UPDATE: IT DOES WORK WITH ITUNES 8 ( THANKS DILLY! )
In order to sync your iPhone with multiple computers you always had to “erase” one iTunes library and sync with another, no longer! Thanks to Andrew Grant at Shiny Things who create a step by step instruction for syncing your iPhone with multiple computers and giving you full manual control on how you want to organize your iPhone music between multiple iTunes libraries.
This is NOT for the faint hearted as it does involve tweaking of files, please proceed with caution and BACKUP everything, especially your “iTunes Library” and “iTunes Music Library.xml” files before proceeding. I have performed this and it works flawlessly but if for any reason your iTunes or your iPhone or your data becomes destroyed, I am NOT responsible. Now that we have gotten the disclaimer aside, let’s proceed with the fun stuff.
Make sure iTunes on BOTH computers are NOT running.
Step 1: On the computer that already has an iPhone synced, (if you not synced your iPhone, please sync it once), locate your “iTunes Library” and “iTunes Music Library.xml” files, they should be located in either your “User > Music > iTunes” on your Mac or “My Music or Music > iTunes” on your PC
Step 2: Open up the “iTunes Music Library.xml” file, locate the <string> tag and copy the 16 digital string in between the <string> tags
Step 3: Switch over to the other computer with the iTunes you want to sync your iPhone with and locate the ”iTunes Library” and “iTunes Music Library.xml” again.
Step 4: Open up the ”iTunes Music Library.xml” on the new computer and locate the <string> tags again, COPY the EXISTING 16 digital string, and place it somewhere for save keeping as we will need it later and REPLACE the EXISTING 16 digital string with the one you copied from your other “iTunes Music Library.xml” file
Step 5: Open up the “iTunes Library” file, with a Hex Editor, I told you it is not for the faint hearted, come on it is easy, I assure you. If you don’t have a Hex Editor, you can either download HexEdit for the Mac or AptEdit or Free Hex Editor Neo for the PC
Step 6: Use the Find and Replace command in the Hex Editor, I have only used HexEdit, but I am sure there is a Find and Replace command in both PC versions, now under the Find dialog, paste the EXISTING 16 digital string you kept for safe keeping and under the Replace dialog, paste the 16 digital string you COPIED from your other computer and hit return or enter. Save and close the file.
Step 7: Startup iTunes on the other computer and hook up your iPhone to it and you are good to go!
If you need further help, just leave me comment.
Note: This even works for syncing with multiple accounts on the same computer.
Enjoy!
Thanks! [Andrew Grant at Shiny Things]
HEY! Thanks soooo much for posting up this step by step tip on syncing the iphone with 2 computers. Totally appreciate it! But I’ve been trying to do this for the past hour and it doesn’t seem to be working. What am I doing wrong? I followed every step and DLed hex editor for the PC but my phone is still greyed out and I can’t add or remove music. Please help!
Couple of things:
Are you running iTunes 7.7? I have only tested this with 7.7. I am quite positive the older version work too but have not tested it.
*make sure while editing your hex codes on either computer to not have the iPhone hooked up or iTunes running
*make sure you have at least sync once with the iTunes you are copying the code from.
*make sure that iTunes on the 2nd computer is not running while copying and changing the hex code.
*make sure that you are replacing on the 2nd computer iTunes Hex code is the one from the iTunes
*make sure to use the find and replace command in your Hex Editor to find the existing hex code in your iTunes (2nd computer) and replace it with the hex code you copied from your 1st computer
*make sure the hex code your are copying and replacing is 16 digits (I myself messed this up the 1st time around)
*if all else failed, I know you don’t want to hear this, but restart again by replacing the backup copy of the 2 iTunes file on the 2nd computer and try it again.
I myself messed up the 1st time round because of the 16 digits, just make sure you copied and replaced it correctly
Hope this helps, let me know.
This is an excellent guide. I am having a problem, though. When i try to replace the key in HexEdit, it says “pattern not found”. Any idea why it says that or what i should do?
Thanks for the help!
Let see:
In HexEdit hit CMD ⌘ F and just use to find portion 1st, copy in the original 16 digit string you found on your 2nd Mac in the XML file, in the dialog box, make “Matching: Hex” is selected and not ASCII, uncheck “Wrap”, hit “Find Next”, it should highlight roll 00000030 column 2 and 3 showing the original hex you obtain from the 2nd Mac. So if this working cool! If this not, then it means you might have copied the wrong Hex from the synced (1st Mac) into the “Find:” field. The 16 digit string from the synced (1st computer) should go into the “Replace with:” field and the original hex code obtained from the 2nd computer XML file should go into the “Find:”.
Make sure that all the hex code you are copying are 16 digits.
Let me know if you still run into any problems.
Hi, i am having the same problem as above. I am using 2 pc’s and not macs and in the hex editor it always says string not found even though i can find and replace at least one string myself but it doesn’t work and seems to just revert back to the original settings on its own. I have tried using ultra edit and hex edit neo and have the same probem every time and I have checked the 16 digit code about a million times so any help would be great, cheers
What happens after you save the replaced iTunes Library and open iTunes with your iPhone plugged in and clicked manually, do not click sync. This trick is to manually sync 2 iTunes library with one iPhone.
If that does not work, try this:
After you have manually find and replace just that one string, save it. Don’t worry there should only be one string to replace. Don’t close the file yet, save a copy of the replaced iTunes Library file somewhere say on the desktop. Now close the file. Fire up iTunes and plug in your iPhone, click on the manually sync to see if that works? Now if that does not work, force replace the iTunes Library file while iTunes is running and the iPhone is plugged in, to do that, copy the replaced iTunes Library file on the desktop that you just saved to the running iTunes Library file and if a dialog box says if you want replace this file with that file, say yes. Then close iTunes and try again.
The key is you have to click manually sync instead of the auto sync button.
Let me know if that works.
Here’s some instructions for Windows. I copied the original above and made some modifications. <a href=”http://www.postwhoring.com/forums/showthread.php?p=24995#post24995″Here’s the posting on my site with a picture for those who need it.
Step 1: On the computer that already has an iPhone synced, (if you not synced your iPhone, please sync it once), locate your “iTunes Library.tl” and “iTunes Music Library.xml” files, they should be located in “My Music > iTunes” on your PC
Step 2: Open up the “iTunes Music Library.xml” file, locate the tag and copy the 16 digital string in between the tags (We’ll call this “String A”).
Step 3: Switch over to the other computer with the iTunes you want to sync your iPhone with and locate the ”iTunes Library” and “iTunes Music Library.xml” again.
Step 4: Open up the ”iTunes Music Library.xml” on the second computer and locate the tags again, COPY the EXISTING 16 digital string (we’ll call this String B), and place it somewhere for save keeping as we will need it later and REPLACE the EXISTING 16 digital string with the one you copied from your other “iTunes Music Library.xml” file
Step 5: Open up the “iTunes Library.itl” file, with thisHex Editor (Download it and extract it to a folder on yoru desktop).
Step 6: Open up Notepad and paste String A on the first line. Change it from XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (16 characters) to (XX XX XX XX XX XX XX XX XX XX XX XX XX XX XX XX) (16 characters with a space added inbetween sets of two). Hit a few times and do this with you String B.
Step 7: Use the Find and Replace command in the Hex Editor. Under the Find dialog, paste String A and under the Replace with dialog, String B (see below). Click ‘Replace all” and save and close the file.
Step 7: Startup iTunes on the other computer and hook up your iPhone to it and you are good to go!
I goofed the link.
(if this one goofs too, please fix or remove or whatever).
Thanks for your original instructions!
I fail at blog comments. Last time at this attempt!
Thanks djc for helping the windows folks out! For all window users having issues, please check out his comments at:
djc
[...] Link [...]
Nice post. Thanks help me to switch between computer.
How to sync multiple podcast though?
@Iawardy I am not sure what you meant. You can basically drag the podcast from either computer to your iPhone and it will there on the iPhone. Sorry i am not understand the question.
I’m a PC user. I’m not sure what I did wrong, but I can’t get this to work. I have switched out the strings in both the xml file and used a hex editor to change the itl file. But when I start iTunes, the same thing shows. Everything is greyed out and I can’t transfer ANYTHING to my phone. I just upgraded to ver. 2.0.2 iPhone software so that may be the issue. Can anyone confirm this works with 2.0.2?
Thanx. -Jim
Edit: This was my fault. I mistyped the 16 didget number in the hex file. This does work on iPhone version 2.0.2 and iTunes version 7.7.1.11.
Thanx for this!
Hey thanks a bunch for all your guys solutions.
Just thought I’d share my experience with the above suggestions.
i have a PC and the new iphone3g 2.2? itunes 7.7.
first point to mention, i believe ‘djc’s PC updated comments have the ’string A’ and ’string B’ backwards for the hex editor change function ie. we want to be swapping the second itunes number (string B) with the first itunes number (string A).
second, the free hexeditor was not able to find/relpace that hex number. I don’t know if i was doing it ‘wrong’ so i just edited the ascii in the right hand pane directly swapping out the numbers mentioned above (and not the hexidecimal equivalents).
i saved and started itunes and immediately it recognized my new iphone on my upstairs (2nd) machine. hurrah!
cheers!
TB
you should add for Windows users, make copies of the files edited…in case your copy statement screws up your files….like I did…luckily I made copies…
I have been working on this for about an hour. Problem is, whenever I replace the UNdesired string with the desired one and then try to save it, iTunes immediately puts it back to the original UNdesired string as soon as I open it. I have even tried 2 different Hex editors and the results are still the same. Why can I not get the changes to stick?
What am I doing wrong?
@Jason I have not run into this problem before, but I will try to help.
if you are using Windows, I understand you have to separate the hex string numbers in pairs. Read .
If you are using a Mac, after changing the hex strings and saving the iTunes Library file, have your iPhone plugged into the 2nd computer BEFORE opening up the edited iTunes. This should make it stick as iTunes will then recognize the iPhone from the 1st computer. If not, let me know.
Hmmm, I must be doing something wrong. I can change the .xml file using Hex Editor Neo. However, each time I try ‘replace’ in the .itl file, I always get a pattern not found when seeking the string (that should be on my 2nd computer). I have tried both with and without spaces. Any suggestions from anyone?
Sorry, I figured out how to manually edit the string. Thanks!
Why on earth would Apple make life so miserable to just to load some frikking songs from different computers? I have an ATT Tilt and I can load as many songs from as many computers I want. I just tried to load some songs to my wife’s iPhone and guess what, I lost all her data inspite of selecting ‘Manual updates’ in iTunes. What a pain! She did warn me of not messing her songs as she already lost them once in trying to sync from a different machine.
A quick question. Whenever I sync my iPhone to the new computer, I get a message that says “iTune has found purchased items on the iPhone that are not present in your iTunes library. Do you want to transfer these items from this iPhone to your iTunes library?” Whether I select “Transfer” or “Don’t Transfer”, iTunes proceeds to delete all the apps on my iPhone. I have also set iTunes on my new computer not to sync applications, so I’m at at a loss about what to do… Help?
@Me I have not experience this issue before, make sure you select manual sync for all before connecting your iPhone to the new computer. This method works as far as I know on manual sync, allowing you to manually drag and drop music, podcast, etc.. from the new computer, I have never tried it with auto sync, if anyone else has made it work with auto sync please jump in.
great tip – thanks. unfortunately I can’t get it to work. I think it’s because I can not find the binary “iTunes Music Library”. I only find the “iTunes Music Library.xml” file. but editing that in Hexedit does not work (”find” does not find anything when set to Hex) – I made sure I searched for the correct string. Please tell me what I am missing.
I’m on a MacPro 10.5.3; iTunes 7.7.1; iPhone 3G
many thanks
Wolf
@Wolf The binary file is called iTunes Library not iTunes Music.xml they are two different files. XML files are similar to text files and can be open with any Text Editor to edit the tags and so forth, eg. TextEdit, TextMate, Smultron, etc.
The file you need to locate is called “iTunes Library”, then take that file and open it in HEX editor and located the HEX string as stated and just follow the steps and you are good to go.
Let me know if you have any other issues.
Michael,
thanks so much for clarifying – it’s working now!! very cool – thanks!
Hey Michael,
I havent tried this yet but I am planning on it tonight….just have a quick question.
The first library I have (let’s call it A) only has my iphone syncing to it and no other ipods/iphones. The second library (B) has my girlfriend’s ipod (one of the newer ipods but as far as I know you can always “manually manage music and videos” from ipods….everything but iphones and ipod shuffles i believe) it syncs to and currently I dont sync my iphone from it currently and i’d like to.
Once I change the strings on her computer will it affect anything as far as her ipod? Will it ask her to erase and resync or will it remove music or basically anything? I was thinking of making another user account on her PC for this but if I dont have to that would really be great.
@dilly Good point. I have to dig out my old iPod and try. Just to be on the safe side, just make sure you backup her iTunes library file and the XML file, and start editing it. I am sure it will work as the iPod does not have this issue when moving between different iTunes.
I don’t think you need to create another user on the PC just for this purpose, just backup the original files and if it does not work, just copy back the original files and you will have the iTunes back to it original state just before you make the HEX edits.
Hope this helps
Sure does help thanks!
One last question if I may.
Will it make a difference if I switch between a PC and a MAC?
I know the only thing different on the PC was the spaces in the strings.
Will that also work back and forth?
@dilly it will work between a Mac and PC.
Hi
Can i just clarify something, will this sync everything – music.video,iphone app’s etc and what happens if i make a change on one then plug it into the other computer, will it keep the libaries identical
@Richard I have only tried with manual sync not auto sync, if anyone else tried it with auto sync please feel free to jump in.
This tip allows you to manually copy the music files and podcast from the other computer to your iPhone, similar to what iPod were to doing, and I do believe the video should work too (have not tried this myself).
Regarding the iPhone Apps, they work differently as it encoded with your iTunes account ID, thus you need to activate the other iPhone with the same ID.
I need help when i try to find and replace it says “pattern not found” you helped someone above by saying hit “CMD o F” what is that? Also do both comps need to b connected say by an ethernet cord linking the 2 or do they both need to b on the internet? Please help thanks in advance
@FlipNic, CMD F is a keyboard shortcut for “Find” for Mac users, it the key on the keyboard that has a Apple Logo. It will invoke the Find command in most apps, on the Windows it would be Control F.
If you are using windows, you have to have a spacing between each pair of the HEX strings in order for it to recognize.
No the computers do not have to be connected to internet or with each other in anyway.
Hope it helps!
any word if this works with the new itunes? (i havent upgraded to it yet)
Thanks again for all your help Michael!
Michael, were you ever able to figure out how to get it to work with the new version of iTunes? I cannot find the “iTunes Library” file that was on the computer with the previous version, so I have been unable to get it to work.
Thanks!
Hey Michael & Everyone Else
I answered some of my own questions and just thought I would share.
1) This works with the new iTunes 8 as well as with the iPhone 2.1 software. I tested between a MAC and a PC with iTunes 8 and iPhone 2.1 firmware running. No problems at all
2) This does have issues if another ipod is being synced on the 2nd computer. When I plugged my girlfriends iPod into her MAC after altering the strings the first thing it said was that this ipod was synced with another library and do i want to erase & sync or cancel. Luckily this different than with the iphone because she uses auto sync so after I hit cancel to erase & sync it already had the checkboxes for autosync in place. I did not add any files to her library to test to see if it makes her delete everything, didnt have the time.
So I wonder how that works. For now I will just keep 2 copies of the files on her MAC to switch back and forth with. I will play with it a little more and see if iTunes makes her resync her player but hopefully not.
Thanks for this great tip!
@Everyone Sorry for not replying to your questions any earlier regarding iTunes 8, I have just been busy with things in Houston, it is a total mess down there, but my family of alright.
@dilly Thank you so much for sharing what you have found out, regarding iTunes 8 and the iPod. Regarding the IPod, it should allow to you manually copy songs from any iTunes, it should not give you an error msg, this is strange. I will try it out when I have the time.
Thank once again for sharing!
Hey Michael,
Sorry to hear….were you affected by Ike?
It’s weird as soon as I popped it in it gave me the msg about being synced with another library. However like I said the appropriate checkboxes that she had checked before were checked again (autosync) and something else. I didnt have much time but I should have tried to add a file and see if it made her erase everything. I just didnt expect the msg at all but i’m glad this still works with the new itunes and new iphone firmware update.
So I’m not getting – my experience here is that its not working with iTunes 8.0 and iPhone 2.1. The xml file continues to revert to the previous code on this mac
What I’m doing:::
- killing iTunes and iTunes Helper
- opening the original file on my “home” computer, copying the 16 digit code
- opening the same file on “target” computer in text edit, copying that one too, pasting in the “Home” one. Saving.
- Opening target itunes xml file in hexedit
- find and replace away
- saving
- opening itunes, yet note it saves the xml file AGAIN at the time of opening
- plug iPhone in… select manual sync… iTunes asks if you want to replace it all…
it sucks…
I then check the xml file – and it has replaced the code with the original “Target” comp’s code. Dunno why… sucks…
[...] ένας τρόπος ο οποίος αναφέρετε εδώ, δεν είναι και ότι πιο εύκολο αλλά τα αποτελέσματα [...]
This worked great for me, iTunes 8 & iPhone 2.1.
Make sure to manually sync the files or it will overwrite your playlist on the iPhone. The first time I synced I did it wrong and overwrote my movies. When I got home I did a manual sync and moved some files over, I then checked my iPhone and everything was still there from my previous sync at work.
Great job on figuring this out.
this worked amazing!!!!
worked perfectly with all new updates and everything.
thanks!
Hey Nathan,
Question. Did you edit both files? Both the XML & ITL? I’m wondering if the .itl file is making the .XML revert back. Also what you can do is make copies of both files somewhere else (desktop) edit what you need then switch out the files in their original location.
Thanks for this, I had the same probs as some who couldn’t find the hex string but got it sorted. Getting some proper use out of my iphone now…
I had the same problem as everyone else, using a Hex editor (I tried 3 diff. ones) I couldn’t find the old hex key in the .itl file. This used to work, but I just installed a fresh copy of iTunes 8 on a new machine. But fear not! Apple didn’t break this hack. They actually made it easier!!!! You now only need to update the key in the XML file! No more Hex editing needed! It works perfectly, just as before!! Apple is the BEST!
[...] ένας τρόπος ο οποίος αναφέρετε εδώ, δεν είναι και ότι πιο εύκολο αλλά τα αποτελέσματα [...]
Just wanted to add my thanks! It worked perfectly first time with iTunes8 (I updated the .xml and .itl file) and iPhone 2.1, this functionality should come with the iPhone out of the box.
[...] ένας τρόπος ο οποίος αναφέρετε εδώ, δεν είναι και ότι πιο εύκολο αλλά τα αποτελέσματα [...]
Hi. Thanks for starting this string. If I can ask your quick advice because I am not having much luck with the apple folks, and I am not that software literate.
I just bought an iphone 3g. I have a pc laptop at work and a imac at home. my wife has a old iphone and just uses our home computer for her needs, mostly music — and my ipod shuffle is sync to her account.
The Apple person said I can sync my iphone with only one computer and to be careful where I sync it into. What i would like to do is use my home computer for the music, and my work computer for my contacts, etc. I don’t have any desire to have any music in my work computer. Can I accomplish this with what you have outlined above, or is there a simpler way?
Thanks much. Philip
@philip, I have personally not tried with 2 iPhone, but I would try to help you out.
Option 1:
* Manually sync your iPhone with your iMac at home on the same account as your wife’s, copy the hex string of the XML file as stated above in your iMac and bring it to work.
Edit the 2 files as stated above at your work computer, remember on the PC the hex string has to have a space for every pair of numbers when copying back into the ITunes Library file. (Apparently, someone did mention you only need to edit the XML file for ITunes 8 and not both files, try to see if it works), then connect your iPhone to your work computer and manually select what you need to sync such as contacts and so forth. That’s it.
Remember to also backup the 2 files in your work computer before attempting this.
Option 2:
*fist, what you need to do is to sync your iPhone with work computer at once, so that it would recognize the hex of the work computer, follow the instructions of obtaining the hex string in the XML file of the work computer above. Write it down and bring it home.
On the home iMac, locate the ITunes library file and the XML in the finder and duplicate them, this can be accomplish be shift selecting both files and go to File > Duplicate, move the duplicate copy to a safe location in the computer and next remove the word “copy” from the file names so that they look exactly the same as the original. These file contain your wife’s iPhone hex strings.
Now edit the 2 original files on your iMac as stated above, once done connect your iPhone to the iMac (as it would recognize the copied string you just performed) and manually drag over all your music from your iMac to your iPhone. Now the issue is that if your wife needs to sync her iPhone, you would need to move out your 2 iTunes files and move her 2 iTunes files you store safely on the computer back to the location and now it should sync her iPhone.
I believe if you read dilly last 2 comments, this is what he does.
Hope it helps let me know if you run into problems.
Do you have to do this every time you want to synch to the other computer or just once and it’ll stick indefinitely?
@DavidBeaudoin Just once and it will stick.
I was just wondering… I would like to organize all my media to 1 small external hard drive. I have an iMac at home and I take my Macbook pro to work. I know that you can point iphoto and itunes to libraries on another drive. If I pointed both itunes to this one drive, would I even need to modify the itunes library files, since both computers would essentially access one drive and ultimately the same library files?
THANKS A LOT!!!!
this made my life so much better!
@Hal Good question, I have not tried it out myself, let me know if it works. Logically speaking you do not have to, but just make sure that is it creating only one XML file with the same string number.
Hey, works! Awesome trick, thanks!
How come everything but ringtones syncs correctly??
It transfers apps from Iphone to the secondary computer but not the ringtones. BTW I am on two PCs
Hey Michael,
Sooooo I have an update for you….OK So I was doing the file switching technique on my girl’s computer….it all worked fine the last few times. I was out of town for awhile went over there and replaced her files with mine and started up itunes and got an error that itunes could not be started. I am wondering if this can work with 2 lib files. If she’s added music to “her” library and then I came in and put my files in would that affect anything? It’s weird….I’ll probably just re-hex edit her files but didnt yet. Let me know if you have any insight. Thanks for all your previous help….
After reading Frank’s post I wonder if I should just fresh edit the .xml and not the .itl and see if that works….I’ll let you guys know! Also im thinking i didnt kill the ituneshelper either….I’ll try it all again
Got a different problem… my pc went belly up… hard drive an all… All I have is my iPhone with all my songs on it. Anyway to get the songs onto my new laptop?
Still why do ringtones not transfer off the iphone to the other computer like the apps do. When i put them on from one computer… the other computer takes them back off. But yet it still transfers apps just fine. Did i do something wrong???
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[...] How to Sync iPhone with multiple computers « tinyfish [...]
Great little cheat sheet….
worked once I figured out that I am replacing HEX and not ASCII
thanks
Crazy question…. do you replace ALL of the 16 character codes in the xml file or just one specific line?
Thanks
Well does this work with 8.0.11 and 2.1 on 2g phone? i tried many times but am not getting anywhere….am overseas now and can\t sync without erasing!!
1. take key from first machine that phone has been synced with.
2. put code into 2nd machine in xml and itl file.
read all the other posts and understand them and how to do but key not stick. and is this the right order for enter the key take from machine 1 and put in machine 2?
Thanks for your useful tutorial.
However, I’m getting another trouble with my iPhone.
My laptop has been crashed and all of my data have been gone.
So, i dont have the original library XML file.
How can I sync with another library without deletion?
Thanks in advanced.
Oh, and this is some infos you may want:
OS: Window XP SP2
iTunes: 8.0
iPhone 1st gen, jailbroken ( I can transfer old iTunes library info from my iPhone, but dont know how to deal with them …)
amazing sir. absolutely amazing.
Hi. I have performed every step listed, however, my music and ringtones sections are still grey and I am not allowed to put any songs in (to the 2nd computer). I am using iTunes 8.0 and iphone 2.2. I am pretty sure I did everything right, however it is just not working for me.
It works perfectly.
Thanks
Has anyone used this successfully with PC & a Mac? I’m running the latest version’s of itunes on each as well as the Iphone. I have been syncing with the PC however the addresses do not group from outlook so I picked up a Mac and would like to start syncing with it. I’m successfully sharing my Itunes music from a shared network drive. Thanks
I tried the method but that was after I was stupid enough to plug in my iphone and synced it once with the new macbook I just got. I stopped the process when I realized it was trying to kill all my existing apps with the new downloaded ones. So then I went back to my old pc, the pc couldn’t recognize the phone either and the sync attempted to replace the existing apps on my iphone. So now the iphone is like an orphan and either computers don’t recognize it even after I tried the method provided. I now plan to wipe out everything and reload all the apps I need back in. However, taking the advice to upgrade to OS 2.2 with iTune 8 (http://smokingapples.com/iphone/pwnage-tool-22-and-quickpwn-22-released) has been taking more than 30 min now. I’m not sure if it has to do with the changes I made in the iTune library?
This thing works 100% You guys are great… I have Itunes 8+ on a PC
Best
P
confirming this works for itunes 8.0 (35).
does anyone know and can confirm if upgrading beyond 8.0 breaks the jail breaking processes? I’ve read multiple assumptions / suspicions but no confirmed cases. yet according to many reports, versions of itunes loaded on brand new macbooks and macbook pros don’t allow jailbreaking to occur to the iphone through those laptops.
thanks for any info.
i’m worried i did something wrong here; i followed all directions, typed in # okay, but now on both computers I’m getting the “all existing content on iphone will be removed & replaced” message. i have 2 macs and an iphone 3G.
thanks for help here!
brad
This process won’t work for me, unfortunately, because my computer fried and had to be replaced. When I reinstalled iTunes, it created a new ID string and I have no way to get the string from the original installation.
BUT as I followed this thread one thing popped out at me. You really shouldn’t have to edit both the XML and hex (.itl on the PC) files. Apple uses each as a backup for the other, which is why some are seeing their xml file revert to the old string. All you really have to do is (backup both files first, of course) edit the xml file per the instructions above. Then open the binary file with a standard text editor (not a word processor, which leaves parrot droppings behind). Once the binary content appears (it will look like gibberish), do a control-A to highlight the whole file, hit delete, and save the empty .itl file. This will leave you with a zero-length .itl file. Now, when you restart iTunes, it will discover that your .itl file is damaged and rebuild it from your XML file, including the string you have changed. I discovered this when I had to change the drive letter on which all my songs were stored. It should work just as well for the ipod ID string.
wont it be easier to store the original .xml and .itl files on a memory and just replace it on the second computer?
i think i’m having the same problem as wangalicious above, in that now neither of my computers recognizes the iphone (or, both are asking now if I want to erase/replace all music on iphone); except I have two macs.
Hi. I have this problem. The Mac computer of which my original iTunes library is on has died
and am now temporarily using a PC. On the dead Mac, I did not sync my music but manually managed my music. Now I want to drag and add music from the PC to my Iphone but can’t do so without erasing and syncing which I do not want to do.
Help?
thx =]
It worked perfect 1st time I tried it. YOU ROCK!!!
Thanks a lot.
I’ve been wanting to get this set up for a long time. Had some trouble with the hex editors at first, i found an old version of HEXWORKS that worked straight away.
Thanks again!
Thanks, works great!
Hey there, thanks for all the help, but even when I use the codes correctly I get a message saying “0 entries changed”, or something similar. Any thoughts??? Thanks again!
G E N I U S – Mr Tung you’re a diamond! Been trying to figure a way to sync iPhone to 2 macs for ages!!!
Thank you
Thank you
Thank you
one small point thou .. make sure BOTH copies of iTunes are authorized to the same account otherwise you can’t copy across applications, music etc .. so effectively you’ll wipe your phone and will have to re-sync with the first computer before trying again .. like i’m doing now….
[...] How to Sync iPhone with multiple computers [...]
This just doesn’t work for me. I have itunes 8.0.2.20 on my mac (primary machine) and itunes 8.0.2.20 on my PC. Same itunes account. I have the latest version of iPhone 3G software (2.2.1). I followed all of the steps twice. But every thing I plug the thing in I still get the “I’m evil big brother and I’m going to overwrite all your data you idiot” message. I hate Apple.
Please verify whether this still works on the newest software.
[...] How to Sync iPhone with multiple computers « tinyfish (tags: apple software tools iphone itunes) [...]
GREAT POST! TOOK ME A FEW TRYS AFTER READING SOME OF THE COMMENTS IT WORKS GREAT!! THANKS A LOT!
Thank you so much! This helped me sooooo much!
3/11/2009 10:52 EDT
Running iTunes 8.02.20 and iPhone 2.2.1
iTunes accounts are the same on both PC’s.
I’ve checked, double checked, triple checked and after file manipulation the two files both have the Persistant ID of the first PC that is my main sync machine.
When I start iTunes and try to sync it keeps saying it wants to delete everything on my iPhone3G.
remember when you copy over the ID strings do not have your iPhone connected to iTunes and make sure iTunes is not running and had previously already logged in with your same iTunes Store ID, then copy over the ID strings. Save it. Now before plugging in the IPhone, make sure it is unlock (no password lock), plug it in and you should be find. I did notice, on the latest iTunes, you just need to copy the ID string only, dont worry abt the HEX string. Good Luck!
Thanks Michael. Have quadruple-checked everything and iTunes still wants to delete everything on my iPhone3g. I’ve re-read the entire post at least 10 times but can’t see anything I might be missing.
Any other suggestions?
not sure, I notice on my end, it did happen once and what it was to make my iPhone was unlock meaning no password lock before plugging it into iTunes with the edited ID strings, also make sure both iTunes store IDs are the same. Hope this helps.
No luck. I can’t believe it’s this difficult and really all I want to do is add ringtones from a second PC.
Nice! Soo simple using HexEdit.app, Thanks for this, now I have my iPhone syncing to both my home + work iMac’s.
How to Sync iPhone with multiple computers from tinyfish…
Nice and simple method to flawlessly enable syncing your iphone + iPods to multiple machines, works on Mac + Windows!
I used HexEdit.app, now I have my iPhone syncing to both my home + work iMac’s with iTunes 8.1
How to Sync iPhone with multiple co…
question — what i’m looking to do is sync my iphone with my same computer which recently underwent a clean erase and install so there’s nothing on the hard drive…it’s all on the iphone so my computer is reading the old sync and wanting to erase the iphone to sync with the itunes library which has nary a file — will your process help me out?
Worked great for me, many thanks.
hey, my computer which i registerd my iphone on has totally broke and there is no way of getting the code off it, how can i manage my iphone with my new computer? does anyone no where the code is stored in the iphone?
Thank you, you’re a genius!
I use PC. It worked for me the first time with no problem.
Doesn’t work here with iPhone 3G 2.21 and iTunes 8.
The whole process is quite simple and straight forward.
Perhaps things have changed? For example there’s no such file as “Tunes Music Library.itl” in iTunes 8.0.1.11 PC. There’s only “iTunes Library.itl”. And even then. Once “iTunes Library.itl” and “iTunes Music Library.xml” are modified, iTunes will still warn you about erasing :
-Installed Apps
-Movies
-Songs
Both files to be modified have been double checked.
I’m sorry but this doesn’t appear to work anymore.
I agree with Moz. I have iPhone 3G and did everything correctly but once I synced my phone to the other computer, it did not transfer all the APPS. I was doing a workaround for Skype & YM (which is not available yet in Canada). So i had to use another computer to download the 2 programs from US iTunes..it removed all the APPS previously installed. Good thing, I have backup..
thanks man ….its a nice work
Wow. I struggled with this for a bit because I kept copying the .xml file into HexEdit instead of the iTunes Library binary file. Thank you to all! This makes my life a hell of a lot easier!
THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!
worked flawlessly! I was so worried about having to erase everything!
[...] Posted by Apple @devlin3x: Click aici sau/și aici. Mda, fixul asta il gasisem si eu, dar speram sa fie vreo optiune din iTunes pe [...]
Hi,
I’ve been at this for about 3 hours and when I’m finished I still receive the error messages in iTunes when I plug in my iPhone. I followed everything step by step and it is very frustrating.
Can you help please
I forget to keep the 16 digit string from the 2nd itunes account, i just replaced it and saved over!! Any way I can get that info from somewhere else on my computer, all going well til I made this stupid mistake!
Please help
Thanks a gazillion. Just a heads up. My computer was not equipped with an xml editor. I had to download it from oxygenxml. Once i did that i was able to edit the strings. Other than that it worked great with no problem. Thank you soooooooooooooo much again!
Would anyone know what I could do to retrieve my old code because I did the part on computer 2 where I replaced the old code with the new one in notepad, but then I had to go somewhere, and when I got back, I realized I still needed to type the old code in the hex editor, to be replaced with the new one, but now I don’t know the new one. Would anyone have any help of how to find the old code? Thanks I really appreciate anyone’s help!
Just wondering if this is meant to work with Applications aswell? I have a PC and on iTunes v8.1.1.10 and have an iPhone 3G (Unsure of v) and have been through the processes numerous times and have been asked if i want to erase the applications on the iphone to sync… Its not enquiring about music but i would really like to keep my apps… Anyway of doing this?
I lost all my apps. Is there anyway syncing the Apps when you do sunc two machines. So waht I did is went back to teh first machine, and got all my Apps back, but lost the data. Now the question is how to sync with the second amchine without loosing all the Apps again.
What is the Hex Editor???
Im so beyond annoyed, Jesus take the wheel!
and what computer does the HEx need to be downloaded to?? The desk top or the laptop??
This does not seem to work anymore. I’m having the same problem that everyone is having. When I plug in the iPhone into the computer that has the music, I get the error message “iTunes has found purchased items on the iPhone … that are not present in your iTunes library”. It gives me the option to Transfer or not transfer. No matter what I choose, all my apps get erased.
It didn’t work for me. Still asking if I want to erase everything and replace. Please help. Thanks.
hmmmm…..
So exactly how is this supposed to work? I followed the instructions. Decided not to sync anything but Apps and Music. I left apps there as when I tried to check it of I got the warning:
“Are you sure you do not want to sync applications? All existing applications and their data on the iPhone …. will be removed.”
So I pressed Cancel.
So after the sync all the apps not on this iTunes were deleted. Nice it Deleted them anyways… Fuck this iTunes shit.
Luckily I have backups. But I have to ask. How exactly is this supposed to work with two iTunes without deleting too much of my stuff.
If this Apps syncing this is something that cannot be worked around with you might want to say that on the actual post. It seems i’m not the only one having this problem.
I suppose I could get all the same apps into the the other “new” iTunes as well, but for some reason it doesn’t download the apps i purchased with the “old” even though i use the same account on them.
peto
[...] ya des trucs que vous comprenez pas, il y a un autre tutoriel ici mais il est aussi en anglais, désolé… [...]
It worked like a charm…..thanks…….my only issue was that had 2 different versions of itunes on my 2 PCs….once i upgraded it worked. THANKS!!!!!!!!
Hi,
Fist of all,
Many thanks for the good steps ahead.
Then I have followed the steps.
I replaced the library.xml file with the hex dec number.
And to open the iTune Library.itl file, I do downloaded the editor and when I open this file, It shows some strange characters. Special on the right side of the editor, in the body text format, it is illisible. I have searched using find and replace but the character is not found.
Could you advis eplease on this?
Hi,
How come no one just copies the two files from one computer and overwrites them on the other so they both match up?
Worked perfectly for me and saved lots of messing around and possible mistakes…
Maybe I’m being too symplistic, but as I manually sync my music and have exactly the same set up on both computers, it worked a treat for me.
Cheers,
Steve
My problem is that after downloading the editor, it is not possible to get the 16 digit hex file in the the iTune library.itl
There are some strange characters that I can’t read what that could be.
Can any one advis eon this?
Hello
My problem is the same as yours Shewan. I tried to find the id using the Free Hex Editor Neo program for the iTune Library and it could not find the matching pattern. I was able to successfully complete all the steps until step 6 which is this part. I’ve used this guide before like 7 months ago and it was a success. But now it doesn’t work for me and there’s no way I can update my iphone without changing the iTunes library id. I can’t restore my iphone either. Can you please help me?