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This is really weird. I updated my iPhone to iOS 5 today, along with iTunes to version 10.5. According to Apple's own documentation, I should have an option to "sync with this iPhone over wifi" under the Summary tab when my iPhone is plugged in - but I don't!

Since I can't enable it, my iPhone doesn't "see" my computer when I go to Settings > General > iTunes Wi-Fi Sync on my iPhone, even though both are on the same network.

The only thing I can think of is that it's because I'm running OS X 10.5? But I still have iTunes 10.5 and iOS 5, which is all that Apple says is required (they don't list a minimum required version of OS X itself).

Anyone have any idea how I can enable this?

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I'm gonna take a shot in the dark and say Lion (10.7.2) is required. That particular version has deep hooks into iCloud and I'm sure wifi-sync leaps on those imbedded systems. Again, this is just a shot in the dark. – cksum Oct 13 '11 at 2:47
iTunes 10.5 runs on Leopard? – Jason Salaz♦ Oct 13 '11 at 3:01
Yep, and PowerPC too! – daGUY Oct 13 '11 at 4:05
Yes, Leopard is minimum requirement. I'm using Snow Leopard and I get the option on the Summary tab. – mockman Oct 13 '11 at 4:26
I did try resetting/restoring the iPhone completely, and I'm still missing wifi sync. It does seem to be OS X 10.5 that's the cause, though it's not clear to me if it's a bug or a deliberate feature omission. – daGUY Oct 14 '11 at 17:17

2 Answers

up vote 3 down vote accepted

I believe the minimum requirements are iOS 5 iTunes 10.5 and Snow Leapard 10.6.8. I have Leapard 10.5.8 (and the other requirements) I can't use wifi sync. The option isn't in iTunes. I saw someone say somewhere that they had 10.6.7 and they did have the option until they updated snow leapard to 10.6.8.

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I'm not sure when this was added, but iTunes now says "(Requires OS X 10.6.8)" directly next to my disabled wifi sync option. They must have added that in an iTunes point update. – daGUY Feb 28 '12 at 21:51
up vote 0 down vote

I just fixed this issue by restarting my macbook's wifi.

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Running OS X 10.5? – daGUY Oct 17 '11 at 23:59

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