This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
I recently purchased my first-ever iPhone 4S. If I have music saved within iTunes on my PC — music not purchased through the iTunes store but loaded from already-owned CDs — is it possible to transfer those tunes onto my new iPhone? From the limited knowledge I have, it doesn't appear to me I can. Am I missing something? — Don Bell.
First of all, Don, welcome to the world of iPhones. Here's hoping you won't become an Apple fanboy like others after they've purchased their first device from the House of Steve Jobs ("Join us. JOIN US!").
Anyway, in regard to your question, you absolutely can transfer those songs over to your iPhone from iTunes. That's the benefit of having your music in iTunes, which is Apple's music software.
All you have to do is connect your new iPhone to iTunes on your PC via the cable that came with the phone.
On iTunes, it will recognize your new phone. You then follow the prompts to set up your phone to iTunes.
Then left-click on the "Don's iPhone 4S" (or whatever you decide to call your new phone in iTunes) in the left-hand pane of iTunes to highlight it. In the big window on the right, click the "Music" tab. Then check the box that says "Sync Music." Make sure the "Entire Music Library" box is also checked to sync all your songs and not just some of them.
You also can go to the other tabs, such as "Video," "TV Shows" or "Podcasts," and check them if you have movies or television shows that you want to load onto your phone.
Then, in the "Summary" tab, make sure the "Sync only checked songs and videos" is NOT checked so that all your songs will be synced to the phone regardless of whether each one is checked or not in the music section in the left-hand pane. Then just click on "Sync" below and all of your songs will be copied to your phone.
Now, if you happen to have much more music in your iTunes library then your phone can hold (in other words, you have 20 gigabytes of songs, but your phone has only 16 gigabytes of storage), then you have to pick and choose what songs to put in your phone.
In that case, what I like to do is check the "Sync only checked songs and videos" box under the Summary tab and go to the Music library by clicking on "Music" in the left-hand pane. I then go through all the songs in my library and check only the boxes next to the songs I want in my phone. Then I click "Sync," and only the songs I checked will go into my phone.
For Android phones, the process is a little simpler because they don't have music software. Instead, music is loaded by just dragging and dropping the songs into the phone through your computer's file manager, such as Windows Explorer or the Mac's Finder. That's one reason many users like Android phones, because they aren't tied to music management software such as iTunes (a lot of people HATE iTunes).
If you have a tech question for Vince, email him at ohmytech@sltrib.com, and he'll try to answer it for his column in The Salt Lake Tribune or on its website. For an archive of past columns, go to http://www.sltrib.com/topics/ohmytech.