transferring sync from pc to mac

I have an iPad (3rd Gen) that I've been syncing with my WIndows 7 laptop. Increasingly, I've been using my Macbook Pro, and I want to use it as the device to sync.

Currently, I sync photos taken on the iPad already to iPhoto on the Mac. Actually, I guess it's more like copying than syncing.

The instructions I see when I search for this sort of thing don't really apply to me, because:

I have no music purchased in iTunes
I have no movies purchased in iTunes
I have no TV shows purchased in iTunes
I have no audiobooks in iTunes
I don't really know what charts and genius are, and I don't think I care.

I do have a lot of apps purchased and/or downloaded for free from the app store.

I have photos and videos that I've taken with my iPad, but like I said, those are already synced with iPhoto on the Mac.

I have photos and videos on the PC that were synced to the iPad. I don't care if I lose those from the iPad because I can put them back by setting up a directory and copying them across the network and syncing.

I have audio recorded by an audio app

I have other data saved by other apps

I have a notice that a new version of iOS is available for installing, but when I follow the link to install it, it says I should sync first. Well, I have synced (on the Windows machine). I'd rather do the upgrade on the Macbook because it is wired (rather than wifi).

I've been procrastinating about this because I'm unsure what I really need to do. The obvious thing to try is something that doesn't seem to be available, namely, to simply have my Macbook Pro claim the iPad and sync from the iPad to the Macbook.

In summary, all I really care about saving is the apps and the data they have created. I don't use email on the iPad, other than to send email (would be nice if I could configure it to send from my gmail account without using the iPad's mail system, but that's neither here nor there). Things like calendar and contacts I don't care about either. With the new iOS/facebook integration, my contacts will likely get contaminated with all my facebook stuff anyway (unless I learn how to prevent that yet still allow some of the integration).

iPad (3rd gen) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iOS 6

Posted on Nov 10, 2012 4:09 PM

16 replies

victor99 Author

Level 1

9 points

Nov 10, 2012 7:12 PM in response to victor99

Aha! I think I figured it out.

If I click on iTunes Store on the left panel, then I can select from a bunch of options along the top of the screen that results. If I click Apps, I can click "Not on This Computer" at top, right. That lists all the apps on the iPad that are not on the computer. There is a link at the bottom (absent now because there are none) that allows me to download all those apps that I previously purchased but that are not on the new authorized computer.

After it downloaded all those apps, I was curious about particular apps that have data. There is a section on the apps screen in iTunes on the computer (bottom part of the screen) with text indicating that data for that app can be downloaded to the computer. I noticed an app that had never been on the new computer was listed, and I was able to download all its data.

So now I'm confident that I can sync the apps without losing app data. It was this step (described in the previous two paragraphs) that I needed.

After downloading all the data from that app just to satisfy myself that I had access to it, I clicked back over to somewhere on the left panel (I don't recall what now). I got a popup message asking if I wanted to apply the changes. Previously, I had Canceled from that message on the assumption that since I was missing apps in the list of apps on the computer, the corresponding apps would be deleted from the iPad, and I think I was right about that. This time, since I now had all the apps on the computer, I clicked Apply.

This time I got another popup that indicated I had purchased stuff on the iPad that had not been transferred to the computer yet. Would I like to copy it to the computer? You bet! So that's where I am now.

Now it seems to be going through a normal 6-7 step sync process.

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transferring sync from pc to mac