Wireless synching without being plugged in?

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Level 2

371 points

Wireless synching without being plugged in?

I've ignored wi-fi synching for ages... figured it would drag down operations and simply take too long. (In the old Palm days, Hot Synch via cable was dramatically fast compared to that over wi-fi.)

So, I finally tried it. Fast and easy, however...

Apparently, you have to be plugged into a power source!

Well, that's a drag and hardly "wireless" (I guess that's why Apple calls it "wi-fi" synching and not "wireless" 🙂). Plus, the Mac has to be open and running, too, right? Given all that, isn't it just as easy to take the iPad to the MacBook Pro and connect it?!

Or, am I missing something here?

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Without giving it much thought, I originally figured that you could just turn on your i-device and sync it!

iPad, iOS 5.0.1, Wonderful, magical device!

Posted on Feb 19, 2013 5:09 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Peacecircle

Level 1

23 points

Feb 19, 2013 5:23 AM in response to AstroMacMan

You are lucky! I can no longer sync any of my idevices without connecting them to my PC with the cable.

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Answer 2

Feb 19, 2013 5:28 AM in response to AstroMacMan

The device does not have to be awake and running, when plugged in, to hot sync. The reason for having it plugged in is that, when running on battery, the wifi radio is turned off when the device sleeps (to save power), while when it is plugged in, the wifi radio remains on all the time.

You can force a wifi sync when the device is not plugged in however. As long as iTunes is running on your computer, you can initiate a wifi sync either from iTunes or the device itself (settings -> general -> iTunes wi-fi sync). It will still sync when the device is running on battery if you initiate the sync.

Of course the Mac has to be open and running, and iTunes needs to be open to - the sync is still managed by iTunes, and the Mac has data being written to it and read from it during the sync. Whatever device you sync to has to be running - even when you sync to iCloud, if Apple shuts off its servers, that ain't going to work either 😉

As to the convenience, thats a matter of opinion - I generally just leave iTunes open and hidden on my MacBookPro, so I can just initiate a sync at the end of the day from my devices, or it happens overnight while they are plugged in charging up for the next days use. But I do find it nice to not have to take both iPhone and iPad into the den, plug them in, initiate the sync, unplug them and then plug them back in to their power adapters to charge up overnight.

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Answer 3

AstroMacMan Author

Level 2

371 points

Mar 11, 2013 1:58 PM in response to Michael Black

Michael, great response--and a good perspective!

1. "The reason for having it plugged in is that, when running on battery, the wifi radio is turned off when the device sleeps (to save power), while when it is plugged in, the wifi radio remains on all the time"

I did not realize that. I'm glad actually, therefore, that I'm in the habit of turning wi-fi off after using it.

2. Intriguing-- do the wi-fi sync from iTunes on the Mac!! And it will work even if the device is asleep?!! Of course, the wi-fi needs to be on! 🙂

3. You mentioned that you leave iTunes open, but hidden? Not sure what "hidden" means!

4. I see--leave the iPad, iPhone wherever they are, plugged in, with wi-fi on, and do it all from your den via iTunes! Cool!

Of course, in our case, our i-devices are rarely plugged in. Yet, you are right-- messing with the cable, etc. is a drag.

Given what you've explained, Apple could have set things up so that i-device could wi-fi sync without being plugged in, right? I.E., that it wouldn't go to sleep after a wi-fi sync began.

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Answer 4

Demo

Level 10

166,500 points

Mar 11, 2013 2:53 PM in response to AstroMacMan

AstroMacMan wrote:

3. You mentioned that you leave iTunes open, but hidden? Not sure what "hidden" means!

Perhaps Michael means running iTunes on another desktop or in another Space - depending on what version of OS X one is using. I run iTunes on another set top screen all the time while I am working on another desktop screen or screens.

Given what you've explained, Apple could have set things up so that i-device could wi-fi sync without being plugged in, right? I.E., that it wouldn't go to sleep after a wi-fi sync began.

Read his post again - the second paragraph. You can WiFi sync without the iPad being plugged in. I do it all the time. My iPad is never plugged into power when I WiFi sync. It will not happen automatically, I must initiate it from the Mac or from the iPad, but it does not have to be plugged in to power.

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Answer 5

Skydiver119

Level 9

53,405 points

Mar 11, 2013 3:33 PM in response to Demo

When I used to play with wifi sync my experience was similar. The manual may say you need to be plugged into the wall but that's wrong.

I did have an issue with my iPad initiating the sync (although it's been months since I tried it). I only figured it out when I was chatting in the evening and iTunes just kept opening on its own. Figured out it was because my iTunes was set to automatically open when it sensed the iPod/iPad. So my iPad kept reaching out and waking up my iTunes to initiate a sync. I changed that setting and now my devices don't open the program.

I gave up wifi syncing months ago because it was just so slow. I could sync my iPad and iPod in minutes but would take significantly longer over wifi. Some swear by it however. If you sync to a desktop that's always on your device can sync every time you walk into your house. I have a laptop that's off 20 hours out of the day, so it's not a great thing for me.

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