So I am going to transition to a newer iPhone than what I have (6s to 12). So while I wait for the phone, I’m trying to cover my bases. Now I have several gigs of my music on my 6s… I loaded it there because my desktop is locked to HS because of my GPU. ALSO means it runs iTunes, which more and more is a wonderfully useful application they killed (grrrr). Yes I moved only selected albums to my 6s w/iTunes (way to small to hold my 80G of music I own. I see the the transfer from 6s to 12 many or may not include my music, although it says it moves “documents.” How do I move my music from my desktop to the new phone should it not transfer over to the 12? And how can I add music to my “library?” Let’s say I don’t have a desktop running a very old OS, how can I add any to my 12?
You’re saying that…?
- You have an iTunes library on computer computer running High Sierra
- You used iTunes to sync that library to your iPhone 6s
- You’re not using Apple Music
I am thinking that an iPhone to iPhone migration will not transfer the music. (I’m not sure, because I’ve never done one.*). And, I think music is not included an an iPhone backup. Someone please correct me!
So the normal way would be to connect the iPhone 12 to the computer and use iTunes to sync the library to it. Same as if you had a newer computer, but in that case it would be the Finder doing the sync.
* I transfer by a full encrypted backup to the computer, followed by a restore to the new device
Yes, I am pretty sure the backup function ignores all my music files, the space my backup has in iCloud is way too small. THAT sucks, it bloody well should back-up everything. Once I get the 12 up and running, I assume I “restore” from the backup… not sure at all how to go about doing that?
I am using Apple Music to play my tunes on the 6s. Assuming iTunes can see the 12, I can transfer from my library to the 12. I also dual boot and again if the phone shows in iTunes in win10 I can do it there. This would mean copying the music to my win10 disk, not sure if there is a direct way or I have to send them to iCloud and down from there to my win10 drive. Obviously direct via iTunes is the method to use.
Question, “full encrypted backup” not sure exactly what you mean. Pretty sure iTunes can create a backup on my HFS disk… do you mean that? I normally have iCloud backup my phone.
BUT it is the case that if I did not have this ancient desktop, nor a dual boot into win10, there is NO WAY to actually copy my music to a phone? You mention “using the Finder” if I have an up to date computer… could you please tell me more. How the the OS come to see the phone mounted on the desktop? AND does one just dump them on the phone icon and the OS know where to put them? Wasn’t iTunes that was capable of mounting on the desktop… how is that done absent iTunes?
There are three kinds of backups you can make of an iPhone:
- Backup to iCloud
- Backup to computer (not encrypted)
- Backup to computer (encrypted)
The difference between encrypted vs. not is whether you have given the backup a password. In Ventura this is “Encrypt local backup”, in iTunes it is a similar setting. An encrypted backup includes everything except items that iTunes would sync, such as apps, music, and photos. (I’m not sure if an iCloud backup is as complete as an encrypted local backup)
Local backups are triggered from either iTunes or, for later macOS versions, the Finder. For example, on Ventura you select the iPhone in the Finder sidebar and select “Backup all the data on your iPhone to this Mac”.
By using the Finder, I mean that starting with macOS Catalina, iTunes is gone and the Finder takes on the sync role that used to be in iTunes. It can do (almost?) everything for synching that used to be in iTunes. So in Catalina you use the Music apps to manage music, but the Finder to sync.
The key question here, I think, is if it is possible to copy music from phone to phone. I don’t think there is, without subscribing to Apple Music.
You can use iTunes on Window to sync to the phone. There are a couple of ways to get the library there. If it were me, I’d use a network file share (i.e. share the Mac to Windows or vice versa), or copy the library to a USB drive. Another option is you can Share your library in iTunes, and then access it over the network from another iTunes. But I’ve run into cases where this doesn’t copy all the tracks that it should.
As far as I know, it does, with the following caveat. As far as I know, Quick Start copies over every bit of data from the old phone to the new phone, except perhaps for the data that you sync with iCloud, and it’s probable that any content that you purchased from the iTunes Store would download from there rather than transfer from device to device. So if you have synced music over from a computer using iTunes / Finder, it should be moved to the new phone as well. Apps are a different story: those will download from the App Store when the quick transfer is complete. Until the download is complete, the app icons show a status indicator that they are not yet installed. (I just did one with my son on Saturday.)
For iCloud backups, It is supposed to contain music, unless you use iCloud Music Library.
For computer backups, it is not supposed to contain music, presumably because the new device can just sync it from the computer when the restore is complete.
See Backup methods for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch - Apple Support
For iCloud backups,
iCloud backups include all the information and settings stored on your device that don’t already sync to iCloud. iCloud backups don’t include:
- Data that you already store and sync in iCloud, like Contacts, Calendars, and Notes
- Photos, if you turned on iCloud Photos
- iMessages, text (SMS) and multimedia (MMS) messages, if you sync messages with iCloud
- Data stored in other cloud services, like Gmail and Exchange mail
- Apple Mail data
- Apple Pay information and settings
- Face ID or Touch ID settings
- iCloud Music Library and App Store content
For computer backups:
A computer backup of your device, which is not the same as a sync, includes almost all of your device’s data and settings. A backup from a computer doesn’t include:
- Content from the iTunes and App Stores, or PDFs downloaded directly to Apple Books
- Content synced from your Mac or PC, like imported MP3s or CDs, videos, books, and photos
- Data already synced and stored in iCloud, like iCloud Photos, iMessages, and text (SMS) and multimedia (MMS) messages
- Face ID or Touch ID settings
- Apple Pay information and settings
- Apple Mail data
- Activity, Health, and Keychain data (to back up this content, you’ll need to use Encrypted Backup.)
Interesting, the music is definitely not iCloud based, these are all ripped files on my desktop with no syncing going on. BUT according to my iCloud storage details, they aren’t on the phone’s backup which is iCloud based. Not sure about a physical backup to my desktop, I should try that also.
Just to cover all the bases I looked at the win10 iTunes suggestion. Created a partition on one of my internal drives, win10 sees both that and my phone! I can see the files on my PAT partition and the phone, but I seem to be unable to find the trick to copy the files over. I know for sure it’s easy to do on my desktop. Well, NOW it seems I can’t transfer music TO my phone because it says that I have iCloud Music Library enabled and I have no clue how to turn that off. Could it be that I am doing a free trial of their streaming music service? I don’t even see any way to log out from that…
Googled it, said to sign out of Media & Purchases, that did it.
This should NOT be this convoluted.
I am so anxious, the 12 is a YOOGE upgrade from my 6s. Unfortunately, it ain’t gonna be here until right before July 4th.