If you want to have all the purchases and data from your Apple devices together on the Mac, you can turn on ‘automatic downloads’. In this article we explain how it works.
Synchronize data
All apps, movies, music and other content that you download on Apple devices can also be downloaded directly to your Mac. You do that with automatic downloads. With this feature from Apple, you not only automatically download all your purchases to the Mac, but you also have your data synchronized immediately.
Automatic downloads are a good solution in some cases as you always have everything in one place. But not everyone will be happy with the solution, because apps and other content will simply take up storage space if you automatically download them to your Mac.
Set up automatic downloads
We explain below in the step-by-step plan how to set what you do and do not automatically download on the Mac.
- Open the iTunes app;
- Make sure you are authorized via ‘Store> Authorize this computer’;
- Now go to ‘iTunes> Preferences’;
- Select ‘Store’ in the menu bar and check or uncheck everything within the ‘automatic downloads’ box. This therefore concerns apps, music and other content that you download on linked devices;
- Click OK to save the settings.
The alternative to automatic downloads is to manually add apps to your Mac. Whatever you find more convenient, you now at least know where to enable or disable the option.