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Synchronizing Information with Your iPhone

If you step back a pace or two to take in the big picture, you see that your iPhone deals with two broad types of data: media - all that audio and video stuff - and information such as contacts, appointments, e-mail, websites, and notes. You need both types of data to get the most out of your iPhone investment and, happily, both types of data are eminently syncable. I get to the media syncing portion of the show a bit later. For now, the next few sections show you how to take control of syncing your information between your iPhone and your computer.

Syncing your contacts

Although you can certainly add contacts directly on your iPhone - adding, editing, grouping, and deleting contacts is a lot easier on a computer. So, a good way to approach contacts is to manage them on your Mac or Windows PC, and then sync them with your iPhone.

However, do you really need to sync all your contacts? For example, if you only use your iPhone to contact friends and family, then why clog your phone's Contacts list with work contacts?

You can control which contacts are sent to your iPhone by creating groups of contacts and then syncing only those that you want. Here are some quickie instructions for creating groups:

  • Contacts (OS X Mountain Lion) or Address Book (earlier versions of OS X). Choose File → New Group, type the group name, and then press Return. Now populate the new group by dragging and dropping contacts on it.
  • Windows Contacts (Windows 8, Windows 7, and Windows Vista). Click New Contact Group, type the group name, and then click Add to Contact Group. Choose all the contacts you want in the group and then click Add. Click OK.
Note:
If you're an Outlook user, note that iTunes doesn't support Outlook-based contact groups, so you're stuck with syncing everyone in your Outlook Contacts folder. Also note that iTunes doesn't support the Windows 8 People app or Windows Live Mail at all, so you can't use those applications to sync your contacts.

With your group (or groups) all figured out, follow these steps to sync your contacts with your iPhone:

  1. Connect your iPhone to your computer.
  2. In iTunes, click your iPhone in the Devices list.
  3. Click the Info tab.
  4. Turn on contacts syncing by using one of the following techniques:
    • OS X Mountain Lion. Select the Sync Contacts check box.
    • Earlier versions of OS X. Select the Sync Address Book Contacts check box.
    • Windows. Select the Sync Contacts with check box, and then use the list to choose the program you want to use (such as Outlook). For Yahoo! contacts, see Step 7; for Google contacts, see Step 8.
  5. Select an option:
    • All contacts. Select this option to sync all your contacts.
    • Selected groups. Select this option to sync only the groups you pick. In the group list, select the check box beside each group that you want to sync.
  6. If you want to make the sync a two-way street, select the Add contacts created outside of groups on this iPhone to check box, and then choose a group from the menu.
  7. (Windows only) Use the Sync Contacts with list to select Yahoo! Address Book. Click Agree, type your Yahoo! ID and password, and click OK.
  8. In OS X, if you have a Google account and you also want your Google Contacts synced, select the Sync Google Contacts check box. In Windows, use the Sync Contacts with list to select Google Contacts. In either case, you then click Agree, type your Google username and password, and click OK.
  9. Click Apply. iTunes syncs the iPhone using your new contacts settings.

Syncing your calendar

When you're tripping around town with your trusty iPhone at your side, you certainly don't want to be late if you've got a date. The best way to ensure that you don't miss an appointment, meeting, or rendezvous is to always have the event details at hand, which means adding those details to your iPhone Calendar. You can add the appointment to Calendar right on the iPhone, but it's easier to create it on your computer and then sync it to your iPhone. This gives you the added advantage of having the appointment listed in two places, so you're sure to arrive on time.

Most people sync all appointments, but it's not unusual to keep track of separate schedules - for example, business and personal. You can control which schedule is synced to your iPhone by creating separate calendars and then syncing only those that you want. In the Calendar application on your Mac, choose File → New Calendar, type the calendar name, and then press Return.

Note:
Although you can create extra calendars in Outlook, iTunes doesn't recognize them, so you have to sync everything in your Outlook Calendar folder. Also, iTunes doesn't support Windows 8's Calendar app or Vista's Windows Calendar program, so you're out of luck if you use either application to manage your schedule.

Now follow these steps to sync your calendar with your iPhone:

  1. Connect your iPhone to your computer.
  2. In iTunes, click your iPhone in the Devices list.
  3. Click the Info tab.
  4. Turn on calendar syncing by using one of the following techniques:
    • OS X Mountain Lion. Select the Sync Calendars check box.
    • Earlier versions of OS X. Select the Sync iCal Calendars check box.
    • Windows. Select the Sync Calendars with check box, and then use the list to choose the program you want to use (such as Outlook).
  5. Select an option:
    • All calendars. Select this option to sync all your calendars.
    • Selected calendars. Select this option to sync only the calendars you pick. In the calendar list, select the check box beside each calendar that you want to sync.
  6. To control how far back the calendar sync goes, select the Do not sync events older than X days check box. Next, type the number of days of calendar history you want to see on your iPhone.
  7. Click Apply. iTunes syncs the iPhone using your new calendar settings.

Syncing your e-mail account

By far the easiest way to configure your iPhone with an e-mail account is to let iTunes do all the heavy lifting. If you have an existing account - whether it's a Mail account on your Mac or an Outlook or Windows Mail account on your PC - you can convince iTunes to gather all the account details and pass them along to your iPhone. Here's how it works:

  1. Connect your iPhone to your computer.
  2. In the iTunes Devices list, click the iPhone.
  3. Click the Info tab.
  4. In the Mail Accounts section, use one of the following techniques:
    • Mac. Select the Sync Mail Accounts check box, and then select the check box beside each account you want to add to your iPhone.
    • Windows. Select the Sync Mail Accounts from check box, select your e-mail program from the drop-down list, and then select the check box beside each account you want to add to your iPhone.
  5. Click Apply. You may see a message asking if AppleMobileSync can be allowed access to your keychain (your Mac's master password list).
  6. If you see that message, click Allow. iTunes begins syncing the selected e-mail account settings from your computer to your iPhone.

Syncing your bookmarks

The easiest way to get bookmarks for your favorite sites into your iPhone is to take advantage of your best bookmark resource: the Safari browser on your Mac (or PC) or the Internet Explorer browser on your Windows PC (which calls them Favorites). Whichever browser you prefer, you've probably used it for a while and have all kinds of useful and fun bookmarked sites at your metaphorical fingertips. To get these at your literal fingertips - that is, on your iPhone - you need to include bookmarks as part of the synchronization process between the iPhone and iTunes.

Note:
Having used Safari or Internet Explorer for a while means having lots of great sites bookmarked, but it also likely means that you've got lots of digital dreck - that is, sites you no longer visit or that have gone belly-up. Before synchronizing your bookmarks with the iPhone, consider taking some time to clean up your existing bookmarks. You'll thank yourself in the end.

Follow these steps to activate bookmark syncing:

  1. Connect your iPhone to your computer.
  2. In the iTunes Devices list, click the iPhone.
  3. Click the Info tab.
  4. Scroll down to the Other section, and then use one of the following techniques:
    • Mac. Select the Sync Safari bookmarks check box. Note that this is the OS X Lion version of the Other section; as I discuss next, you won't see the Sync Notes check box if you're running OS X Mountain Lion.
    • Windows. Select the Sync bookmarks with check box, and then select your web browser from the drop-down list.
  5. Click Apply. iTunes begins syncing the bookmarks from your computer to your iPhone.

Syncing your notes

If you use the Notes app on your iPhone to jot down quick thoughts, ideas, and other mental tidbits, you might want to transfer them to your computer so you can incorporate them into another document, add them to a to-do list, or whatever. To do this in early versions of the iPhone OS, you had to e-mail the notes to yourself, which wasn't exactly convenient. Now, however, notes are full-fledged members of the iPhone information pantheon, which means you can sync your notes to your computer.

Oddly, in OS X Mountain Lion, the latest version of iTunes for the Mac has removed the ability to sync items from the Notes app directly between your Mac and your iPhone. Instead, you must take the more indirect route of syncing your Mac and iPhone notes with your iCloud account:

  • Mac. Open System Preferences, click iCloud, and then select the Notes check box.
  • iPhone. Tap Settings, tap iCloud, and then tap the Notes switch to On.

You can still sync notes via iTunes if you're running an earlier version of OS X or if you're running Windows by following these steps:

  1. Connect your iPhone to your computer.
  2. In the iTunes Devices list, click the iPhone.
  3. Click the Info tab.
  4. Scroll down to the Other section and then use one of the following techniques:
    • Mac. Select the Sync notes check box.
    • Windows. Select the Sync notes with check box, and then select an application from the drop-down list (such as Outlook).
  5. Click Apply. iTunes begins syncing the notes between your computer and your iPhone.

Merging data from two or more computers

Long gone are the days when your information resided on a single computer. Now it's common to have a desktop computer (or two) at home, a work computer, and perhaps a notebook computer to take on the road. It's nice to have all that digital firepower, but it creates a big problem: you end up with contacts, calendars, and other information scattered over several machines. How are you supposed to keep track of it all?

The latest solution from Apple is iCloud, which provides seamless information integration across multiple computers (Mac and Windows) and, of course, the iPhone.

However, if you don't have an iCloud account, you can still achieve a bit of data harmony. That's because iTunes offers the welcome capability of merging information from two or more computers on the iPhone. For example, if you have contacts on your home computer, you can sync them with your iPhone. If you have a separate collection of contacts on your notebook, you can also sync them with your iPhone, but iTunes gives you two choices:

  • Merge Info. With this option, your iPhone keeps the information synced from the first computer and merges it with the information synced from the second.
  • Replace Info. With this option, your iPhone deletes the information synced from the first computer and replaces it with the information synced from the second.

Here are the general steps to follow to set up your merged information:

  1. Sync your iPhone with information from one computer. This technique works with contacts, calendars, e-mail accounts, and bookmarks.
  2. Connect your iPhone to the second computer.
  3. In iTunes, click your iPhone in the Devices list.
  4. Click the Info tab.
  5. Select the Sync check boxes that correspond with information already synced on the first computer. For example, if you synced contacts on the first computer, select the Sync Contacts check box.
  6. Click Apply. iTunes displays a dialog.
  7. Click Merge Info. iTunes syncs your iPhone and merges the second computer's information with the existing information from the first computer.

Handling sync conflicts

When you sync information between your iPhone and a computer, any edits you make to that information are included in the sync. For example, if you change someone's e-mail address on your iPhone, the next time you sync, iTunes updates the e-mail address on the computer, which is exactly what you want.

However, what if you already changed that person's address on the computer? If you made the same edit, then it's no biggie because there's nothing to sync. But what if you made a different edit? Ah, that's a problem, because now iTunes doesn't know which version has the correct information. In that case, it shrugs its digital shoulders and passes off the problem to a program called Conflict Resolver.

If you want to deal with the problem now, click Review Now. Conflict Resolver then offers you the details of the conflict. For example, a contact's work email address is different in Contacts and on the iPhone. To settle the issue once and for all (you hope), click the correct version of the information and then click Continue to move on to the next conflict. When you've gone through all the conflicts, click Done. When Conflict Resolver tells you it will fix the problem during the next sync, click Sync Now to make it happen right away.

Handling large iPhone-to-computer sync changes

Syncing works both ways, meaning that not only does your iPhone receive content from your computer, but your computer also receives content from your iPhone. For example, if you create any bookmarks, contacts, or appointments on your iPhone, those items are sent to your computer during the sync.

However, it's implied that the bulk of the content flows from your computer to your iPhone, which makes sense because, in most cases, it's easier to add, edit, and delete stuff on the computer. So that's why, if you make lots of changes to your iPhone content, iTunes displays a warning that the sync is going to, likewise, change a lot of the content on your computer. The threshold is 5 percent, which means that if the sync changes more than 5 percent of a particular type of content on your computer - such as bookmarks or calendars - the warning appears.

If you're expecting this (because you did change lots of stuff on your iPhone), click the Sync Whatever button (where Whatever is the type of data you want to sync: Bookmarks, Calendars, and so on). If you're not sure, click Show Details to see what the changes are. If you're still scratching your head, click Cancel to skip that part of the sync.

If you're running iTunes for Windows, you can either turn off this warning or adjust the threshold. (For some unfathomable reason, iTunes for Mac doesn't offer this handy option.) Follow these steps:

  1. Choose Edit → Preferences, or press Ctrl+, (comma). The iTunes dialog box appears.
  2. Click the Devices tab.
  3. If you want to disable the sync alerts altogether, deselect the Warn when check box. Otherwise, leave that check box selected and move on to Step 4.
  4. Use the Warn when percent of the data on the computer will be changed list to set the alert threshold, where percent is one of the following:
    • any. Select this option to see the sync alert whenever syncing with the iPhone will change data on your computer. iPhone syncs routinely modify data on the computer, so be prepared to see the alerts every time you sync. (Of course, that may be exactly what you want.)
    • more than X. Where X is 5% (the default), 25%, or 50%. You'll see the alert only when the sync will change more than the chosen percentage of data on the computer.
  5. Click OK to put the new settings into effect.

Replacing your iPhone data with fresh info

Once you know what you're doing, syncing contacts, calendars, e-mail accounts, and bookmarks to your iPhone is a relatively bulletproof procedure that should happen without a hitch each time. Of course, this is technology you're dealing with here, so hitches do happen every now and then. As a result, you might end up with corrupt or repeated information on your iPhone.

Or perhaps you've been syncing your iPhone with a couple of different computers, and you decide to cut one of the computers out of the loop and revert to a single machine for all your syncs.

In both of these scenarios, you need to replace the existing information on your iPhone with a freshly baked batch of data. Fortunately, iTunes has a feature that lets you do exactly that. Here's how it works:

  1. Connect your iPhone to your computer.
  2. In the iTunes Devices list, click the iPhone.
  3. Click the Info tab.
  4. Select the Sync check boxes for each type of information you want to work with (contacts, calendars, e-mail accounts, or bookmarks). If you don't select a check box, iTunes won't replace that information on your iPhone. For example, if you like your iPhone bookmarks just the way they are, don't select the Sync bookmarks check box.
  5. In the Advanced section, select the check box beside each type of information you want to replace. There are four check boxes: Contacts, Calendars, Mail Accounts, and Bookmarks.
  6. Click Apply. iTunes replaces the selected information on your iPhone.
Note:
If a check box in the Advanced section is disabled, it's because you didn't select the corresponding Sync check box. For example, the Sync Safari bookmarks check box in the Other section is deselected, so in the Advanced section, the Bookmarks check box is disabled.