When you connect your iPhone or iPad to your Mac, you can sync a range of media to your device, including albums, songs, playlists, movies, TV shows, podcasts, books, audiobooks, photos and videos, contacts and calendars. This article shows you how it's done.
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It used to be the case that you could only sync an iPhone and iPad to a Mac using a physical cable, but these days you can sync your devices simply by having them connected over same Wi-Fi network. The only difference is that syncing over Wi-Fi is slower than syncing over a cable.
If you decide to connect your iPhone or iPad to your Mac via cable while it's syncing over Wi-Fi, syncing will continue over the cable. If you disconnect the device's cable from your Mac while syncing, syncing stops, even if Wi-Fi syncing is on. Syncing will only resume when you reconnect the device using a cable or over Wi-Fi.
How to Enable iPhone and iPad Wi-Fi Syncing
- Connect your iOS device to your Mac using the supplied USB cable or a Lightning-to-USB-A cable (sold separately).
- Launch a Finder window. (Note: to use Finder, macOS 10.15 or later is required. With earlier versions of macOS, use iTunes to turn on Wi-Fi syncing.)
- In the sidebar, select your iPhone or iPad.
- Click the General tab at the top of the window.
- Select the checkbox for Show this [device] when on Wi-Fi.
- Click Apply.
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Now, whenever your iPhone or iPad is plugged into power and connected to the same Wi-Fi network as your Mac, it will sync your selected content to your iOS device.
