How to Use Wi-Fi Sync for iPhone, iPad, & iPod touch with iOS

By far one of the best features of iOS is wireless syncing and backing up, as the name implies it allows you to wirelessly transfer apps, music, books, contacts, calendars, movies, photos, everything you had to use a wired sync for, but it’s done through the air.

As long as your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch is even vaguely new, it will support wi-fi syncing, but you do have to set it up and enable the feature.

Wireless syncing requires modern versions of iOS, iPadOS, iTunes, and MacOS. Be sure you have installed modern versions of these system software and apps before attempting to enable syncing through wi-fi or else the option won’t be visible. This setup process is the same on Mac OS X and Windows, and is fully compatible with both if you are syncing to the different platforms.

Set Up Wireless Syncing in iTunes & iOS for iPhone, iPad, & iPod

You’ll have to connect your iOS device to your computer to set it up, but after that you’re wire free with the exception of charging the hardwares battery. Here is the two step process to setup and enable wi-fi syncing of iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

1: Enable Wi-Fi Sync on Computer with iTunes

1. Connect the iOS device to the computer using a USB cable
2. Open iTunes and click on your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch from the left side of the window
3. Click on the “Summary” tab in iTunes
4. Scroll down and click the checkbox next to “Sync with this iPhone over Wi-Fi” (or iPad or iPod touch)

With the iTunes side enabled, now pick up the iOS device to finish the process:

2: Enabling Wi-Fi Sync on iPhone, iPad, iPod touch

1. Launch the “Settings” app, and tap on “General”
2. Tap on “iTunes Wi-Fi Sync”
3. Select the computer you set up wi-fi syncing on in the prior iTunes step
4. Tap on the “Sync” button to start the wireless syncing

You can also double-check that this is working by disconnecting the iPhone or iPad and then choosing the “Sync” option from iTunes on the Mac or PC, you’ll see the familiar sync screen on your device.

How to Use Wi-Fi Syncing with iOS with iPhone, iPad, iPod touch

Once wi-fi syncing is enabled and set up properly as shown above, the iOS device will automatically sync wirelessly any time the hardware is connected to a power source, including the USB cable, speaker docks, or otherwise.

This process will also backup your iPhone or iPad automatically and wirelessly to iTunes, assuming iTunes is your chosen backup destination.

Other than that automatic process, you can also initiate manual backups and syncing from the iPhone/iPad or from iTunes on the Mac or PC:

How to Manually Start a Wireless Sync from the iOS Device

• Tap to “Settings” > “General” > “iTunes Wi-Fi Sync” and tap on the ‘Sync’ button

At any point you can cancel this by tapping the “Cancel Sync” button.

How to Start Syncing Wirelessly from iTunes on a Mac or PC

If you want to initiate a manual sync from Mac or Windows, you can continue do so by selecting that button within iTunes.

If you want to really take advantage of wi-fi syncing and the PC-free experience, don’t forget to sign up for iCloud too. You can follow our guide on setting up iCloud here, it’s very easy and free for the first 5GB of cloud storage with Apple.

Troubleshooting Problems with Wireless Syncing

There’s a variety of potential issues and fixes, Apple provides has a few helpful tips if you run into any issues:

• Verify the iOS device is running a modern version of system software, anything running iOS 5 or newer supports wi-fi syncing
• Make sure the Windows PC or Mac is running iTunes 10.5 or later
• Quit and relaunch iTunes
• Restart the iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch
• Reset the wireless router
• Verify the iOS device is connected to the same Wi-Fi network as the Mac / PC
• Check for network interference from cordless phones, metal barriers, interfering wi-fi signals, microwaves, etc
• Verify firewall settings and that TCP ports 123 and 3689 in addition to UDP ports 123 and 5353 are open and accessible (these are ports iTunes uses)

There doesn’t seem to be any limitation on the number of iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch devices that can be used with this, although you may run into the traditional limit of Macs or PC’s that an iOS device can be linked to.

This feature was first introduced in iOS 5 or later and iTunes 10.5 or later, and continues to exist in the latest iOS, iPadOS, iTunes, macOS, and modern system software too.