Never use iTunes Wi-Fi sync again

Wi-Fi sync is great – you don’t need to plug in your iPad or iPhone to sync with your computer. This is wonderful when you subscribe to podcasts using iTunes and need to freshen up your iOS devices every day with new podcasts. That is if it always works reliably.

However in my experience of Wi-Fi syncing, quite often it wipes out my iPad’s music and video libraries, leaving me with no media at all on the iPad. Sometimes it happens at the worst possible time when I’m traveling or in a real hurry.

I’ve reported this to Apple via rdar://10524642 and a another (similar) issue via rdar://11644031. The later bug report was sent in for iOS 5.0 and it looks like Apple haven’t done anything about the core problem since the original submission.

If this happens to you and your iOS’s media libraries got nullified after a Wi-Fi sync, there is an easy fix for it. Simply re-sync your media in iTunes.

  1. Connect your iOS device to your computer via USB.
  2. Open iTunes and untick (uncheck) both the Sync Music and Sync Video checkboxes.
     iTunes Sync Music Checkbox
  3. Sync your device.
  4. Open iTunes and then re-select the Sync Music and Sync Video checkboxes – or restore it to whatever selection that was there previously.
  5. Sync your device again.

At this point your iDevice should have its media libraries restored. Go ahead and open the Music or Video apps in the device to make sure that all your media are present and playable.

Now as a final step, disable Wi-Fi syncing and keep note to never enable it again.

ITunes do not sync Wi-Fi

For me, I’d rather have the small inconvenience of plugging in my iPad every time I need to sync rather than not having any music or videos when I needed them the most.


Subscribe

Get articles like this sent to your inbox as soon as they are published.

* indicates required

Unsubscribe any time and we won't share your details with third parties.

Tags: , , , , , , ,