Help My Marriage Survive an iPad/iPhone Transfer

September 14, 2012 8:16 AM

My new computer arrives next week. I am giving my current computer to my wife. We both have IOS devices. Help me survive this without disaster.

I am getting a new computer (called "BLUE"). I am giving my current computer ("BLACK") to my wife.

I have an iPhone4S that is currently linked to BLACK. My wife's iPad2 is currently linked to a netbook ("EEPC"), which is being discarded.

What is the proper sequence of steps that will allow me to:
1. Link my iPhone 4S to "BLUE"
2. Link my wife's iPad to "BLACK"
3. Not lose data on either IOS device in the process.

Thank you. :)

posted by DWRoelands to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

Easiest thing to do: Stop synching with iTunes, if feasible. Start synching with iCloud. No computer needed, easier, I'd say more reliable (unless you can't trust "the cloud").

That said, switching computers isn't the most complicated thing ever, but it's harder than it should be.

Everything can be found here: http://www.apple.com/support/iphone/syncing/
posted by Patbon at 8:39 AM on September 14, 2012

1 Use OSX's amazing User transfer doohickey to move your user from Black to Blue. Blue will ask you upon startup whether you want to transfer/migrate a user into itself. Yes you do. You're done.

2 Wife should "de-authorize" iTunes on the EEpc.

3 Create a new account for Wife on Black. As necessary, install iTunes. Create sync relationship with her iPad2.

4 use Darik's Boot-and-Nuke (DBAN) or similar to wipe the EEPC clean, and then reinstall base OS.

That'd be my plan. The iCloud thing above might be good, but I don't have any experience with it, so good luck.
posted by Sunburnt at 8:45 AM on September 14, 2012

Response by poster: I should have been more specific, I apologize. Both computers are Windows PCs, not OSX. :(
posted by DWRoelands at 8:46 AM on September 14, 2012

Priority one should be to mirror any synched media (music, movies, etc) from your old computers onto the new ones before synching the devices, so as to prevent mass deletion via iOS freakout. Make sure iTunes is installed and registered to your respective accounts before connecting the devices for the first time. Obviously you'll want to turn off wireless synching until you're all set and double-checked.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 9:02 AM on September 14, 2012

Oh. Windows has a User Migration Tool as well, and it comes with one caveat-- you must use the same version on both computers. For that reason, run the version on the newest computer. It's called User Migration Tool on versions through Vista, but 7 calls it Windows Easy Transfer and, surprisingly, it's not false advertising. (It's not as good as OSX's, but it's good.) This will be a bulky transfer.

Step 1: do the above. (Windows may or may not ask you if you want to during the initial sign-on period)

Step 2: follow Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish's advice.. that fish knows his stuff. Even if your media get alienated from your iTunes (i.e. your iTunes does not know it as its own) there are ways of fixing that, because I read them on askmefi.

Step 3: continue through the steps I listed above.
posted by Sunburnt at 9:13 AM on September 14, 2012