iPhone stays connected to iTunes (Wi-Fi sync)

[BulkHedd]

I have noticed that whenever I'm at home my iPhone 4 always shows up under "Sources" in iTunes. I guess this is because I turned on Wi-Fi syncing.
But whenever I leave and come back home there is an iTunes error message about it not being able to locate the required disk.
Should my iPhone constantly be connected to iTunes like that?

 

[Yumunum]

I'm wondering the same, I can't imagine it's good for the battery life

 

[gloss]

Well, that's how the Wi-Fi sync works.

The device is always going to be on Wi-Fi anyway. I'm sure it's just sending out an occasional ping to let iTunes know it's there. I doubt it would have any significant impact on battery life.

 

[tkhiem]

I'm wondering the same, I can't imagine it's good for the battery life

I have a feeling it's not good for the battery. My battery seemed to drain a lot faster with this on, not quite sure yet, still testing the battery life with wifi sync turned off .

 

[BulkHedd]

I have a feeling it's not good for the battery. My battery seemed to drain a lot faster with this on, not quite sure yet, still testing the battery life with wifi sync turned off .

Strangely enough, I feel like my battery drains faster at home.
I get a stronger cell signal at home than at work too.

 

[BulkHedd]

No updates on this?
I find it hard to believe this is intended. I mean every time I come home iTunes is bouncing at me with an error message about not finding the iPhone.

 

[fauxfrankwren]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

Same here. And my iTunes opens automatically even if I close it. It's frustrating because it opens while I am doing other things.

 

[donnaw]

Wifi sync is only supposed to work if your device is plugged in. Are you saying it is syncing (or trying to) when not plugged in?

 

[KidMoe85]

Wifi sync is only supposed to work if your device is plugged in. Are you saying it is syncing (or trying to) when not plugged in?

What? That's the whole point of wifi sync. If your phone and your computer are connected to the same network (ie. your house) then your gonna see the iPhone listed in iTunes. You guys are probably getting an error message because you leave the house without ejecting the phone from iTunes first. Once you're out of the house and disconnected from your home network, iTunes is unable to find the device and gives you an error message. It would be like unplugging the iPhone from your computer before ejecting from iTunes.

 

[dmystic1]

Wifi sync is only supposed to work if your device is plugged in. Are you saying it is syncing (or trying to) when not plugged in?

It is in fact supposed to only sync with the device plugged in, but with my windows pc, it connects anytime the pc is on. Even with itunes closed it will open on its own and sync with the iphone.

 

[xraydoc]

What? That's the whole point of wifi sync. If your phone and your computer are connected to the same network (ie. your house) then your gonna see the iPhone listed in iTunes. You guys are probably getting an error message because you leave the house without ejecting the phone from iTunes first. Once you're out of the house and disconnected from your home network, iTunes is unable to find the device and gives you an error message. It would be like unplugging the iPhone from your computer before ejecting from iTunes.

Actually, if that's the case, it's pretty stupid. If I have to "eject" my phone before I leave the house, even if it's on wifi, then I may as well just sync with a USB cable.

However, in my experience, this is not the case. I've seen the error a couple of times, but not every time after leaving the house.

 

[Jordan921]

Wifi sync is only supposed to work if your device is plugged in. Are you saying it is syncing (or trying to) when not plugged in?

Wrong. With Wi-Fi you can sync your phone while not being plugged into your comp or any power. That's the way it works for me.

----------

It is in fact supposed to only sync with the device plugged in, but with my windows pc, it connects anytime the pc is on. Even with itunes closed it will open on its own and sync with the iphone.

The reason why it is automatically opening up is because you have the check box checked for itunes to open when up when the iPhone is connected.

 

[donnaw]

Wrong. With Wi-Fi you can sync your phone while not being plugged into your comp or any power. That's the way it works for me.

----------



The reason why it is automatically opening up is because you have the check box checked for itunes to open when up when the iPhone is connected.

Yes, you can sync manually but the auto sync is not supposed to work automatically unless connected to power. That is the theory. Apparently it isn't functioning in this way in reality for everyone. Even powered up mine only syncs about every 24 hrs. If it has synced more recently it won't start a sync unless I do it manually. Nor does mine make iTunes pop up every time I'm on my PC.

Guess I've been lucky so far because it's working as predicted for me. But I don't have an iPhone, just an iPad.

 

[dmystic1]

Wrong. With Wi-Fi you can sync your phone while not being plugged into your comp or any power. That's the way it works for me.

----------



The reason why it is automatically opening up is because you have the check box checked for itunes to open when up when the iPhone is connected.

Actually don't have it sync by wifi anymore because its to distracting to have itunes opening all the time.

 

[verwon]

There is a difference between backing up to the iCloud and the syncing.

 

[dmystic1]

There is a difference between backing up to the iCloud and the syncing.

We are talking about syncing not icloud.

At any rate zune and windowsphone 7 does the wireless sync in the same way, but less distracting because it occurs only when the phone is on the charger.

I have not tested but I would think by the phone constantly syncing off charger, would put a strain on battery life, but what do I know.

 

[watchthisspace]

I have noticed that whenever I'm at home my iPhone 4 always shows up under "Sources" in iTunes. I guess this is because I turned on Wi-Fi syncing.
But whenever I leave and come back home there is an iTunes error message about it not being able to locate the required disk.
Should my iPhone constantly be connected to iTunes like that?

Yes.

Just like how your iPhone or Wireless device stays connected to the WiFi network, your iPhone/iDevice will stay connected with iTunes. All it does it send a little packet saying "I'm here"

 

[Julien]

Well, that's how the Wi-Fi sync works.

The device is always going to be on Wi-Fi anyway. I'm sure it's just sending out an occasional ping to let iTunes know it's there. I doubt it would have any significant impact on battery life.

Your iPhone and ANY WiFi device connected has to ping your WiFi anyway so it probably has nothing to do with battery life.

 

[kring]

iTunes 10.5 is total garbage, wifi sync is untested alpha code at best. completly broken. yes it's eating your battery, yes it's constantly crashing, giving errors, timing out, messing with your firewall, locking up... yes it gets totally confused and has 60 errors over the course of the night..

It's constantly sending data back and forth to your iDevices every few seconds.. and it freezes iTunes while it's waiting... Watch the way iTunes eats your CPU cycles and spikes every 20 seconds or so.

TRASH... they should have never released such a riddled piece of junk that we can't even fall back to an older version.

 

[BJMRamage]

mine seems to be working fine.

When I am home and on my WiFi and not plugged in, my iPhone shows up on iTunes (on my iMac). Last night I was able to move ringtones over to my phone (with it in another room) and manually "sync" the phone and when I went upstairs they were now on my phone.

If I have it plugged in, it will sync automatically once. Though not sure if it will sync when I add songs after it has already "sync"ed for the day.

Either way, the Wifi sync and Photostream are great benefits to me and my setup. (though I wish I could manually delete photos or hold off PhotoStream sync until I edit the photos or delete any ones not in focus)

I do wish I could pull songs from iTunes to my iPhone via the iPhone Music App and on Wifi. I thought that would be the case, but it seems I still need to go to the computer to put songs from the Mac to the Phone.

 

[BulkHedd]

I don't mind the phone showing up in iTunes all the time. What I mind is leaving the house and coming back home with an error on the screen.

As far as the only syncing automatically when the iPhone is plugged in, I had something happen to the contrary. I had shut down iTunes and when I relaunched it connected to the iPhone and did a sync. I watched it on the screen. The iPhone was not connected to anything. Just laying on the desk.

Now, for some reason, my new iPad 2 never shows in iTunes unless it's plugged in via USB and I am unable to get it to sync over Wi-Fi from the iPad. It just says "Looking for MacBook Pro..." and never finds it.

 

[qtaran111]

I don't mind the phone showing up in iTunes all the time. What I mind is leaving the house and coming back home with an error on the screen.

I'm getting exactly the same error message, which is really annoying. If you find a way to solve this (other than disabling wifi sync) let me know.

 

[fidodif]

I have the same issue too. iTunes suddenly pops up out of nowhere and occassionally with errors. I'm using a windows 7 PC (64-bit)

 

[fauxfrankwren]

It is in fact supposed to only sync with the device plugged in, but with my windows pc, it connects anytime the pc is on. Even with itunes closed it will open on its own and sync with the iphone.

Exact same thing happening to me.

And it'smnot about ejecting the iPhone. The iPhone will search for iTunes even if iTunes is closed and open it! Untethered!