WiFi (NOT) syncing

[UKenGB]

When Apple first introduced this, I was delighted. The ability to sync any of my devices as long as it was on my local network would be extremely useful. But it doesn't work. Never has.

 

By which I mean reliably, 100%. After all these years Apple seem unable to make this work as it should, so latterly (i.e. for years) I've stopped even trying. But this morning I wanted to add one new app and in iTunes my iPhone is actually listed (iPad isn't though, why not?) so I thought I'd give it a go. So in iTunes I selected my iPhone and clicked on the Apps line/button/link in the left hand list/menu and as per usual, the dreaded "Looking for (iPhone)" message and after some time, as expected the iPhone disappears from iTunes which apparently cannot find it.

 

This angers me beyond belief that Apple fail so utterly in something so simple. Both my Mac and my iPhone ARE perfectly connected to the network and both can happily shift gigabytes of data over that same network. My Mac is wired to a gigabit switch and the iPhone via ac to an Airport Base Station connected to that same switch. In fact, the iPhone is merely 15 inches from said Airport BS and each wired leg of the network is no more than 10 feet. In other words, this network is not being stretched and in all other respects, works perfectly. Except iTunes is completely unable to even find the g*******d iPhone, let alone try and use the network's more than adequate capabilities.

 

Almost everything in this network has at some time been changed/upgraded, yet nothing has ever improved iTunes in this respect, so it's not the actual hardware I'm using. Ever since WiFi syncing was first introduced, it has always failed miserably. Unsurprisingly, feedback to Apple has had no effect, so I've given up.

 

I know I'm not alone in experiencing such difficulties, but if everyone suffered the same scale of the problem, I would expect far more of an uproar about it. So I assume it does seem to work for some people. Or has everyone simply given up? How does Apple get away with such appalling problems with its products?

 

I am not an Apple hater. Far from it, with Macs, iPhones, iPads TVs and Watches I could be described a fanboy, except I stopped evangelising Apple many years ago when they stopped being the great company they once were. But that aside, WTF is going on with WiFi syncing? Has anyone got ANY idea why iTunes is so incapable of basic networking with devices that it was after all designed specifically to work with. Can anyone say they are actually able to use WiFi syncing, with multiple devices, reliably, 100%, every time? If so then please, what's your secret? What arcane rituals are required to make iTunes do what all other networking software seems to be able to do standing on its head.

 

My frustration is because Apple promise so much and if their products genuinely did do what they proclaim they can do, life would be rosy. But so many problems these days. OSX was supposed to deliver us from the horror that MacOS had become and based on unix it would be scalable and reliable. Well it was for a while. Now it's an abject lesson on how to make unix flaky and unreliable. I think Snow Leopard was the pinnacle and it's been downhill ever since. Each iteration adds bells and whistles (that may or may not work as advertised) while the basic core functionality and robustness of unix crumbles away. They now even call it MacOS again. Is that to remind us that it's now overcomplicated and bug ridden, just like the MacOS in the bad old days before OSX?

 

Sorry, ranting a bit, but iTunes' continued failure to use its once much touted WiFi sync has got me all fired up again.

 

Or is it me. Does iTunes sync perfectly over WiFi? For anyone?

[kirkmc]

I used it for a few weeks when it was first introduced, and gave up. I've tried a few times since then, but not in a very long time. I have no expectation that this feature could ever work.

[UKenGB]

I used it for a few weeks when it was first introduced, and gave up. I've tried a few times since then, but not in a very long time. I have no expectation that this feature could ever work.

 

Thanks Kirk. At least I'm not alone.

 

I do find it extraordinary that Apple gets away with touting such features to its advantage, when they fundamentally don't work. They need to be taken to task over tricks like this that in other circumstances might be thought of as some sort of fraud or scam.

[kirkmc]

Yes, that reminds me of Handoff and Continuity. When first released, tons of people couldn't get them to work, even if they had what Apple said was compatible hardware. They only started working reliably for me when I got hardware made after the time they were released. For years, AirDrop - which uses similar technology - never worked, now it works all the time.