iPhone Synching Observation

[borg1of2]

I will start off and say that this is my first experience with iTunes and synching. I have been using different products offered by the different phone manufacturers I've used over the years. With these established products, i.e. Motorola Phone Tools, the synching process is a two way process, where I can view what I've synched on the phone and the PC and can manipulate in either direction. This appears to not be the case for iTunes as the synching tool for the iPhone. You can't see what's on the phone you can only see what's on the PC.

I was just getting used to iTunes when today I found that I can't syncy my iPhone to two different PC's, i.e. my work PC for Contacts and Calendar, and my home PC for photo's, video's and music. When I tried to do the latter I got an error saying I have to erase everything on my iPhone to synch with this new PC.

I think that this concept would work well with a simple device like an ipod or video device, but it seems to have a serious limitiation, imho, for a complex device like the iPhone. Hopefully, Apple sees this and can enhance iTunes alone with issuing its first iPhone software update.

Does anyone else have any perspectives in this area?

Thanks

 

[tobefirst ⚽️]

I agree that it is kind of limiting. I have my contacts on my laptop, along with my music. But my photos are on the desktop, and my calendar is on my work computer. I wish that I could sync each thing separately.

 

[Baxterdown]

Hi Borg,

iPhone can indeed be synched to two different computers. I do it every day without a problem. This is how I do it...

When synching with computer 1, make sure before synching that you check the option on the iPhone home page to sync only checked items. Also, make sure you don't select any options to sync music, photos, and any other item you want to sync with computer 2. Proceed to sync computer 1.

Then, plug your iPhone to computer 2. Again, make sure before synching that you check the option on the iPhone home page of computer 2 to only synch checked items. On this computer, check to synch the items you didn't sync with computer 1 and make sure you don't sync items you already synched with the first computer.

If computer 2 warns you that you already have synched music and playlists with another computer and that it will erase any prior playlists, just say yes. Remember, when you synched with the first computer you didn't load any music or photos, so its ok to re-write.

And, presto!

There you have it. You are now synched with you computers. One for contacts and office stuff and the other for fun things like music and pictures.

Enjoy,

Jose

 

[borg1of2]

Jose,

Thanks!! I was reluctant to try it as the error message seemed to imply that the whole iphone would be deleted and replaced with what was on PC2. I gave it a try and sure enough none of the data I had synched from PC1 was deleted.

 

[texaslizard]

iPhone won't sync with Outlook/Address Book

Well, I continue to be underwhelmed.

My IPhone, when cradled, absolutely will not sync with the Calendar in Outlook.
At least it doesn't wipe out my Calendar on the iPhone when I sync.

Not so with Address Book:

1. It will not import my Windows address book from the PC
2. It wipes out whatever addresses I have already entered into the iPhone when I dock it and attempt the sync. Of course I have unchecked the "address book- sync" function, but it is not working as advertised.

 

[texaslizard]

Problem Solved Outlook

I did a little sleuthing and think the problem may be that I'm using Outlook 2000.

So, whether that's the case or not, here's what I did:

exported Outlook contacts to Netscape
Exported Netscape contacts to Yahoo address book
Synched the iPhone to Yahoo address book

Disabled calendar sync.
I don't use the MS calendar anyway, so it's workable for me.

I generally hate MS and I hope Apple creates a sync to FireFox...soon.

 

[staz]

I'm pretty thrilled with my new little buddy...

I was able to figure out how to sync iPhone to all my data (contacts, Exchange server calendar, Safari bookmarks) through iTunes on my work Mac, and then at home, sync all my entertainment content (music photos, videos, poscasts, etc.)

And get Exchange sever email via pull every 15 min.

My observation, though, that in terms of bugs, iCal is surprisingly unstable. I'll go into further detail if there's an interest.

 

[Terry W]

Hi Borg,

iPhone can indeed be synched to two different computers. I do it every day without a problem. This is how I do it...

When synching with computer 1, make sure before synching that you check the option on the iPhone home page to sync only checked items. Also, make sure you don't select any options to sync music, photos, and any other item you want to sync with computer 2. Proceed to sync computer 1.

Then, plug your iPhone to computer 2. Again, make sure before synching that you check the option on the iPhone home page of computer 2 to only synch checked items. On this computer, check to synch the items you didn't sync with computer 1 and make sure you don't sync items you already synched with the first computer.

If computer 2 warns you that you already have synched music and playlists with another computer and that it will erase any prior playlists, just say yes. Remember, when you synched with the first computer you didn't load any music or photos, so its ok to re-write.

And, presto!

There you have it. You are now synched with you computers. One for contacts and office stuff and the other for fun things like music and pictures.

Enjoy,

Jose

Presumably this works with iTunes on a Mac (my at home set up) and iTunes on a PC (at work set up)? Also, I'm assuming that my personal calendar and contacts that are currently on my iPhone will be deleted unless they are also in my calendar/contacts at work?

Thanks all -- realize I am late to this thread's party but I'm at a company where I can actually use my iPhone. Interestingly, or oddly, we don't have an Exchange server, but work off of a POP account, using the Goldmine CRM application. Talk about a patchwork solution...