Sync iPhone with a new computer?

S

shurcooL

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Oct 12, 2007
Messages
1,125
I know this is a common question, but with the iOS 5 and iCloud I'm hoping there's a better way. All my searching gives me results from 2009 or so.

I have an iPhone I was syncing with iTunes on a Windows PC.

Now I want to sync it with my MacBook.

I've already got the music/movies and all that to sync on the MacBook, but the "Sync Apps" checkbox remains unchecked. When I check it, it says all apps and their data will be deleted, then synced from the new computer.

How do I not lose App data? Thank you.
 
I would assume that you would need to migrate your iTunes folder from your PC to your Mac to preserve its contents (backups etc) in its entirety. If the PC database is the same as the OSX database is anyones guess....best thing to do would be to go to an apple store and ask them/have them do it for ya.
 
So this is what it looks like when I try to check the "Sync Apps" checkbox on the new computer.



Note that I already have all my apps in the new computer's iTunes library. I've done "Transfer Purchases" and "Backup", so there's a backup of all the apps and app data too.

Based on that, and the google results I've seen so far, I have a pretty high expectation that if I go through with the process, all my app data will be preserved.

However, I can't afford to take the risk of losing my app data. :/
 
Last edited:
What happens if I change my iPhone backup destination from old computer to iCloud, then change it again from iCloud to new computer?
 
I would assume it would preserve app data to iCloud...but again...go talk to APPLE and get the direct answer from the horses mouth....hell they can probably even do it for you.
 
Couple things to start with: Windows itunes library files are different than mac itunes library files (this used to be the case - I'm pretty sure it's still true). If you were going from mac to mac, or windows to windows - you simply consolidate the itunes library (because Apple thinks your stupid and you can't possibly handle managing your own files :rolleyes: ) and then move the entire folder to the new PC and point itunes toward that library.

But this won't work from mac to windows. It wasn't that big of a deal before - you just created a new windows itunes library file and imported all your music, and you had to deal with recopying music to your devices - annoying but it worked.

But now with apps... well the whole app data thing screws it all up. Because it's kinda hard to move saved games, and specific app data unless the app has a built in export/import feature. (For example, I get your pain - I use splashID for password storage. If I reset the phone - I lose the database. I can reinstall the app, but the passwords are gone - so I have to use the export import. Restoring the phone however saves that app data)

Personally, I HATE the itunes library thing, and the mentality that my PC will manage my files for me. Makes things 1000% more complicated for the smart people, just so the computer illiterate can not lose their digital content. (meanwhile their computers have 6 copies of the same songs - drives me nuts)

So now I'm wondering. What if you backed up to icloud, moved the phone to the windows pc (which will wipe it's content), then RESTORED the phone from windows using icloud. Since icloud is tied to your apple id - it'll probably restore your phone and your app data, but now it'll be tied to the windows library. Assuming you don't want to pay for more icloud storage, you wouldn't sync music, photos, and videos and move those manually between the mac and PC (easy enough). Annoying, but I bet it would work. It's probably worth a try - the only thing that would scare me is the windows itunes overwriting the icloud backup while your phone is wiped... I simply haven't played with icloud enough yet to know how it behaves - maybe someone else can confirm if my approach would work...
 
i just did the switch to mac from pc with my iphone and I made sure that all my apps and my library was seen by iTunes. Then I did the sync, even tho it said it was going to wipe my apps it didn't, it just messed all my organization i did. Now I do have everything synced with iCloud so all my settings and saves were still there.
 
valve1138 said:
Did you log into your iTunes Store account on the new computer?
Click to expand...
Yes, of course I did. I've also authorized it.

I already have my iTunes music, movies and TV shows, etc. on it synced from the new computer's iTunes library (which already contains all my iTunes contents from the old computer, including apps, music, movies, TV shows, books, everything).

When I checked "Sync Music" on the new computer, it told me the same thing. That it can only be synced to one computer's iTunes library, so if I go through it will delete all my songs on iPhone and sync with the new iTunes library. I hit okay because my new iTunes library already had all my songs from old one (redownloaded everything from iTunes in Cloud, and manually copied a few ripped songs).
 
Andross182 said:
go talk to APPLE and get the direct answer from the horses mouth....hell they can probably even do it for you.
Click to expand...
I would consider doing that, but they typically tell you to back up all your data and that they're not responsible for data loss or something like that, so it seems kinda moot to try to get help with this. Still worth a shot probably.
 
DNAlevelC said:
i just did the switch to mac from pc with my iphone and I made sure that all my apps and my library was seen by iTunes. Then I did the sync, even tho it said it was going to wipe my apps it didn't, it just messed all my organization i did.
Click to expand...
See, I had a pretty good idea that this would happen. If only I had another iPhone to test it out with...

Hmm, maybe I'll just manually backup whatever important app data I have and then try this. In the worst case, I'll learn a lesson and have to deal with manually restoring app data.
 
Steps are for windows, this took me a couple moves to figure out but I have it down now. For moving to a new computer or simply reinstalling windows on same computer.

1. On the old computer do Preferences -> advanced -> Keep itunes media folder organized. This could take a long time if you weren't doing it. Also make sure your disk is big enough to suck in all your media files.
2. Find your media folder, mentioned on the same screen above.
3. Find your library folder, if you hold shift and launch itunes and click the choose library button it will likely show you the folder you are using. Otherwise http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1660
4. Consider deauthorizing the old computer in itunes if you are never going to use it again.
5. Move both the library and media folders to the new computer. Media folder should have the same directory path otherwise hard links in library may have trouble.
6. Shift launch itunes and point it to your library file iTunes Library.itl.
7. Everything should be as it was on the old computer.
8. Authorize the new computer.
 
DNAlevelC said:
i just did the switch to mac from pc with my iphone and I made sure that all my apps and my library was seen by iTunes. Then I did the sync, even tho it said it was going to wipe my apps it didn't, it just messed all my organization i did. Now I do have everything synced with iCloud so all my settings and saves were still there.
Click to expand...

x2

you should be fine. Just make sure you backup your phone first, just in case. if something happens, you'll be able to get everything back exactly the way that it was.

Transferr all your data and purchases off your phone and then sync it to the new computer (make sure you authorize the laptop first). I just went through this, moving from my laptop to my desktop, and even though it said that it was going to delete my apps, it didn't.
 
dr.stevil said:
x2

you should be fine. Just make sure you backup your phone first, just in case. if something happens, you'll be able to get everything back exactly the way that it was.

Transferr all your data and purchases off your phone and then sync it to the new computer (make sure you authorize the laptop first). I just went through this, moving from my laptop to my desktop, and even though it said that it was going to delete my apps, it didn't.
Click to expand...
Thanks, that's what I thought but I wanted to hear some confirmations. :D Yep, I did all that so it should work.
 
I've transplanted the library from Windows to Mac. MaxBurn's post is pretty much it, except I went through the extra step of editing the library XML file and updating the folder names that everything was pointing to with a quick find/replace (on Windows, they have a drive letter). Everything else was in the same logical location besides the drive letter (C:/Users/fury/Music/iTunes... vs. /Users/fury/Music/iTunes...) which may have helped the process, but any find/replace to point to the proper file system location should do..

Personally, I HATE the itunes library thing
Click to expand...
Seconded, thirded, fourthed, and motherfucking fifthed.

iTunes is the biggest piece of trash I have ever seen and it boggles my mind how the person responsible for it has not been fired from Apple, stabbed, hacked up into a million tiny bits and pieces, then run over by a goddamn steamroller. It's not even easy for computer illiterates!

This whole "erase your shit if you move to a new library" thing is a holdover from when the music industry grabbed Apple by the balls and said "you better not let people hook up their iPod to a different computer, or THEY'LL PIRATE EVERYTHING!!!1!1" Clueless music industry is clueless. Wasn't long before iPod ripping stuff popped up to get around that arbitrary limitation.

There's stuff like PhoneView for the Mac that I think will let you back up and restore app data independent of iTunes library.
 
Fury, that's good to know. I don't think I have heard of anyone successfully editing the paths in that file before.
 
I was actually hoping to "recreate" my iTunes library from scratch on the new computer, rather than migrating it from the old directly (ala MaxBurn and fury). I dunno, it's just I've had that library for a long time and it only has a few items... I kinda wanted a fresh start.

I'll let you guys know how it went for me when I pull the trigger and just force sync with new computer/iTunes library.
 
I think you will regret that, I believe the apps will go back to their defaults like you just downloaded them. Not sure about that I could easily be wrong here.

But as long as you keep your old library and it was up to date with your sync and backup you have nothing to lose. You could always restore to that to get back to where you were.
 
To save a lot of hassle make sure you back up to iCloud and that iCloud is your restore method. It will make life so much easier. I used to dread moving from one computer to another before and restores. So much better now.
 
There is a free application for Mac or PC I just found out about called iExplorer. http://www.macroplant.com/iexplorer/

It basically gives you the raw file system of your iPhone. You can then drag and drop documents/files from the apps onto your computer, and then if your stuff gets erased after the sync, you can at least drop these files back into place afterward for any apps that you really didn't want to have to start over.

That's about the best thing I can think of as far as saving your data and restoring it without transplanting the whole iTunes library.

The main thing I don't like about iCloud is that it all has to happen over wifi. If I'm on 3G and shit hits the fan and I have to restore, I'm out of luck (worst case scenario there, though). When I do stuff like restoring from a computer, it transfers things to the phone so much faster. And I don't have to pay the $25 for songs that I didn't buy from iTunes. I guess the solution to that is iCloud backup for app & phone data, and iTunes sync for music.
 
Last edited:
Thanks fury. Is that iExplorer app legit? Because it looks too good to be true hehe.

Edit: Ah, it's only free to try. Now that looks more reasonable. ;D
 
Itunes is absolutely the devil.

Thank goodness I get all my contacts and calendar entries from an exchange server. I'm fairly certain that if I was forced to use iTunes more than once or twice a year I would "accidentally" drop my company iphone and ipad into various lakes and rivers until they took them away from me.

As it is I only use them for online content. Netflix/hulu/pandora etc. It's not worth the hassle of dealing with an apple managed library.
 
shurcooL said:
Thanks fury. Is that iExplorer app legit? Because it looks too good to be true hehe.

Edit: Ah, it's only free to try. Now that looks more reasonable. ;D
Click to expand...

It's 100% freeware. Where did you see that it's only free to try?
 
On the Download page. "Free to try, $24.95 to buy"

Anyway, I finally grew some balls and just clicked that "Sync Apps" checkbox. Lo and behold, everything went fine. It didn't even delete and readd all my apps, it just synced. The only thing that happened was my folder organization got reset. But all apps and app data was preserved.

 
Oh, that's other software they make. I'm talking about iExplorer, which is in the middle of the page.

The paid stuff adds things like getting songs, photos, texts and stuff in a high level way from the phone, or mounting it as a disk to work with Finder or Windows Explorer.

iExplorer is enough to access the raw file system and copy files to and from apps' documents/saves folders. I'm looking at mine right now and if I wanted to, I could hax0r my Nyan Cat high score save file.

Good to know you had a happy ending, aside from the folders. That would drive me insane enough to keep on trucking with the iTunes library transplant process. I've got at least a couple hundred apps meticulously arranged in my folders...
 
fury said:
Oh, that's other software they make. I'm talking about iExplorer, which is in the middle of the page.
Click to expand...
Ah, okay, you're right. That one is free.

Good to know you had a happy ending, aside from the folders. That would drive me insane enough to keep on trucking with the iTunes library transplant process. I've got at least a couple hundred apps meticulously arranged in my folders...
Click to expand...
Yeah, this is great news for me cuz now I feel much more relaxed about my iTunes library. If I ever have to move it again, I know it's possible to do without serious problems. Restoring folders was annoying, but it's a small price to pay (considering the worst case scenario). I made sure to take screenshots of my folder arrangement, so I didn't have to do it by memory.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top