So I am trying to get my Ipad2 to sync with both my home PC (my main computer) and my work laptop however I am getting the "erase or quit" error when trying the sync at the office, is there a workaround to this absolutely ridiculous Apple restriction ?

I could be wrong but I think you have to set it up to manage files manually

I think it's quite difficult to try and sync iOS devices with new computers or multiple computers as it asks you whether you'd like to erase and sync the device. You can try and set 'Manually manage music/movies/apps' via the device settings and manually sync music, movies and apps, but I'm not sure whether it simply erases the iPad and replaces it with the contents of that iTunes library (in respect to music, movies and/or apps).

yeah I tried the manual manage thing but it still wants to whipe it and/or all my photos so its not gonna work easily. What a stupid lockout !

Originally Posted by Merk13

yeah I tried the manual manage thing but it still wants to whipe it and/or all my photos so its not gonna work easily. What a stupid lockout !

You can use the 'File' menu to 'Transfer Purchases'. See if that works.

The iPad, all iOS devices, are designed to sync with one computer. All workarounds are awkward and partial. The likely hood of causing problems is not worth the minor convenience you might get from syncing with two computers (IMO).

What particular data do you want synced on both computers? There may be a better way of going about it than trying to use the iPad as some sort of go between.

So, i have an Ipad2 and a laptop today.

Tomorrow my laptop breaks down, burns or falls in the river = total loss.

When I buy a new laptop, this means i cant sync without losing data ?

Guy

Originally Posted by Guy1717

So, i have an Ipad2 and a laptop today.

Tomorrow my laptop breaks down, burns or falls in the river = total loss.

When I buy a new laptop, this means i cant sync without losing data ?

Guy

Backup your laptop HD, preferably with a bootable clone. You should do this regardless of having an iPad because as you point out, the worst can happen at any time.

The Archangel

Originally Posted by Guy1717

So, i have an Ipad2 and a laptop today.

Tomorrow my laptop breaks down, burns or falls in the river = total loss.

When I buy a new laptop, this means i cant sync without losing data ?

Guy

No, you can move your iPad to a new computer. It's not a procedure you want to do everyday. It is slow, lots of data has to be copied. It requires preparation to make sure data is not lost. And like any other transfer of large amounts of data and syncing, there is always a chance that something will go wrong and you'll have to rely on the backups that you probably didn't do.

Keeping two devices in sync, especially when one is the main/master device is fairly straightforward. Keeping several devices in sync when any device can be changed at any time is a royal pain. In peer to peer syncing you have to track every change so that every device knows when that change was made and what change is current.

When studying Windows Servers I saw a bit of what went into keeping a domain server's data synced, and how it could go wrong. It takes a lot of overhead.

Everyone complains about how terrible iTunes syncing is now. Have you considered how much worse it would be if Apple decided to increase the complexity of the problem by an order of magnitude? iOS iTunes are simply are not a mature enough technology to tackle that, and it really isn't the kind of complexity you want in a mobile device anyway.

Oh sure, something simple could be done, if you are only talking about one or two databases. But the whole iPad, apps, media (with the headache of DRM and keeping copyright holders happy), etc.

Apple isn't moving to the cloud just for fun. By moving to the cloud they create one central place to sync to that is available to all devices. It eliminates the complexity of peer to peer syncing while giving people the everywhere syncing that they've been wanting.

So this, like so many other gripes is something slowly being addressed. I don't think iOS 5 is going to solve all the syncing issues, but it is certainly a step in a good direction.

Ok, I'll shut up now.

Thank you Twerppoet for that elaborate answer.

Guy