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My situation:
I have an iPhone with synced to my computer and my wife just bought an iPad (in shipment) which she will sync to her computer.
We want to use my Apple ID on both computers/devices so that she can use apps and music I have already purchased. Syncing the devices to the same computer is not an option.
Is this an option, and how would it work, i.e., would she have to "purchase" and get a message saying it has already been purchased, and to re-download?
Thanks!
The data being deleted is in reference to the data already stored on the phone (e.g. the sister's contacts). An iPhone can only be synced to one PC at a time, and if you want to setup syncing with this new PC, you will need to delete all of the data on the iPhone.
If your wife wants her sister's contacts, then she shouldn't sync and wipe the data before she has a copy of all that info. One way to to get the info on to the iPhone is to sync it with outlook (via iTunes) on the sister's PC. Then export the contact's from Outlook, copy the file to the wife's PC, import into Outlook. Then proceed ahead with the sync that will wipe all the data, and set it up to sync with Outlook. This way your wife will have all the original contacts.
If your wife does not care about her sister's contacts, then you can go ahead with the initial sync that wipes all the data.
When the phone is synced with Windows 7, it will use the following folder for backups: \Users\(username)\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\. Therefore, you should back up that folder if you want to keep a second copy on your computer.
If the most important data that will be used on the phone is Contact information, I would recommend that instead of using Outlook, that your wife use Google Sync. This will allow her to store all of her contacts in Gmail, such that if anything happens to the phone, the contact info can easily be accessed again online, all without ever having to sync or backup (or double backup) the phone. Google Sync can also sync your Calendar. If you setup a Google account as IMAP, you could even have the Notes synced to the cloud as well.
Keep in mind that when the data gets wiped, everything on the phone will be deleted. This includes, but is not limited to, the following:
- Music
- Videos
- Podcasts
- Address Book and Address Book favorites.
- App Store Applications and their data.
- Application settings, preferences, and data.
- Autofill for webpages.
- CalDAV and subscribed calendar accounts.
- Calendar accounts.
- Calendar events.
- Call history.
- Camera Roll (Photos, screenshots, images saved, and videos taken.)
- In-app purchases.
- Keychain (this includes email account passwords, Wi-Fi passwords, and passwords you enter into websites and some other applications.)
- List of External Sync Sources (Mobile Me, Exchange ActiveSync).
- Location service preferences for apps and websites you have allowed to use your location.
- Mail accounts.
- Managed Configurations/Profiles.
- Microsoft Exchange account configurations.
- Network settings (saved wifi spots, VPN settings, network preferences).
- Nike + iPod saved workouts and settings.
- Notes.
- Offline web application cache/database.
- Paired Bluetooth devices.
- Safari bookmarks, cookies, history, offline data, and currently open pages.
- Saved suggestion corrections.
- SMS and MMS (pictures and video) messages.
- Trusted hosts that have certificates that cannot be verified.
- Voice memos.
- Voicemail token.
- Wallpapers.
- Web clips.
- YouTube bookmarks and history.
(This list was slightly modified from Apple's page)
At that point, yes - if you click Don't Sync Apps you are telling iTunes to reset the link between another iTunes library and your iPad - which will result in this computer deleting your apps on the device and replacing them with the apps on that iTunes Library. Cancel should let the rest of the sync proceed and leave your apps alone this time. Go into the Apps tab and deselect app syncing to prevent this message from coming back the next time you connect.
The iOS devices and iTunes are happy to have different computers feed it Apps, Information, Music, etc...
I don't see an authoritative document specifying how many different computers can routinely share syncing duties - each providing the minimum amount of content in terms of the Info / Apps / Ringtones (etc...) tabs in iTunes.
My experience is the six music related tabs are treated as one, so you could have your device get data from 5 different computers and not have any problems. In your case - you could easily sync everything but apps from computer A and the apps from computer B.
iTunes stores the App purchase history and syncing in preference files as well as in two locations on a Mac or a PC.
The two or three folders you need to move are:
Assuming you want everything to move from the old computer to the new one and the new one has nothing (you can overwrite everything there), you simply:
The first time you launch iTunes on the new mac - just be sure no devices are connected and go to preferences and review the settings - make sure the music library points to the correct folder on the new mac and try playing a song or two. You can then connect your devices and resume normal sync/backup as if the new computer was the old one. Do use care to destroy / not use the old computer - the device could get confused if you sync to two versions of the "same library".
Best Answer
It won't be a problem; you can use the same Apple ID on up to five computers. If the two computers are on the same network, you can use Home Sharing in iTunes to make sharing easier; otherwise, your wife can sign in with your Apple ID, and re-download the stuff that she wants.