I might be missing something here, but I tried the WiFi iTunes synch with my 4s and it works as promised. However, it's a lot slower than the good old USB way. But I guess my main question is if you have to have iTunes running on your PC, what's the advantage of the WiFi synch besides for the cool factor?
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
WiFi Synch...what's the point?
- Thread starter BigFatCow
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
People like me, who have a home where we're not near our Macs. Lets say I am downstairs but want and app or movie on my iPad, i can either go to iCloud or sync it with my Mac that i know is running. Thats how I've already used it. I was detailing my car in the garage, fixing some things and wanted my autogeek app to use its database, i just synced, took to seconds and was able to not have to run upstairs, pluging, sync, unplug, then back down stairs....thats just one tiny example i have. Yeah its not that hard to manually sync but can save some time if need be.
Imagine this scenario:
You arrive at home, from your work and connect your iPhone/ipod touch in the charger, which is in your living room.
You make dinner, eat, watch the new Walking Dead season on TV and then you turn on your macbook pro.
"Hey, since I'm using it, I will sync my idevice while its charging"
But I've turned off wifi sync because I am always near my computer, so there is no point for wireless sync.
You arrive at home, from your work and connect your iPhone/ipod touch in the charger, which is in your living room.
You make dinner, eat, watch the new Walking Dead season on TV and then you turn on your macbook pro.
"Hey, since I'm using it, I will sync my idevice while its charging"
But I've turned off wifi sync because I am always near my computer, so there is no point for wireless sync.
For you. You forgot that part. You could actually leave it on and just let it sync at night while your phone is charging. I love wifi sync. My MBP is setup to wake for network access, so I just plug my phone is every other night, and whammo, it's synced. I love it.
And I'm i'm doing something else with my phone, I can do a manual wifi sync without being near my MBP.
So OP, that's the point of wifi sync.
We have 3 iDevices. Not all of them get plugged in to the computer regularly. Now I never need to plug them into the computer. When I go to bed, I plug them in the charge, they sync. I sleep. It's my favorite feature of iOS 5!
We share one iTunes account and the library resides on an iMac. The WiFi sync allows my wife to change her playlist, watch a video, etc., without kicking me off of the iMac.
- David
- David
It's a lot faster for people who rarely synced before. Syncing slowly overnight is a heck of a lot faster than plugging in once per month.
Yes, those people exist as do the people who NEVER synced with their computer. Wifi Sync is infinitely faster for them.
It's more convenient for uploading data files as well when your iOS device isn't near you. Just stick the files in the proper folders and sync from your desktop. Magically wherever your iOS device is, it will now have the data you wanted.
My only problem is when I come down in the morning and one or more of our devices shows up in itunes as having an unkown error or failed to start sync session, and then no sync. There are definitely bugs that need to be ironed out.
My only problem is when I come down in the morning and one or more of our devices shows up in itunes as having an unkown error or failed to start sync session, and then no sync. There are definitely bugs that need to be ironed out.
I have had this happen several times with my iPhone 4, to the point that I've now just reverted back to syncing it via USB. However, it works flawlessly with my iPad 2, which is very convenient, since prior to Wi-Fi syncing I rarely ever backed up my data on the iPad 2, but now I don't have to worry about it because as soon as I plug it in the charger it syncs automatically.