Comments on: Tip o’ the Week: Sync iPhone on Two Computers

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 12:37:00 +0000

what if your “current” computer has a crashed hard disk? Apple ever thought of this when they went to up and length to force the user to their draconian limitations? My old laptop had its hdd fail. i figured its been a long time so i just got me a new laptop. mind u the hdd had a mechanical crash and i am only preserving it for a future $1500 clean room recovery. so no messing with that. but am baffled as to how i can resume actually using my phone with music that needs to be uploaded to it without losing everything with no option to reload. right now, i have backed up my phone to the new computer, but it keeps saying it will erase and then sync with new stuff! what new stuff u moron!!!! All i want is to preserve my info/contacts and add new music. rtardd apple

By: Linda

Linda — Tue, 17 May 2011 19:17:43 +0000

Hey Geoff, just wanted to ask when you recieve the message that contents will be erased from iPhone, does that mean only music or all iPhone content like contacts, texts, calendar entries etc?? My PC crashed that I usually sync with and now I want to sync with a new PC but I dont care about the music coz I want to rearrange anyway, am just afraid it will erase everything from phone!! Thanks

By: Vladimir Kolundin

Vladimir Kolundin — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 21:09:00 +0000

To fix iTunes 10 check out tne freeware “iTunes DB Cloner” – http://www.corsino.com/blog/?page_id=27#itunes-db-cloner

By: Kayleen Nisly

Kayleen Nisly — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 14:48:53 +0000

Very interesting. I’ve subscribed to your feed.

By: ssorgs

ssorgs — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 03:48:34 +0000

Read your summary and went to Andrew Grant’s page and the instructions were great and worked like a charm! Thanks!

By: robert

robert — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 09:21:15 +0000

destro,

This is wonderful and the most useful stuff every created for iphone/ipod

can you please update the utility to support iTunes 9x also? itunes was 9x was released very recently.

thanks

By: Lio

Lio — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 15:15:52 +0000

Look guys, with the 3gS it works jst fine itried to sync with my mac and pc(calendar, contacts)

By: Ejstrup

Ejstrup — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 10:10:11 +0000

destro: How about support for iTunes 9.0?

By: astro2

astro2 — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 07:52:52 +0000

you rock rey, just foudn it on cydia, none of this itunes hacking nonsence

By: destro

destro — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 00:23:19 +0000

I have actually created a small tool (PC only) that does all the work for you feel free to download it here: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=6QKYMDEZ

and if you like it, toss a buck or two my way

By: Spider

Spider — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 23:27:13 +0000

I have changed the iTunes music folder to a different one as opposed to the Default (My music/iTunes/…) on my work PC. However my home PC is default set by the iTunes installation. Does this make any difference. I tried chainging the Library code in the xml and hex on my home pc to reflect my office pc, but the hack does not work. I have iPhone 3G(2.2) and latest Itunes 8.0.2.

By: Geoff

Geoff — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 20:17:15 +0000

Hey all – I would love to be wrong about this hack not working…I just deleted my music from my iPhone again! (user error).

I wish there was just a simple way to sync up with two computers…

By: Andres

Andres — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 01:25:23 +0000

Merid are you sure? Jim did you verify this?

By: Merid

Merid — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 01:58:54 +0000

Also, the MOMENT you open Itunes after changing the 16 digit XML on Updates Itunes…it REVERTS the number back to the original. THE ONLY way to make this work is to REVERT Itunes back to 8 or below. Updated ones? Forget it. Waste of time.

By: Merid

Merid — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 01:57:24 +0000

You are simply wrong, JHN. Completely. This WILL NOT work with the latest upgrades. The HEX has been CHANGED and no longer CONTAINS the matching hex for the 16 digit library ID number. You can change the XML all day, but you cannot change the hex. This WILL NOT WORK for updated Itunes. Forget it.

By: jhn

jhn — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 00:31:13 +0000

Geoffery and Jason above are wrong. The hack works fine. Here it is quickly: Change the library id of all your iTunes libraries so they are the same. Pick the id of the iTunes library you already sync to.

In order to do this, you use a text editor for the .xml and a hex editor for the binary file. Easy.

By: David

David — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 22:31:05 +0000

I tried to use this but when I use a hex editing program to search for the string it says it is not found. My scenario is a little different, I formatted my computer and would like to sync my iphone again. It won’t let me without erase and sync. I saved the .xml file before I formatted so I believe I should have the string I need to replace in the files. I could be wrong but I still cant even get it to find the string from the current itunes in the .itl file. any help with my predicament would be greatly appreciated.

By: Geoffrey

Geoffrey — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 18:11:54 +0000

I tried this hack as well and am sad to report that it doesn’t work. Anyone found another way to sync two computers with our iPhones?

By: Jason

Jason — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 19:15:34 +0000

This “hack” does NOT, I repeat, does NOT work with the latest iPhone version and/or iTunes 8.0.1. After following the instructions very carefully I still receive the same message that the contents of my iPhone will be erased if I choose to proceed. Certainly there has got to be a way around this.

By: Ricardo Cavenecia

Ricardo Cavenecia — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 13:20:36 +0000

Will the trick allow you to sync your music both in your home mac and your work PC. people has explained how the manage to sync calendars here and music there but not just music in both places. will all your music get transfered from one place to another?

By: Mike Overbo

Mike Overbo — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 05:40:37 +0000

Jason — I think the workaround is for syncing 2 music libraries together. I do mail / contacts / bookmarks / photos from one machine and music / applications from another, but if memory serves I get the warning if I try to enable music library syncing to the “business” computer instead of the “fun” computer…

By: Jason Kratz

Jason Kratz — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 01:58:44 +0000

Not sure why this story keeps making the rounds. At least with iTunes 8/iPhone 3G this is possible without any tricks. I sync my iPhone contacts/calendar with my mac and music/podcasts with my PC. There has never been a need to hack anything for that.

By: bob

bob — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 07:28:26 +0000

thanks for this post. I have been trying to figure a workaround for this for a while now.

By: dloveprod

dloveprod — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 17:32:19 +0000

this is a great tip thanks

By: Rey

Rey — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 07:50:51 +0000

jailbroken phones can have an app called SwapTunes which is all on the phone. And one step.