How to keep device able to receive media from 2 MBPs without switching settings every time

[rboy505]

What do I need to do to be able to use both my MBPs, a 2009 on 10.11.6 and a 2015 on Catalina, to put audio on to the same device, iPhone 6, without having to cut the cable so to speak on one n order to link to the other? This is for manual transfer, not synced, and of personal audio not purchased. I can only do it on one at a time, to the particular one that is "blessed" in iTunes to do it. If I want to transfer on the other MBP the iPhone is recognized as a mounted device but it will not allow loading audio. If I allow it to switch to that MBP, it wipes the media content clean in order to become a device that will load from this MBP, so I lose what I had previously in order to put on new audio from the other computer.

What am I not getting? How can I set up so I can use either one to put audio on without initializing and switching which it is linked to? iTunes has been a mess for a few years and I gave up trying, but maybe I'm just missing something. This is simply for manually loading my own recordings, not syncing and not purchased.

Thanks!

 

[Minorite]

Weird that there was no answer here yet By design iTunes sync works just with one library at a time, as the main idea is sync, not transfer, and it indeed makes sense that you can't sync with two different libraries. But in real life, it's a damn nightmare, especially when you connect to a new library after macOS reinstall.

Not much you can do here, unfortunately, basically 2 options. Switch to VLC and manage music through File Sharing or use iMazing (or similar) to import tracks in Music app, it has no library limitations and you can just drag&drop from a folder instead of iTunes.

 

[rboy505]

Weird that there was no answer here yet By design iTunes sync works just with one library at a time, as the main idea is sync, not transfer, and it indeed makes sense that you can't sync with two different libraries. But in real life, it's a damn nightmare, especially when you connect to a new library after macOS reinstall.

Not much you can do here, unfortunately, basically 2 options. Switch to VLC and manage music through File Sharing or use iMazing (or similar) to import tracks in Music app, it has no library limitations and you can just drag&drop from a folder instead of iTunes.

Thanks minorite. Your confirmation that there is no way to load media from more than 1 computer makes sense, but it’s so dumb! Because both mbps are linked only to me at the same Apple ID, and the two iTunes libraries reflect that as far as purchased media. But what a nightmare even using just the Catalina one I don’t ever want to sync anything, don’t want iTunes to always fill my phone with what it recently may have acquired, even if I can deselect an artist from syncing. I record and produce music and audio projects and 75% of what has been on my device has always been a shifting collection of mixes, revised mixes, rough ideas etc. that I’d listen to while out and about. IOW, they’re my own files, and syncing makes no sense - they need to be manually added and subtracted from the device. Even with other music, syncing makes no sense. Manually adding and deleting is all I ever want. Time to stop torturing myself look at the alternatives. Thanks again

 

[Minorite]

Thanks minorite. Your confirmation that there is no way to load media from more than 1 computer makes sense, but it’s so dumb! Because both mbps are linked only to me at the same Apple ID, and the two iTunes libraries reflect that as far as purchased media. But what a nightmare even using just the Catalina one I don’t ever want to sync anything, don’t want iTunes to always fill my phone with what it recently may have acquired, even if I can deselect an artist from syncing. I record and produce music and audio projects and 75% of what has been on my device has always been a shifting collection of mixes, revised mixes, rough ideas etc. that I’d listen to while out and about. IOW, they’re my own files, and syncing makes no sense - they need to be manually added and subtracted from the device. Even with other music, syncing makes no sense. Manually adding and deleting is all I ever want. Time to stop torturing myself look at the alternatives. Thanks again

Yep, design architects at Apple love to bring some pain where it's not needed (or find a good idea how to push users to Apple Music/purchased music ).