The iPhone Collective

[disneysteve]

You have to make sure your new computer is authorized to play music from your iTunes library or you won't be able to copy it over from your shared library. I think you go to Store/Authorize Computer and make sure you are signed in and that this computer is authorized (you can have up to 5 authorized at a time).

Help me out here. I'm not finding the place to Authorize Computer. Under Apple Account Information, it says "Computer Authorizations: One machine is authorized to play content purchased with this account." There is no Edit button to change that.

ETA: Never mind. I got a prompt to authorize the computer when I tried to set up Home Sharing.

My question now is how do I get the apps from each of our iPhones/iPod Touch onto the new computer. Our old computer is not networked with the new one. Do we need to copy everything to a disk or external drive? Isn't there any way to transfer stuff from the devices right to the new computer?

 

[sarahsar]

Help me out here. I'm not finding the place to Authorize Computer. Under Apple Account Information, it says "Computer Authorizations: One machine is authorized to play content purchased with this account." There is no Edit button to change that.

ETA: Never mind. I got a prompt to authorize the computer when I tried to set up Home Sharing.

My question now is how do I get the apps from each of our iPhones/iPod Touch onto the new computer. Our old computer is not networked with the new one. Do we need to copy everything to a disk or external drive? Isn't there any way to transfer stuff from the devices right to the new computer?

The best way to get a lot of content from an old computer to a new computer is to copy the iTunes folder to an external hard drive (or backup to DVD) and then put it in the corresponding place on the new computer. There have been a few discussions of that on this thread and on detailed instructions on Apple Support, but it's pretty straightforward.

If you are using Home Sharing, you can import content from one computer to the other over your network, but that will take longer.

With apps, you can also re-download them to the new computer from iTunes. That is probably the least efficient way, but it would work. You can't do that with music, though - you would be charged again.

 

[disneysteve]

So there is no way to transfer apps from my phone to the new computer. Apple really ought to fix that problem. It would make the process so much easier.

 

[sarahsar]

So there is no way to transfer apps from my phone to the new computer. Apple really ought to fix that problem. It would make the process so much easier.

Um, yes there is. As I said in my post, the best way is to copy your iTunes folder to the new computer. Your apps are in the iTunes folder. Make sure the new computer is authorized. Then all of your apps will be on the new computer.

 

[disneysteve]

Um, yes there is. As I said in my post, the best way is to copy your iTunes folder to the new computer. Your apps are in the iTunes folder. Make sure the new computer is authorized. Then all of your apps will be on the new computer.

Sorry if I'm sounding confused. When you say to copy the iTunes folder, you mean from the old computer, right? What I was wondering is if I could just go straight from the phone to the new computer without involving the old computer in the process. As I type this, I'm burning the disc from the old computer, so I'll be all set in a few minutes. It just seems like an unnecessary step. It would be much easier to go straight from phone to new computer.

 

[sarahsar]

@disneysteve - Also, I've never done it this way, but if all you want to transfer is apps, you might try syncing the phone with the new computer and clicking "transfer purchases" in the sidebar. That is how you would get books from an iPad/iPhone to a computer, so it may work for apps as well.

As I said, I haven't done it because any time I've set up a new computer I've wanted music as well, and music isn't as simple due to licensing issues, etc. Plus, if you need to transfer a lot of stuff it's hard to beat just copying it over via USB, since it's faster, saves your iTunes prefs, etc. But if that isn't an option for you, you may see what happens when you try "transfer purchases." Just make sure you've backed everything up (which is good advice in general when you're doing any of this stuff).

I actually like how iTunes organizes the different types of content it manages (since the term "iTunes" has become a misnomer given that it handles music, movies, software, books, etc.) As long as you have selected to consolidate music when you add it to iTunes, it's just one big giant file with everything you need when you change computers, but it's also easy to go into the files and find specific songs/apps/etc. So it's a simple copy/paste process to transfer it.

 

[Califgirl]

I was with Sprint up until now. I just got the new i-phone 4. I had some great ringtones on my old phone and I'm finding it difficult to put new ringtones on the i-phone. I tunes has a few that I like, but the variety is just not there. Plus, I can't seem to change the tone for 'new voicemail' or 'new text'. It is either on or off.

I know many of you have had your i-phones long enough to know all the ins and outs. Can you help me with my ringtone delimma?

Also, how do I get my photos onto i-tunes, so I can get existing photos onto my phone?

 

[sarahsar]

Sorry if I'm sounding confused. When you say to copy the iTunes folder, you mean from the old computer, right? What I was wondering is if I could just go straight from the phone to the new computer without involving the old computer in the process. As I type this, I'm burning the disc from the old computer, so I'll be all set in a few minutes. It just seems like an unnecessary step. It would be much easier to go straight from phone to new computer.

We're posting simultaneously, so you probably didn't see my post I just wrote - I think you can transfer apps alone with a sync.

I can see what you're saying, that it would be easier to go from phone to computer. It may be if the only thing you're transferring is apps. It gets a bit hairier if you are also transferring music, movies, etc., because that type of content is more restricted by the license holders.

But when I say copy the iTunes folder, I do mean from the old computer. Are you on Windows? I don't have a Windows computer in front of me right now, but if I remember correctly, the iTunes folder is under My Music in My Documents. Find the iTunes folder, right-click and choose copy. Then go to an external hard drive, jump drive, or whatever you will use to transfer it. Paste the file there. Then, on your new computer, copy that file from your external hard drive and paste it to the same spot in the new computer (My Documents/My Music/iTunes I believe). Then when you open iTunes it should all be there.

 

[sarahsar]

I was with Sprint up until now. I just got the new i-phone 4. I had some great ringtones on my old phone and I'm finding it difficult to put new ringtones on the i-phone. I tunes has a few that I like, but the variety is just not there. Plus, I can't seem to change the tone for 'new voicemail' or 'new text'. It is either on or off.

I know many of you have had your i-phones long enough to know all the ins and outs. Can you help me with my ringtone delimma?

Also, how do I get my photos onto i-tunes, so I can get existing photos onto my phone?

Not sure about ringtones, since I don't do much of that anymore. I have a couple that I've made myself.

To change your text sound, go to Settings/Sounds on your phone and you can change the sound for New Text Message. I don't think you can change it for voicemail.

For photos, when your phone is plugged in, go to Photos in the tabs across the screen. Then you can tell it which folder you want to sync your photos from, which can be any folder on your computer. What I do is create a "Mobile Photos" folder with the pictures I want to sync, since I don't want to sync every photo I have. But you can set it up however you want.

 

[disneysteve]

Thanks for your help, sarahsar. I'm not on a Windows machine. I'm going from an old iMac to a new iMac but they aren't networked so I can't use Home Sharing to transfer files. I already had backup discs of our music library. I just needed to transfer apps from my and DW's iPhone and DD's iPod Touch. I think I've got it all straightened out now.

 

[sarahsar]

Thanks for your help, sarahsar. I'm not on a Windows machine. I'm going from an old iMac to a new iMac but they aren't networked so I can't use Home Sharing to transfer files. I already had backup discs of our music library. I just needed to transfer apps from my and DW's iPhone and DD's iPod Touch. I think I've got it all straightened out now.

Oh, okay. Actually isn't there a way just to transfer everything (not just iTunes) from an old Mac to a new one? I haven't done it but I remember when I set up my Mac it had that as an option.

But anyway, I see you've got it figured out, but for anyone else wondering who uses a Mac, it's very easy - In the Finder, go to the home folder, (whatever you've called it). Then go to Music/iTunes. Copy the iTunes folder and paste it in the new computer in the exact same spot - home folder/Music. Then you should be set.

 

[cslittle999]

DisneySteve, do you use Time Machine? You can use Migration Assistant to restore the users and their files from the old iMac. If you don't use Time Machine then connecting the two computers with a Firewire cable and using target disk mode is your best option.

 

[luke]

Just downloaded about 550 novels for iBooks, including the last few Harry Potter books I haven't read yet which I need to get done before August and our visit to WWOHP - will be much easier now they're always at my finger tips (had the books on loan from the library for ages and still not got round to finishing the series!!)

 

[jcb]

Harry Potter on iBook? JK must be getting desperate.

 

[disneysteve]

Never mind. Found another website that answered my question.

 

[luke]

Harry Potter on iBook? JK must be getting desperate.

I don't think it's available on iBooks, i just happened to procure a version that works on it

 

[ItsDisney]

Question. Has anyone had an issue backing up their iphone and than losing all their contacts? I know a few people that this has happened too. I heard there was an itunes issue. Has anyone heard of how people can get their contacts back????

 

[chum]

Great phone!
No problems for me with the new phone as some reported since launch.
This one has a bestskinsever total body skin and Apple bumper applied.
Significant improvements over my 3G.

 

[luke]

Just downloaded about 550 novels for iBooks, including the last few Harry Potter books I haven't read yet which I need to get done before August and our visit to WWOHP - will be much easier now they're always at my finger tips (had the books on loan from the library for ages and still not got round to finishing the series!!)

Although now DW has stolen my phone for the past two nights to read the Twilight books

 

[disneysteve]

I've been a Mac user since 1994 and consider myself pretty proficient but trying to get our new iMac and our iPhones to play together is driving me nuts. I have never had anywhere near this much difficulty with Apple products. I'm used to plug and play and everything being intuitive so I'm pleading for help here.

We have a brand new iMac which just replaced our old iMac.
We have 2 iPhones and 1 iPod Touch.

I think I have finally gotten my iPhone working properly on the new computer though there are still a couple of little glitches. For example, yesterday I created a ringtone file from a song in our iTunes library. When I synced my phone to get the ringtone onto it, it erased my whole iPod library - music and podcasts - from my phone. I got the ringtone but had to reload everything else.

The problem now is with DW's iPhone. We connected it to the new iMac for the first time tonight. It recognized it but, of course, gave us the notice that it was synced to a different iTunes library (the old computer) and if we wanted to sync it to the new computer, it would erase everything. We did that because it needs to be synced to the new computer from now on. After doing that sync, the music in her iPod library was gone, which we expected. However, when we tried to drag and drop music from our iTunes library to her iPhone, it wouldn't let us. It also wouldn't let us drag photos to her phone. If we went to the Music tab on her phone, it would let us transfer music by artist but not by individual song from the iTunes library.

How do we make it so her phone is fully functional on the new computer?