iPhone 13 Pro Max Does directly transferring from one iPhone to another (Quick Start/etc.) affect iTunes Sync?

[neo_reloaded]

I bought a new iPhone 13 Pro Max to replace my current iPhone XS Max. I'm considering using Quick Start to transfer my configuration/files directly between phones, but I'm wondering how that works re: my iTunes sync.

I have a desktop computer with all my music files, and I sync my iPhone with that computer via iTunes. When I've gotten a new iPhone in the past, I'd sync and backup the old iPhone with iTunes, then restore that backup to the new iPhone with iTunes, and it was perfectly seamless.

However, I'm away from home and that desktop computer for a few months, so that's not currently an option. If I do Quick Start between iPhones, will that break the iTunes sync continuity? I.e., when I plug my new iPhone 13 into that computer some months in the future, will it recognize my iTunes sync and correctly combine my accumulated play counts, new playlists, etc. just like it would for the old XS Max? Or would it consider the new iPhone 13 to be some foreign, never-seen-before configuration and want to sync entirely from scratch, deleting all music content on the iPhone and transferring from scratch with whatever the state of the desktop computer iTunes library is?

 

[Shirasaki]

Dunno if I understand your concern properly. But for iTunes, the contents do not get transferred to a new device upon transfer. You will always need to sync from scratch.

 

[neo_reloaded]

Dunno if I understand your concern properly. But for iTunes, the contents do not get transferred to a new device upon transfer. You will always need to sync from scratch.

So Quick Start doesn't transfer your music? That's some BS.

 

[Shirasaki]

There's a recognition between iTunes and the iPhone that the two libraries are linked.

If I start off with 27 plays on a certain song in my desktop iTunes library, sync that song to my iPhone, and then play that song on my iPhone, my desktop iTunes library will be updated to 28 plays the next time the iPhone and desktop computer sync. If I transfer the same song (or even the exact same file) from another iTunes library, my own iTunes library will not recognize it and will not update the play counts. There's some software mechanism that makes the two either recognize or not recognize each other.

In the past, when I've backed up my old iPhone and restored that backup to my new iPhone, that mechanism has prevailed and the two stayed in sync. I didn't need to reconfigure which songs/albums/playlists were set to sync to my new iPhone, because the existing configuration from my old iPhone was applied to my new iPhone automatically via the backup/restore process. Perhaps the backup doesn't contain the actual music files - perhaps it's just the configuration, and it's actually a two-step process where the backup restoration transfers the configuration and then iTunes performs a normal sync to fulfill the music files requested by that configuration. But the result is seamless.

If I use Quick Start to transfer between two iPhones (without touching the desktop computer, as I don't currently have access to it), will that recognition mechanism prevail? Will my new play counts, new dynamic playlists, etc. properly sync with my desktop iTunes at some point in the future? Or will that recognition mechanism be broken, with my desktop iTunes not recognizing that the new iPhone's music library should sync with its own?

It should.
There will be a miniature version of the iTunes library file loaded to iPhone that works just like iTunes on your computer.

 

[Jadeviper]

I did a quick start with an iPhone 11Pro to an iPhone 13Pro

The 11 was running the latest iOS 14. The quick start does copy everything including the iTunes music and photos from my Mac running Mojave that I had originally synced to the iPhone 11Pro

However when I then took the iPhone 13Pro to sync with the Mac via iTunes it duplicated all the music
. So I had 2 copies of every song or videoh

Not fun as I had to delete all the music on the iPhone 13Pro under manage storage and then re-sync

 

[neo_reloaded]

I did a quick start with an iPhone 11Pro to an iPhone 13Pro

The 11 was running the latest iOS 14. The quick start does copy everything including the iTunes music and photos from my Mac running Mojave that I had originally synced to the iPhone 11Pro

However when I then took the iPhone 13Pro to sync with the Mac via iTunes it duplicated all the music
. So I had 2 copies of every song or videoh

Not fun as I had to delete all the music on the iPhone 13Pro under manage storage and then re-sync

Hmm. Do you use the 'Manually manage music and videos' option in iTunes, or do you use one of the automatic sync mode? And do you happen to know if play counts were updated on your Mac library when you did sync your iPhone 13 to it?

 

[Jadeviper]

I manually manage the music. I didn't check the play counts before I wiped all the music to sync again