When you first sync your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad with iTunes, you must physically connect it to your computer via USB. (After you’ve synced for the first time, you can also enable Wi-Fi sync, which lets you connect to iTunes via Wi-Fi only.) Depending on what categories you select to sync, you can then load music, movies, apps, TV shows, ringtones, podcasts, books, and photos onto your device from your Mac. These might be ebooks you’ve bought on Amazon or music you’ve ripped yourself, in addition to any iTunes-purchased content.
In contrast, iCloud syncs only content you’ve purchased from iTunes and apps and app data from the App Store. iCloud lets you re-download, over the air, your purchased music, movies, apps, TV shows, ringtones, podcasts, and books from the iTunes or App Store. (If you subscribe to iCloud’s $25 per year iTunes Match service, you’ll also be able to sync up to 25,000 songs you own but that aren’t on the iTunes Store.) All other content that you’ve purchased or ripped elsewhere won’t be synced via iCloud, nor can Apple’s cloud service sync with your iPhoto or Aperture library.
If you have no content on your computer that you want to keep on your iOS device, you may not need to use iTunes at all. The majority of folks, however, will likely want content from both iCloud and their computer, and in that case they’ll need to use iTunes.
What iTunes can do for you
It lets you keep full backups of your app data so that you can restore a device faster than you can via iCloud: If you plan to buy a new iOS device, you can restore your purchased apps and content via iCloud—but that process can be very slow. If you use your computer and iTunes, however, a full iOS device restore will take minutes, not hours.
You can make encrypted local backups of your device: Want to make sure no one can crack open your backups? iTunes offers an encrypted-backups option that protects your backups with a password. (iCloud also encrypts your backups, but you again have to access them from a server, rather than store them locally.)
You can easily rearrange your home screens and app layouts: Even in iOS 6 and Apple’s upcoming iOS 7, rearranging apps on new home screens can be a pain. iTunes offers a clickable rendition of your device’s home screen, where you can drag apps, create folders, and more, all with the click of a button.
You can add files to your apps: iTunes’ app file sharing lets you drag and copy files from your computer to specific apps on your iOS device; you can then view them on your iPhone or iPad. While Dropbox’s, Mail’s, and iOS’s respective ‘Open In’ commands make it relatively simple to add files to other apps on your iPhone or iPad, sometimes you might want to add a large file without sending it through Dropbox or Mail to add it to do so.
You can copy apps and their data: iCloud sync stores only your app’s data (game high scores, text files, saved passwords, and such) on its servers, not the apps themselves. When you need to restore your device, iCloud turns to the App Store to get the app. But if, for some reason, an app of yours gets removed from the iTunes Store, iCloud won’t be able to restore it.
If you sync your device with iTunes, however, all those apps and their data get copied to your computer for future restores, regardless of whether they’re still on the store. Granted, this takes up more space on your computer’s hard drive, but it ensures that an app you rely on won’t mysteriously vanish if you restore or upgrade your device.
How to add personal media to iTunes
If you want to enjoy your non-iTunes-purchased music, videos, books, or photos on your device, you must first make sure to import that content into iTunes on your computer.
To add an external media file to iTunes, simply drag it to the application’s Dock icon on your computer. Alternatively, with iTunes open, choose File > Add to Library and select the files.
When it comes to your photographs, iTunes sources images from either iPhoto, Aperture, a folder on your hard drive, or (for Windows users) Photoshop Elements 3 or later. To sync your images with your device, you’ll either need them to be in one of these programs or you’ll need to create a folder for them.
Get ready to sync
Syncing your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad with your computer is really quite easy. Gather your device and its USB charging cable, and make sure you have installed the latest version of iTunes on your Mac. Plug in your device, and iTunes should launch, displaying your device’s summary screen.
If iTunes doesn’t immediately display your device, click the Devices button in the upper right corner of the iTunes window. (If you’re syncing more than one iOS device with the same computer, you’ll instead see a button called X Devices, where X is the number of devices you have.) Alternatively, select your device from the iTunes sidebar. If the sidebar isn’t visible, choose View > Show Sidebar.
To find options for what you can sync and how you sync it, click the tabs at the top of the iTunes window.
See an overview with the Summary Screen
The summary screen offers a brief overview of your device, displaying its name, capacity, phone number (if applicable), serial number, and iOS version number.
Here you can control how you back up your device. By default, iTunes asks you to choose one option (iCloud or your computer) for backing up. Still, if you choose to back up automatically via iCloud, you can always make an additional manual back up to iTunes by clicking the Back Up Now button.
Other options include syncing only checked songs and videos, syncing SD video over HD video, converting high-bit-rate music to lower-quality (and smaller) files for your device, and specifying accessibility settings.
Additionally, if you’d like to use Wi-Fi Sync to connect your device wirelessly to iTunes in the future, click the ‘Sync with this [device type] over Wi-Fi’ checkbox.
Source : Macworld
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