional Notes

Previously I’ve found that intentionally corrupting the binary "iTunes Library" file (e.g. replacing it with a text file) would cause iTunes to regenerate it using the XML data. This no longer appears to work for me in iTunes 7.6.1 and the "repaired" file only contains a few songs. This may be because I keep my music on an external drive but I cannot say for sure. Either way, patching the binary file does not take long and removes any chance of later problems.

I have to admit that after reading various topics on the internet on this issue, this seems to be a very basic and common issue that has been somewhat over complicated.

Nonetheless it's one that, for the moment i have no real say in.

So, if i'm reading this correctly if i sync my iPhone 4 with my new mac book pro, it will wipe all of my music off. (which i'm not all that bothered about as i have a backup of all my songs...) Will it erase my photos, contacts, diares too?

thanks!

You can transfer itunes purchases. Without syncing: File>Transfer Purchases

You can e-mail the Photo library pics to yourself. They will not be of the original quality.

You can import the pics taken with iphone as you would with any digita camera.

If you enter at least one unique contact and calendar entry on the new computer, then when you first sync, you should get the option to merge the data.

Besides there is a step by step instruction on how to transfer or backup iPhone contents to Mac.

Hope it can do you a favor.