[sailorgirl]

This question is probably so stupid that I'm royally embarassing myself, but oh well. Can I sync my iphone from two different computers, choosing just the bits and pieces I want from each? For instance, I'd like to pick up my itunes library and photos from my home computer but I'd like my contacts and my calendar from my work computer.

Thanks!

[Jeremy]

Not that I am aware of. I just tried this with my girlfriends phone. She was syncing her phone on my computer using all of my music. She just bought a macbook yesterday, I got it all set up and tried to see what it would do and it knows it's connected with another computer and says if you do sync, it would over write everything currently on the phone.

[Rene Ritchie]

Disk mode?

There's probably an App to do that for Jailbroken iPhones...

[HawaiiMacAddict]

Aloha everyone,

There is only one way to sync between two or more Macs, at least only one of which I am aware. I have an external drive on which I host both my iPhoto and iTunes libraries. This is both to provide easy access from both my iMac and MacBook Pro and protection for both libraries (the drive is unmounted when not in use). I can then also take it with my on vacation and have easy access to both libraries. Since I have only one iTunes library, but can use up to five Macs to access same, I can sync my iPhone with up to five different Macs.

Unless you point your macs to an external drive, I don't see any way of syncing an iPhone to multiple Macs.

HawaiMacAddict

[sailorgirl]

Thanks for the replies. That is a total bummer. I'll keep searching and if I find out anything else I'll post about it. In the meantime, would this work? Mobile Me would take care of the calendar and contacts portions of this issue, correct? So in theory I could sign up for the 60-day Mobile Me free trial to get all the contacts and calendar portion taken care of, get my music from my home computer and be good to go for 60 days. After that there would be the calendar issue to deal with and contacts, although I don't really create enough new contacts that it would be a big deal to enter them manually after the initial sync. And it sounds like there are some calendar syncing web apps out there that I could sign up for (I read about one for $25 a year) that if that was a huge deal for me I could just do that. That would work right?

[Jeremy]

Thanks for the replies. That is a total bummer. I'll keep searching and if I find out anything else I'll post about it. In the meantime, would this work? Mobile Me would take care of the calendar and contacts portions of this issue, correct? So in theory I could sign up for the 60-day Mobile Me free trial to get all the contacts and calendar portion taken care of, get my music from my home computer and be good to go for 60 days. After that there would be the calendar issue to deal with and contacts, although I don't really create enough new contacts that it would be a big deal to enter them manually after the initial sync. And it sounds like there are some calendar syncing web apps out there that I could sign up for (I read about one for $25 a year) that if that was a huge deal for me I could just do that. That would work right?

Yes, the mobileme would work for what you are trying to do.

[jmeiners]

Mobile me is a pretty big part of my enthusiasm for the new 3g phone. Don't get me wrong I would want a new iphone regardless, but the fact that I can maintain real time updates on my calendar and monitor my email from my iPhone is very appealing. Best of luck to you!

[hotrod#AC]

I posted this on another thread, but I'm hoping to use Sugarsync to access and sync files from multiple computers. Sync Files, Backup Data, Remote File Access for PC, Mac, Mobile Phone - SugarSync

It's not free, but so far, I've been very happy with their service on my PCs and my Treo700wx.

It's not as easy and nice as simply pairing and syncing with multiple computers, but it has it's own benefits.

[ngmcs8203]

Does anybody know if this would work with the iphone 3g?

http://snipurl.com/2zruv [www_andrewgrant_org]

[RKJ]

This question is probably so stupid that I'm royally embarassing myself, but oh well. Can I sync my iphone from two different computers, choosing just the bits and pieces I want from each? For instance, I'd like to pick up my itunes library and photos from my home computer but I'd like my contacts and my calendar from my work computer.

Thanks!

I am doing exactly what you are asking about. I sync everything from my home computer except contacts and calendar, which I sync from the office. All I did was tell my home computer not to sync the stuff from the office and Vice-versa. I did this inside itunes before hooking up the Iphone.

[Jeremy]

I am doing exactly what you are asking about. I sync everything from my home computer except contacts and calendar, which I sync from the office. All I did was tell my home computer not to sync the stuff from the office and Vice-versa. I did this inside itunes before hooking up the Iphone.

And you syncing contacts and calendar from another iTunes app from your work computer? Or are you on a exchange server?

[AnteL0pe]

I am doing exactly what you are asking about. I sync everything from my home computer except contacts and calendar, which I sync from the office. All I did was tell my home computer not to sync the stuff from the office and Vice-versa. I did this inside itunes before hooking up the Iphone.

I'm doing something similar. I sync my media, contact, email accounts and calendars at home on a Mac and sync my work calendar, which is an Outlook calendar, on my Windows box at work. I'm doing physical syncs for both.

[helmet112]

I've seen some varying answers on the web, and not a lot of details, so I'd like to confirm this. Purchasing my iPhone 3G was my first attempt at using iTunes and the syncing model still isn't fully clear.

I'll be away from home for a month and normally sync with my desktop, as that's what I'm at most of the time. My music library is on a network share, which my laptop won't have easy access to while traveling. Is there no way I can add new music or video from a different iTunes install?

Thanks!

[Jeremy]

I don't think so. The only thing that may work is if you authorize that other computer with your iTunes account. Even so I don't think it will work. It will want to restore your iPhone because it knows it's synced with another computer.

[JustinHorn]

Yeah, this would be a very useful feature to have the ability to sync on at least 2 computers as long as they are signed into the same iTunes account.

[Jeremy]

Apple is just protecting themselves more than likely... even if it were on two computers under the same account you can still have a totally different music collection to have access to... I could be wrong but I think that's why it's not allowed.

[JustinHorn]

Well I think the issue is just because syncing to two different devices could be tricky. If you remove a song from your computer and sync to your iPhone and then sync your iPhone with your MacBook, do you remove that song from the other iTunes account you sync with?

One thing I think you might be able to do is copy the entire library folder over to the macbook with the database file as well. You might be able to sync with that and then when you get back copy the library back to the computer and should still be able to sync? I honestly have no idea if this will work, but might be worth a try.

[Jeremy]

It is way too tricky... so tricky I honestly don't know what else to say other than that your song library has nothing to do with your iTunes account. Only apps, podcasts, etc are effected by your actual iTunes account. So music won't matter. But like you said about removing music effecting the other... too complicated and honestly don't think it would be possible.

[shutter]

You can try this...
http://www.andrewgrant.org/2008/03/3...computers.html

[Jeremy]

You can try this...
http://www.andrewgrant.org/2008/03/3...computers.html

I've seen that a while back, forgot about that, but did hear of many issues when people have tried that. I would not recommend doing that. That's just me though.

[shutter]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but in this particular instance, couldn't you move your media sync relationship to the laptop, then move it back when you get back? Certainly it has to be possible, suppose you replace your desktop you would have to create a new relationship with the new desktop. We're really not talking about the need to sync with two computers...just a different computer for a little while.

[JustinHorn]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but in this particular instance, couldn't you move your media sync relationship to the laptop, then move it back when you get back? Certainly it has to be possible, suppose you replace your desktop you would have to create a new relationship with the new desktop. We're really not talking about the need to sync with two computers...just a different computer for a little while.

This is kind of what I was suggesting I think. Not 100% sure if it would work without having to resync to the new computer, but it should def. work with the downside of having to resync, although that would take some time it would be the same since you have all the same apps and songs form the library.

One thing I think you might be able to do is copy the entire library folder over to the macbook with the database file as well. You might be able to sync with that and then when you get back copy the library back to the computer and should still be able to sync? I honestly have no idea if this will work, but might be worth a try.

[Jeremy]

Does any know if that still works on the latest version of iTunes? Seems like way too much hassle just to sync on two different machines. Maybe I'm crazy.

[helmet112]

The tutorial at Shiny Things seems sort of reasonable, although a bit hacky for me to risk right before I leave.

The best way to handle this I could imagine is: connect my iphone to a different itunes install and have the option to "recreate" my library there, copying over all my media, settings, etc, so I can at least start from the same place.

It's not a big deal that I can't add new media while I'm gone. The biggest issue would be if a new OS version is released, I can't upgrade until I get home. But, if they finally release multitasking or PNS, what's a few more days?

I'm still not convinced on the whole iTunes take-control-of-your-library model. I regularly use at least 4 different computers, so being tied to just one for my iPhone is annoying. I know it's archaic, but I was fine with manually copying music files to other media players, although I guess I am starting to like some of the features in iTunes.

[JustinHorn]

It's not a big deal that I can't add new media while I'm gone. The biggest issue would be if a new OS version is released, I can't upgrade until I get home. But, if they finally release multitasking or PNS, what's a few more days?

I'm pretty sure you can still update your iPhone. You might need to be signed in with your iTunes account linked to your iPhone, but it should work. Just don't set anything to sync. It also always warns you before syncing over your existing device so you could plug it in, hit cancel and then run the update.

Anyone can confirm this?