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Syncing iPhone To A New Computer

The situation that I have is this: I have my iPhone originally synced to my laptop, but I will not be able to use that laptop for a while and I want to use my desktop to sync to right now. I want to basically upload new music and videos to my phone, but I don't want to lose all of my Messages and other information that I have on the phone. I don't care about having to lose the music and vidoes on the phone currently, as I do have them all on my desktop and can just upload them again. I am just concerned about losing the other information.


What would be the best solution for the situation above?


Thanks in advance for any help.

iPhone 4S, iOS 6

Posted on Oct 17, 2012 12:43 PM

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Posted on Oct 17, 2012 1:15 PM

I've been in a similar position for a while now, but I've found absolutely no solution. I even sent an email to Tim Cook's Executive Office (the closest Apple comes to providing a complaints department), but that was some time ago and I haven't received a reply.


From here:

iPod shuffle and iPhone are intended for use with a single computer. You cannot load music from multiple computers or iTunes libraries onto iPod shuffle and iPhone like you can with other devices.

The upshot is that whatever you try to sync with your iPhone, it will cause iTunes to offer to completely erase all the data on your phone before proceeding.


Frankly, I think it's a ridiculous situation, and it diminishes my ordinarily high opinion of Apple's products. Hopefully they'll see sense and rectify this very soon.


In the meantime, you can use a third-party app such as FileApp or FilesLite. You sync your movies and music to them instead of through iTunes, and play them through them too. I haven't tried it personally but it should work. Compatibility is likely to be the only concern.


GL.

9 replies
Question marked as Best reply

Oct 17, 2012 1:15 PM in response to ebh5348

I've been in a similar position for a while now, but I've found absolutely no solution. I even sent an email to Tim Cook's Executive Office (the closest Apple comes to providing a complaints department), but that was some time ago and I haven't received a reply.


From here:

iPod shuffle and iPhone are intended for use with a single computer. You cannot load music from multiple computers or iTunes libraries onto iPod shuffle and iPhone like you can with other devices.

The upshot is that whatever you try to sync with your iPhone, it will cause iTunes to offer to completely erase all the data on your phone before proceeding.


Frankly, I think it's a ridiculous situation, and it diminishes my ordinarily high opinion of Apple's products. Hopefully they'll see sense and rectify this very soon.


In the meantime, you can use a third-party app such as FileApp or FilesLite. You sync your movies and music to them instead of through iTunes, and play them through them too. I haven't tried it personally but it should work. Compatibility is likely to be the only concern.


GL.

Oct 17, 2012 3:20 PM in response to Scotch_Brawth

Thanks for the information.


I don't think going those routes will work for me. I am not trying to look to use an entirely new system to sync up stuff. But like you I think that it would be rather short sighted of Apple to not allow for something like that. What happens to people who's laptops are fried and there is no way of recovering them?

Oct 17, 2012 3:30 PM in response to ebh5348

Just sync the music from the new laptop and nothing else. not a big deal.


" What happens to people who's laptops are fried and there is no way of recovering them?"


It has always been very basic to always maintain a backup copy of your computer for this very occasion. If this were to happen, you would simply use your backup copy to put everything on the new computer.

Oct 17, 2012 6:49 PM in response to ebh5348

If you're running Windows, using Library Tunes might be an option. It lets you establish iTunes libraries on multiple computers, all with the same ID, so you don't have to erase your iPhone, iPad, iPod, etc. when adding new music, videos, etc.


And if your laptop is fried like pointed out here, you can use Library Tunes to recover the iTunes library ID from the Apple device. This way, you can quickly set up a new iTunes library using the contents of your device without erasing its contents.


Library Tunes is free, but as its author, I am required to say that I may receive financial compensation.

Feb 17, 2014 2:20 AM in response to ebh5348

An iPhone can be synced with only one iTunes account at a time. once you switched to a new iTunes account or a new computer. You have to authorize your iPhone to it at first, then you can upload music and video from iPhone to computer. you can use this tool that helped me before

http://www.001-software.com/resource/how-to-transfer-music-video-from-ipodiphone ipad-to-computer-and-itunes.html


hope this helps.

Syncing iPhone To A New Computer

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