In macOS Catalina, iTunes disappears, but how do you sync your iPhone or iPad with your Mac or PC? iPhone shows you how to do this in the latest version of the operating system.
Sync iPhone in macOS Catalina
If you have macOS Catalina installed on your Apple computer, you have probably noticed that iTunes has disappeared. The app will be replaced by three separate apps: Apple Music, Podcasts and TV. This should make it clearer where you find certain types of content, and as a result iTunes is no longer a collection of all kinds of different functions.
Of course it is still possible to sync your iPhone or iPad with a cable on your Mac or PC. Apple has found a new, but logical place for this: Finder. When you connect your Apple device to your computer, you will see all the options that were previously in iTunes appear in Finder.
- Connect your iPhone or iPad to your Mac (Book) via a Lightning or USB-C cable;
- Now open the Finder. Under ‘Locations you will now see your Apple device’ (for example: iPhone from Wouter);
- Click on this and you will be taken to an extensive menu, where you can synchronize music, films, TV programs, books, etc.
- At the bottom right you can click on ‘Synchronize’ to start the synchronization process.
It is also possible to check for updates for your iPhone or iPad via the Finder. Go to the ‘General’ tab, and then use ‘Check for updates’ to check whether your Apple device is running the latest software.
Backup iPhone or iPad in Finder
Do you regularly back up your iPhone or iPad to your Mac? That is now also possible in Finder! Follow the steps below to make a backup and, if necessary, protect it with a password.
- Connect your iPhone or iPad to your Mac via a cable (Book), open Finder and click on your device under ‘Locations’;
- In the ‘General’ tab, under ‘Backups’, you will see the option ‘Back up all data on your iPhone on this Mac’ and select it;
- At ‘Encrypt local backups’ you can choose to protect your backup with a password, which you can then keep in your keychain;
- Tap Back Up Now to back up and keep your Apple device.
Restore backup
Finally, you can easily restore a backup to your iPhone or iPad, if you want to restore data, for example. Follow the steps below.
- Connect your iPhone or iPad to your MacBook via a cable and open the menu in Finder;
- Under ‘Backups’ you will find the option ‘Put backup’ at the bottom. Tap this;
- Choose the backup you want to restore and click on ‘Restore’ and wait until all your data has been restored. This may take a while.
More about macOS Catalina
MacOS Catalina is now available for most Macs that have also had the macOS Mojave update (see overview below). Catalina introduces a number of useful features, such as Sidecar to use your iPad as the second screen of your Mac (Book).
- 12-inch MacBook (Early 2015 and newer)
- MacBook Air (2012 and newer)
- MacBook Pro (2012 and newer)
- Mac mini (2012 and newer)
- iMac (2012 and newer)
- iMac Pro
- Mac Pro (2013 and newer)