The iPhone 5 thread (well, actually, iPhone 4S)

[PraetorianX]

Do you not just have to synch with iTunes?

I believe there should be an option when you're synching to add anything from the ipod to the computer.

Mind you, I haven't had the need to do anything like that for awhile but when I got my new computer I believe that's all I did.

[Ksyrup]

I tried to synch, and it did nothing. Didn't transfer anything to the computer from the iPod, and I didn't see an option to make it do that. I hope it's there and I just missed it, but I tried it a few times.

[Mota]

It works the opposite way. Everything on your iPod must also be on your computer. You can select whatever from your computer that you want to sync to the iPod, but not the other way around.

If you get a new computer, backup your iTunes library and restore to the new computer. That way you can avoid a LOT of work.

[Raiders Army]

iOS 5 is supposedly causing the battery problems in the 4S.

[PraetorianX]

Originally Posted by Mota

It works the opposite way. Everything on your iPod must also be on your computer. You can select whatever from your computer that you want to sync to the iPod, but not the other way around.

If you get a new computer, backup your iTunes library and restore to the new computer. That way you can avoid a LOT of work.

Well, I know that sometimes if I have something on my iPod/iPhone but not on my computer, it loads it on the computer.

But that may be stuff that I downloaded/bought on my iPod/iPhone.

But you can backup to either your computer or iCloud, would that not work as well?

[Ksyrup]

I did a backup, but it took so little time to complete that I'm afraid to try to upgrade to iO5 if the backup doesn't provide the full restore I need after it wipes my iPod clean to install iO5. I don't really trust this program, as you might be able to tell.

I'm still trying to get over the fact that I can't just drag-and-drop stuff from the iPod to my computer. I thought once they dropped the sharing restrictions they used to have, they added features we enjoyed in 2004 on non-Apple MP3 players. Guess not.

I like this product and everything, but the process for doing things and restrictions are almost not worth it. I'm probably gonna hold off on getting an iPhone because I just can't deal with these kinds of frustrations on my phone. It's too important to me. iPod is just a side device I have fun with. Although I'm not having much fun right now.

[cartman]

I haven't seen this mentioned yet, but if you have WinAmp, there is a plugin that allows you to do just what you are asking, and move the songs from your iPod/iPhone to the computer.

iPod Winamp support plugin | Free Audio & Video software downloads at SourceForge.net

[Ksyrup]

That's cool. Problem is, it's more than just songs.

I guess what I'm going to have to do is wait until I get home (I'm out of town right now), download iTunes to my desktop computer, and try to upgrade to iO5. If it doesn't work, then I've got a network problem somehow tied to iTunes. If it does work, then I've got a problem with my laptop. If it works, then I guess I'm going to have to connect back to the laptop to put all the music and apps back on it that were lost when it upgraded to iO5, assuming the back-up doesn't restore everything first.

[Logan]

For all the man-hours spent trying to figure out Ksyrup's iTunes problem, someone could have traveled to wherever he is and fixed it for him.

[stevew]

I updated to 5 wrong and lost all my music and apps. But they were all available to download again from my iTunes account. The stuff I bought thru iTunes.

I don't have the music collection like you obviously. I have stuff I've ripped/downloaded from Amazon on another PC. Haven't synced that with the cloud yet.

[Ksyrup]

Yeah, I'd say the "purchased" part accounts for maybe 1% of my collection.

[Mota]

Originally Posted by PraetorianX

Well, I know that sometimes if I have something on my iPod/iPhone but not on my computer, it loads it on the computer.

But that may be stuff that I downloaded/bought on my iPod/iPhone.

But you can backup to either your computer or iCloud, would that not work as well?

Yeah if you buy something on your device, it'll transfer to your computer when you plug it in.

But the iPod is not meant to be the holding device. It's really a component of your iTunes setup on your computer. Think of the computer being the core device, and being able to parcel out whatever parts of it that you want to your device. It doesn't really work the other way around.

It has changed with IOS5 though, they are starting to disconnect the i device from your computer and basically let you use it as a totally standalone device.

[Ksyrup]

OK, two questions - one on more of this iPhone stuff and the other on alternative phone choices.

First, I was finally able to get iO5 on my iPod. It took 14 hours (basically, all day Saturday between backup, download, install, and re-installing my backup), but it's on there. And I'm not sure I see a lick of a difference.

But here's my main question: iCloud. Again, I may use my devices completely differently than the rest of the free world, but why would I want to use this? It will wirelessly sync anything I download or buy to my devices without me having to do anything. I don't want that. Why would anybody? If my wife downloads a Danielle Steele ebook, or my daughter downloads a ke$ha song, I want that automatically put on my iPod? I don't see any way to filter what would be wireless synched. And how would it know what's mine versus other people in my house, anyway?

How does this work, really? Do you have spearate accounts set up for each device in your house? I'm supposed to give my 12-year old daughter a credit card to buy stuff with on her own account? Again, someone please fill me in on what I'm missing or doing wrong here.

OK, away from Apple... I'm stiill considering buying an Android phone. I'm on AT&T. The Samsung Galaxy S II and the new Skyrocket they have coming out looks good, but I don't know. My big question is generally speaking, how quickly are they rolling out 4G? The Skyrocket is 4G LTE, but in my area, I'm pretty sure that's unavailable.

Should I stay away from 4G phones and concentrate on other features? It feels to me like buying a 4G phone living in Lexington KY is like choosing my TV provider in 1999 based on the fact that they offer HD channels. It feels like we're a couple of years away from really being able to use that technology, at least those of us who don't live or work in a big city. Is that right?

[Easy Mac]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

OK, two questions - one on more of this iPhone stuff and the other on alternative phone choices.

First, I was finally able to get iO5 on my iPod. It took 14 hours (basically, all day Saturday between backup, download, install, and re-installing my backup), but it's on there. And I'm not sure I see a lick of a difference.

But here's my main question: iCloud. Again, I may use my devices completely differently than the rest of the free world, but why would I want to use this? It will wirelessly sync anything I download or buy to my devices without me having to do anything. I don't want that. Why would anybody? If my wife downloads a Danielle Steele ebook, or my daughter downloads a ke$ha song, I want that automatically put on my iPod? I don't see any way to filter what would be wireless synched. And how would it know what's mine versus other people in my house, anyway?


How does this work, really? Do you have spearate accounts set up for each device in your house? I'm supposed to give my 12-year old daughter a credit card to buy stuff with on her own account? Again, someone please fill me in on what I'm missing or doing wrong here.

OK, away from Apple... I'm stiill considering buying an Android phone. I'm on AT&T. The Samsung Galaxy S II and the new Skyrocket they have coming out looks good, but I don't know. My big question is generally speaking, how quickly are they rolling out 4G? The Skyrocket is 4G LTE, but in my area, I'm pretty sure that's unavailable.

Should I stay away from 4G phones and concentrate on other features? It feels to me like buying a 4G phone living in Lexington KY is like choosing my TV provider in 1999 based on the fact that they offer HD channels. It feels like we're a couple of years away from really being able to use that technology, at least those of us who don't live or work in a big city. Is that right?

I think iCloud is per device, and you can decide what you want synced by type. So it will only sync books if you want it to. Pretty sure it's in the iPod's settings somewhere.

[Easy Mac]

Remember, this is a consumer device. They're not really making it for the people who are hyper specific about their media. They just want it to be as easy as possible.

I'm more annoyed that I turned on wireless sync for my wife's phone. Now if I have the main computer on, it pops up itunes seemingly at random to sync her phone. I was trying to make syncing easier for her, but now it's just a pain.

[stevew]

Ideally you want a different account for each member of the family. For the kids, you can use a gift card to fund it. Or you can set up some sort of iTunes allowance per month. My 12 year old has her own account, but I would never link it to a credit card.

With ICloud, I believe you can sync your whole music collection to the cloud. So that if you don't have all your music on your device, you can easily download it.

[Ksyrup]

My 12 year old doesn't even have an email account, so I hadn't really thought about giving her an iTunes account.

I had that pop-up thing happen to me last night, and I have wireless synching off. My daughter downloaded some app, and it popped up asking me if I wanted to synch it to my iPod.

[wade moore]

KSyrup - if you don't want to set up the synching options as I've encouraged you in the past, iCloud is useless for you.

[Ksyrup]

I stil don't see how the synching can work per device, unless each device has its own account. Is that the only way? I understand what you've explained about the playlist, but this wouldn't even involve the playlist. It would synch whatever I buy or download before I could ever put it in a playlist. And for apps, the playlist isn't even part of the discussion (as far as I can tell). This would synch everything with every device.

[Passacaglia]

I'm with ksyrup on that one -- we've been having trouble syncinf one itunes to more than one ipod. I've had to set up a different windows account for each of us, so that we each have a separate copy of itunes.

[wade moore]

Originally Posted by Passacaglia

I'm with ksyrup on that one -- we've been having trouble syncinf one itunes to more than one ipod. I've had to set up a different windows account for each of us, so that we each have a separate copy of itunes.

I'm not trying to be mean, but you're doing it wrong.

We have 4 or 5 different devices synching with iTunes with no issues. I honestly don't know what to tell you.

No offense KSyrup, but I've thrown my hands up at this point. I'm not sure how to help you.

[Ksyrup]

Have you tried iCloud? Just like the synching on iTunes, it provides no options for synching to one device. It is all or nothing. I understand the (what I'll call) work-around you described using the playlist. Without using it, it would synch everything. But the playlist doesn't have anything to do with apps or videos or anything else, as far as I can tell.

But with iCloud, it synches everything. Like I said, I don't even have it turned on, and I got a notification to d/l one of my daughter's apps right after she downloaded it to her iPod. It synches everything. I'm not sure what I'm missing that you've tried to explain, other than the playlist work-around that doesn't seem to involve iCloud and that, at best, only works for music.

If I could find whatever it is that supposedly limits what is synched on iTunes or iCloud so that I get to direct what gets synched (not just music, but apps and eveything else you can put on an iPod) with my device versus other devices in my household, I would be happy. No one has been able to do that (and that includes my searches on google).

[wade moore]

I use iCloud.

My wife and I share an iTunes account.

We have totally separate apps, music, etc shared. The only place we've run into issues is with contacts and reminders.

[wade moore]

Fwiw, this shows how you can stop the automatic downloads.

Apple - iCloud - Learn how to set up iCloud on all your devices.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by wade moore

I use iCloud.

My wife and I share an iTunes account.

We have totally separate apps, music, etc shared. The only place we've run into issues is with contacts and reminders.

Seems like you have the solution for ksyrup then...

[wade moore]

To be fair, I have not used "iTunes Match" which I would assume you would be using, so I can't speak to that specifically.

[wade moore]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

Seems like you have the solution for ksyrup then...

And if you read the thread, I've tried many, many, many times to explain it to him.

This is why I've thrown my hands up.

[Ksyrup]

I appreciate your attempts to help wade. Seriously. I've already looked at the page you linked to above, and it tells me nothing. That's my frustration with Apple in general, I guess. I've walked through those exact screens. I have iCloud turned off, and have since I finally got iO5 to download. It still prompts me to download stuff. I don't even want the prompt.

But none of this answers my main question, which is, if for some reason I wanted it to have it automatically download, how does it know who's device to download on? In your situation, wade, walk me through what happens when you download music or an app that you want but your wife doesn't want, and you have iCloud on automatic download. What happens?

[wade moore]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

I appreciate your attempts to help wade. Seriously. I've already looked at the page you linked to above, and it tells me nothing. That's my frustration with Apple in general, I guess. I've walked through those exact screens. I have iCloud turned off, and have since I finally got iO5 to download. It still prompts me to download stuff. I don't even want the prompt.

But none of this answers my main question, which is, if for some reason I wanted it to have it automatically download, how does it know who's device to download on? In your situation, wade, walk me through what happens when you download music or an app that you want but your wife doesn't want, and you have iCloud on automatic download. What happens?

It is based on what music you have set to sync/not-sync in your ipod settings in itunes. Which you refuse to use.

[Ksyrup]

This is where I'm confused - are you referring to playlists, or some synch settings I've never seen before? About all I've seen is synch or manual. That's the extent of it.

Right now, I'm talking about something you download that's automatically transferred to all devices. If I download something on my iPod, what stops it from being downloaded on all devices? I don't even have to touch iTunes to download music and have it wirelessly synch (assuming I correctly understand what iCloud does). How does it know what device(s) to assign a particular song or app?

[Pyser]

just set a playlist already, dude.

make 1 for your iPod. make another one for your wife's iPod. make one for your kids. or whatever the issue is.

then set each one to sync with the appropriate iPod. you don't even need iCloud.

anyone can download whatever they want on your iTunes account, move it into "Dad's playlist" or whatever, plug your iPod in, and have it sync that playlist only.

unless I'm missing something?

[BigPapi]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

This is where I'm confused - are you referring to playlists, or some synch settings I've never seen before? About all I've seen is synch or manual. That's the extent of it.

Right now, I'm talking about something you download that's automatically transferred to all devices. If I download something on my iPod, what stops it from being downloaded on all devices? I don't even have to touch iTunes to download music and have it wirelessly synch (assuming I correctly understand what iCloud does). How does it know what device(s) to assign a particular song or app?

Ksyrup,

I'm sure you've been through all this- but I'll give it a go anyway:

In the screenshot below just underneath the apple Icon in the middle of the page you see a set of tabs regarding all the music, apps, calendars, Podcasts, etc. applicable to the logged in iTunes account. As Wade said- you can have several devices on the same account- and control the items you want on the device- as well as which items you want synced...All individual for each device.

You can see my Iphone highlighted in the left margin- and you can also see that I have chosen to sync my music based on selected playlists, artists, albums and genres. I can sync based on any- or all of those. I can also uncheck the sync function and never sync Music on my phone via iTunes- but sync calendars, or anything else. Each tab has similar properties for customizing sync settings.

Don't know if any of this will help- but it wasn't intuitive to me at first:

[Ksyrup]

Actually, that's very helpful, thanks. I guess I need to try to wrap my head around the playlist thing. it's just so counter-intuitive to me. I think it's mainly because (a) I'm just used to a simple drag-and-drop from computer to device, and see the playlist as an unnecessary step, and (b) I have more music than I can put on my iPod, so my playlist is going to have to constantly change as I add and subtract music. And it just seems like it's easier to do that directly from iTunes to iPod, rather than on a playlist.

I never bought into the PC people/Mac people thing until I owned an Apple product. Now I see it firsthand. I like the end product, but I don't understand the process they use to get to that point, and the hoops they make you jump through to use the product make no sense to me. And I read through the user guide, and I see what you can do with all of this stuff, but I never get an answer to why. And that just makes me ignore it, if I don't understand the reason for it.

Anyway, thanks for the help. Even you, wade.

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

I've read in several different places about some issue with iO5 where people's contacts and stuff have gone missing. Is this common/normal?

Just happened to me. All my apps are gone also.

Another question I have for those in the know. I create a playlist on my phone, then when I sync it dissapears. Anyone know why.

Also, all my music is now gone. Most of it was downloaded through limewire and not purchased from ITunes. Anyone know a fix so that I can get it onto my itunes and so my iphone doesn't wipe it all out when I sync?

[RainMaker]

Does anyone have a recommendation for a portable battery/charger? My Mom has been spending a lot of time at the hospital visiting my Grandma and complains that her phone dies out. Was looking at getting her a device that she could keep in her purse and give a charge while she is sitting around. She can recharge it all at night.

I've seen a few on Amazon. Some real cheap and some expensive. Some with and without a cord. Just not sure if anyone has one they use and can recommend.

[Marc Vaughan]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

Does anyone have a recommendation for a portable battery/charger? My Mom has been spending a lot of time at the hospital visiting my Grandma and complains that her phone dies out. Was looking at getting her a device that she could keep in her purse and give a charge while she is sitting around. She can recharge it all at night.

I've seen a few on Amazon. Some real cheap and some expensive. Some with and without a cord. Just not sure if anyone has one they use and can recommend.

If she's plugging into a wall socket then any charger will do really, some will be faster/slower than others but speed doesn't sound an issue.

Beyond that I've a battery boost pack which basically is a solid state battery which discharges into whatever electronic device you plug it into to recharge that device without the need for a wall socket (its too low power for a laptop but will give a phone or tablet a decent boost) ... again there are loads of these type of things around, much of a muchness imho.

[Desnudo]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

Does anyone have a recommendation for a portable battery/charger? My Mom has been spending a lot of time at the hospital visiting my Grandma and complains that her phone dies out. Was looking at getting her a device that she could keep in her purse and give a charge while she is sitting around. She can recharge it all at night.

I've seen a few on Amazon. Some real cheap and some expensive. Some with and without a cord. Just not sure if anyone has one they use and can recommend.

Amazon.com: BOOST Case - Protective Case & Extended Battery for iPhone 4 4S (Fits All Models iPhone 4S /4): Cell Phones & Accessories

[Buccaneer]

Thought I would bring my family into the 21st century. Picking up 4 iPhones tomorrow, a 4s for me and (3) 4 for everyone else. Since I hadn't changed plans since the previous century, it was a sticker shock to see how much more the monthly bill will be going from t-mobile to verizon. But I think we're going to work out an xfinity triple play so I can get cable, hd dvr, internet and home phone lowered, at least for two years. Now I have to manage going from an 80gb iPod which I basically have been connected to 24/7 down to a 16gb iPhone. Good thing I am love and am comfortable with iTunes. I'm glad to be more into Apple since I was a devoted mac-head before some of your were born.

[cartman]

So who else has been refreshing the evasi0n.com website every few minutes since yesterday? It is currently at 99%, so the jailbreak should be released very soon.

[SegRat]

The only thing I miss is locksceen info.

[SegRat]

Jailbreak is up.

[cartman]

Yep, I'm done with the jailbreak process. The jailbreak itself was a breeze. The difficult part was upgrading from iOS 5.1.1 to 6.1. Had to go back to a clean slate to update. Now I'm getting all of the Cydia apps reinstalled. OpenBackup is a life saver there.