iTunes

How to sync your iPhone with multiple computers

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated January 29, 2016

[digg-me]If you tried before to sync your iPhone with more than one computer, you probably had an error message saying that your iPhone is already synced with another iTunes library and asking if you want to erase this iPhone.

There is somewhat of an easy hack for this that Andrew Grant explains on his blog. You will need some basic hacking skills for this (I'm no hacker and I was able to do it). Andrew also lists editing tools that you will need to download: UltraEdit for PC, and HexEdit for Mac.

Basically, the process takes 3 steps:

Backup your library Find your iTunes library ID Change your library ID

1. Backing up your library

On the additional computer you want to sync with, backup “iTunes Music Library.xml” and “iTunes Music Library” (you can find these in your iTunes folder in your “My Music” (on XP) or “Music” (on Vista) or in your "Music" directory on Mac) to a safe location. These are the files you will be modifying.

2. Find your iTunes Library ID

On the computer that currently syncs with your iPhone, open “iTunes Music Library.xml” with any text editor and look for the entry between the <string></string> tags, after “Library Persistent ID”. Note that it should be in the first 15 lines of the code. Now copy this entry as you will need it in the next step. You can now close the text editor.

3. Change your library ID

iTunes stores your library info in an XML file and a binary file. You will have to edit both of them. Note that iTunes must be closed. This part is a little tricky so either go to Andrew's blog or follow directions that I copied from him below:

On the machine you want to sync with open “iTunes Music Library.xml” in a text editor. Again, find the entry between the <string></string> tags after “Library Persistent ID” and copy this entry exactly. This time you can use the clipboard if you wish.

When you have a copy, replace this entry with the one you copied in part 1. Make sure you do not change anything else, and the length of the entry is 16 characters/digits. Save this file and close it.

In the Hex Editor, open “iTunes Music Library” (Tunes Music Library.itl on PC).

Select “Find and Replace” from the Edit menu. Make sure “Hex” matching is selected (not ASCII). In “Find” enter the ID you took a note of in Part 1. In Replace, enter the ID you copied at the start of Part 2. Choose Replace All, there should be one match.

Save this file and close it.

That's it! See, it's not that hard.

This is a quick rehash of Andrew's post. For detailed information with pictures, I highly recommend you go visit his blog.

If you know of an easier way to do that, please let us know in the comments.

iPhone 3G named 2008 Gadget of the Year

Guest Author ∙ Updated April 20, 2016

iPhone was named 2008 Gadget of the Year in the 2008 British Technology Awards, sponsored by Incisive Media. The iPhone also won the Best Mobile Technology, Most Stylish Technology, and Technological Innovation of the Year awards. iTunes also won honors, winning the Best Music Technology award for 2008.

According to the BTA website, the contest, the British Technology Awards, was designed to

celebrate our national love of technology and gives you the chance to decide what technology is deserving of recognition – all of this years winners were chosen by the great British public

Apple released this information in a press release on their web site.

Apple and Starbucks – Honeymoon Over?

Guest Author ∙ Updated September 20, 2016

Something is going on between Apple and Starbucks. For a while, it seemed that they seemed to be getting closer, but now I think there might be trouble in paradise.

The Starbucks Icon in the iTunes WIFI store seems to be broken. For those of you who haven't tried this feature, you get an extra Starbucks icon in iTunes whenever you are in a participating Starbucks. When I first got my iPhone, I went to a Starbucks and tried it out. The Starbucks page showed me the name of the Currently Playing song, a history of the last songs played, and links to find out more about the Song and Artists, and links to buy these songs in the iTunes WIFI store.

Users are reporting in many support forums and discussions that instead of seeing the Now Playing Starbucks screen when they touch the Starbucks Icon in iTunes WIFI Store, they see a never ending "Loading..." Screen.

Apple not only seems to be ignoring these threads, they seem to even be trying to remove Starbucks References on their Web pages. Even the links to the Starbucks agreement on Apple.com are no longer there (www.apple.com/itunes/starbucks) and reroute you here instead. A search on "Starbucks" on the Apple site shows you the preferred link to iTunes WIFI store, but takes you back to the same place as before. In fact if say "View All Search Results" after searching on the Apple page, all four top links take your right back to the same place. It's as if they had removed references to Starbucks from everywhere but their support forum.

And there are lot of links there. All where people are saying that instead of getting a Starbucks page in the iTunes Store, their iPhone is just showing a screen with the word "Loading..." that goes on and on.

There are many other forums out there with people talking about this problem. So far, I haven't seen a published work-around or response from Apple.

After my first upgrade to 2.0.1, it stopped working. Each time I go into Starbucks now the endless "Loading..." screen. Every 30 seconds or so I see a flash of the screen that is supposed to be showing, but it quickly goes right back to "Loading..." again.

I have been trying to pin point the issue. I have read that the older iTouch's don't seem to have this problem, but I have tested on both the iPhone 3G and the iTouch 2G and they both have the same issue.

Talking to support on both sides of this is getting me nowhere. Support on both sides of this issue don't seem to be aware of the feature, never mind the problem. I talked to the Manager at the local Starbucks and they had no idea that the feature was even available. They had a "guy" that they used to fix their network problems, but he only came in when they called him. They seemed to think it was a non-issue and I could tell fixing this wasn't there first priority. So I called the Starbucks customer support and they said that it was an iPhone issue, not a Starbucks issue. They said they would talk to the local manager of my Starbucks and have them see what they could do. The follow up phone call I was promised never happened.

So then I tried calling Apple support. At first, they too were confused about the feature even existing. After explaining it to the Customer Support rep, they switched me to the iTunes Support group. This person said that it was a known problem and had to do with the way the network was configured at the Starbucks. They sent me some links and encouraged me to go back to the Starbucks and get the Network Administrator to call Apple. I printed out the links (which really said nothing much) and tried again with the Starbucks. No Joy! This was about two weeks ago and it still is saying "Loading" each time I go.

Anyone else have any experiences to report on this? Please let us hear about it.

Creating an iPhone-Controlled Wireless Home Audio System

Guest Author ∙ Updated March 18, 2019

I am a bit of an audio geek and I have been longingly looking at the multi-room music systems for years. They have really started to get a lot cheaper lately but the price for most systems still start at $1,000.00. It is hard to convince my spouse that the idea of having a central music server and music piped into other rooms is $1,000 cool. So when I got the Remote [iTunes link] Application for my iPhone, i started to think about what I could do for a lot less money. Remote lets you control your iTunes library using wifi anywhere in your house.

We had already encoded all our music into MP3 and placed it on a central computer in our kitchen. We installed some really great speakers there, but what happens if we want to listen in the bedroom or living room? We could run speaker wires throughout the house, but we have an older house and it is expensive and/or unsightly to run speaker wires throughout the house. Also if we did have speakers wired in, we would need a multi-room receiver and we would still have to run back to the kitchen to change the song or pick another playlist.

I had looked in the Apple Store at Airport Express recently and read about how you could use it to create "wireless" speakers and noticed in my iTunes settings dialog box, the ability to send music to these "Airtunes" speakers. After purchasing a refurbished Airport Express from Apple Store, and a few hours fiddling with them, I came up with a pretty nice and cheap solution.

I used Airport Express and a pair of old but cute PC speakers to create a remote speaker set. I bought and installed Remote on my iPhone, configured it and now I am able to control my iTunes, sitting right next to the remote speakers.

It works pretty great so I thought I could share with you what worked for me. These instructions will let you broadcast music in iTunes. You can use Airfoil to broadcast music from other music players to your Airtunes Speakers.

What you you'll need to get started:

Apple Airport Express Airport Express Stereo connection kit (or a Monster mini-to-RCA left/right audio cable or Monster mini-to-optical digital Toslink audio cable A Mac or PC with wireless connectivity (Mac with AirPort or AirPort Extreme wireless capability - PC with 802.11a, 802.11b, or 802.11g card) Powered speakers (computer speakers work great!) or a local amplifier and non-powered speakers. iPhone or iTouch with Remote [iTunes link] application installed.

Getting started:

Plug in the airport express wherever you want to place your remote speakers. Install the Airport Utility application on your Mac or PC. You can either download it at this link or use the accompanying CD to install it. Use the Airport Utility to scan for the Airport Express Hub. When it is located, click Continue to set it up. The Utility will read the configuration information and prompt you for a name and password. Name it something that will instantly let you know which speakers you are turning on and off. For example, "Downstair speakers" or "Kitchen Speakers" works well. Click Continue. Use this guide to continue making choices as you set up the Airport Express. The easiest path is to just add it to an existing wifi network, but if you don't have one you can set up one between your pc/mac and the Airport Express. When done, the airport Express lcd light should be a solid green. Plug in your speakers and then using either the Airport Express Stereo Connection Kit or individual connectors you can purchase at Radio Shack, connect the Airport Express to your speakers. Repeat steps 1 through 6 for each airport Express you want to install (ie for each set of speakers you want). Test that you can broadcast to your remote speakers from iTunes. Go to iTunes and purchase Remote application. Follow these steps to set it up and connect it iTunes on your PC or Mac. Launch Remote on your iPhones. Using Remote Settings, turn on the speakers you want to control. Sit back on your couch and pick playlists and songs to play.

This just in, new version of iTunes

Cody Lee ∙ Updated February 5, 2016

If you are still reading this article even after the not so interesting headline, you get mad respect. Anyways, in almost virus protection software fashion, Apple has released another iTunes update: iTunes 8.0.1.

Apple lists the new features, well actually they're all bug fixes at the download site.

iTunes 8.0.1 supposedly improves stability and performance and provides a number of important bug fixes, including:

Seamlessly plays the current song when creating a new Genius playlist. Improves syncing spoken menus to iPod nano. Addresses an issue of deleting HD TV episodes when downloading. Improves checking for updates from the App Store Improves accessibility with VoiceOver. Addresses problems syncing Genius results to iPod.

Certainly nothing enough to make me rock the boat between 8.0 and my pwned 2.1 iPhone (who just recently started getting along). But for those of you who are interested in having cutting edge Apple software, let me know how it works...(or if anything stops working).

As usually, you can download the latest iTunes version from our iPhone Downloads page.

P.S. I generally let the DevTeam tell me when to update ;op not Apple.

The house that Apple built

Cody Lee ∙ October 1, 2008

[digg-me]For the last couple years, Apple's iTunes Store has taken center stage as the Internet's most used online music store. After the rise and fall of such "illegal" online music sources such as Napster and other P2P networks, Apple decided to give the rough, uncharted market of online music purchasing a shot.

You see, Napster and other peer to peer file sharing networks either charged no fee, or a low monthly fee, and none of that money made it back to the music labels, publishers, and producers. But in its usual pioneering way (see the Apple II, iPod, iPhone, etc...) Apple came up with a solution that would please the record companies, and the consumers who sought cheaper alternatives to buying music other than their local record store.

Enter The Apple iTunes Store! All songs were available for download at $0.99 from a library big enough to make CD Warehouse jealous. And from then on, it was an unstoppable monster, gaining momentum when the video iPod was released and agreements were made with movie and television production studios, giving users the option to download their favorite TV shows, and movies as well.

Then came application and game downloads for your iPod and iPhones, another revolutionary online method of distribution, and made Apple and a lot of small time developers fairly wealthy (well, wealthier in Apple's case). Nothing seemed like it could stop the download colossus until the National Music Publishers Association started kicking up dust around Washington asking that its record companies and producers receive more royalties than it's current $0.09 a track from Apple's iTunes profit.

Apparently they made enough noise for the Copyright Royalty Board to hear them, and the three judge panel is expected to make a ruling very soon. Now, what does that mean to all of us outside of the industry politics? There are a few possible scenarios if the board votes in favor of the NMPA.

The $0.99 standard price tag on mp3s would have to be raised to keep up Apple's profitablity while giving the Music Publishers a raise in the royalties. Or secondly, and hopefully this could only happen in another demension, Apple would shut down iTunes, explained fairly well in this comment by Eddie Cue in today's CNN Money article by writer Devin Leonard:

If the [iTunes music store] was forced to absorb any increase in the ... royalty rate, the result would be to significantly increase the likelihood of the store operating at a financial loss - which is no alternative at all, Cue wrote. Apple has repeatedly made it clear that it is in this business to make money, and most likely would not continue to operate [the iTunes music store] if it were no longer possible to do so profitably.

Once again, only time can tell what will be decided, or if Apple really has the gall to upset millions of iTunes users in shutting down the Internet's largest online media download store. How would that effect their iPod/iPhone sales? What would the rest of us do to quench our thirst for cheap media downloads? Start using Amazon's music service? Rhapsody? [shudders] Maybe Apple needs to just start its own record label and hire the top talent in the industry and cut out the middle man. Then they'd probably have an anti trust lawsuit on their hands. Oh the tangled webs we weave...

But I still want to check out the new iPhone Apps!

Guest Author ∙ Updated March 27, 2017

If you are like me, i was looking in App Store at least once a day to see what new apps were out. I would go to the iTunes Store and click on App Store in the left hand column. I would then click on "All Iphone Applications" and sort by "Most Recent" so that I could look at all the latest updates and new apps. When I logged on the other day and couldn't find the All iPhone Applications option, i was a bit shocked. However I have figured out a few ways to still let me get my new app fix. Here is my advice to those with the same OCD need to see what is new.

1) Use the View Menu/Show Browser Feature in iTunes to see a list form of apps. From there, click on the App Store list item in the iTunes Store listing. Click on "Release Date" column header in the browser row area. Now click on the different Category list items to see a sorted list by date of all the applications in that category. It is a bit slower than seeing all categories at once, but maybe we can convince Apple to put in an All Category option here.

2) Subscribe to the Pinch Media's New Application RSS feed. These are really useful app store feeds. They also have a feed for free new apps and one for updated apps. Here is how they describe this great service:

We’re happy to announce today the release of a few new RSS feeds which provide a way to view activity in the Apple App Store without having to load up iTunes or the App Store on the iPhone yourself. The first two feeds are the most recent stream of new and updated applications added into the App Store updated hourly.

Check it out.

Either way, I can still get my fix.

3) Follow our New Apps & Games category :-)

Apple posts fix for iTunes 8 Windows blue screen of death issue

Sébastien Page ∙ September 12, 2008

Apple was quick to post a fix for iTunes 8 issue that caused Windows Vista users to see the BSOD (Blue Screen Of Death) when plugin an iPod Touch or iPhone.

From Apple:

After installing iTunes 8 for Windows, some users may see a blue screen error message when connecting iPhone or iPod to a Windows Vista computer.

The fix involves uninstalling Apple Mobile Device Support then reinstalling the updated iTunes 8 package. One of my previous posts involved uninstalling Apple Mobile Device Support then reinstalling iTunes 7.7.

iPhone firmware 2.1 is out!

Sébastien Page ∙ September 12, 2008

As I announced earlier this week, Apple released it's iPhone firmware 2.1 this morning and is now downloadable via iTunes. Note that you will need iTunes 8 to be able to download and install firmware 2.1.

This update includes:

Decrease in call set-up failures and dropped calls Significantly better battery life for most users Dramatically reduced time to backup to iTunes Improved email reliability, notably fetching email from POP and Exchange accounts Faster installation of 3rd party applications Fixed bugs causing hangs and crashes for users with lots of third party applications Improved performance in text messaging Faster loading and searching of contacts Improved accuracy of the 3G signal strength display Repeat alert up to two additional times for incoming text messages (in case you missed the beep the 1st time) Option to wipe data after ten failed passcode attempts Genius playlist creation

To get this 2.1 update, simply connect your iPhone to your computer, open iTunes 8 and click "Check for update".

According to the DevTeam, this new iTunes 8 detects and prevents the Pwnage exploit. No word from the DevTeam so far on when they will release and updated version of the Pwnage software. This means if you're on a jailbroken iPhone, DO NOT UPDATE yet!

How to fix iPhone Blue Screen Of Death due to iTunes 8

Sébastien Page ∙ September 11, 2008

Disconnect your iPhone/iPod touch from the computer In Vista Programs and Features (Control Panel), Uninstall the Apple Mobile Device Support Restart your computer Download the iTunes 7.7 installer Open the iTunes 7.7 installation exe with Winzip or WinRAR, and reinstall only the AppleMobileDeviceSupport.MSI Reboot your system Reconnect your iPhone/iPod touch

Thanks iPhone Atlas

Apple Counters PwnageTool In iTunes 8, Patches Coming

Sébastien Page ∙ September 11, 2008

The DevTeam said many times before that Apple cannot the bug they've exploited in PwnageTool unless they change the hardware, which is impossible until the next iPhones come out. While this is still true, Apple managed to have iTunes 8 detect and prevent the Pwnage exploit.

But hey, this is not gonna stop the DevTeam:

The nice thing about iTunes decisions is that we can provide you with patches to counter them. We have one such patch already for Mac iTunes 8 for iPod touch. We’ll be working out the full suite of patches for all the combinations over the next week.

Apple “keynotes” podcasts now available through iTunes

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated March 18, 2019

When Steve Jobs delivers a keynote, Apple usually posts the video of the event on the apple.com and in iTunes. Well, Apple finally made these keynote presentations available for download in the iTunes Store. They are in the form of a video podcast in titled "Apple Keynotes", which you can subscribe here to to get it automatically downloaded into your iTunes library. The Apple Keynotes Podcast features 3 videos so far, the MWSF '07 and '08 keynotes and the March 6th introduction of the iPhone SDK.

Stay put on Tuesday to get your podcast of the WWDC '08!