Use iTunes to sync your iPhone, iPad, or iPod with your computer

Learn how to sync music, movies, and more using iTunes on your Mac or PC.

If you're using macOS Mojave or earlier or a Windows PC, use iTunes to sync content to your devices. Before you use iTunes to sync content to your iOS or iPadOS device, consider using iCloud, Apple Music, or similar services to keep content from your Mac or PC in the cloud. This way, you can access your music, photos, and more on your devices when you aren't near your computer. Learn more about using Apple Music or iCloud Photos instead of iTunes.

If you use iCloud or other services like Apple Music to keep your content up-to-date across all of your devices, some syncing features through iTunes might be turned off.

What you can sync with iTunes

  • Albums, songs, playlists, movies, TV shows, podcasts, and audiobooks.
  • Photos and videos.
  • Contacts and calendars.

iTunes features might vary by country or region.

Sync or remove content using iTunes

  1. Open iTunes and connect your device to your computer with a USB cable.
  2. Click the device icon in the upper-left corner of the iTunes window. Learn what to do if you don't see the icon.
    The device icon in the upper left corner of the iTunes window.
  3. From the list under Settings on the left side of the iTunes window, click the type of content that you want to sync or remove.* To turn syncing on for a content type, select the checkbox next to Sync.
    The checkbox next to Sync Music in iTunes.
  4. Select the checkbox next to each item that you want to sync.
  5. Click the Apply button in the lower-right corner of the window. If syncing doesn't start automatically, click the Sync button.

* You can only sync your device with one iTunes library at a time. If you see a message that your device is synced with another iTunes library, your device was previously connected to another computer. If you click "Erase and Sync" in that message, all content of the selected type on your device will be erased and replaced with content from this computer.

Sync your content using Wi-Fi

After you set up syncing with iTunes using USB, you can set up iTunes to sync to your device with Wi-Fi instead of USB.

  1. Connect your device to your computer with a USB cable, then open iTunes and select your device. Learn what to do if your device doesn't appear on your computer.
  2. Click Summary on the left side of the iTunes window.
  3. Select "Sync with this [device] over Wi-Fi."
  4. Click Apply.

When the computer and the device are on the same Wi-Fi network, the device appears in iTunes. The device syncs automatically whenever it's plugged in to power and iTunes is open on the computer.

Published Date: