Skip to Content

Dear Aunt TUAW: Help me move my iOS devices to a new computer

by Erica Sadun May 14th 2011 at 3:00PM

Dear Aunt TUAW,

I just bought a brand spanking new iMac. Since I want a clean slate, I am moving everything over manually from my old MacBook. So far so good, except for my iPhone, iPod touch, iPad etc. How do I switch my iOS devices over without the loss of my apps and their saved data. (I have put many many hours into Infinity Blade on long flights.) Thanks!

Your loving nephew,

Henry

Dear Henry,

Before doing anything, back up your device. In iTunes, you can force a backup by selecting it in the DEVICES section of the iTunes source list. Right-click (or Control-click) the device, choose Back Up and let iTunes do its job.

Your device backups are stored in your home library, namely in /Users/your-account/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup.

To gain access to these backups, copy this folder onto your new computer, making sure that it's stored in the right place. You may need to create the MobileSync subfolder in the Application Support folder in your home library.

You also want to grab the MobileDevice preferences folder and copy it over to the new machine.

Next, make sure to copy over your iTunes folder in full -- it's normally found in your home Music folder and contains your iTunes library.

[If you're using Apple's Migration Assistant, all of these files should be copied for you if you include Music and Settings in your migrated items.]

From there, everything should automagically just work.

If it doesn't, of course, you've got the backups to work with. After synchronizing to the new computer, you can restore your iPhone to its previous state by selecting it in iTunes. Right-click (or Control-click) the device, choose "Restore from Backup" from the contextual pop-up menu, and select the backup you want to restore from. iTunes automatically offers all backups found in the MobileSync folder.

Uncle Victor, TUAW's beloved ruler, recently went through this and found that copying over iTunes' Music folder, the MobileDevice prefs and the backup folders worked like a charm for him.

Congrats on your new iMac!

Hugs,

Auntie T.



View Tags

Related Stories

Categories

iPhone

Dear Aunt TUAW, I just bought a brand spanking new iMac. Since I want a clean slate, I am moving everything over manually from my...
 

Add a Comment

Sign in »
*0 / 3000 Character Maximum Comment Moderation Enabled. Your comment will appear after it is cleared by an editor.

18 Comments

Filter by:
scubahubby

Where do I find the mobile device preferences mentioned in the article?

May 18 2011 at 9:18 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jay

What a hassle way to do it and better advice would be

Copy the iTunes folder and then when it's all complete sync the devices for the first and complete a backup. This way you leave all the trash and undeleted back ups behind on the old machine and a fresh start on a new machine. The extra files can be upto 4gb (as was my case) if you multiple devices

May 15 2011 at 7:37 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Sharon

Dear Aunt TUAW,

What do I do when my previous windows pc crashed and I bought a mac as a replacement. I want to migrate my iOS device but I have no backup.

May 14 2011 at 6:10 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Sharon's comment
SomeDude

Turn off auto-syncing in Edit -> Preferences -> Devices -> Prevent iPods, iPhones and iPads from syncing automatically. Plug in the iOS device. On left hand side of iTunes you will see the device listed under Devices. Right click on the device and select Backup. This creates a new backup of your device on any machine you plug into. If your apps are missing you can try Right click -> Transfer purchases to attempt to transfer anything bought from the iTunes Store.

May 14 2011 at 7:37 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Mike

"Many hours" playing infinity blade on long flights? What is your secret? I am lucky if I get 2 hours out of my device playing that game.

May 14 2011 at 5:46 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Robert Poland

Could you add advice for dealing with an iMac whose HD died and the computer was replaced (read, no longer available).

May 14 2011 at 5:12 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Robert Poland's comment
Charli

If all your media was bought via iTunes then you open iTunes on the computer and sign into your account in the iTunes store.

Plug in the device and under file you should see 'transfer purchases'. It will probably say other about not your stuff being authorized for that computer. Click authorize. And sign in.

Select address book etc and sync. Be sure to say merge contacts and calendars or it will erase stuff off your device.

If some of your stuff was. Off CDs etc then you need to get something like ipodrip to copy your music before you do any syncing. Before you plug the device into your computer, open iTunes (on computer) and under preferences turn off auto sync (under devices) so it doesn't get into mischief behind your back

May 14 2011 at 10:00 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
joeker

Dear Aunt TUAW,

How many iDevices can I synch to my Mac? I sem to remember it's 5 max, is that right? I currently use on old iPod, an iPod Touch, sometimes a Nano, an iPhone and an iPad. Wanting to get an iPad 2, I was wondering if I'll be able to use / synch / backup it?
Thx

May 14 2011 at 3:56 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
3 replies to joeker's comment
Richard Beer

and if you're moving to a windows computer where do the backups live?

May 14 2011 at 3:24 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to Richard Beer's comment
hfwbr

In that case you're screwed.

May 14 2011 at 9:38 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Brett

Moving from a mac TO windows??? I don't think anyone's ever tried that before, sounds like the stuff of dystopian young adult authors and multi-dimensional theorists.

Or did you mean from one windows machine to another... in that case, from Apple's support site:

Windows XP: Documents and Settings(username)Application DataApple ComputerMobileSyncBackup
Windows Vista and Windows 7: Users(username)AppDataRoamingApple ComputerMobileSyncBackup

May 16 2011 at 3:32 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Arnan de Gans

Worked for me too, except i didn't copy the backup folder. Just the iTunes folder and the iTunes plist file.

May 14 2011 at 3:19 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
3 replies to Arnan de Gans's comment
Buy an ad here

Tweets

© 2012 AOL Inc. All Rights Reserved.