How to: Wifi Sync iPhone apps with ad-hoc network

Retronyms pioneered the "Wifi Sync" method of downloading content from an iPhone app with our Recorder App. This method, commonly in use in many iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad apps (including all Retronyms audio apps) today involves the app acting as a mini webserver in order to transfer files to your desktop over Wifi.

But What if you don't have access to a Wifi network? You're stuck, right? Wrong! As long as you have an Airport or other Wifi card in your desktop/laptop you can easily "Wifi Sync" with an adhoc network. When  I discovered this trick, I was amazed at just how easy it was).


Note: these instructions are for Mac, but I assume you can do the same thing on Windows. If you know the details, feel free share in comments.

Create Network

In the Airport menu at the top of the screen, select Create Network...

You'll then see a dialogue where you can name and set password, etc.

When you're finished, you should see a computer-to-computer icon instead of the typical Airport icon:

Connect to Network
Next, connect your i-device to the newly-created hotspot using the Settings app:

Wifi Sync as normal

Starting Wifi Sync should display an IP address as usual. Enter this in the laptop's browser and you're good to go!

As I mentioned, this works with all of our apps that support Wifi Sync (Recorder, DopplerPad, FourTrack, and StudioTrack). I think this will work with any other apps that use Wifi for similar purposes.