Follow-up: Wireless Sync with iTunes

In an attempt to keep my article last week short and sweet, I may have oversimplified some things a bit. So, to clarify two points:

For sync purposes, “wireless” refers to not having to plug the device into the computer using the USB sync cable. While you do need a wireless network for this to work, the system that has all your music on it (where you sync your device) does not have to be using wireless. It does have to be on the same network, however, so if your music is on an iMac connected with an Ethernet cable and your iPod is connected to your wireless network, then your device will sync with your computer. If you have an AirPort Extreme with a main network and a guest network, your device must be using the main network in order to connect to your iTunes library, since the guest network is isolated from the main network.

Second, when you synchronize your device, it is connecting directly to your computer through your local network, not through iCloud. While you can set your music and photos to be shared via iCloud, the Sync button in iTunes or on your device connects the two devices together directly. As mentioned above, synchronizing with iTunes can only happen when you’re on the same network as the system with your library, but iCloud will sync as long as you have some form of a connection to the Internet. In iTunes, there are options to sync Contacts, Calendars and Notes to your device. If you already have these items set to sync through iCloud, you’ll get a warning that checking these off in iTunes may cause duplicate items.

Hopefully that clears it up. Sorry for the confusion!