01-08-2011, 05:03 PM

I work away from home during the week so I travel with my macbook. The issue I'm having is say I purchase music on my Macbook, then sync it to my iPhone. When I return home I usually dont touch the Macbook, so I plug my phone into my iMac. After my phone syncs with the iMac it loses all the music/apps/whatever I bought on my Macbook. It works the same way if I do it the other way, from iMac to book. Is there a setting I'm not aware of that needs to be changed or do I need to do something else?

If this belongs in the iPhone forum please move.

01-08-2011, 06:59 PM

One word: Homesharing.

On both machines, you need to:
1. Open iTunes
2. On the menu, head for Advanced - Turn on Homesharing

After iTunes is open and Homesharing is turned on in both Macs, on the side bar in iTunes you'll now see a SHARED item with the other computer listed. Select the other library listed there and you'll find everything in the iTunes library on the other Mac.

From here you have a few options.

On the bar at the bottom you'll see a "Show" option. You can show everything in the other library or only the things that are not in the library on the computer you're on.

You can simply drag and drop from one library to the other - single or multiples.

You can highlight everything you want to bring from one computer to the other and then click the 'Import' button - bottom right.

Check out that 'Settings' button down there. You can have it set to automatically import all new purchases without you doing a thing.

You can have only one or both Macs set to auto import (this works great when one of them is a Win box also).

Just keep in mind for the auto import function to work, both machines must be up and running and have iTunes open.

The only things I've had issues with is Audible content not working with Homesharing. Have to do these manually across the network.

01-08-2011, 07:52 PM

Originally Posted by willmeahl4

I work away from home during the week so I travel with my macbook. The issue I'm having is say I purchase music on my Macbook, then sync it to my iPhone. When I return home I usually dont touch the Macbook, so I plug my phone into my iMac. After my phone syncs with the iMac it loses all the music/apps/whatever I bought on my Macbook. It works the same way if I do it the other way, from iMac to book. Is there a setting I'm not aware of that needs to be changed or do I need to do something else?

If this belongs in the iPhone forum please move.

What you are doing would work on any other iPod, just not the iPhone. For whatever reason Apple disabled the ability for the iPhones to sync to 2 libraries. For iPods they just need to be in manual sync mode.

01-08-2011, 09:52 PM

Originally Posted by bobtomay

One word: Homesharing.

On both machines, you need to:
1. Open iTunes
2. On the menu, head for Advanced - Turn on Homesharing

After iTunes is open and Homesharing is turned on in both Macs, on the side bar in iTunes you'll now see a SHARED item with the other computer listed. Select the other library listed there and you'll find everything in the iTunes library on the other Mac.

From here you have a few options.

On the bar at the bottom you'll see a "Show" option. You can show everything in the other library or only the things that are not in the library on the computer you're on.

You can simply drag and drop from one library to the other - single or multiples.

You can highlight everything you want to bring from one computer to the other and then click the 'Import' button - bottom right.

Check out that 'Settings' button down there. You can have it set to automatically import all new purchases without you doing a thing.

You can have only one or both Macs set to auto import (this works great when one of them is a Win box also).

Just keep in mind for the auto import function to work, both machines must be up and running and have iTunes open.

The only things I've had issues with is Audible content not working with Homesharing. Have to do these manually across the network.

AWESOME +1! Thanks so much.

11-20-2011, 05:37 PM

really?! It was really this simple? +1 you ROCK!