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Hi all I was wondering why is it that when I want to manually manage my iphone data, the phone agrees to let me do that only after erasing all the contents already on the iphone?

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How do I stop the phone from erasing it's contents when I want to "manually manage" it?

After heading bmike's suggestion, I still could not stop the popup from occuring. Currently my "Tones" and "Books" have sync "ticked". When I try to untick it, this is what I get:

enter image description here

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What do you mean by "manually manage"? The iPhone was synced with another iTunes, as the error message says you can sync with one iTunes library only. – Matteo Nov 15 '11 at 15:57
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@Matteo well I simply want to "manually manage" it like a USB drive, that's all. My com is new, the other iTunes library is gone.. – Pacerier Nov 15 '11 at 16:13
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You will be able to "manually manage" it only with a jailbroken iPhone. – Matteo Nov 15 '11 at 16:28
@Matteo I do have a jailbroken phone, someone was talking about using PwnPlayer but the website seems to be taken down: pwnplayer.com . Are you aware of any other solutions? – Pacerier Nov 15 '11 at 16:46
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Do edit in to the question any restrictions. Not having your prior question adds some steps into the correct answer. (i.e. - there are different steps and limitations if you want to routinely sync between two libraries as opposed to getting the content off the existing device and then making the new iTunes the master). Once that is done, you can switch between total manual management or automatic management. This dialog comes when you start down the automatic management and want to switch to manual. An erase is needed as an intermediate step using unmodified iTunes software. – bmike♦ Nov 15 '11 at 17:15

2 Answers

up vote 3 down vote

The solution is a two part solution.

If you routinely want to sync one device with two libraries, the easiest manner is to disable all automatic syncing on the first iTunes library before you bring the iOS device to the second computer.

You can always wait for the "erase" warning and cancel the sync. (which is the point you have in your screenshot). At that point, go into the current device settings and turn off automatic sync for all of the categories that cause the warning dialog to appear. Keep in mind, that music, ringtones, and other settings can all get the warning to pop up, so your work may not be done by simply un-checking music. The settings on the computer you get the warning are in conflict with the settings from the previous computer so you have to reconcile that before the manual sync can start.

Once you have figured out all the "silos" that matter to you, you can easily take one device to multiple computers for backup but only certain computers for syncing. Using one computer to sync the data (contacts and calendar) and another for the media is a use case that Apple fully supports in iTunes. Once you set things up, you should not expect to have issues with a one device and many computers situation.

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+1, good suggestions for multiple iTunes syncs. – JW8 Nov 15 '11 at 17:39
@bmike heys sorry I got stuck at your instructions. When you say "go into the current device settings and turn off automatic sync for all of the categories that cause the warning dialog to appear" I couldn't turn off sync for those categories, because attempting to do so gives me the popup dialog as well.. (refer to the edited question for more details) – Pacerier Nov 16 '11 at 14:51
up vote 2 down vote

Take a look at the answer to this Apple.SE question - it appears to have the answer to your question. You can try to transfer your purchases to the new iTunes account, since you mention that your other iTunes library is gone. Apps and ebooks should be transferable, but you may want to back up your music collection (if any) and handle that separately.

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The other question is close and helps with some background for the current question, but this one can be fine left to just address music and not the general sync case. – bmike♦ Nov 15 '11 at 17:11

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