Using iPhone with iTunes on new laptop.

d93c2inhxfok4y

Hey all,

I recently bought a new MacBook. It's my first Mac, and I'm really impressed by it. However, I plugged my iPhone into it for the first time this morning and it won't let me transfer music to the phone. I've never had the iPhone set to sync with my previous laptop, I always just used to drag and drop songs from iTunes on my previous laptop as I wanted to. The reason for this was mainly because I have a huge library and only a few gig of space to spare for music on my iPhone.

I had a fiddle with iTunes on my new Mac this morning before work and it seemed to want to completely format the iPhone before I could simply drag and drop music like I have always done again. Why do I have to do this? Is there any way around it?

snappieT

Your iPhone is tied to a single iTunes install. What ties them together is called the Library Persistent ID, and fortunately it's reasonably straightforward to update your new iTunes install to match the old one - the iPhone won't be able to tell the difference.

Just one example of how to do it here (Google for Library Persistent ID for many more): http://www.corsino.com/blog/?p=153

Eoin

Does this link help?
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1202

If not, there are 3rd party programs that can copy the files from the iPhone to the new computer first.

Might want to confirm that an iPhone that was connected to a PC can work with a Mac though without formatting the whole thing.

d93c2inhxfok4y

Eoin wrote: »

Does this link help?
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1202

If not, there are 3rd party programs that can copy the files from the iPhone to the new computer first.

Might want to confirm that an iPhone that was connected to a PC can work with a Mac though without formatting the whole thing.

That link is very helpful man, thanks. This is particularly (and depressingly) illuminating:
"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."

snappieT wrote: »

Your iPhone is tied to a single iTunes install. What ties them together is called the Library Persistent ID, and fortunately it's reasonably straightforward to update your new iTunes install to match the old one - the iPhone won't be able to tell the difference.

Just one example of how to do it here (Google for Library Persistent ID for many more): http://www.corsino.com/blog/?p=153

Thanks, this seems promising! That link is for a windows machine, though, I think. I found this, which looks like it has a guide. I find it very annoying that I need to do this. Don't suppose you know if I can back up my entire phone onto my new mac, wipe it, and make the new mac the home computer? Goddamnit.

Eoin

Kate Flaky Denim wrote: »

Thanks, this seems promising! That link is for a windows machine, though, I think. I found this, which looks like it has a guide. I find it very annoying that I need to do this. Don't suppose you know if I can back up my entire phone onto my new mac, wipe it, and make the new mac the home computer? Goddamnit.

I'm nearly positive I've done that before when I switched laptops.

Check out this program:
http://www.macroplant.com/iphoneexplorer/

Please be sure to post back, as I've also switched from PC to a Mac, but still using the PC for my iPhone transfers at the moment.

d93c2inhxfok4y

I haven't had a lot of luck with this to be honest.

I got the Library Persistant ID for my old Samsung laptop, and edit the itunes library file on my new Mac to this Library Persistant ID. It made no difference, though. When I plugged in the iPhone and tried to make it manually manageable, it gave me the 'this iphone is synced to another computer' message and asked me did I want to erase everything on it.

This is really, really annoying! No idea what to do with it. Considering just wiping it and syncing it with my new Mac. As far as I know, it won't delete phone numbers etc, just apps and music. I'm transferring the Apps to itunes now and I already have the music on here.

whiterebel

Kate Flaky Denim wrote: »

I haven't had a lot of luck with this to be honest.

I got the Library Persistant ID for my old Samsung laptop, and edit the itunes library file on my new Mac to this Library Persistant ID. It made no difference, though. When I plugged in the iPhone and tried to make it manually manageable, it gave me the 'this iphone is synced to another computer' message and asked me did I want to erase everything on it.

This is really, really annoying! No idea what to do with it. Considering just wiping it and syncing it with my new Mac. As far as I know, it won't delete phone numbers etc, just apps and music. I'm transferring the Apps to itunes now and I already have the music on here.

When you have it set up, make sure you set up iTunes correctly, so you can sync without adding all your songs, or manually dragging and dropping.
On the summary page, tick "Sync only checked songs and video". Then tick the songs/video you want in the Music/movies tab.

d93c2inhxfok4y

Just thought I'd post an update in here, I know you wanted to know Eoin:

It was as simple as completely deleting the iTunes folder off my new MacBook, and copying the old itunes folder from my old laptop. When I opened up iTunes again, plugged in the phone, it suddenly worked.

I tried this a few times and failed, however: when I had deleted the MacBook iTunes it stayed in the trash can, and was still 'active' (I know this isn't the most technical term in the world) from there. Also, if I deleted the folder, and then ran itunes, the folder was automatically re-created, with an 'itunes music library' .xml file with a new Persistent I.D, as opposed to the old one I needed to use with my iPhone.

Just totally delete the itunes Folder, copy over the iTunes folder from your old laptop, and only start up iTunes when the old folder is copied over. Works perfectly!

Eoin

Quick question - I am getting an iPhone 4 in a few weeks, but I want to use it with my Macbook, not the windows laptop my current iPhone is synced with. Obviously I want my apps and contacts though. Music is OK as it's on a network share anyway.

Am I right in thinking that I sync the old phone with the old laptop.
Connect new iPhone to windows laptop, which will sync contacts and Apps.
Connect new iPhone to mac laptop which will sync contacts to Outlook, and Apps to iTunes.

Does that sound right? Are there any problems with filesystems when you're using an iPhone on both Windows and OSX?

Eoin

To answer my question, it looks like I can do a restore on a new iPhone from another iPhone's backup file. Hopefully that means I'll keep my text messages and photos.

I lost most of my apps when I switched laptops with my current phone (must have missed a step along the way), but I was able to just copy and paste the .ipa files to the new machine, add them into iTunes and put them back on.