iPhone & iPad
Sync data between your iPhone and Mac iTunes-free. US$39.99 | IMOBIE.COM
iTunes, somewhat justifiably, gets a bad rap for trying to do too much, and Apple has only made half-hearted strides at correcting this situation since 2005, when things got complicated after video support was bolted onto version 4.8. No wonder third-party developers have carved out a niche around transfer and backup of iOS devices — without forcing you to delve into iTunes.
AnyTrans is one such utility, and if you can overlook the un-Mac-like interface, there’s a lot to love about this jack of all trades. We should mention you will need a Mac to use this on your iOS device. Short of directly adding content to an existing library (you’ll still need to use iTunes for that), AnyTrans deftly handles the heavy lifting of managing music, videos, photos, books, and ringtones. Likewise, Fast Drive mode allows you to use an iOS device as a portable flash drive, although it’s a little less convenient than thumb drives, since AnyTrans is required to access files.
AnyTrans also has a media downloader built-in, making it easy to quickly grab online videos from YouTube, Vimeo, and other sources to save on Mac, and then transfer to a connected iOS in one click — in theory, anyway. Every time we attempted to do this, AnyTrans tossed out a “please connect at least one device” error, even with our iPhone X plugged in. Download options aren’t as robust as dedicated applications, but they do get the job done.
Another nice touch is the ability to log into your iCloud account to import, export, sync, or access files stored there as well as on iCloud Drive. AnyTrans supports Apple’s two-factor login so there’s no need to generate app-specific passwords, although we had mixed results — exporting Notes from iCloud resulted in little more than a few incomplete HTML files, for example.
Although AnyTrans is free to download, the trial is limited to transferring 50 items per day and expires after a week — which is barely enough time to get acquainted with everything that the software is capable of. A licence costs US$39.99.
One thing AnyTrans can’t do is wirelessly manage data from iOS devices; a sync cable is required, but if you’d rather cut the cord, iMazing ( imazing.com) is an excellent alternative.