This is ridiculous...

Probably not the best spot for this topic because this problem encompasses so much more then just my OS, but here we go.

I have an (I think) eight year old iMac G5 running OS X 10.5.8. This computer is barely ever turned on these days, but it still has all my music, photos, and videos on it. I pretty much only turned it on to sync and back-up my iPhone 4 when I needed to.

About a year ago I bought a new computer with Windows 8 (sucks by the way).

In December of last year my iPhone 4 finally broke. Since I was also having problems with my cell provider, I switched providers and upgraded to the iPhone 5.

As expected, I get home and my iPhone 5 isn't compatible with my Mac because after buying an already over priced phone, Apple expects me to buy a new version of their operating system, which I'll never use.

I had one playlist, the main one I listen to, copied over to my W8 computer from my old iPhone 4. I synced that one to my iPhone 5 for the time being.

Now the original files from the playlist are now missing from my computer, so I can not edit them. I decided it was finally time to move all the data from my Mac over to my Windows computer.

I searched online and the easiest way seemed to be through Home Sharing. I tried this out and my Windows computer can not access the files on my Mac, but my Mac can access the files on my Windows. Tried trouble shooting this for a while with no luck.

Decided to just manually transfer everything over with my 250GB external HD only to find that my HD is compatible with Mac and not Windows. I can't substitute my old iPhone to do it because it's broken and can't turn on anymore.

So basically I am unable to get my music, videos, and photos on to my new, expensive phone without spending even more money on a new version of an OS I won't use or another HD, because Apple likes to make their own products incompatible with each other every year.

One thing you should take away from this is to do your research before buying a new phone. If you live in the U.S., a new iPhone 4 on contract with almost every major carrier would have been free. Same phone you're used to and it would work how the old one did with the same Mac and OS you already had.

If your G5 is Intel, you can upgrade to Snow Leopard for $19.99. Install DVDs can be purchased from online Apple Store.

8 years does not equal "every year".
I'd have been pretty miffed one year after buying a PPC Mac when they moved to Intel - wouldn't have let it wait for 8.

There has never been full compatibility between the hard drive formats used by Windows, Linux and OS X without 3rd party drivers - this is nothing new.

You can get Paragon's HFS+ for Windows and gain full read and write access to that drive. You could also have used FAT32 on that external drive and have full inter-operability between all 3 major operating systems without the need for a 3rd party driver.

technological said:

Probably not the best spot for this topic because this problem encompasses so much more then just my OS, but here we go.

I have an (I think) eight year old iMac G5 running OS X 10.5.8. This computer is barely ever turned on these days, but it still has all my music, photos, and videos on it. I pretty much only turned it on to sync and back-up my iPhone 4 when I needed to.

About a year ago I bought a new computer with Windows 8 (sucks by the way).

In December of last year my iPhone 4 finally broke. Since I was also having problems with my cell provider, I switched providers and upgraded to the iPhone 5.

As expected, I get home and my iPhone 5 isn't compatible with my Mac because after buying an already over priced phone, Apple expects me to buy a new version of their operating system, which I'll never use.

Click to expand...

Apple doesn't care if you buy a new operating system or not. But if you want to transfer music, pictures and video from that antique G5 to a brand new iPhone, you are going to have some challenges, as you found out.

I had one playlist, the main one I listen to, copied over to my W8 computer from my old iPhone 4. I synced that one to my iPhone 5 for the time being.

Now the original files from the playlist are now missing from my computer, so I can not edit them. I decided it was finally time to move all the data from my Mac over to my Windows computer.

I searched online and the easiest way seemed to be through Home Sharing. I tried this out and my Windows computer can not access the files on my Mac, but my Mac can access the files on my Windows. Tried trouble shooting this for a while with no luck.

Decided to just manually transfer everything over with my 250GB external HD only to find that my HD is compatible with Mac and not Windows. I can't substitute my old iPhone to do it because it's broken and can't turn on anymore.

Click to expand...

If you don't have anything on the external HD, just reformat it to FAT32 and then all your files can go on it and both OSX and Windows can see it just fine. Or if you do have stuff on the drive, you can look for a third party software for Windows 8 that can read the Mac format. Here's an article from Stanford University with some excellent information on that topic: Reading Mac drives on Windows

If you don't like those solutions, open an account with some cloud service like Dropbox, Box, Cubbie, or another. Most have some "free" services. Copy your files to there from the Mac, then back down to the Windows 8 system. From there you an import them to iTunes on Win8 and rebuild your playlists.

So basically I am unable to get my music, videos, and photos on to my new, expensive phone without spending even more money on a new version of an OS I won't use or another HD, because Apple likes to make their own products incompatible with each other every year.

Click to expand...

And the last sentence is just wrong. You ARE able to get what you want to your new phone, you just didn't know how. You don't need a new OS and it's not Apple's problem that you are running an antique computer with a brand new phone. Technology moves on.

technological said:

I have an (I think) eight year old iMac G5 running OS X 10.5.8.

I pretty much only turned it on to sync and back-up my iPhone 4 when I needed to.

In December of last year my iPhone 4 finally broke. Since I was also having problems with my cell provider, I switched providers and upgraded to the iPhone 5.

As expected, I get home and my iPhone 5 isn't compatible with my Mac because after buying an already over priced phone, Apple expects me to buy a new version of their operating system, which I'll never use.

Click to expand...

Expecting an 8 year-old iMac running a pretty old version of the Mac OS (10.5 at the best...the latest is 10.9) to "play nice" with a brand new iPhone 5 is VERY unrealistic!

Once this fact is absorbed/understood...then everything is good.

If all of this came as a surprise...it really would have been a good thing to verify the computer system requirements for an iPhone 5 BEFORE purchase. This is always a great idea to do whenever purchasing new hardware (iPad's, iPhone's, iPod's, printers, scanners, etc.) or software. Verify the hardware and OS requirements before buying.

- Nick

I have quite a few files and photos on Dropbox some uploaded from a 5 year old MacBook Pro, some from Windows XP. I also regularly access these files and photos from my Samsung Note III cell phone. In fact, now that i think of it, the Note III uploads photos to Dropbox through my home wireless network when I come home. Recently, I bought a new iMac, and transferred quite a number of documents from Dropbox to some new database software that I have on the iMac. Dropbox does have a limit on free info, but you could upload in stages and then download whereever if your files exceed the Dropbox free limit. Or, you could pay extra for some additional storage...it's cheap.

Bottom line: old hardware + old OS = problems with new hardware that needs a new OS.

MyMacRox: there is no such thing as an Intel G5. Of course, there is also no such thing as a G5 iMac, so I don't really know what the OP has. Hopefully he can clarify.

In the meantime I'd say (particularly in light of both the new iPhone and the less-than-happy experience with Windows 8) that the OP might consider selling his newer machine or trading it for a recent Mac model that is compatible with everything. After eight years, I think he deserves a new(er) Mac!

chas_m said:

MyMacRox: there is no such thing as an Intel G5. Of course, there is also no such thing as a G5 iMac, so I don't really know what the OP has. Hopefully he can clarify.

Click to expand...

Chas, am I seeing your wording wrong or did you just say there is no iMac G5? I hope either I am blind or you typed that wrong. First iMac that stood up on a stand and everything was in the the flat monitor was an imac G5 then that was replaced by ALS Model (Automatic Light Sensor) then replaced by the iMac G5 iSight. After that the First Intel macs came out in the exact same case as the G5 iMac iSight before it.

If the OP has that iSight model, he is sunk as 10.5.8 is tops with that older Power PC G5 iMac.

If the op is wrong and he does have say the very 1st Intel iMac (Many get that confused with the G5 just before it) he can upgrade to 10.6.8 anyway which might help.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMac_G5

chas_m said:

Of course, there is also no such thing as a G5 iMac, so I don't really know what the OP has

Click to expand...

Apple have produced an iMac G3, G4, G5 and Intel, I've used them all.

The facts are that there are logical ways of moving data from the older Mac as suggested on this thread. The OP should have asked for advice here before ranting at Apple. Hopefully he will now be well on the way to solving his problems.

My mistake, I was thinking of a MacBook Pro instead of an iMac. Dennis, as usual you are correct.