Two people. An iPod Touch and iPhone. One Macbook Pro. Sync issues.

August 8, 2010 9:18 AM

Two people. An iPod Touch and an iPhone. One Macbook Pro. How can I sync the Notes (as in...notes written in the Notes application) from the Touch to the Macbook Pro without confusing iTunes into syncing everything else to the wrong device?

We'll be traveling with no cell reception and very little WiFi, and I need to sync *only* the Notes via either USB or Bluetooth. Everything else (music, Calendar, Apps, etc.) on the respective devices need to remain untouched. I don't want to sync everything and then realize all of my music is now on my friends Touch or something.

If there's a different note taking app that will make this easier, that's fine too.

tl;dr: Basically I need a simple way to transfer Notes from an iPod Touch to the Macbook Pro without WiFi or cell connection and without screwing up an iPhone already registered to that computer.

posted by nitsuj to technology (9 answers total)

I should also note that I don't really need to "sync" the notes -- I just need to transfer them in plaintext to the Macbook Pro for posting to the web.
posted by nitsuj at 9:20 AM on August 8, 2010

How about enable Fast User Switching, just give your friend a separate account on the Mac and he or she can do whatever they want and not affect you.
posted by artlung at 10:03 AM on August 8, 2010

You can't do what you want simply. Each iDevice will need to have it's own iTunes library, and apart from manually copying notes from one to the other, you can't synchronise notes between libraries.

Consider installing an app like Evernote, and sharing an Evernote account. This will share notes over the air.
posted by Mwongozi at 10:24 AM on August 8, 2010

That is an option depending on the amount of data. You can only synch a device to one account on one machine. This would remove all content on the device unless it was also on that account.

I can do this in dozens of ways if you have wireless (dropbox, "Air Sharing," Evernote, etc.).

I can't think of a way to do it without moving all you content to the Macbook prior to your travel. If there is space on the drive this should be no big deal. Afterward save off your files, then the macbook owner can delete your account.
posted by cjorgensen at 10:30 AM on August 8, 2010

iTunes isn't good at that level of sharing without gumming up your iPhones/iPod's libraries. Since Notes isn't really worth that effort, I'd look into another notes taking app.

I haven't used this, but File Magnet seems to allow you to share files between your iPhone/iPod Touch and your Mac using an ad hoc wifi network set up on your Mac (you don't have to have access to the internet). You wouldn't use Notes.app and its Comic Sans glory, but you'd another app that lets you save a text file that you can sync.

I think the key would be to find an app that can sync notes over ad-hoc or bonjour networks. Another I found via google is Note Pad that uses Bonjour. These apps won't be free but it will do what you need it to do (and will allow you to sync via the internet when you've on a network)
posted by birdherder at 11:47 AM on August 8, 2010

Oops, the iPhone Notes app uses Marker Felt, not Comic Sans.
posted by birdherder at 11:48 AM on August 8, 2010

You can't do what you want simply...you can't synchronise notes between libraries.

Sort of technically not true (in some cases). If you use gmail and IMAP, you can turn on Notes synching (in your mail settings) and it will synchronize all your notes with your gmail account (and add a label called "notes'). You can have multiple devices using IMAP to access one account.
posted by blue_beetle at 12:30 PM on August 8, 2010

I'll third the recommendation of Evernote. It's a killer app for me.
posted by sockpup at 1:10 PM on August 8, 2010

If you have access to Wi-Fi use http://simplenoteapp.com/ on the iPod Touch/iPhone and Notational Velocity http://notational.net/ on the Mac. Quick and eaiser then using iTunes to sync. This will also give you web access to the notes.
posted by mac-way at 5:33 AM on August 9, 2010