Syncing iTunes with your iOS Device

In this lesson for iTunes on the Mac, we are going to look at how we can sync our media with our iOS devices using iTunes.

Seeing what is on your iOS Device
When you plug in your iPhone or iPad and open iTunes, in your sidebar you will see your iOS device. You will also see all the different media types. Just select any one of the media types to see what is on your iPhone or iPad.

Syncing your Media with your iOS Device
While your iPhone or iPad is plugged in and iTunes is open, you’ll want to click not he little iOS icon in the upper left corner of the iTunes display. This will bring us to where we can manage our iOS device including setting up syncing.

When you set up syncing, you need to set it up for the individual media types. In other words, you need to set up syncing for music, TV Shows, Movies, and audiobooks all separately. To select what you want to be set up for syncing for, let’s say music, you click on Music in the sidebar under your iOS device. The interface will change, and you’ll see all the options for what you have selected. If it was music, you could choose which albums or artists you want to sync. With TV Shows you can set what episodes or only unplayed shows. So you’ll need to go through each media type. If you are using iCloud, some options may not be available such as contacts or photos. That is because they are being synced through iCloud.

With File Sharing, you can move files onto your iOS device. Just select the file type, such as Pages, and then you can add pages documents through iTunes to your iPhone or iPad.

When you have everything set, you need to click on Apply in the lower right corner to apply any changes you’ve made.

Syncing Options
When you click on Summary, you are brought back to where you can backup and restore your iOS device. There are more options below where you manage your iSo device. These are general syncing options.

Automatically Sync
This will automatically sync your iPhone or iPad when it is plugged in to your Mac.

Sync over Wi-Fi
This will allow you iPhone or iPad to sync over wifi as opposed to having it be plugged in.

Sync Only Checked Songs and Videos
In iTunes Preferences you can set if you want to be able to check songs and videos. This will put a checkbox next to the song or video. When you turn on Sync Only Checked Songs and Videos, iTunes will only sync what you have checked.

Prefer Standard Definition Videos
This will sync standard definition videos as opposed to HD videos if they are available. This will save space on your iOS device, but also the quality of the video will be lower.

Convert Higher Bit Rate Songs
When this is selected, any songs you sync will be converted to what you have set here. When you use this option, your music is downsampled which results in them taking up less space on your iPad or iPhone, but they are a lower quality too. This is used to save space on your iOS device. It does not affect the quality of the songs in iTunes itself, only what is is syncing on your iOS device.

Manually Manage Music and Videos
When this is selected, you can just drag and drop your music and videos onto your iOS device through iTunes instead of selecting which artists or playlists you want to sync.

Reset Warnings
With some alerts, you can tell them now to remind you again. If you click on this, they will be reset and you’ll see those alerts again even if you said Do Not Show Again.

See this Lesson in Action
If you want to see this lesson in action, take a look at the video above.

Lesson tags: Mac Tutorials
Back to: Tutor for iTunes for the Mac > Managing iOS Devices