As I mentioned earlier, a few of the slick new iCloud features have already made their way to the iPad and iOS 4.3. Another one that I’ve just been testing out is the ability to setup automatic downloads for apps, music, and books that you purchase. So, for instance, when I buy a new song or album on iTunes on the desktop, it automatically downloads to all of my iOS devices – with no more need to connect to a PC to sync these new items.
I’ve given this a whirl today with songs and apps and it works like a charm. A new song purchased in iTunes on my MacBook Pro shows up and is available to play within less than a minute on my iPad 2. When I added new apps via iTunes on the Mac, it took just a few seconds for them to appear on the iPad.
It’s very simple to setup this feature on an iPad running iOS 4.3.3 or above. Here’s how:
– Go to the Settings app and tap on the Store section in the left pane.
– On the top of the right pane you’ll now see the Automatic Downloads section, where you can turn automatic downloads on and off for Music, Apps, and Books individually.
– There’s a setting below where you can choose to turn on or off the ability to carry out these automatic downloads when you are not connected to WiFi. By default this is set to Off, which is a good way to leave it if you don’t want to run the risk of using up your cellular data plan.
That’s it. Happy auto downloading.
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
And in the iPhone? I only see apps and Books options. Where is the music?
I’m not sure on that one. My iPhone is currently jailbroken and not running iOS 4.3.3.
I wonder if this will apply to podcasts.
That would be cool, but I doubt it. Apple have always lagged a ways behind 3rd party apps in handling podcasts.
FYI more than anything else, here in the UK the option to automate Music is not available. I only have Apps and Books.
Paul
Ok i understand i’m in Portugal and it seems that we do not have the service available
I think where the service is missing, especially for music and / or books, it’s almost certainly a licensing issue – where Apple have not got all the deals in place that are needed.
Just went there, and whenever I change a setting to on, it pauses there briefly, then switches back to off, the default.
I guess that window is still closed.
Only Music and Apps appear in the Automatic Downloads boxes. No Books. How do I add “Books” to Automatic Downloads.Thanks
Tim