How to use iTunes to Sync iPhone, iPad with PC or Mac

What is one of the best ways to sync with iTunes on my iPhone and iPad? Do I even have to sync with my Mac?

Welcome to our full guide to syncing an iPhone or iPad with a Mac or PC. We’ll clarify how to sync with iTunes over a USB cable connection (this may be Lightning or an older 30-pin cable in case you’re utilizing a pre-2012 gadget) or through Wi-Fi.

How to use iTunes to Sync iPhone, iPad with Mac or PC

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This tutorial covers the fundamentals of syncing an iPhone or iPad with iTunes on a Mac or PC. But if the method goes fallacious and also you’re on the lookout for more in-depth troubleshooting assist in syncing your iPhone or iPad, strive Fixes for frequent iPhone sync points, iTunes sync is damaged: Apple, please repair it and How to sync iPhone with iTunes without deleting apps and different information.

And if all of this has made you assume about how to fully take away iTunes, read one of the best iTunes alternate options and how to take away iTunes, and for data on Apple’s phrases of use for iTunes, read: Do you agree to the phrases and circumstances of Apple

How to sync with iTunes: Should I sync an iPhone or iPad with iTunes?

Since the launch of iOS 5 a few years in the past (to put that into context, we’ll change to iOS 10 within the fall of 2016), it has been doable to set up and use an iPhone or iPad without connecting. Create with a Mac or PC: You can set up on the gadget and download apps and media you purchase from the Apple shops straight to the gadget. As Steve Jobs put it (reasonably early, it turns out), it is a post-PC world.

But there are numerous occasions when it nonetheless is sensible to do issues the quaint method. Downloading hefty apps over Wi-Fi – or, worse, 3G – is usually a prolonged course, and it is typically wiser to download content material over a wired broadband connection first. (In current years, we have seen that it is simpler to download main iOS updates to a Mac earlier than syncing them to our iPhones and iPads. It’s space-saving this manner.) And if you have already got media saved in your Mac or PC and wish to use it in your iPad or iPhone, it is sensible to join the units and sync them. We will stroll you through this process in this article.

(Saying “connect” would not essentially imply a bodily cable between the computer and mobile gadget. IOS 5 additionally provided the flexibility to sync over Wi-Fi, and we’ll cowl that beneath.)

How to sync with iTunes: Types of data, media and content material you may sync with your iPhone or iPad

Syncing between an iDevice and a Mac or PC is usually a helpful and friendly method to switch a variety of knowledge and content material. You can synchronize this:

• Audio: Individual songs, music albums and playlists (for more data on syncing particular tracks, see sync music from iMac to iPhone without deleting Apple Music playlists and songs); audiobooks; podcasts; ringtones
• Photos
• Video: TV, motion pictures, home-made video clips
• iBooks
• Contacts
• Calendars

What sorts of data and files can’t be synced from iTunes? There are three main gaps – mail, notes, and bookmarks – however, these might be managed on a number of units with iCloud.

Let’s transfer on to the precise sync course. It is straightforward so don’t be concerned.

Sync with iTunes: Sync your iPhone or iPad through USB

1. Connect your iPhone, iPad or iPod contact to the Mac or PC through a USB / Lightning or USB / 30-pin cable. You can use the cable that comes with the gadget, however, there are many third-party choices which can be cheaper, longer, more sturdy, provide totally different features and so on. – see Best Lightning cables for iPhone and iPad.

2. Open iTunes. (Apple recommends updating iTunes to the newest model, however you may normally be high quality with an earlier model. iTunes itself will let you realize if it is having hassle syncing with your mobile gadget and wishes a pressing replacement.) Everything works appropriate, an icon will seem within the prime left nook of iTunes, indicating what sort of gadget you may have linked.

3. Click on that icon. You will see varied particulars about the gadget – the mannequin, serial quantity, iOS model quantity and so forth – and the sorts of content material you may sync with it will likely be proven within the left pane of the window. This listing depends upon the content material accessible in your Mac or PC.

4. Click on any of those – Music, Movies or no matter – and you may see a listing of accessible, the synced content material of that sort saved in your Mac or PC. Look on the checkbox on the prime of the web page, subsequent to the phrase Sync and the content material sort. If the re’s already a checkmark within the field, synchronization is enabled; if not, check it to allow sync for that content material sort.

If sync is enabled, it implies that iTunes will sync the chosen gadgets of that sort to the iPhone if you click on Apply. (Don’t click on on it but – we’ll set sync choices for all of the content material varieties we wish and apply them unexpectedly.) Check the person gadgets, playlists and so forth you need to sync or check the choice on the prime to robotically check everything. sync, or something that’s current, unplayed or no matter.

There could also be some points at this level: iTunes might warn you that your iPhone is already synced with one other iTunes library, which can trigger syncing to not proceed usually. You can get around this by selecting the ‘Erase and Sync’ possibility, however, because the wording suggests, this feature will end result within the content material you may have synced being erased from the opposite machine. Fortunately, this course takes place by content material sort, so you may hold the flicks you have synced from one other Mac, for instance, whereas selecting Erase & Sync for music.

5. Click one other content material sort and set synchronization choices for it. Continue till you may have turned on and managed synchronization for every content material sort you need to synchronize. When you are accomplished, click on Apply within the backside proper nook of the window after which (if the syncing course of would not begin robotically) Sync.

6. Wait for the sync to full, then take away your iPhone (the eject icon is to the correct of your gadget title on the prime left) and disconnect it from the Mac or PC.

How to sync with iTunes: sync your iPhone or iPad over Wi-Fi

Synchronization through Wi-Fi, like nearly all wi-fi operations, has benefits and downsides in contrast to the wired equal. Obviously it is handier not to have to dig out the correct cable (and if the USB ports are on the again of a cumbersome desktop Mac or PC, reaching them might be difficult). However, understand that you continue to want to join it through USB the primary time to set up the syncing course. Future syncs will happen wirelessly without the necessity to join the iPhone.

Finally, it is price retaining in thoughts that in case you’re syncing massive data, you are doubtless to discover the method noticeably slower as transfers are restricted by the velocity of your Wi-Fi connection reasonably than a lot sooner USB.

Here’s how to sync your iPhone over Wi-Fi:

1. Connect your iPhone, iPad or iPod contact to the Mac or PC through a USB / Lightning or USB / 30-pin cable.

2. Open iTunes and click on the little iPhone icon as above when the highest left seems.

3. Instead of choosing a content material sort to sync, keep within the Summary tab this time (or click on Summary on the prime of the left bar, in case you’re misplaced). Under the Options part (the third field down) you will notice a checkmark subsequent to ‘Sync with this iPhone through WiFi’. Check the field after which click on Apply on the backside proper. You can now disconnect the USB cable.

4. Even although the iPhone shouldn’t be linked, you may proceed to set sync choices in iTunes. Work via the totally different content material varieties as earlier than, and at the least choose the particular data to sync, or the parameters to apply when deciding whether or not to sync a file. When you are accomplished, click on Sync.

5. You don’t want to reconnect the iPhone. In the long run, solely connecting the iPhone to the identical Wi-Fi community because the Mac or PC will end result within the icon showing in iTunes, so you may change the sync choices with none drawback. If you need to sync iPhone once more, make certain it is on the identical Wi-Fi community and plugged in: if iTunes is turned on, it’s going to detect iPhone and reapply your sync picks and parameters.