Sync iphone to two computers without delete data

The best option in your situation is to use a program like mobileme and sync your contact and calendar information over the air. Unless you transfer either contact and calendars to home computer or music, apps, pics, etc to office computer you want be able to sync without replacing one set of data. Its a function of itunes, unfortunately.

I want to sync an iphone4 to two computers

You can stop right there.

The short answer is, you can't do that. The iPhone is designed to sync with 1 computer at a time.

If your employer uses Microsoft Exchange, they may have it configured so that you can add it to your phone and use it to sync contacts and calendars (as well as email) over the air to their servers.

KiltedTim wrote:

I want to sync an iphone4 to two computers

You can stop right there.

The short answer is, you can't do that. The iPhone is designed to sync with 1 computer at a time.

Not entirely correct. While you can only sync music to one computer, the iPhone can auto-sync Music/Video/Podcasts from one library and auto-sync Contacts from a different library since these are managed separately.

rockmyplimsoul wrote:

KiltedTim wrote:

I want to sync an iphone4 to two computers

You can stop right there.

The short answer is, you can't do that. The iPhone is designed to sync with 1 computer at a time.

Not entirely correct. While you can only sync music to one computer, the iPhone can auto-sync Music/Video/Podcasts from one library and auto-sync Contacts from a different library since these are managed separately.

Ehhhh.... I hesitate to say this is technically true, even though I believe it is. It's NOT recommended. It's an easy way to end up in more trouble than it's worth. It may be technically possible, but it's definitely not recommended and I believe it's not a supported state of affairs as far as Apple is concerned.

KiltedTim wrote:

Ehhhh.... I hesitate to say this is technically true, even though I believe it is. It's NOT recommended. It's an easy way to end up in more trouble than it's worth. It may be technically possible, but it's definitely not recommended and I believe it's not a supported state of affairs as far as Apple is concerned.

Where do you get that it is not recommended? It is not a hack or anything like that, it simply works and is supported by iTunes. The iPhone (and other i-devices) is smart enough to know which library it is connected to and will sync only what you've told it to sync on each of the tabs for sync settings.

With the iPhone, you can sync all iTunes content with only one computer. Trying to sync iTunes content with a second computer will result in iTunes erasing the content from the first computer. However, non-itunes content such as contacts, calendars, mail settings, notes, etc. (anything in the Info pane) can be synced from another computer.

Do not allow your iPhone to sync until you have set up your selections. Prevent automatic syncing one time, without changing settings: Open iTunes. Then, as you connect iPhone to your computer, press and hold Command-Option (on a Mac) or Shift-Control (on a PC) until you see iPhone appear in the sidebar.

At home, make your selections from the Music, Videos, Applications, etc. panes, but leave the selections in the Info pane that you want synced from your work computer unchecked. When you are finished, click the "Apply" button at the bottom right of the iTunes window.

At work, Prevent automatic syncing one time, without changing settings: Open iTunes. Then, as you connect iPhone to your computer, press and hold Command-Option (on a Mac) or Shift-Control (on a PC) until you see iPhone appear in the sidebar. Make sure all options in all the panes you used at home are deselected (not checked), particularly the "Sync Music" at the top of the music pane.

Go to the Info pane and select your sync choices that you left unchecked at home (such as contacts, calendars), then click the "Apply" button at the bottom right of the iTunes window.

I think this is a bad bad idea... Eventually, it IS going to get screwed up. It's only a matter of time.

I gotta step in here, Apple specifically recommends that you NOT sync contacts & calendars with multiple computers. While in theory it is possible, it CAN lead to data corruption, loss of data, or both. Rather, if you want to use two computers, this is the official word:

"You should not experience issues when either syncing your device to another computer to bring the data over once, or when syncing to overwrite the data on the device. You can also sync contacts, calendars, and bookmarks with one computer and sync media with another computer."

Do what you want, you've been warned.

I agree with the last poster. There may be ways around the rules, but apple specifically recommends not syncing to multiple computers. Is there any reason to not just transfer work items to home computer or use mobileme, even though the service is costly, definately worthwhile and awesome. Its up to you but too many crossing paths and problems can hapen. As for only syncing portions, if one set of data is coming from one computer and another set is coming from a different computer it will still erase what it cannot find, even if its not selected as an option.

The OP wants to sync contacts and calendars from one computer and everything else from another. He doesn't intend to sync contacts and calendars from multiple computers. Why the dire warning?

create a 2nd profile on the machine you're using.

The important thing here is that you should be allowed to what you want with your phone and itunes accounts. Whether it is recommended or not by Apple should not be of interest, its your phone and your computers. The fact that iTunes wants to wipe your phone if you plug it into another computer is a little aggressive to say the least.

There are a number of ways of getting round this that have worked for me, but i've just upgraded my iTunes and phone to 10.5 and these have stopped working (it does after every upgrade) and i've not tried again yet. The ways i've tried are copying various codes within my home iTunes to my work iTunes and this makes your phone think that they are the same, therefore you dont get that message that wants to wipe all of your data from your phone.

I had a setup where i could happily copy music or videos from either computer to my phone, though i didn't have either set up to automatically sync calendars or contacts. In saying this i could manually do either of that (so i don't think you'd have any trouble with this if set to auto on either computer).

This might start you off, i'm not sure if its fully working on iTunes 10.5, but i'll be trying it myself soon

See this thread.

tt2

01am wrote:

The important thing here is that you should be allowed to what you want with your phone and itunes accounts. Whether it is recommended or not by Apple should not be of interest, its your phone and your computers.

... and your headache if things go awry. That's really the point of the warnings above.

The fact that iTunes wants to wipe your phone if you plug it into another computer is a little aggressive to say the least.

This is also true for iPods and iPads if they're set to auto-sync, I believe it is Apple's concession to make it 'difficult' to use their product to transfer copyrighted material between computers. If you manually manage your iPod or iPad you can connect to different libraries, but can't sync material from other libraries to your own.

Up until iOS 5, the iPhone wouldn't even let you connect to another library even if it was set to be manually managed. Now it seems that is changed -- you can connect an iPhone to more than one computer (if in manual mode) without it being erased. However, this is at the expense of syncing play history and rating changes back to your library while in manual mode, something that iPhone owners aren't used to.