ALAC to ACC Conversion During a Sync

Thank's Chris.

I'm not sure what you meant by "Click the Summary tab." I browsed all the menus in iTunes on my Mac and the Music app on my iPhone and found no "Summary" tab.

However, I did find the option by clicking on the iPhone icon, which only appeared when I plugged in my iPhone.

Updating this option is a Catch-22. Changing that sync option is only available when I plug in my iPhone (without Wi-Fi sync checked) and once I plug in my iPhone it starts the sync.

I had set it to 256 ACC a while ago so the compression on my iPhone in good shape.

Comments?

I found the Summary tab. It is clicked by default so I did not see it.

However it only shows when the iPhone is plugged in so there is still a Catch-22.

I thought of how to get around the Catch 22 that it will start converting and downloading music files before one can set this parameter.

If that happens, one can to a full restore to the iPhone. That will have the added advantage of converting all the higher-quality formatted files to the format specified.

What if you had previously downloaded with 128 MP3 conversion?

What if you had previously dowloaded with ALAC conversion?

Would a sync convert them to 256 ACC, if you specified that as the conversion format?

I was referring to cases where the Mac iTunes music had 256 ACC bitrates or higher (ALAC) and the music that was on the iPhone had lower bit rates (128 MP3). Assume you previously downloaded all or some of the music with 128 MP3 compression and now you are changing to 256 ACC. I assume an iTunes sync would not replace the 128 MP3 iPhone versions with 256 ACC ones, while a restore would take care of that. Correct?

I see the flaw in my Catch 22 scenario. I had assumed "Automatically Sync when this iPhone is connected" was on. If that is the case, iTunes will start downloading before you can change the conversion rate. The workaround is to turn that off before changing the conversion rate, then turn it on again.

We are getting closer, but still not quite agreeing.

You said, "you don't need to restore. If you removed the 128 MP3 in iTunes, just sync. It will remove the MP3 version and put the new version on."

Assume there is no 128 MP3 song in iTunes on the Mac to delete. The 128 MP3 version on the iPhone came from downconverting during a previous download.

"Or simply make the change, stop the sync and restart the sync.

Or let it complete the sync then resync it."

Your second statement is not consistent with your first, which was, "I assume an iTunes sync would not replace the 128 MP3 iPhone versions with 256 ACC ones."

Are you suggesting I go through the files on the iPhone, one by one, and delete all that have compression quality less than 256 ACC? That would be tedious. I just plugged in my iPhone, selected Music, and then tried to sort the Kind column by clicking on "Kind". It did not sort them by "Kind". It starts listing ACC, then lists MPEG, then lists ACC again. As far as I can tell I can only sort on Genres, Artists, and Albums. Even if I could sort on Kind, it would not sort on Bitrate, so I could not group the 256 ACC files.

So I state again, there is no non-tedious method to upgrade the 128 MP3 files on the iPhone, except for deleting and syncing the all of the music on the iPhone.

Chris, Thanks for the multiple replies. I think I understand now.