I can't add music to my iPhone 4s from Macbook Pro.

Iphone will sync ( or manually manage) with one and only one computer at a time.

You cannot put music on the iphone from two different computers without erasing the current content.

Plug in your iphone and sync it.

This will erase the current content form the iphone and replace with content from the new computer. Make sure you have copied everything from the old computer to the new one first.

roaminggnome wrote:

Iphone will sync ( or manually manage) with one and only one computer at a time.

You cannot put music on the iphone from two different computers without erasing the current content.

I just stumbled over the same issue with Movies. Does anyone know why iTunes is so braindamaged? With manual management activated, why can't I simply plug my iPhone into ANY of my Macs in order to copy something to it?

Becasue this is not how Apple has designed the iphone.

You can sync or manually manage itunes content ( any itunes content) with one and only one computer at a time. Syncing or manually managing with another will erase the current content from the iphone.

This is how Apple intentionally designed the product.

roaminggnome wrote:

Becasue this is not how Apple has designed the iphone.

You can sync or manually manage itunes content ( any itunes content) with one and only one computer at a time. Syncing or manually managing with another will erase the current content from the iphone.

This is how Apple intentionally designed the product.

Yes, understood, my point is that I am wondering whether there is actually a technical reason for this, or why else they might intentionallly make life harder for people with more than one Mac. In other words, this artificial technical limitation is nothing but awkward, and should be removed.

This is exactly why i will soon be going back to linux/windows, and switching to android for my mobile device. For three reasons:

1) NOTHING is backward compatible in OSX; every time i upgrade to the newest OSX release, I conveniently have to purchase (again) the newest versions of my software.

2) I spend more time converting music files than i do actually listening to them, and yet still cannot add music from different machines. (This is obviously designed to force people to purchase music through the oh so convenient iTunes Store)

3) I shouldn't have to "break" my EULA in order to use my device to its full potential. Especially when there are open source products out there that do the same thing.

TL/DR: Once you throw down the comparatively massive investment and get an Apple device, you pretty much can only buy more Apple devices. Beautiful Hardware/Software, but designed to only function with itself, and poorly at that. This is why most IT people have always and will always prefer Linux and Windows. No hard feelings i still love you Apple, but i would only recommend your products to first time computer users, and the disabled. Maybe the future of Apple will be open.

Hi,

I have a variation of a problem raised in this discussion. I have an old iphone and new macbook air. I can sync most content via itunes except new music. So to be clear, this is not a question about why I can't transfer my old music library, from my old mac, to my iphone. (I actually am not trying to). I downloaded some new music onto my mac and would like to drag and drop that into the iphone. I cannot do it so far. Can I drag and drop new music without having to erase all the music on the iphone? Thanks.

This is just ridiculous. My iPhone, iTunes, and even the individual song files are one way or another associated with my iTunes account. Yet I can't drag and drop music to my iPhone because it's not my main Mac.

I don't see how, considering that it's all connected to the same iTunes account, allowing me to use both my comptuers to add music to my phone threatens DRM rights. This is just Apple making life harder without an apparent reason.

Let me get this correct, I had to buy a new laptop as my old one broke, I now cannot add any new songs to my iphone from my old laptop without removing all 1000 odd songs on there already? Surely thats simply not logical

truly, how f-ing stupid. my old macbook was just fried with water damage, and now, selections from my entire 80gb music library cannot be put on my iphone because i am trying to move them from a different computer. as if it wasn't bad enough i have to buy a whole new laptop, i now have to spend COUNTLESS hours of going through cataloguing to HOPEFULLY find all the music that i have lost, just so i can put smidgens of it back on my iphone. THANKS A BUNDLE.

Yeah,

So let me get this straight. Now when I purchase a new album or audiobook on a Mac at work or elsewhere...using MY ITUNES ACCOUNT!!!! I can't put MY ALBUM that I just BOUGHT from YOUR STORE onto MY IPHONE and listen to it on the way home?? That's insane! Do I not technically own those MP3's? I paid for them... I should be able to do whatever I want with them. You know what though.... I bet if I bought a DROID as my next phone and bought all my music and audiobooks through Amazon or other outlets I could enjoy my new audiobook or album on my drive home. Hmmm...

Yours truely,

Disgruntled apple user

roaminggnome,

i hear what you're saying but it's the same computer -- though admittedly with a fresh install of mountain lion. so just by installing the latest osx, i now have to wipe my iphone?

I'm very new to this but as I manage both my phone and my bosses phone on the one system i have to manually manage everything. No choice about syncing or not....The way I get around music it is to create Playlists and then autofill the playlist to the phone....hope that helps...