Sync iphone to two computers without delete data

your phone syncs to your computer which has a specific itunes library id and when you hook it up to another computer it recognises the different id and won't let you sync. You can search google and there are pretty good walk throughs of how to change your library id so effectively your phone will think your work computer is actually your home computer. do this myself and haven't had any problems

I was reminded today why I was so hesitant to buy an iPhone. The difficulty with syncing is probably the biggest complaint, and it's a big one, that I have with the phone.

Here's what I did to sync the apps from my phone to a different computer. Note: I'm syncing my apps onto a new PC not a MAC and was receiving the message that my library on the PC would replace the library on my phone, I was only interested in syncing my apps, these steps are only from memory because I didn't write them down as I was going along, after the apps were synced onto my computer they were rearranged on my iPhone (i.e. The apps were removed from any folders that I dragged them into on my iPhone which for me was not a big deal.)

1. Open a window and search for the your iTunes library. You should find a folder named "iTunes Media". If you've never downloaded apps to this computer there should NOT be a folder called "Mobile Application" (this will make sense later).

2. Connect your iPhone to the new computer.

3. On iTunes, click "Store" and then "Authorize this computer".

4. Right click on the iPhone's icon under the "Devices" link on the left pane.

5. Click "Transfer Purchases".

6. Wait a while until the "Sync Apps" list is updated with the the apps that are on your phone. Once it is updated the apps should be listed but you will not be able to select or highlight them.

7. Go back to the folder mentioned in step 1 and see if there is now a folder called "Mobile Applications". If there is, open it and check to see that it has a file for each of the apps on your phone. For me, this step was just to confirm that my iTunes library had all the apps from my phone on my computer. I now felt comfortable going to the next step.

8. Click on the "Sync Apps" check box. You will receive a warning that all the apps on your iPhone will be replaced by the library of apps on your computer. If you feel confident about what your doing, go ahead and click OK.

prey10 wrote:

I was reminded today why I was so hesitant to buy an iPhone. The difficulty with syncing is probably the biggest complaint, and it's a big one, that I have with the phone.

Here's what I did to sync the apps from my phone to a different computer. Note: I'm syncing my apps onto a new PC ...

Setting up a new PC is always a lot of work, and something that most people don't do frequently. So the fact that its difficult to transfer iTunes apps to a new PC is a limited (and expected) challenge.

It all becomes trivially easy if you backup your library properly and migrate the library from one machine to the other before trying to connect the device.

tt2

Most people today use 2-3 computers I am so when first time I erase 40 albums from my Iphone I was just .... so angry .... how stupid is this to limit a divice to only one library. Apple made a lot of great stuff but this is the most stupid thing ever !!!!!! Hate your one library limit. It will be great to remove that for next update to itunes.

Why this is the case is unknown, at least to me ... (anyone with a logical explanation why the iPhone is different from ever other i-device in this regard?)

But since the iPhone has always been this way through several iOS iterations, clearly this is the way Apple wants it and is not likely to change.

As I mentioned earlier in this thread there is a way to manage an iPhone on as many computers as you want.

tt2

Follow this

http://bit.ly/oEGZYB

The answers that you are getting to this issue show that it is not really clear what we can do and what we can't. I face exactly the same issue, and i find it is a quite "common" problem that anyone that has a professionnal and personnal life (common thing in this world) and a single iphone might face.

Basically everytime i sync on my professionnal PC (where there is of course no music on the itunes library), the music of my iphone (that i have loaded through my personnal pc itunes) disappears. Whatever i have tried (Manually manage, uncheck the tab) has failed.

I am tired of testing it over and over as i have 5000 mp3 on my iphone, taking me 3 hours to load (and one click to remove).

MobileMe is not an option as Apple has decommissioned the application.

So please, don't tell me that all music fans manage to put their mp3 on their work PC OR that professionnal people don't sync their calendar. I will not believe you. This is it :-)

There must be something i have not tried ! HELP!

if you copy your home itunes folder and paste it in place of the one at work your phone should sync with both. You don't need the music/media etc so you can remove them before you copy it to the work one if you like. Its only the iTunes files in there that matter.

If you want to avoid syncing on the work computer set your home one to manually manage everything first before you do the duplication. In the preferences you can also change each device's syncing preferences and turn off automatic syncing.

In this way i have a work pc with different music from my home pc. I have both iTunes set to manually manage music, I can then drag and drop music as i please from either.

kjegou wrote:

The answers that you are getting to this issue show that it is not really clear what we can do and what we can't. I face exactly the same issue, and i find it is a quite "common" problem that anyone that has a professionnal and personnal life (common thing in this world) and a single iphone might face.

Basically everytime i sync on my professionnal PC (where there is of course no music on the itunes library), the music of my iphone (that i have loaded through my personnal pc itunes) disappears. Whatever i have tried (Manually manage, uncheck the tab) has failed.

I am tired of testing it over and over as i have 5000 mp3 on my iphone, taking me 3 hours to load (and one click to remove).

MobileMe is not an option as Apple has decommissioned the application.

So please, don't tell me that all music fans manage to put their mp3 on their work PC OR that professionnal people don't sync their calendar. I will not believe you. This is it :-)

There must be something i have not tried ! HELP!

Sync iPod/iPad/iPhone with two computers

Although it isn't possible to sync an Apple device with two different libraries it is possible to sync with the same logical library from multiple computers. Each library has an internal ID and when iTunes connects to your iPod/iPad/iPhone it compares the local ID with the one the device normally syncs with. If they are the same you can go ahead and sync...

I have my library cloned to a small 1Tb USB drive which I can take between home & work. At either location I use SyncToy 2.1 to update the local copy with the external drive. Mac users should be able to find similar tools. I can open either of the local libraries or the one on the external drive and update the media content of my iPhone. The slight exception is Photos which normally connects to a specific folder on a specific machine, although that can easily be remapped to the current library if you create a "Photos" folder inside the iTunes Media folder so that syncing the iTunes folders keeps this up to date as well. I periodically sweep my library for new files & orphans with iTunes Folder Watch just in case I make changes at one location but then overwrite the library with a newer copy from the other. Again Mac users should be able to find similar tools.

As long as your media is organised within an iTunes Music or Tunes Media folder, in turn held inside the main iTunes folder that has your library files (whether or not you let iTunes keep the media folder organised) each library can access items at the same relative path from the library folder so the library can be at different drives/paths on different machines. This solution ensures I always have adequate backups of my library and I can update my devices whenever I can connect to the same build of iTunes.

When working with an iPhone earlier builds of iTunes would remove any file not physically present in the local library, even if there was an entry for it, making manual management practically redundant on the iPhone. This behaviour has been changed but it will still only permit manual management with a library that has the correct internal ID. If you don't want to sync your library between machines on a regular basis just copy the iTunes Library.itl file from the current "home" machine to any other you want to use, then clean out the library entires and import the local content you have on that box.

Note If you want to switch the device into manual mode do so on your home computer after syncing, rather than when connecting to another machine.

tt2

01am, i like your solution best. All in all it has to be simple, no jailbreaks or other things. Bottom line is: this basically does not work and apple assumes thAt your iphone is for you and not for the work. How irrelevant.

I will try it soon fron now as a hack. Lets call it like this.

As for the manually manage option, i still question how this works, as it is reset at every sync. Why itunes does not keep in memory all settings for a given device? Why do we have to check all tabs at every sync or every device ?This is another question..thanks 1am !

i'm not 100% on all of this, but thats what i did and it seemed the easiest. There's a solution a few posts up from ryanfromz that used to work well until 10.5 i think. Its a complex one though.

As for the manual thing. Just make sure you transfer all your purchases onto your home computer, and sync before you do anything that threatens to wipe everything. I think if its your home comp you normally sync to it wont wipe it if you click on it.

Doesn't matter how you guys look at it, but here's the reality.

Money makes the rules. Big companies have LOTS of money.

Apple is just another big media company following what the record label/media entertainment companies dictate.

There is no difference from SOPA laws etc... or THIS ISSUE.

We will soon see this more and more and more.

THE REASON WHY YOU CAN'T DO THIS IS BECAUSE THEY DON'T WANT YOU STEALING MUSIC/MEDIA.

It's sad that in my generation I will have to see thecorruption of modern technology where YES, the device tells the user what it can and can't do, not the other way around.

Simply put no you can't do it and I am heated about this b/c I just bought a new computer and now have to download everything the hard way onto my new computer and then clear my iphone and then finally sync it.

If you have backed up your library from your old computer, you can restore that to the new one, and your iPhone will sync without loss of data.

If you don't have access to your original library then see this post.

And yes, it should be easier.

If you want the ability to sync from any of two or more computers (the topic of this thread) then read this thread.

tt2