Add music without "syncing" apps

[rwwest7]

I don't want to keep a copy of every single app on my MB Air, too much space taken up for no reason. So I have my iPad set to not sync apps, simple enough. Sounds logical right. Wrong! When I try to drag some music onto my iPad it removes ALL my apps before adding the music. Talk about the dumbest thing ever. Dear Apple: Apps are not related to Music! Please allow me to differentiate between the two.

Does anyone know how to not sync apps while syncing other items like music and videos?

 

[bocomo]

i stream tunes from my home computer onto my ipad with Audiogalaxy

 

[rwwest7]

Streaming is great for when in the house, but I want to add music and music videos for use in my car. If I download from iTunes on the device itself it doesn't wipe out my apps. But if I plug into my MB Air and try to drag and drop it forces me to erase all apps before it will transfer 1 little stinking mp3 file. I guess this is just their way of strong arming you into using (and paying $$ for) their cloud service when it finally comes out.

Why am I forced to keep gigs and gigs worth of iPad apps on my MB hard drive when those apps cannot run from a Mac. Totally stupid waste of space considering the Air only has 128 GB to begin with. This is my first and only gripe with Apple.

 

[Night Spring]

Is your iPad set to manually manage music and videos?

 

[paulrbeers]

Ummm, that's how it's supposed to work. You get that right? Syncing means it keeps copies of everything "in sync". If it doesn't exist on your computer, then it shouldn't be on your iPad. Not sure what this is a difficult concept to understand. If you are concerned about this, then put your itunes on an external drive then when you sync your ipad, all you have to do is have your external drive plugged in or better yet, have a network drive that is your itunes directory, point itunes to it as your itunes media location, and whenever you are home you do a sync via wifi.

Edit: Clarifying. Sync via wifi meaning that you still hook your ipad via cable to your MBA, but all the data is housed else where and is transmitted to your MBA via wifi.

 

[rwwest7]

Ummm, that's how it's supposed to work. You get that right? Syncing means it keeps copies of everything "in sync". If it doesn't exist on your computer, then it shouldn't be on your iPad. Not sure what this is a difficult concept to understand. If you are concerned about this, then put your itunes on an external drive then when you sync your ipad, all you have to do is have your external drive plugged in or better yet, have a network drive that is your itunes directory, point itunes to it as your itunes media location, and whenever you are home you do a sync via wifi.

Edit: Clarifying. Sync via wifi meaning that you still hook your ipad via cable to your MBA, but all the data is housed else where and is transmitted to your MBA via wifi.

Ummmmm, I know exactly what syncing means, BUT you should be able to add music to it without syncing apps. Get what I'm saying. I don't want to "sync" I just want to add some music to it. Thats all. But it's forcing me to sync apps even with syncing apps not checked.

- I open iTunes and click on my iPad.
- I go to each tab (app,music,etc) and uncheck the sync button
- It totally wipes my iPad because I guess you can't break the sync link and keep what you have.
- I turn on manually manage music, then yes it does let me add music without removing apps.
- I download 1 app on my iPad (View client)
- Plug back into the computer, go to the Music tab and check Sync Music.
- Hit apply.....it copies the app I just download to my computer even though I didn't touch the Apps tab or tell it to "Sync Apps"
- No big deal, I delete the app from my computer. Then plug my iPad back in and go to the Music tab. I check an album and tell it to sync....it then warns me it's going to remove the View app from iPad because it's not in my library.

So, you can't sync music without having to sync apps. Just dumb. It syncs apps even though you tell it not to sync apps, that's not how it "should" work.

I guess I'll just stick with syncing nothing at all and just manually adding music.

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If it doesn't exist on your computer, then it shouldn't be on your iPad. Not sure what this is a difficult concept to understand.

What exactly do you mean by that? The way I see it if it can't run on your computer than it shouldn't be on your computer. What's the point in having 20 GBs worth of something that you can't open or do anything with. And you can only sync with one computer!!!! I want to sync with my Air, and I'm not buying or lugging around an external drive just because won't let me choose what to sync. It would be great if I could sync music with my laptop, but sync apps with my desktop that has lots of space. But Apple refuses to let you sync with more than one computer in their fear that you're going to pirate something.

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Is your iPad set to manually manage music and videos?

That was the ticket, thanks! I had to disable ALL syncing and just manually manage music.

 

[jsh1120]

Ummmmm, I know exactly what syncing means, BUT you should be able to add music to it without syncing apps. Get what I'm saying. I don't want to "sync" I just want to add some music to it. Thats all. But it's forcing me to sync apps even with syncing apps not checked...

So, you can't sync music without having to sync apps. Just dumb. It syncs apps even though you tell it not to sync apps, that's not how it "should" work.

I guess I'll just stick with syncing nothing at all and just manually adding music.

You're not alone in your frustration. If the face of Apple were iTunes, it would hardly have a reputation of putting "user-friendliness" at the top of its priority list.

iTunes is an outdated, limited application designed to sell songs. Additional functionality has been shoehorned into it over the last few years. Never with (apparently) much thought.

Hopefully iOS 5 will resolve at least some of the ridiculous limitations (and bugs) that afflict iTunes. Until then (or probably after) you're decision to avoid the "intelligence" built into iTunes is probably a good one.