syncing my son's iPhone with my iTunes

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Level 3

931 points

syncing my son's iPhone with my iTunes

My kid has an iPhone 5s, but still syncs with his old Mac Mini running 10.6 (Snow leopard). So it looks like he won't be able to update to IOS 10. But I have an iMac running El Capitan. Is it possible to start syncing his phone to my iTunes (as a second device) so I can update him to IOS 10? Will he only lose his songs? I assume a backup will still keep all his other stuff (pictures, videos, iMessage chats, etc.)? I probably have most of the songs he has on his phone on my mac, so we should be able to get his music back manually.

Anyway, there is no chance that we can update his mini since he has software on it that will not work with El Capitan.

The only other way would be to set up another user account on my iMac for him to use, but then he would not be able to see my iTunes library to get his music back.

Please advise.

Thanks

iMac, OS X El Capitan (10.11.5), 8GB RAM, 1TB HD

Posted on Sep 13, 2016 11:19 AM

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Answer 1

javaliga

Level 10

120,179 points

Sep 13, 2016 11:49 AM in response to Alfredo Jahn

You could try something like this:

iTunes 12 for Mac: Use multiple iTunes libraries

First you would have to copy your son's library from his Mac to yours:

How to move your iTunes library to a new computer - Apple Support

I admit I'm not an expert this, but the documentation above seems pretty straightforward. Just read it carefully. If you do it right, I see no reason why your son should lose any information.

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