If you’ve upgraded your Mac to macOS Catalina, you might have noticed that the iTunes app is missing. Instead, it’s been replaced by three different apps – Music, Apple Podcasts and Apple TV.
What this means is that there’s no dedicated app to sync your iOS device to your Mac, which used to be the greatest features of iTunes. The new method is slightly different on macOS Catalina and doesn’t involve the use of any apps but rather the use of Finder. We’ll show you how to do this below.
1. Open Finder on your Mac. (You can do so from the Finder icon in the Dock.)
2. Connect your iOS device to your Mac. You’ll be able to see it in Finder’s sidebar.
Note: If you can’t see the sidebar, make sure it’s enabled by going to “View -> Show Sidebar in Finder.”
3. Once you do so, you’ll see the same device-syncing interface that was previously present in iTunes. From here you can manage backups and sync content from your Mac to iOS device and vice versa.
Also read: How to Fix a Frozen Mac During an Update
To back up your iOS device, simply specify whether you’d like to back up your device to iCloud or to your Mac (local backup). You can only choose one, so you’ll have to turn off iCloud backups if you’d like to continue syncing your device to your Mac. Once done, simply click on “Back Up Now” to back up your device. Similarly, you can restore a previous backup onto your iOS device by clicking “Restore Backup.”
You can also choose to show your device whenever you’re connected to the same Wi-Fi network. This will let you manage your syncing options remotely.
Using the different tabs for each media content, you’ll be able to sync specific or all media content to your iOS device. This includes Music, Movies, TV Shows, Podcasts, Audiobooks, Photos and Files.
In each tab, if you enable the option to Sync (for example Sync Music), you can choose whether you’d like to sync your entire library or specific content only.
The content for Music, Movies / TV Shows, Podcasts, Books / Audiobooks, Photos comes from the Music app, Apple TV app, Podcasts app, iBooks app and Photos app respectively. Thus, if you’d like to add more content to your device, you need to make sure that it’s already added in the respective app before syncing it to your device.
If you’re syncing photos from the Photos app on your Mac to your iPhone, you’ll need to disable the iCloud Photo Library sync on your device.
The Files tab will allow you to sync specific app-related data from/to your iOS device.
You can also choose to back up your Contacts, Calender info, etc., from the Info tab.
That’s it. It’s that simple to sync your iOS device to your Mac in macOS Catalina. Any questions about the process? Let us know in the comments section below.
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