I’ve posted a blog entry on the Mothership about syncing your iPhone with different computers. Short version: it can be done, because I’ve got my iPhone syncing different parts of its library with three different Macs.
As usual, for the long version you should read the actual article.
Bonus: I also talk about my complaints about Apple TV video syncing and plug Spanning Sync, a great way to let other people edit your iCal (and iPhone) calendars.
Hey Jason, great article on iPhone syncing. I was hoping you could help me understand what you mean by this line:
"Yes, it's true - the iPhone is a sync-only device, but it's a flexible syncer. Apple seems to have broken iPhone data into discrete blocks, each of which can be synced with a different computer: Info (contacts, calendars, bookmarks, mail accounts), Music and Video (which must be synced together), Photos, and Podcasts."
After reading your article last night I couldn't wait to try it out today. No success. I'm trying to sync contacts, calendars, and Podcasts from my MacBook Pro, and only sync Music and Video from my Mac mini.
Looks like I can only sync to ONE Mac as it replaces the current contents of the iPhone with the contents of which ever Mac I sync to. *Very* frustrating. Any ideas? What am I doing wrong here?
I just posted a SOLUTION to my iPhone syncing problem on MacFixIt as a comment to the thread on "iTunes 7.3.1 Problems Syncing iPhone".
I suspect there are a number of iPhone syncing problems out there, and perhaps my event sequence will give you some clues as to the iPhones' processing of data. Hope this helps. My post was:
"Ordered my iPhone the 1st day, UPS delivered it a week later, then I found out I needed OSX10.4 to sync it. Received the OSX10.4 CD after another week and then, couldn't get it to sync. followed all Apple's advice, reloaded iTunes, turned off & on etc. and got only one sync without songs or photos, but at least activated the iPhone by 3:30 am Thursday.
So, for 2 days and researching all iPhone sites, I have NO luck getting iPhone to open iTunes again to sync. All it would open automatically was iPhoto, but iPhone wouldn't mount. Realized Apple says you need USB 2.0, but my 1/2 basketball iMac G4 has USB 1.0. Damn, new $ computer$ ?
Used the iPhone all day and put it into the dock to recharge, then decided to update songs on my Nano on another USB port. EUREKA!!
Evidently the Nano caused iTunes to open and started to sync, and the iPhone then also mounted and started to sync. HURRAY- They both ran their sync bars at the same time and when Nano was done, the iPhone kept going syncing both the songs and photos at the same time with their respective progress bars running.
By explaining this sequence, maybe someone can make sense of what happened and it will help others that have an iPhone syncing problem.
Charlie"
After a bit of research, I found this article in Popular Mechanics on iPhone syncing. Here's a quote from the article citing a conversation with an Apple representative:
"Also, an Apple spokesperson confirmed that each iPhone has a 1:1 syncing relationship with a single computer. Meaning you cannot put content from multiple computers on a single iPhone. This can become an issue when a user has either multiple computers at home or alternates between computers at work and home. If, for instance, you sync photos to your iPhone from your work computer, then later try to add more photos onto the device from your home computer, the iPhone will erase all the photos you previously put on it. Apple claims that the reason for the 1:1 relationship stems from the importance of the address book, calendar and e-mail settings, which require a primary computer relationship that's consistent across media types."
http://www.popularmechanics.com/blogs/technology_news/4219107.html
Not to contradict Popular Mechanics or Apple, but my iPhone is currently syncing:
Music/Videos with my Mac mini music server
Contacts and calendar and bookmarks with my MacBook
Photos with my Power Mac G5
Funny update:
I tried to sync my Podcasts on my laptop, and it works.
BUT... every time I sync music and videos on my music server, the podcasts get wiped out. And I have to resync on my laptop to get them back.
Clearly this is all weird behavior.
Yeah, I've been getting my podcasts wiped out (trying to sync from work) when sync everything else at home, as well. Very annoying.
Clearly it still needs some work. Really, Apple should acknowledge that people may want to sync different sets of data from multiple machines -- or, at least, two - e.g. work and home.
I love the SpanningSync advice and plan to use it. But on another, side note, I have an office calendar that is unfortunately on the MS Works calendar and I want to export the data to Google Calendar.
It doesn't seem to have a common data format to do a direct export.
I have Googled to find out how, but have so far struck out. Anyone know? Please?
Thanks,
'kito