Control Mac Itunes From Iphone
- Turn on Home Sharing in iTunes on your computer or Mac. Go to File Home Sharing Turn On Home Sharing. Once enabled, your Remote app on your iPhone should automatically retrieve all your music collection and display them on your iDevice. Use IFTTT As A Spy App: Secretly Copy, Collect iOS Photos on iPhone, iPad (No Jailbreak).
- In his first column of 2014, the iTunes Guy addresses how to get a list of apps on an iOS device, shows some tagging tricks for multidisc sets, and offers suggestions for iTunes controllers.
- Remote app - Go to the App Store and download the Remote app. Signing in - You will have to sign in to iTunes to finish downloading the app.
- Apple quietly introduced a new Apple Remote $19.00 - Apple Online Store link along with the updated iMac, Mac Mini, Magic Mouse, and Apple TV 3.0 last month. Not to be confused with the Apple-produced Remote app Free - iTunes link, which allows an iPhone or iPod touch to control an Apple TV or iTunes, the Apple Remote is a hardware accessory that not only controls the aforementioned.
Use your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to control another device Connect your devices to the same Wi-Fi network. Sign in to iCloud with the same Apple ID on both devices. If you want to control a Mac, choose Apple menu System Preferences on your computer.
Among the first programs available in Apple’s newly launched App Store is a free application called Remote (iTunes link), developed by Apple itself. Remote lets you control your iTunes library or an Apple TV all from your iPhone or iPod touch.
When you first open the app, it’ll look for iTunes libraries on your local network (you’ll need iTunes 7.7 for this to work, and you’ll have to enable “Look for iPhone & iPod touch Remotes” under Preferences -> Advanced). The iPhone version of the app will provide you with a four digit passcode that you’ll need to enter in iTunes.
Meanwhile, your iPhone or iPod touch will show up under a Devices heading in the iTunes Library source list; when you select it, you’ll be asked to enter the passcode. That prevents you from doing naughty things like taking control of your neighbor’s iTunes library when they’re—ahem—borrowing your Wi-Fi network.
Apple Mac Itunes
There is, however, support for multiple libraries. When you start up Remote after associating with a library, it’ll take a second to reconnect, during which time you can change which library you want to use (you can also tap the Settings button in the top left corner of any list screen). That’ll give you the option to add multiple libraries, delete existing associations, and toggle a “Stay Connected” preference (not precisely sure what that does at present).
Once you’ve entered the passcode, you’ll have full control over your iTunes Library through an interface that’s virtually identical to the iPhone’s iPod application. The Now Playing screen gives you full screen album art, previous and next track buttons, and a play/pause control, as well as a volume slider (when you adjust the slider, you’ll see the volume slider in iTunes on your computer adjust simultaneously). You can also double tap the album art to bring up the track listing for an album or single tap to bring up additional controls, including shuffle and repeat options and a scrubber.
In list mode, five buttons appear on a bottom toolbar that allow you to pick (by default) from Playlists, Artists, Albums, Search, and More (which gives you access to Audiobooks, Composers, Genres, Movies, Music Videos, Podcasts, Songs, and TV Shows). But, as with the iPod application, if you select More and tap the Edit button in the top right, you can rearrange which buttons are on the toolbar.
The Search button is new to the Remote app, but it works much as you might expect: tap the search field and enter your terms, and it’ll display a list of results for that string (mostly live, though it took a second if there were a lot of hits). Selecting an album or artist will you browse their songs, while tapping a song will start playing it.
There is one missing feature that you’ll find in the iPod application that you won’t find in Remote, however, and that’s Cover Flow. You can turn the phone sideways as much as you want, but you’ll just find yourself staring at the off-kilter album art. Fun as that may be, however, it’s not particularly useful.
Apple's iTunes software is, in the main, designed to transfer data to their devices but not in the other direction. In general if you try to connect and sync an Apple device to a new library iTunes will want to erase all the current media content and replace it with items from the new library. See Move your iTunes library to a new computer for advice on moving a working library to a new computer if that is still a possibility.
Should you be in the unfortunate position where your computer has been lost, stolen or damaged and you have no viable backup of your library then you can use the steps below to attempt to recover most, if not all, of your media and other information from your devices. If, however the library that has been lost or damaged was on your current computer see Empty/corrupt iTunes library after upgrade/crash first.
If you still have the computer, but it is in a non-bootable state, then it may be possible to extract the hard drive, put it in an external drive bay and recover data from it that way. The steps in Repair security permissions for iTunes for Windows may help to allow iTunes to properly access any recovered data. If the drive is accessible then using your old drive may well be easier than what follows, though it depends in part on the mix of purchased vs. ripped media and whether or not your device holds all your media, or a subset of it. If you have an iPod classic, nano, or shuffle see Recover media from an iPod instead of this tip.
- Preparation
Before you connect any device to a new library go to the Devices tab of the the preferences panel via Edit > Preferences (Windows - press CTRL+B to reveal the menu bar if needed) or iTunes > Preferences (Mac) and ensure the box next to Prevent iPods, iPhones, and iPads from syncing automatically is ticked. You can now safely connect the device to your computer without the danger of media being automatically deleted or overwritten. If your device doesn't register in iTunes see iOS device not showing in iTunes for Windows.
If this device contains contacts or calendar items that are not already on the computer you are using, and that you wish to recover, then make sure you have at least one contact & one event in the applications that will sync with the device (e.g. Windows Address Book or Outlook under Windows, iCal & Address Book on a Mac). Dummy entries will do, but there must be at least one if the data is to be retrieved from the device in step 7 below. - Transfer purchases
You can transfer your iTunes Store purchases into a new library, after connecting the device, with the menu item File > Devices > Transfer Purchases from '<DeviceName>'. You should be prompted to authorize the computer to your iTunes account if you have not already done so. If your device holds content from more than one account you will need to authorize each one. To avoid duplicates it may be easier to extract all media at one time at step 4, then come back to this step to recover any Apps or iPod Games if you are running iTunes 12.6.3.6 or earlier. Note that with the introduction of app thinning in iOS 9 your device may no longer contain a complete version of each app, so app transfer from device to library is disabled, and with iTunes 12.7 most app management features were removed altogether. See Managing apps with iTunes 12.7 or later for details.
See also: HT201267: Redownload or transfer your iTunes Store purchases from an iPhone, iPad, or iPod to a computer (retired document, archived version) - Back up (iOS only)
If this is an iOS device you should now right-click on it (control-click on a Mac) in the left-hand column of the iTunes window and click Back Up to make a backup of the current settings and application data on the device.
See also HT201302: Import photos and videos from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. Although a backup should include the contents of the camera roll it is probably best to copy off your photos and videos to local storage at the same time. See HT204136: About backups for iOS devices for more details about what is and is not included in the backup. - Recover other media
iTunes only permits the transfer of iTunes Store purchases. If your device contains other media that you've ripped from CD or downloaded from other online stores you can either go back to the original sources or use third party software to extract your data from your device. There is a list of some of the software available below. Note also that photos synced to the device from a previous computer are not necessarily included in the device's backup so should be extracted now if possible. - Recover other purchases
Your device may not have held all your iTunes Store purchases. You can recover qualifying purchases from your account by visiting the music home page of the iTunes Store then clicking on the Purchased link in the Quick Links section in the right-hand column.
See also: HT201272: Redownload music, movies, TV shows, apps, and books from the iTunes Store, iBooks Store, and App Store - Restore (iOS only)
Having backed up your device, and rescued all the media from it that you can, you should now restore the device from the backup that you took earlier to ensure that the device is properly associated with this new library. Right-click on it (control-click on a Mac) in the left-hand column of the iTunes window and click Restore from Backup... Sync
Set up your new preferences for syncing Music, TV Shows, Podcasts, Info etc. then click Sync. You may get an erase and sync warning at this point however provided you have recovered all of your content from the device then you can safely proceed. For a device that holds calendar or contact information you should be prompted to restore or merge. Click merge to copy this information into your computer. Your device is now properly associated with your new library and you shouldn't have lost any data.- Backup your library
For the future you should backup your library to a separate hard drive or network share as restoring a backup is much easier than the process above. The user tip Backup your iTunes for Windows library with SyncToy gives a suggested way of doing this effectively for Windows users. Mac owners can make use of Time Machine, or tools such as Carbon Copy Cloner or Synkron which can do a similar job to SyncToy. - Remove old authorizations and associations
If you've lost access to an old computer, or it will no longer boot up, it may still be authorized to or associated with your Apple ID. See Deauthorize your computer using iTunes - Apple Support and use the Deauthorize all computers option to remove all authorizations, then authorize the computers you still wish to use. See View and remove your associated devices in iTunes - Apple Support to manage any unwanted associations.
Media recovery software
This list is by no means comprehensive. Compatibility and feature details may have altered since this tip was published. There is usually a trade-off between cost and ease of use.
Disconnect Itunes From Iphone
| Product | Description | Win | Mac | iPod | iOS | Playlists | Ratings |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Floola | Free cross platform (Linux too) iPod manager. It appears to have partial support for extracting playlists to m3u files rather than transferring directly to iTunes. | ➕ | ➕ | ➕ | ➖ | ? | ➖ |
| iPod Access | Copies music, videos, playlists, ratings and more. Can extract content from hard drive based iPods with damaged databases. | ➕ | ➕ | ➕ | ➕ | ➕ | ➕ |
| iPod2PC | Can copy songs, podcasts and playlists to iTunes or a folder of your choice. | ➕ | ➖ | ➕ | ➖ | ➕ | ? |
| iRip | Claims it can copy the contents of your iPod or iPhone to your Mac or PC with a single click. | ➕ | ➕ | ➕ | ➕ | ➕ | ? |
| MediaMonkey | Although primarily an alternative media manager to iTunes, MediaMonkey can also be used to copy files from an iPod or iOS device to the local file system. Tracks can be copied directly into the iTunes Automatically Add to iTunes folder to add and organize them within the iTunes library. Recommended, particularly for retrieving selected files rather than everything on the device. | ➕ | ➖ | ➕ | ➕ | ➖ | ➖ |
| Music Rescue | Copies music, videos, podcasts, audiobooks, audio recordings, playlists and notes. | ➕ | ➕ | ➕ | ➕ | ➕ | ? |
| PhoneView | Save iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch app data, voicemail, text messages, iMessages, call log, notes, contacts, music and photos to your Mac. | ➖ | ➕ | ➕ | ➕ | ➕ | ➕ |
| Senuti | Transfer music from your iPod or iPhone to your computer with this easy to use application for Mac. | ➖ | ➕ | ➕ | ➕ | ➕ | ➕ |
| SharePod | Free tool that can add, remove and copy media to or from your device. | ➕ | ➖ | ➕ | ➕ | ➕ | ➕ |
| TouchCopy | Comprehensive tools for copying media and other items from your device to your computer. | ➕ | ➕ | ➕ | ➕ | ➕ | ➕ |
| TuneJack | Can copy all songs & playlists from your iPod/iOS device to your PC and optionally add them to iTunes. | ➕ | ➖ | ➕ | ➕ | ➕ | ➕ |
| iRepo | Can copy selected songs & playlists from your iPod/iOS device to your PC/Mac and optionally add them to iTunes. (TuneJack with options) | ➕ | ➕ | ➕ | ➕ | ➕ | ➕ |
| iGadget | Can copy selected songs & playlists from your iPod/iOS device to your PC/Mac and optionally add them to iTunes. Can also add other data as notes to non-iOS devices. (TuneJack with more options) | ➕ | ➕ | ➕ | ➕ | ➕ | ➕ |
| YamiPod | Yet another iPod manager. Mainly designed as a free cross platform (Linux too) alternative to iTunes for hard drive based iPods it includes features for transferring media from your device to your computer. | ➕ | ➕ | ➕ | ➖ | ? | ➖ |
Metadata only | A Windows script that imports regular playlists from an iPod or iOS device into the iTunes library. Can import from a selected playlist, or playlist folder, or all playlists on the device. Use to extract metadata not recovered with other tools, e.g. the method given in Recover media from an iPod below. | ➕ | ➖ | ➕ | ➕ | ➕ | ➖ |
Metadata only | A Windows script that copies highest play count, skip count, rating and most recent played & skipped date of selected tracks or playlist between iTunes and an iPod or iOS device. Use to extract metadata not recovered with other tools, e.g. the method in Recover media from an iPod below. | ➕ | ➖ | ➕ | ➕ | ➖ | ➕ |
| Recover media from an iPod | This approach is mainly aimed at older devices that can be accessed via disk mode, however free tools such as iFunBox or MediaMonkey which give access to the iOS file system may also allow you to use this method to extract media from an iOS device. Windows users would also be able to make use of the two scripts above to recover playlists and stats. The user tip is an alternative to the iLounge Article: Copying Content from your iPod to your Computer - The Definitive Guide that has been previously referred to. Recommended for retrieving everything from the device in one go. | ➕ | ➕ | ➕ | ➕ | ➖ | ➖ |
| Product | Description | Win | Mac | iPod | iOS | Playlists | Ratings |
Control Mac Itunes From Iphone To Pc
See also: