Can't play songs on iPhone through iTunes, Apple, come on?!

[Malux]

This is a bit of a rant about only being able to play songs on computer. I have an iphone with the 2.0 firmware. I sync my music at home, but when I get into the office, i want to play my music through iTunes on my work computer.

Can't do that. It's a built-in limitation by apple.

I can do this with my nano, just not my iPhone. I bought an iPhone so I don't have to carry a phone and an iPod to work. What gives

Now, I understand if apple said: "you know what, you can only copy songs to your iPhone from one computer." That would be cool with me. But why can't i play my songs i paid for on any computer? What's the point of authorizing multiple computers to play songs you bought on iTunes, if you can only play them on one computer?

Sort of a workaround: you can hack your iTunes at work and set its library ID in the itunes xml file to the same guid as on your home computer. This will allows you to play songs on both computers BUT...it will always overwrite your podcasts when you plug in.

It's a workaround, not a fix.

I hope someone from Apple is listening. Can you fix this limitation please???

[Jesse Hollington]

Nobody from Apple is likely paying much attention in here, but you can report it to Apple directly at http://www.apple.com/feedback.

I personally think it's a bug that they haven't fixed yet. They only introduced "Manual mode" to the iPhone in iTunes 7.6 last January, and it seems that the iPhone doesn't remember that it's set to manual mode in the same way that the iPod does, so when you plug it into another computer, it still thinks it's in automatic sync mode, and therefore you cannot access the tracks on it. If you try to set it to manual mode on the other computer, it tries to do an automatic sync and risks erasing everything on the iPhone.

[Malux]

hey, thanks for the reply, i just noticed i posted this in the wrong forum. I left feedback a week or so ago to apple. never heard anything. I'll post again.

[Jesse Hollington]

No problem, I've moved it to the iPhone forum.

Incidentally, there are third-party applications that will let you listen to your iPhone directly on your computer.... Check out PhoneView if you're on a Mac, or TouchCopy if you're on Windows. Both of these can access the iPhone's content directly and play it through your computer speakers, bypassing iTunes entirely for this process.

[Flet]

Yeah, it may be a bug, but it's a real stupid oversite really. It should become a major point for them to fix and that makes me think it's intentional, although I can't really come up with a good reason why yet.

I have tried the demo of TouchCopy for PCs and it's reasonable. However, you can't seem to run your home library on it. Just what's on your iPod.

[Malux]

Originally Posted by jhollington

No problem, I've moved it to the iPhone forum.

Incidentally, there are third-party applications that will let you listen to your iPhone directly on your computer.... Check out PhoneView if you're on a Mac, or TouchCopy if you're on Windows. Both of these can access the iPhone's content directly and play it through your computer speakers, bypassing iTunes entirely for this process.

i'm on a pc. I checked out TouchCopy. do you konw what the differnce between the full and the trial copy?

[Jesse Hollington]

I believe the trial version is limited to a 14-day trial period, and you can only transfer up to 40 tracks from your device to your computer.

[Malux]

Originally Posted by Malux

i'm on a pc. I checked out TouchCopy. do you konw what the differnce between the full and the trial copy?

found it. you can only use it for 15 days. hmm, all i want to do is play music through my computer. I don't think i want to pay $25 for touchcopy unless apple doesn't fix itunes.

I wonder if there isn't an open source alternative out there.

[mdntblu]

I'm wondering if you have itunes on your home PC with tons of music on it. And itunes is setup to share the music library. Can you use your iphone/ipod touch to see that library? Like does it see shared directories. That way if I have like 4gb of music on my iphone and 20gb on my home pc and I want to listen to a song that's not synced on my iphone can I just open my home pc library and play a song?

I have 3 pc's in my house and all 3 of the PC's can see my itunes shared library and play any music from that library. iPhone should work this same way but does it?

[daihard]

Originally Posted by Malux

This is a bit of a rant about only being able to play songs on computer. I have an iphone with the 2.0 firmware. I sync my music at home, but when I get into the office, i want to play my music through iTunes on my work computer.

Can't do that. It's a built-in limitation by apple.

I can do this with my nano, just not my iPhone. I bought an iPhone so I don't have to carry a phone and an iPod to work. What gives

Can you simply bring your music on a flash drive or something over to work and copy them to your work computer? Then authorization shouldn't be any issue.

If that's too much trouble, can you just listen to the music via your iPhone? Or do you have a personal office where you can blast your music through your speakers and subwoofer without disturbing co-workers?

Honestly speaking, I didn't even know you could do that with a "regular" iPod.

[bbtgoss]

i stumbled upon this thread while looking for something else. i see that it's been inactive for awhile, but i registered to post a possible solution anyways. there is a wonderful program called Simplify Media that should take care of your problem. Basically what it does is it streams the music from your home computer and you can access it via any other computer with simplify media installed and an internet connection. they also have an iphone app that lets you access your home music. the app was free, but now they charge 4 bucks for it. the program works very well and I have used it for quite some time without any problems. the only issue you might have with it is that you have to leave your home computer on in order to let it stream. if you don't mind doing that, then i think you're set. you can learn about and download simplify media for free (windows/mac/linux) here: http://www.simplifymedia.com

p.s. another cool feature is that you can get friends to do the same thing and you can have access to their libraries as well. enjoy!

[mdntblu]

Yeah I have Simplify Media setup. It works ok. Sometimes all the libraries are gone and you have to just let the program sit and run on your iphone for them to all propagate again. I asked this question before I had an iphone and before Simplify Media was even released I believe. But yeah it's cool. I actually use orb sometimes because it seems to work better. The only thing I can't figure out on Orb is how to get my iTunes playlists to show up.

[tgdvw]

I think this bug or drm feature of itunes is pretty weak. I mean, I own and put all of these songs on my mac at home... and now, I can only 'transfer purchases' to my work PC but do not have access to any of the songs on the phone. Getting a 'dock' or headphone connection is not an option - I paid a premium for a 3GS as well as for my mac at home - not to mention the music that I'm trying to listen to! The fact that I didn't buy the songs from itunes shouldn't preclude me listening to them on whatever computer I'd like.
This makes alternatives like www.doubletwist.com or jailbreaking a phone seem like practical alternatives!