Can I sync from different computers?

sailorgirl

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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!
 
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Jeremy

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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.
 

HawaiiMacAddict

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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

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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

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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

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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!
 

RKJ

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I do that now

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

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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

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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

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Syncing to a different computer

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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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.
 

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