Boy Am I In The Doghouse...

[Midpack]

Two words - Genius Bar. Seriously, make an appointment and bring your devices. Discuss with them in person. They should be able to guide you.

Already fixed, see post #18.

It took me a while to realize this but (as noted above) having a separate Apple id for me and DW is important and solved similar issues for us.

Family sharing lets DW download copies of paid apps, music, video, books, etc. that I bought, as well as sharing iCloud storage space. It’s different from sharing iTunes libraries on a network and has nothing to do with paid subscriptions.

[edit to add] Except you can use it to share Apple subscriptions. See https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201085

We already have separate IDs fortunately.

I looked further into Family Sharing and evidently we’re not eligible because we only use the free 5GB iCloud version, a paid subscription is required if I read correctly. We’ve resisted the cloud, as we don’t need it (yet). And we’re a PC desktop and laptop home with iPads and iPhones so which cloud service we’d use isn’t clear.

 

[Scuba]

Yes I saw it was fixed but it sounded as though you still had questions. Genius Bar can help if so.

 

[donheff]

Midpack, I blew up a phone once that way before I figured out you need two ID's. I eventually got that fixed but along the way I discovered that you can change the default action on iTunes so that it does not automatically sync everything. I set it to manually load whatever I want to sync, then I was able to transfer all of my music and books to DW's phone. My stuff is all sideloaded MP3s and ePub books, not purchased from the iTunes store. Sounds like purchased stuff would be better handled with family sharing - maybe even the personally owned stuff too. Unfortunately, I do these transfers so rarely that I always have to look up how to set iTunes for manual syncing and, even when I do, I am always afraid I will blow up any device I attach to it. F** iTunes.

 

[maestro]

Grounds for divorce...never, EVER, touch your DW's or significant other's iPad. [emoji16]

 

[explanade]

Are you sharing one iCloud account or you have individual iCloud accounts?

Do you buy more storage on your iCloud account(s)?


If you don't buy additional storage, then you may look at doing iPad backups to your computer, though it obviously isn't as convenient as backing up to iCloud. You may have to plug in the cable to connect to your computer.

When you buy more storage, there are "family sharing" plans, so that you don't have to pay for the same apps. twice.

But if there are no overlaps in apps., may be better to log in with separate iCloud accounts.

 

[catii]

Best answer is to never, ever buy anything where the sellers don't let you see the files!

 

[COcheesehead]

if they are newer models of iphones and ipads you can just reset the ipad and then have it sync directly with the iphone through icloud via wifi. Don't even have to plug them into itunes. Basically the iphone will clone whatever is on it to the ipad. By resetting ipad you'll get your stuff off.

Just did this with an iphone 6 and a new iphone 11. Everything on the 6 was loaded onto the 11 including ring tones, notification tones, all music, apps etc. See instructions below:

https://www.lifewire.com/what-you-need-to-know-to-sync-iphone-to-ipad-1999222

Yep. This is the right solution.

 

[Midpack]

Grounds for divorce...never, EVER, touch your DW's or significant other's iPad. [emoji16]

I wish that was an option, I'd agree. DW expects me to handle anything and everything technical (or financial) for her.

Update: I plugged her iPad (now back to normal) into iTunes again to re-establish a separate backup for her. My formerly uniquely named iPadMidpack and iPhoneMidpack now appear under devices with generic names just iPad and iPhone? The old unique names that I've always used are gone.

And when I went to backup her iPad and it game me NEW or RESTORE (won't ever make that mistake again), it showed her iPad as my old unique iPadMidpack name So I didn't do a backup as I wasn't sure if it would overwrite or establish another backup with the wrong name I wish I could find out what's changed with iTunes PC to avoid another painful lesson...

 

[braumeister]

The old unique names that I've always used are gone.

That has happened to me a few times over the years. Occasionally an OS update will change a device's name to the generic version. But it's simple to change the name back again (do it on the device in question) and you're right back to where you were.

 

[Midpack]

That has happened to me a few times over the years. Occasionally an OS update will change a device's name to the generic version. But it's simple to change the name back again (do it on the device in question) and you're right back to where you were.

Thanks!

We changed to new unique names on both iPads, and created separate backups on iTunes PC. I was also able to download all of our 2479 songs to DW’s iPad, she had a very limited selection before. All is (still) well with both iPads again, and AFAIK they’re both backed up now.

Under iTunes>Account>Devices it still doesn’t show her iPad, but I’m not going to worry about that for now.

 

[BasketCase24]

ITunes for Windows sucks, one app helps...

I struggled with iTunes often and painfully. I don’t think it will get better now that Apple is essentially abandoning PC users. I found and bought (today) a Windows app called FoneTrans. It has a free limited trial version. It allows you to upload from iDevice to PC version of iTunes, and share from iDevice to iDevice.

It would be nice if Microsoft or some smart Windows app developer would make an app like Windows file manager for iDevices, because iTunes still is my nominee for most POS software!