Syncing your device with iTunes is the only way to get all your media onto your pocket-sized player. Its also the most convenient way to add contact information, bookmarks, and calendar events. Ifyou find yourself stumped by how your device syncs, read on. Ifyou have a computer at work with your contacts and calendar information, and a machine at home that has all your music, you can set up your iOS device to sync different content to each of these.
Apple has conveniently organised mobile data into discrete blocks, each of which can be synced with different machines. These blocks are shown as a series of tabs such as Info, which may feature your MobileMe account, bookmarks contacts, calendars and notes, and Music, which includes playlists and music videos. For this to work, you'll need to go through each tab and uncheck any items you don't want to sync with the new computer. For example, to keep music that you've synced with your home machine, uncheck the sync options in the Music tab on yourwork computer (see Selective Syncing screen, above).
Although you can't plug an iPhone or iPod touch into another machine and have it incorporate media - music, videos, photos and podcasts - from that other computer, it can merge data found in the Info tab. To do this, on the second machine, deselect the sync options in all but the Info tab. Click on the Info tab and select any items you'd like to add to your device - Contacts and Calendars, for example.
When you click on the Apply button to update your device, a dialog box will appear asking if you'd like to replace the information with that from this computer or merge it. For the latter, click on Merge Info. Ifyou want to add audio files to your device from a different machine than the one you primarily sync music with, select the Manually Manage Music And Videos option in the Summary tab in your primary machine. Then, when you connectyour device to a second computer, you can drag songs or playlists onto the device in iTunes.
Apple has conveniently organised mobile data into discrete blocks, each of which can be synced with different machines. These blocks are shown as a series of tabs such as Info, which may feature your MobileMe account, bookmarks contacts, calendars and notes, and Music, which includes playlists and music videos. For this to work, you'll need to go through each tab and uncheck any items you don't want to sync with the new computer. For example, to keep music that you've synced with your home machine, uncheck the sync options in the Music tab on yourwork computer (see Selective Syncing screen, above).
Although you can't plug an iPhone or iPod touch into another machine and have it incorporate media - music, videos, photos and podcasts - from that other computer, it can merge data found in the Info tab. To do this, on the second machine, deselect the sync options in all but the Info tab. Click on the Info tab and select any items you'd like to add to your device - Contacts and Calendars, for example.
When you click on the Apply button to update your device, a dialog box will appear asking if you'd like to replace the information with that from this computer or merge it. For the latter, click on Merge Info. Ifyou want to add audio files to your device from a different machine than the one you primarily sync music with, select the Manually Manage Music And Videos option in the Summary tab in your primary machine. Then, when you connectyour device to a second computer, you can drag songs or playlists onto the device in iTunes.
