backing up / syncing a pain

[patent10021]

I'm always deleting apps from my iphone. Problem is when I resync they come back again because the unwanted apps were in iTunes. I don't want iTunes to always be the master. I want what I do on my iPhone to take priority over what is in iTunes. How can I do this?

I delete dates in iCal, apps, adresses etc on my iPhone. Not the other way around.

 

[Golfwolf]

^^^^I am new to the world of iPhone but if you go into your "Library" in iTunes under "Apps" just right click on the App(s) and delete those which you do not want, send them to the "trash".

 

[TheConfuzed1]

You don't have to delete anything.

While your phone is plugged in and mounted in iTunes, click the "Apps" tab.

Select the checkbox that says, "Sync only the selected apps."

Go through the list and uncheck any apps that you do not want on your phone.

 

[patent10021]

Both of you have suggested doing exactly what I don't want to have to do.

Why should I have to do any tricks within iTunes?

I delete and/or add apps, iCal events, and addresses from Address Book on my iPhone when I'm out of the house/office.

When I come home or get to the office I want to connect to iTunes ONLY to overwrite everything on my Macs. I never need to overwrite anything FROM my Mac to iPhone.

I want the iPhone to be the "master".

 

[Fernandez21]

Select the "only sync selected apps" in iTunes, that's how mine is set up and works just how you want, where if I delete something on my phone, it stays off my phone after syncing.

 

[patent10021]

But I have no apps in iTunes. Only on my iPhone. I never buy apps from iTunes. Only via iPhone while I'm on the road. So when I go into the apps TAB there are no apps on the left.


Anyway...here's the deal. I actually really don't care so much for syncing because what I really only need are regular backups of my iPhone for peace of mind. So all I've been doing lately is right-clicking my device in iTunes and backing up my iPhone periodically.

One question about the backup process. Is it always really fast? Whenever I backup it takes only about 60 seconds. I always wonder if it's backing up ALL my apps and Address Book contacts. I wish there was a way to visually verify what has been backed up. How do I know if I'm in fact backing up EVERYTHING?

Back to my dilemma...

So all I need are regular backups of my iPhone (done manually) PLUS the occasional syncing of Address Book contacts and iCal events. My iPhone is usually the device with the current info, not my MacBook. For the most part I don't want the OLD data from the MacBook Address Book to get sent to my iPhone Address Book. But maybe sometimes I WOULD want newly entered data from the MacBook sent to the iPhone.

How should I manage this?


EDIT: I just found a new option. The "Transfer Purchase apps to iTunes" option. So now iTunes DOES have all my iPhone apps in the apps TAB (not that it will do me any good but at least I found a new option)

Also somehow my wife's iPhone got one of my apps on her phone. Weird.

 

[bstpierre]

Something is screwed up in your setup. It should be syncing, not replacing your content. I looked a little last night and didn't see an obvious answer. I will try looking again tonight.

Are you on a Mac or a PC?

 

[patent10021]

Something is screwed up in your setup. It should be syncing, not replacing your content. I looked a little last night and didn't see an obvious answer. I will try looking again tonight.

Are you on a Mac or a PC?

Well we have 2 iphones with 2 different names. We both had iPod Touch(s) before so when we sync'd our new iPhones I think something got messed up. Anywhoo....We're using my MacBook.

Besides that little blip I think all is fine now since we have elected to manually backup which is safest anyway because it's a full backup right? Unfortunately no way to visually verify a backup.

I just transferred all the apps I purchased on my iPhone to iTunes so now they DO show up in the apps tab on the iTunes left sidebar just like music shows up in the left iTunes sidebar music library AND they show up in the iTunes iPhone app tab up top too.

So now if I want to send my iPhone iCal, Mail, and Address Book data to iTunes/MacBook do I just go to the iTunes iPhone info tab where it says Contacts, iCal, Mail etc and sync? Obviously right...but how do I make sure that my iPhone data overwrites the MacBook data and not the other way around?

Btw, someone else told me on this forum that I should create a separate MacBook login account so that all my stuff stays separate from my wife's. I think that's overkill no?

EDIT: Other quirk... iTunes really wants to over ride everything on my iPhone. eg. I move things around on my iPhone but when I sync or transfer purchased apps to iTunes, the order of apps/pages etc in iTunes takes priority and my iPhone inherits the setup that was in iTunes. Big Mo' Fn' circle I keep goin' in lol