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iPhone 5 and Mac incompatibility

Q

qckslvrsiete

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 22, 2010
230
0
In short:
iPhone 5 requires iTunes 10.7 or later
iTunes requires OSX 10.6.8 or later

So, if you are still on Leopard, you can't actually sync an iPhone 5 to your computer, because you won't be able to download the latest version of iTunes. I found this out when I tried to set up a friend's new iPhone 5 from a backup she had on her macbook pro running Leopard. I was able to get her up and running by backing her phone up on my Mountain Lion mac, but the fact remains that she can never sync her phone to her own computer without upgrading the OS.

Has anyone else run into this issue? I haven't heard much noise around it, and from what I understand there is no workaround. I have two reasons for posting this: 1) to see if anyone has hacked together a workaround and 2) to make those still on the fence, or even waiting on their pre-order, aware of something that is clearly stated in the system requirements, but not widely publicized -- namely that you may not be able to sync your iPhone to your mac without a system or even hardware (for PowerPC users) upgrade.
 
verwon said:
You really don't need iTunes sync anymore....so...
Click to expand...

Thanks. That was really helpful.

I wasn't aware someone could complete the unlock process for an off-contract ATT iPhone 5 without restoring it through iTunes.
Or that someone who prefers not to store all of their backup information in the cloud could restore that info to a new phone without using iTunes.
And I guess Apple still lists iTunes 10.7 as a system requirement for the iPhone 5 "just 'cause": http://www.apple.com/iphone/specs.html
 
qckslvrsiete said:
Thanks. That was really helpful.

I wasn't aware someone could complete the unlock process for an off-contract ATT iPhone 5 without restoring it through iTunes.
Or that someone who prefers not to store all of their backup information in the cloud could restore that info to a new phone without using iTunes.

----------



And I guess Apple still lists iTunes 10.7 as a system requirement for the iPhone 5 "just 'cause".
Click to expand...

Dude take it to any apple store. They will restore for you. Done. That or upgrade to snow leopard. If you still running ppc hardware, go the apple retail store route.

You seem upset over nothing.
 
Anti-Lucifer said:
Dude take it to any apple store. They will restore for you. Done. That or upgrade to snow leopard. If you still running ppc hardware, go the apple retail store route.

You seem upset over nothing.
Click to expand...

I was asking a simple question to help out a friend who doesn't want to use iCloud as their backup solution, and doesn't want to upgrade to mountain lion. I got a snarky response from verwon that was not helpful at all. Sure, I was a bit annoyed.

My friend bought the iPhone 5 unaware it wouldn't work on her mac -- a mistake the could easily be made by other folks. I was just wanting to make them aware of what they were getting into.
 
qckslvrsiete said:
I was asking a simple question to help out a friend who doesn't want to use iCloud as their backup solution, and doesn't want to upgrade to mountain lion. I got a snarky response from verwon that was not helpful at all. Sure, I was a bit annoyed.

My friend bought the iPhone 5 unaware it wouldn't work on her mac -- a mistake the could easily be made by other folks. I was just wanting to make them aware of what they were getting into.
Click to expand...

Aww, someone got their feelings hurt.
 
I ran into this issue with my iPhone 4 (I was still running Tiger back then). You know what I did?

I bought and installed Snow Leopard. It was only like $29.00!
 
also looking for a workaround

just got an iPhone, got it all set up at the store, iCloud imported my contacts... but as I have a MacBook Pro that WON'T run any system over 10.5.8, and therefore won't run iTunes 10.7... kinda screwed (and no Apple I can't effing afford to plunk down however many hundreds of dollars for a new laptop -- I'm unemployed, the iPhone was a gift.)

Looking into apps that may let me connect the iPhone to my computer, like iPhone Explorer did for older iPhones... no luck so far. Any other ideas?

Planning to figure out if DropBox or a similar app might take the music/photo files i store in it, and give the iPhone access?
 
I can understand the frustration however ... Apple charging a uber premium for their hardware has been very fair with their software prices especially the last several releases. I think there really is several reasons to upgrade from Leopard to a newer version of OSX. It's not that much ... Also now with ICloud you don't need a computer to do a back up or restore.
 
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