Can you make iTunes forget a device?

Question

After migrating from one computer to another, my iPhone now automatically appears under the devices list in iTunes on both my old and new Macs. I don't want to accidentally sync my iPhone with my old computer. Is there a way I can make it forget it knows my iPhone?

I've tried:

• Turning off wifi sync on the old computer, but this is a device-level setting, so as soon as you turn it back on on the new computer, the iPhone shows on both.
• On the old computer, deleting all device backups, 'ejecting' the iPhone from iTunes, and forgetting all remotes. None of those measures has had an effect.

Presumably I need to nix some folder deep in iTunes' lair. Any ideas?

Answer 1

Reset the SyncServices folder. Not sure why I didn't think of this earlier.

In short:

/System/Library/Frameworks/SyncServices.framework/Versions/A/Resources/resetsync.pl full

Apple has some other tricks to try if you're on an OS prior to Mountain Lion, but it looks like this should work for Leopard through Mountain Lion.

You can confirm by comparing output of

grep -ir "device" ~/Library/Application\ Support/SyncServices

before and after resetting the SyncServices folder. You should see some lines about your device prior and no lines about it after.

Answer 2

If you go to the iTunes > Preferences menu and select the Devices tab you can delete backup's from particular iPhones. Also you can go to iTunes > Preferences > Devices, and check the box 'Prevent iPods. iPhones, and iPads from synching automatically'.