When you read the title of this article, you might ask yourself ... At this point, are you in any doubt about how to connect an iOS device to iTunes on a Mac or PC? Well, the fact is that last weekend a friend bought an iMac two years after having an iPhone. Like most of us, you've come to the Apple world via an iPhone, then an iPad Pro, and now an iMac.
He had always updated the iPhone and iPad via OTA without the need for a computer and when he bought them, the start of them was also done without a computer. The fact is that when he turned on the Mac and did the initial configuration, he prepared to connect his iPhone to iTunes to be able to synchronize music and what was his surprise that iTunes He showed him a message on screen that left him talking to himself.
When you first connected your iPhone to iTunes, he himself launched a screen in which he was given two options. The first was to configure the iPhone as a new iPhone and the second was to restore the iPhone with an existing backup. Before this screen His immediate reaction was to disconnect the iPhone from iTunes for fear of deleting the data on it.
He then contacted me and explained what happened. It is normal for him to think what he thought and it is that this operating mode is not at all clear. I want to share with you, in case you are not sure either, that when iTunes says to configure the iPhone as a new iPhone, it means that it is going to configure it as a new iPhone that connects to that iTunes, that, as you already know, can only be synchronized with an iTunes library.
When, on the contrary, we click on restore from a backup, the system erases the iPhone and then restores the copy that we tell it. Therefore, we have to be clear that what iTunes tells us is, in understandable language, do you want to leave the iPhone as it is and connect to iTunes or do you want to delete it and start over?
When you connect an iPhone or iPad for the first time to iTunes, if you click on Set up as a new iPhone, it does not erase the data on it.
On the other hand, once the iOS device is connected to iTunes, you can synchronize with it via WiFi. To do this you must connect the device, enter it through iTunes and on the main screen, go down to the place where you can activate the synchronization via WiFi. I am going to do a series of articles related to the operation of iTunes for all those who still have doubts with it and to explain the news that have been included in the latest versions.