Syncing Your Data
Did you choose to set up data synchronization manually (by not selecting the Automatically Sync Contacts, Calendars, Bookmarks, Notes, and Email Accounts check box or the Automatically Sync Applications check box in the Set Up Your iPhone pane shown in Figure 3-1)? If you did, your next order of business is to tell iTunes what data you want to synchronize between your iPhone and your computer. You do this by clicking the Info tab, which is to the right of the Summary tab.
The Info pane has five sections: Sync Contacts, Sync Calendars, Sync Mail Accounts, Other, and Advanced. The following sections look at them one by one.
If you are using iCloud to sync contacts, calendars, bookmarks, or notes, DO NOT enable those items in iTunes, as we’re about to describe. There’s a warning in fine print at the bottom of each section that says so, but some folks don’t read the fine print, so here’s our warning in big type: IF YOU ENABLE SYNCING WITH iCLOUD AND ALSO ENABLE IT IN iTUNES, YOU MAY END UP WITH DUPLICATED DATA ON YOUR iPHONE. We guarantee you won’t like that, so enable syncing one way or the other — via iCloud or in the iTunes Info pane.
Syncing address book contacts
The Sync Address Book Contacts section of the Info pane determines how synchronization is handled for your contacts. One method is to synchronize all your contacts, as shown in Figure 3-3. Or you can synchronize any or all groups of contacts you’ve created in your computer’s address book program; just select the appropriate check boxes in the Selected Groups list, and only those groups will be synchronized.
The iPhone syncs with the following address book programs:
Mac: Address Book and other address books that sync with Address Book, such as Microsoft Outlook 2011 or the discontinued Microsoft Entourage
PC: Windows Contacts (Vista and Windows 7), Windows Addressbook (XP), Microsoft Outlook, and Microsoft Outlook Express
Mac and PC: Yahoo! Address Book and Google Contacts
Figure 3-3: Want to synchronize your contacts? This is where you set things up.
Now, here’s what each option in the Sync Contacts section does:
All Contacts: One method is to synchronize all your contacts, as shown in Figure 3-3. This will synchronize every contact in your Mac or PC address book with your iPhone’s Contacts app.
Selected Groups: You can synchronize any or all groups of contacts you’ve created in your computer’s address book program. Just select the appropriate check boxes in the Selected Groups list, and only those groups will be synchronized.
Yahoo! or Google Contacts: If you use Yahoo! Address Book, select the Sync Yahoo! Address Book Contacts check box and then click the Configure button to enter your Yahoo! ID and password. If you use Google Contacts, select the Sync Google Contacts check box and then click the Configure button to enter your Google ID and password.
If you use Yahoo!, note that syncing doesn’t delete a contact from your Yahoo! Address Book if the contact has a Yahoo! Messenger ID, even if you delete that contact on the iPhone or on your computer. To delete a contact that has a Yahoo! Messenger ID, log on to your Yahoo! account with a web browser and delete the contact in your Yahoo! Address Book.
If you sync with your employer’s Microsoft Exchange calendar and contacts, any personal contacts or calendars already on your iPhone will be wiped out.
Syncing calendars
The Calendars section of the Info pane determines how synchronization is handled for your appointments and events. You can synchronize all your calendars, as shown in Figure 3-4. Or you can synchronize any or all individual calendars you’ve created in your computer’s calendar program. Just select the appropriate check boxes.
Figure 3-4: Set up sync for your calendar events here.
The Calendars section is named Sync iCal Calendars because Figure 3-4 was captured in iTunes for the Mac. If you use a PC, this section is named Sync Calendars with Outlook. As before, don’t worry — regardless of its name, it works the same on either platform.
The iPhone syncs with the following calendar programs:
Mac: iCal and Calendar
PC: Microsoft Exchange and Outlook 2003, 2007, and 2010
Mac and PC: Google and Yahoo! Calendars
Syncing e-mail accounts
You can sync account settings for your e-mail accounts in the Sync Mail Accounts section of the Info pane. You can synchronize all your e-mail accounts (if you have more than one) or individual accounts, as shown in Figure 3-5. Just select the appropriate check boxes.
Figure 3-5: Transfer e-mail account settings to your iPhone here.
The iPhone syncs with the following mail programs:
Mac: Mail
PC: Microsoft Outlook 2003, 2007, or 2010
Mac and PC: Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, iCloud, AOL, Hotmail, other POP and IMAP accounts
E-mail account settings are synchronized only one way: from your computer to your iPhone. If you make changes to any e-mail account settings on your iPhone, the changes will not be synchronized back to the e-mail account on your computer. Trust us, this is a very good feature and we’re glad Apple did it this way.
By the way, the password for your e-mail account may or may not be saved on your computer. If you sync an e-mail account and the iPhone asks for a password when you send or receive mail, do this: On the Home screen, tap Settings, and then tap Mail, Contacts, Calendars. Tap your e-mail account’s name, and then type your password in the appropriate field.
Syncing bookmarks and notes
The Other section of the Info pane has only two options. Select the Sync Safari Bookmarks check box if you want to sync the bookmarks on your computer with bookmarks on your iPhone. The iPhone can sync bookmarks with the following web browsers:
Mac: Safari
PC: Microsoft Internet Explorer and Safari
Select the second option, the Sync Notes check box, to sync notes in the Notes app on your iPhone with Notes in Apple Mail on a Mac or Microsoft Outlook on a PC. To sync notes on a Mac, you must have Mac OS X 10.5.7 or later installed.
Advanced syncing
Every so often, the contacts, calendars, mail accounts, or bookmarks on your iPhone get so screwed up that the easiest way to fix things is to erase that information on your iPhone and replace it with information from your computer.
If that’s the case, just click to select the appropriate check boxes in the Advanced section of the Info pane, as shown in Figure 3-6. Then the next time you sync, that information on your iPhone will be replaced with information from your computer.
Figure 3-6: Replace the information on your iPhone with the information on your computer.
Because the Advanced section is at the bottom of the Info pane and you have to scroll down to see it, it’s easy to forget that it’s there. Although you probably won’t need to use this feature very often (if ever), you’ll be happy you remembered that it’s there if you do need it.
One last thing: Check boxes in the Advanced section are disabled for items not selected, as described in the previous sections (Contacts, Calendars, and Mail Accounts in Figure 3-6). If you’re using iCloud and you want to replace any of these items on your iPhone, you must first enable that item as discussed in the previous sections of this chapter. In other words, if we wanted to replace Contacts, Calendars, or Mail Accounts in Figure 3-6, we’d first have to select Sync Contacts, Sync Calendars, and Sync Mail Accounts, as we’ve just described.