iPhone: The Missing Manual, 4th Edition

Chapter 12. Syncing with iTunes

Just in case you’re one of the six people out there who’ve never heard of it, iTunes is Apple’s multifunction, multimedia jukebox software. It’s been loading music onto iPods since the turn of the twenty-first century. And without it, you won’t get very far with your iPhone.

Most people use iTunes to manipulate their digital movies, photos, and music, from converting songs off a CD into iPhone-ready music files to buying songs, audiobooks, and movies online.

But as an iPhone owner, you need iTunes even more urgently, because it’s how you get music, videos, email, addresses, appointments, ringtones, and other stuff onto the phone. It also backs up your iPhone automatically.

If you already have a copy of iTunes on your Mac or PC, then you may have encountered a warning that iTunes wants to update itself to version 9.2 (or later). With a click on the OK button, you can download and install that version. And you should; iOS 4 phones don’t work with earlier versions.

If you’ve never had any version of iTunes, then fire up your Web browser and go to www.apple.com/itunes/download. Once the file lands on your computer, double-click the installer icon and follow the onscreen instructions to add iTunes to your life.

This chapter gives you a crash course in iTunes and tells you how to sync it with your iPhone.

The iTunes Window: What’s Where

Here’s a quick tour of the main iTunes window and what all its parts do.

The Source panel on the left side lists all the audio ...