It’s a breeze to sync your Mac content to your iPhone or iPad once you grasp the process. While utilizing AirDrop to transfer files from your Mac to your iPhone or iPad is effective and familiar, continuously sharing collections of music, movies, TV shows, podcasts, and books can become tedious when compared to automatic syncing.
Many Mac owners also possess an iPhone or iPad, as Apple designs its products to seamlessly integrate. Life becomes smoother when everything just works, but sometimes a bit of setup is required initially. An excellent example of this is when you need to sync content between a Mac and one of Apple’s mobile devices. Whether you’re using an iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch, regular transfers are best handled by syncing from your Mac.
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How to Connect Your Mac to an iPhone via the USB Port
To sync Mac content to your iPhone or iPad, you need to make a USB connection at least once. Afterward, you can choose to sync when first connecting over Wi-Fi or when the iPhone is plugged in via a USB cable.
Step 1: Connect your iPhone or iPad to your Mac using a USB cable. It’s best to use the charging cable that came with your mobile device or an Apple MFi-certified cable to ensure a solid connection. An iPhone or iPod Touch requires a Lightning cable, while an iPad might require USB-C. If your Mac doesn’t have a USB-C port, you may need a USB-A to USB-C adapter. After plugging in your iPhone, unlock it and choose “Allow” if prompted for access.
Step 2: Open a Finder window on your Mac and locate your iPhone or iPad. It should appear in the sidebar on the left under the “Locations” section, with a name similar to “Mary’s iPhone.” Select your iPhone to open a panel of options.
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How to Connect Your Mac to an iPhone Wirelessly
The easiest way to sync content from your Mac to your iPhone is wirelessly over a Wi-Fi connection. The requirements are straightforward. Both devices should be connected to the same Wi-Fi network. Any iPhone with iOS 5 or newer and any iPad running iPadOS will work. Wireless syncing requires an initial USB connection to set it up, and you can choose between automatic or manual synchronization. Follow the instructions above for connecting a USB cable, then continue below.
Enable Wi-Fi Connection to Your iPhone
Select the “General” tab, then under “Options,” enable “Show this iPhone when on Wi-Fi.” After changing this setting, select the “Apply” button that appears at the bottom-right of the window. Afterward, you can unplug your iPhone, and it will still be visible in the Finder sidebar.
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Sync Your Mac Content to Your iPhone
Whether connecting via USB or wirelessly, the process of syncing content from your Mac to your iPhone is handled the same way. Select your iPhone from the sidebar of any Finder window, then choose the type of sync and click the Sync button.
Step 1: Choose the type of content you want to sync. Tabs at the top allow you to sync Music, Movies, TV Shows, Podcasts, Audiobooks, Books, Photos, and Info. There’s also a Files tab, but it’s for immediate transfers rather than sync. Each tab gives you options to sync all media of that type or choose specific items. For example, the Music tab lets you sync the Entire Music Library or select specific artists, albums, genres, and playlists.
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Step 2: If you have already synced Photos, Info, and other media using iCloud, you don’t need a cable connected to transfer files between your iPhone and Mac. However, if you prefer to disable iCloud Photos, you can do so by opening System Preferences, going to the Apple ID pane, selecting the iCloud section, and disabling Photos.
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Step 3: The final step is to initiate the synchronization process by clicking the Sync button located in the lower-right corner of the window on your Mac.
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Step 4: You can check the box on the General tab that enables your Mac to automatically sync when your iPhone is connected. This option syncs content from your Mac to your iPhone as soon as it’s first connected. With a wireless connection, this will occur only if your iPhone moves out of range of the Wi-Fi network and then reconnects later.
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Troubleshooting USB Connections
If your iPhone doesn’t appear in the Finder sidebar when connected, try disconnecting and reconnecting it. Make sure your iPhone is unlocked and allow access if prompted. If the Locations section isn’t visible in the Finder sidebar, you can enable it in Finder preferences by checking the box next to CDs, DVDs, and iOS Devices.
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Use Caution When Deleting Synchronized Items from Your Mac
One important thing to note about synchronized files is that deleting an item from your Mac will also delete it from every other device during the next sync. Deleted files are moved to your Mac’s Trash and can be recovered if accidentally deleted. However, you’ll need to sync again to restore recovered files to your iPhone.
Syncing vs. iCloud
You also have the option to transfer media using Apple’s iCloud online storage. This means that content from your Mac gets uploaded to the internet and then downloaded to any iPhone or iPad logged in with the same Apple ID and iCloud Drive enabled. It’s simple to set up with just a few clicks, but there is a drawback. iCloud offers only 5 gigabytes of free storage, which can be quickly exceeded. To store more, you’ll need a subscription. iCloud Photos also count toward the storage limit. To reduce monthly costs, syncing directly with your computer is a better option since it’s completely free, regardless of the amount of content shared between devices.
Syncing to iPad and iPod Touch
The iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch share a very similar operating system, so the process used to synchronize content from your Mac computer is the same for all these devices. You can connect the iPhone or iPod Touch using a Lightning cable and some iPad models use a USB-C cable. Beyond that, the wired connection works the same way. Wireless transfers are also the same for all these devices, and your Mac computer manages the connection in each case.
Syncing content from your Mac to your iPhone or iPad is straightforward after the initial setup and eliminates the hassle of keeping files consistent across multiple devices. It also removes the need to store data in iCloud or other cloud storage, which can add to subscription costs.
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