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GorgeousGeorge

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 30, 2012
29
0
Hobart
Hi all, bit of a noob question, what's the easiest way to hook all my iPhones, iPads etc to new iMac and get all my data(apps, movies etc) without having to download it all again from my apple account???
 

justperry

macrumors G5
Aug 10, 2007
12,558
9,750
I'm a rolling stone.
Hi all, bit of a noob question, what's the easiest way to hook all my iPhones, iPads etc to new iMac and get all my data(apps, movies etc) without having to download it all again from my apple account???

Login to your AppleID before trying to sync, otherwise things will get deleted.
Also did you import your data from a previous Mac?
This is also needed.
 

Siderz

macrumors 6502a
Nov 10, 2012
991
6
Just a personal preference, but I prefer to use iCloud for my backups.

I haven't plugged my iPhone into my Mac for months now. iCloud is so much easier.
 

GorgeousGeorge

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 30, 2012
29
0
Hobart
Login to your AppleID before trying to sync, otherwise things will get deleted.
Also did you import your data from a previous Mac?
This is also needed.
No I haven't transferred anything yet, Its a little complicated.... I have an old eMac which I've been unable to use for my new devices because the new os updates won't work so we have all our iphones(4) and 2 iPads connected to my wife's pc laptop, which now I want to keep everything sorted with the new machine, I'm just not sure what's the quickest and easiest way to do it? I know I can download everything thru iTunes but it's just a lot of data, my monthly allowance is only 50 gb so a majority of that will be used.
When I set up my new iMac I logged into my apple account on initial setup. It's just when I plug my pad in its saying do you wish to sync with the new computer.... Which I do I just want to be able to dump everything off it onto the Mac first....... I did do a backup to the new machine.... Should I now wipe the pad and restore to backup maybe?
 
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GorgeousGeorge

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 30, 2012
29
0
Hobart
Just a personal preference, but I prefer to use iCloud for my backups.

I haven't plugged my iPhone into my Mac for months now. iCloud is so much easier.

Yeah I still haven't quite got my head fully around iCloud, I found it a little annoying, I'm probably not using it to its full advantage thru my lack of knowledge, I'm just always too busy to stuff around, and we now have 4 phones and two iPads plus a couple of iPods connected and it's starting to get a little out of hand, I need to simplify..... I want everything on the iMac now
 

joe-h2o

macrumors 6502a
Jun 24, 2012
997
445
Make sure you have logged into the store in iTunes on the new machine with the Apple ID you use with your devices.

Connect up each iDevice in turn but *do not* sync them yet.

Instead cancel any auto sync that it tries to do and then right click on the device in the iTunes sidebar (if you're on the latest iTunes, turn the sidebar back on for this (View > Show Sidebar), or command+option+s.

Then select "transfer purchases" and it will move all of your purchased apps and music from each device onto your iMac.

When it has done that, do the same right click action and select "back up".

Now each device has everything you bought from iTunes on the iMac. You just need to move across any manually ripped music from whatever machine you have it on (your old eMac?). Transfer this by hand over ethernet or via a USB stick or something.

Job done!

You don't have to pull all your store content back from the cloud, although it is convenient - USB is much more effective if you have a data cap to worry about!

Edit: you also don't have to use iCloud really - if you back up to the cloud it will store your phone settings and contacts, calendars etc, but not your music or apps, since those are already in the cloud. If you back up to the iMac then it can restore everything back just the way it was without having to pull data from the cloud.
 

GorgeousGeorge

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 30, 2012
29
0
Hobart
Make sure you have logged into the store in iTunes on the new machine with the Apple ID you use with your devices.

Connect up each iDevice in turn but *do not* sync them yet.

Instead cancel any auto sync that it tries to do and then right click on the device in the iTunes sidebar (if you're on the latest iTunes, turn the sidebar back on for this (View > Show Sidebar), or command+option+s.

Then select "transfer purchases" and it will move all of your purchased apps and music from each device onto your iMac.

When it has done that, do the same right click action and select "back up".

Now each device has everything you bought from iTunes on the iMac. You just need to move across any manually ripped music from whatever machine you have it on (your old eMac?). Transfer this by hand over ethernet or via a USB stick or something.

Job done!

You don't have to pull all your store content back from the cloud, although it is convenient - USB is much more effective if you have a data cap to worry about!

Edit: you also don't have to use iCloud really - if you back up to the cloud it will store your phone settings and contacts, calendars etc, but not your music or apps, since those are already in the cloud. If you back up to the iMac then it can restore everything back just the way it was without having to pull data from the cloud.

Thanks heaps....I'll give it a try
 

justperry

macrumors G5
Aug 10, 2007
12,558
9,750
I'm a rolling stone.
Make sure you have logged into the store in iTunes on the new machine with the Apple ID you use with your devices.

Connect up each iDevice in turn but *do not* sync them yet.

Instead cancel any auto sync that it tries to do and then right click on the device in the iTunes sidebar (if you're on the latest iTunes, turn the sidebar back on for this (View > Show Sidebar), or command+option+s.

Then select "transfer purchases" and it will move all of your purchased apps and music from each device onto your iMac.

When it has done that, do the same right click action and select "back up".

Now each device has everything you bought from iTunes on the iMac. You just need to move across any manually ripped music from whatever machine you have it on (your old eMac?). Transfer this by hand over ethernet or via a USB stick or something.

Job done!

You don't have to pull all your store content back from the cloud, although it is convenient - USB is much more effective if you have a data cap to worry about!

Edit: you also don't have to use iCloud really - if you back up to the cloud it will store your phone settings and contacts, calendars etc, but not your music or apps, since those are already in the cloud. If you back up to the iMac then it can restore everything back just the way it was without having to pull data from the cloud.

That's good to know.

But, lets say he has much more than that, it will get complicated which data is on the Mac and which not.

I think it is time for him to import his data from his wife's PC.

That means the iTunes folder, Picture Folder, Movie folder and I am pretty sure the Mobilesync folder, if all is in place it should work.
A better and less complicated way is to use Migration Assistant to get his data over from the PC.
 

Wqlknow

macrumors newbie
Nov 5, 2014
2
0
For the songs. If the music is "Purchased", connect your phone to iTunes, right click on your device and select "Transfer Purchases". That will transfer all of the purchased music, and apps to iTunes, and you don't need any software to do it. If you need software, iPhone to Mac transfer app works for a lot more than music. There is also podtomac, and senuti, that will work well.
 
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