I just had to switch the computer my beloved iPhone syncs on. Given that I adore this phone and I yam what I yam, I’m very protective of it. In other words, I read everything I could get my hands on about possible perils of switching. And there was precious little.

As things transpired, with just a little preparation it went seamlessly. And when, with heart in mouth, I actually hooked my phone to the new machine, iTunes recognized it immediately, but defaulted to not syncing anything. My blood pressure began to go down. To actually start the sync, I had to go through the tabs manually to choose what to sync and how.

For others faced with the same situation, here are more details on what I did. (Please note: this is Mac-based advice given in early January 2008.)

1. Back everything up. Of course.
2. Get all of your email accounts working on your new machine. I use Mac Mail, and it works perfectly — even for Vanderbilt Exchange mail (but that’s another story for another day). Also, if you merge your iPhone, at least some (and maybe all of your accounts) will stay in tact.
3. Get your photos set up either in iPhoto or in your folders of choice. This too it will give you a choice of merging.
4. Get your podcasts and music in order. This was the most work, but also turned out to be the most critical. Judging from the interface, you can sync from two machines, and get the music from one and not the other. But if you’re completely moving off the first computer, you’re going have take care of this.
5. Get calendar, contacts and bookmarks on your new machine. In my case, it was taken care of in a heartbeat by having a dot Mac account. (Dot mac and iPhones are a beautiful combo.) If you don’t have one, I imagine you can export and import all that information. It’s also possible that merging will take care of the export/import for you.

That’s all there is to it. Here’s hoping Apple adds info like this to the iPhone manual.