Changing iTunes library ID on iTunes 12? "iPhone synced with another library"

[tomd25]

I've got the dreaded "iPhone is synced with another iTunes library. Do you want to erase and sync this iPhone?" message in iTunes, preventing me from managing the music on my phone. I'm not sure how this happened - perhaps I created a new iTunes library at some point and have subsequently deleted the old one (as I've tried all the libraries I can find, including from backups) - although I secretly suspect it's just iTunes being hateful

In any case, when this has happened to me in the past (e.g. switching to a new computer, sharing a phone across multiple libraries), I've been able to change the iTunes library ID to match the phone (either by editing the library file in a hex editor, or by editing the XML, corrupting the library file and allowing iTunes to recreate the library from the XML). With iTunes 12, I've tried every tutorial I can find but have had no luck - no matter what I try, iTunes seems to think the library is corrupt and empties the library, in the process giving it a new library ID.

Has anyone successfully managed to modify the library ID of an iTunes 12 library? If so please share how! I'd rather not have to restore my phone from scratch if I can avoid it, partly because I just think it's ridiculous to have to do that!

<rant>The link between the iTunes library and the iPhone is honestly the one thing that periodically makes me want to switch phone platforms - I understand why it's there for syncing, but for those of us who prefer to manage everything manually, I wish we could disable it! Does anyone know a good music player app for the iPhone with its own library that can be managed independently of iTunes?</rant>

 

[tomd25]

Never mind, it was actually enough to just tick "manage music and videos manually" - the warning message that suggested it was going to delete all my content (including apps as far as I could tell!) actually just deleted my music, which isn't the end of the world, and now I can manage my music again!

 

[wrldwzrd89]

Snip
<rant>The link between the iTunes library and the iPhone is honestly the one thing that periodically makes me want to switch phone platforms - I understand why it's there for syncing, but for those of us who prefer to manage everything manually, I wish we could disable it! Does anyone know a good music player app for the iPhone with its own library that can be managed independently of iTunes?</rant>

If you want to try an alternative music player, I'm a big fan of Vox (Mac and iOS, free, from the respective App Store). Unfortunately, if you want to truly set your music free from iTunes you'll need to subscribe to the LOOP music locker service they offer... ah well, you can't get everything you want at no cost.

 

[tomd25]

If you want to try an alternative music player, I'm a big fan of Vox (Mac and iOS, free, from the respective App Store). Unfortunately, if you want to truly set your music free from iTunes you'll need to subscribe to the LOOP music locker service they offer... ah well, you can't get everything you want at no cost.

That actually looks pretty great - I will give it a go, thanks! If their LOOP service works well then I'd be happy to pay for it - my experience with iTunes Match was really poor, I'm currently using Google Play for storing my music in the cloud but it has some of the same issues as Match (e.g. replacing your tracks with a different mix/version). I've been looking into Subsonic for this, but it's a hassle to set up (plus you need your own server) and the iOS clients don't look great, so fingers crossed LOOP does everything I'm looking for!