I have searched for two days and still not found what I'm looking for, so please be gentle 
My wife has an iPhone 4 that has not been molested in any way. We previously used iTunes on a PC laptop to add music, but manually managed the library because we wanted the added control.
I recently bought my wife a Macbook Pro and formatted the old PC laptop and gave it to my nephew for his birthday. I'm sure you can see where this is going.
Now she simply wants to add a few more songs to her iPhone via the Macbook, but iTunes gives the error message about needing to erase everything first because the iPhone is synced to another computer (even though we were manually managing the library!).
A lot of her music is from CDs we ripped using iTunes on the other computer, so I don't have a handy back-up and would rather not have to re-rip/re tag/etc. The rest of the MP3 files are spread out over several external hard drives so it would be a PITA to try to put everything back manually.
Also, I will catch mortal hell if she loses her playlists/address book/texts/photos/etc etc.
I don't need or even want iTunes to copy my iPhone library to the Mac. I simply want it to let me add new music without messing with everything that is already on the iPhone.
I have researched several 3rd party software options, but have yet to find one that purports to do everything I need.
Long term I want to use iTunes because we buy a fair amount of music through it. I have read that the songs bought through iTunes can be transferred back after letting it wipe the iPhone, but it is all the other "stuff" that is proving problematic.
Is the only way out of this mess to use a 3rd party software (if I can find one that does everything ie playlists/contacts/texts/photos/etc) to copy everything over to the Mac, let iTunes wipe the iPhone, import all of the stuff from the Mac into iTunes, then have iTunes put it back on the iPhone? Just so I can add a couple of new songs?!?!
I am bewildered that something so simple is turning into such a time vampire. Surely there is an easier way. Your input is very much appreciated.
Thanks and regards,
Dan
My wife has an iPhone 4 that has not been molested in any way. We previously used iTunes on a PC laptop to add music, but manually managed the library because we wanted the added control.
I recently bought my wife a Macbook Pro and formatted the old PC laptop and gave it to my nephew for his birthday. I'm sure you can see where this is going.
Now she simply wants to add a few more songs to her iPhone via the Macbook, but iTunes gives the error message about needing to erase everything first because the iPhone is synced to another computer (even though we were manually managing the library!).
A lot of her music is from CDs we ripped using iTunes on the other computer, so I don't have a handy back-up and would rather not have to re-rip/re tag/etc. The rest of the MP3 files are spread out over several external hard drives so it would be a PITA to try to put everything back manually.
Also, I will catch mortal hell if she loses her playlists/address book/texts/photos/etc etc.
I don't need or even want iTunes to copy my iPhone library to the Mac. I simply want it to let me add new music without messing with everything that is already on the iPhone.
I have researched several 3rd party software options, but have yet to find one that purports to do everything I need.
Long term I want to use iTunes because we buy a fair amount of music through it. I have read that the songs bought through iTunes can be transferred back after letting it wipe the iPhone, but it is all the other "stuff" that is proving problematic.
Is the only way out of this mess to use a 3rd party software (if I can find one that does everything ie playlists/contacts/texts/photos/etc) to copy everything over to the Mac, let iTunes wipe the iPhone, import all of the stuff from the Mac into iTunes, then have iTunes put it back on the iPhone? Just so I can add a couple of new songs?!?!
I am bewildered that something so simple is turning into such a time vampire. Surely there is an easier way. Your input is very much appreciated.
Thanks and regards,
Dan