I recently spilled water on my Macbook and it died. I've bought a new MacBook and want to sync my iPhone to it. I have no backup of my old MacBook. How do I go about syncing my iPhone with my new MacBook without iTunes wiping my iPhone and losing all my content? I also want to get all my movies, videos, music etc off my iPhone and onto the new Mac. Any advice would be appreciated! Thanks!!

Like many iPhone users, I have a problem when I want to sync my iPhone libraries to my new Mac computer. Every time I try with iTunes, the software says that it will sync the present files in iTunes with my iPhone. However, the iTunes on my new computer is empty, so if iTunes sync with my iPhone, it actually means delete everything from my iPhone. That's really annoying.

Then I search the Internet for help. The people in the Apple Forum give some useful advice. I can transfer purchases to iTunes with ease. But for the non-purchased items in my iPhone, they couldn't figure out a good way, but they indicate that I should use a third-party transfer tool. Therefore, the post will show you how to sync iPhone to new Mac with/without iTunes.

Part 1: How to Sync iPhone to New Mac with iTunes

1.1 How to Sync iPhone to New Mac with iTunes via USB

Step 1. Connect Your iPhone to new Mac with the USB cable. iTunes should launch automatically.

Step 2. Click on the iPhone image and name in the left-hand drawer in the program. The phone's information should show up on the right.

Step 3. Click on the tabs in the window and choose what information you would like to sync. You can sync photos, music, contacts, applications and ringtones.

Step 4. Press "Apply" in the lower-right corner of the screen to sync the iPhone with the computer. You will be asked in your first sync whether you wish to merge data between computer and phone, replace the data on the phone, or replace data on the computer. In the case of a new MacBook, you will likely want to replace data on the computer, which backs up your iPhone data on your new computer.
sync iPhone to new mac

After finishing the above steps, you have just successfully transferred all your purchased files from iPhone to your new Mac computer. So what about other non-purchased files? Like some nice music you rip from CDs or some movies you got from DVDs. Please note that you are only allowed to sync purchased items from iPhone to iTunes, so it is not right if you have any non-purchased items in your iPhone. When you restore your iPhone, the non-purchased items will be erased without any doubts. In order to sync all your data from iPhone to new Mac computer without any data loss during the transfer process, you can take advantage of the third-party software to solve the problem.

1.2 How to Sync iPhone to New Mac with iTunes via Wi-Fi

After you set up syncing with iTunes using USB, you can set up iTunes to sync to your device with Wi-Fi instead of USB. Here's how:
Step 1. Insert your iPhone into Mac with a USB cord and then run iTunes to choose to click your iPhone device in the top left corner of the screen.
Step 2. Hit on “Settings> Summary” and then choose the option of “Sync with this iPhone over Wi-Fi” to tap on. After that, click on the “Apply” button in the interface.

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Thus, when your Mac and iPhone are connected to the same Wi-Fi network, your iPhone device will show in iTunes. The iPhone will sync automatically to Mac whenever it is plugged into power and iTunes is run on Mac.
After finishing the above steps, you have just successfully transferred all your purchased files from iPhone to your new Mac computer. So what about other non-purchased files? Like some nice music you rip from CDs or some movies you got from DVDs. Please note that you are only allowed to sync purchased items from iPhone to iTunes, so it is not right if you have any non-purchased items in your iPhone. When you restore your iPhone, the non-purchased items will be erased without any doubts. In order to sync all your data from iPhone to new Mac computer without any data loss during the transfer process, you can take advantage of the third-party software to solve the problem.

Part 2: How to Sync iPhone to New Mac via iCloud

It is a great ideal to sync iPhone to new Mac via iCloud. Here I would like to show you how to make it with the example of photos. The following steps will make you clear.

Step 1. On your iPhone device, go to the Settings app on home screen and then choose the tab of “Name/Apple ID > iCloud” to click on. Afterwards, hit on the option of “Photos” and then enable the feature of “iCloud Photo Library”. You iPhone photos will be synced to iCloud for later use. You need to make sure your iPhone is connected to a good Wi-Fi network.

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Step 2. On your new Mac, go to the website of iCloud.com and then log into your account with the Apple ID you are applying on iPhone. After that, you can click on the tab of “Photos > Albums” to view all photos in iCloud space. Choose the iPhone photos that you desire to sync to your new Mac and then hit the download button to save iPhone pictures to a local folder on Mac.

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You can also sync other contents from iPhone to iCloud and then go to iCloud.com on Mac to download to local location. This is really a simple solution for syncing iPhone contents to new Mac.

Part 3: How to Sync iPhone to New Mac with iTunes Alternative

So I try to find an easy-to-use transfer tool to help with the transfer issues. Finally I find out an iTunes alternative, Leawo iTransfer for Mac, to accomplish the syncing process. Leawo iTransfer for Mac is a powerful transfer tool, and it can be used for transferring files among iOS devices, iTunes and PCs. This software can transfer apps, music, movies, ringtones, ebooks, photos and Camera Roll files and so on. So I can take advantage of this software to sync iPhone with new Mac computer without losing data. The following guidance is about how to sync iPhone to new Mac computer with Leawo iTransfer for Mac, you can free download this software and try it yourself:

iTransfer

Leawo iTransfer for Mac 

☉ copy files among iOS devices, iTunes and PCs with ease.
☉ copy up to 14 kinds of data and files without iTunes.
☉ Support the latest iOS devices like iPhone X, iPhone XS, etc.
☉ Play back, view, and delete data and files on iOS devices.

Step 1. Run Leawo iTransfer for Mac and Connect iPhone

Launch Leawo iTransfer for Mac after installing it on your new Mac computer. When the software indicates that you can connect your iOS device, plug your iPhone to Mac via the USB cable. The software will automatically detect your iPhone and show the Libraries on the left sidebar. The files will show on the right part of the window after you choose a library.
Run Leawo iTransfer and Connect iPhone

Step 2. Select Files to Sync

Choose a Library and then all the files in the library will show on the right part of the software (Set the Music Library as an example). Click the transfer button (the right arrow in a dark-blue rectangle) at the right bottom to transfer all the files to computer. Or you can hold Ctrl key and click to choose certain files, and then right click the chosen files and choose "Transfer to > My Computer".
Select Files

Step 3. Transfer Settings

After choosing files, a dialog of transfer settings comes out. In this dialog, you are able to check "Transfer to List" and "Save to Folder". Checking "Transfer to List" can make sure your files be transferred to iTunes; Check "Save to Folder" and click "Change" to choose a target folder to save the transferred files. If you are using a new computer and the iTunes is newly installed, I suggest you check both options. After choosing target folder, click "Transfer Now" to start to sync iPhone to new computer.
Transfer Settings

Step 4. Syncing iPhone to New Mac

When the transfer begins, you will see a dialog of transfer process. A progress bar in the dialog will show you the percentage of the syncing process. When the syncing process is finished, you will find all the files in your target folder and iTunes.
Syncing iPhone to New Computer

Leawo iTransfer for Mac will help you with the data transfers that iTunes cannot accomplish, but it is not to replace iTunes. Leawo iTransfer provides solutions for the Apple product users who are coming up with transfer problems and makes the iPod, iPad and iPhone data transfers extremely easy. Therefore, if you want to get rid of iTunes synchronization, you can try to use the software.

Part 4: How to Sync iPhone to New Mac with Dropbox

Dropbox is also convenient for users to sync iPhone to new Mac. You just need to upload iPhone files to Dropbox app and then download them to Mac via Dropbox software on computer. The detailed steps will show you how to make it. Here I would like to take pictures for instance as well.
Step 1. Run Dropbox app on iPhone and then click on the “+” icon in the middle of the bottom menu to choose the options of “Upload Photos”.

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Step 2. Choose the pictures in the next interface to upload them to the folder of Dropbox.

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Step 3. After a moment, your iPhone images will be accessible on Dropbox. You need to make sure your iPhone has been connected with Wi-Fi network.

Step 4. On your Mac, run Dropbox software and then click on the folder that contains the iPhone images. After that, you can copy and paste the photos on Mac to a local folder to reach your goal.

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By comparing the solutions to sync iPhone to new Mac shown in the above, you will find iTransfer is the most effective tool for you to make use of. You just need a few clicks to achieve your aim simply.