A clients laptop hard drive failed and nothing on that drive could be recovered. The client got a new laptop. The laptop that failed was the one this client used to synch to her iPod touch.
The first thing to know is NEVER synch an iPod, iPod Touch, iPhone or iPad to a different computer unless you know exactly how iTunes works.
You can be in a situation where the only place where your photos and music, and videos and all the other stuff you put on you iPhone, iPod or iPad only exists on the Apple device. In the case of this client that was her situation.
The first thing to know about iTunes is iTunes is used to upload music, movies, apps, and photos to Apple mobile devices. iTunes is NOT to be used for downloading to a different computer. iTunes has a number of libraries – music, playlists, movies and so on. iTunes is designed to move this media to an Apple mobile device. It IS NOT designed to move media from the iPhone to a different computer.
If you put iTunes on a new computer, all of the media files are empty. If you connect your iPod, iPhone or iPad to the new computer and synch it iTunes will erase everything on you Apple Mobile device and upload what is in the libraries of the computer. A new iTunes install has nothing so you will end up with an iPod with nothing on it.
If your old computer synched to you Apple Mobile device is working you just go back and synch it to the computer that has the libraries with your music and movies, playlists and photos and all is well.
If you find yourself with an iPod, iPhone or iPad full of content and media and the computer you used to get that stuff on you Apple device fails you MUST get that content and media saved and added to your iTunes libraries and iTunes is not the way to do that.
First step is to have some way to back up all of the files on the Apple Mobile Device. iPhones, iPods and iPads do not store media like you might think. All of the music and media on the Apple Mobile device are indexed data bases, not music files.
The way to back up an iPhone, iPod or iPad is to use third part software and you must make certain when you plug your Apple mobile device into a new or different computer that iTunes does not synch.
I have used several 3rd party software programs in the past with my old iPad and my new iPhone 3GS. These programs made a back up of the iPhone files and I was able to import the back up files to iTunes on a different computer and thus save an use the content on the Apple mobile device. I of course did that first with the clients iPod. I backup up every folder and file on the device.
I tried a new set of 3rd party tools today. These from CopyTrans – (Remember the first thing – back up the Apple Mobile device first – there are several ways to do this.) First I tried CopyTrans – they have free versions – however not all the features work – so buy the software and be sure to activate it with the key before you use it. Load it into the new computer where the new totally empty iTunes is located and will be the new home for your music, media, and photos for you Apple mobile device. Next I connected the iPod – CopyTrans brought all of the media, and the play lists and movies from the iPod to iTunes. Great first step.
Next come photos, these are not dealt with like music on Apple devices. The photos are stored in the photos folder. CopyTrans Photo will solve the photo problem. Download it to the new computer. Connect the iPod (or other Apple mobile device) and you will see all of the photos and albums of photos that are on the iPod, iPhone or iPad.
Main thing to know is on your PC you will need to create albums (create new file in the photo folder) that matches the files on the iPod or other Apple mobile device. You can right click on the iPod side and choose all and then move the images to the PC side. You must then use the transfer button. Do this one file at a time from the iPod or other Apple mobile device and you will end up with all of the photos from the iPod on the new PC.
The CopyTrans Photo program is a great way to move photos the other way – from a PC to an iPod, iPhone, iPad also.
Once you have all of your photos on the new PC in albums in the photos folder and your music and movies and books and all that other stuff we all put on our iPhones and iPods into iTunes then you are all set. Go ahead and authorize the new PC to work with your device and you can synch it and when you do this everything get erased from your iPod, iPhone or iPad and the libraries are now put back on the Apple Mobile device. Synch the other things, the books, podcasts and so on and the picture from the PC photo File and your are done.
The thing to know is iTunes transfers from your PC to you iPod, iPhone, and iPad. iTunes does not transfer from your Apple Mobile device to your PC. The best way to backup, copy and save the information and media that is on you Apple mobile device is to use third part software that can copy and save the information on your Apple Mobile device. While I used to use another brand, today I learned that the products from CopyTrans work and work well.
So the end of the story is this, a client lost her computer that had all of her photos and music and movies and playlists that she used to add content to her iPod Touch. She now has all of that content that was on her iPod now on her new computer and the iPod is synched to that new computer. She can add music and photos to her PC and these will synch and go to her iPod.
This is one of those situations you need to know exactly how to do to avoid losing all of your music and photos. Main thing to know is never connect an iPod, iPad or iPhone to a different computer than the one that has your iTunes libraries unless you know exactly how this all works.
Tags: CopyTrans, CopyTrans Photo, iPad, iPhone, iPod, iTurnes, move music to new pc, music library, photo, photo file, transfer to pc
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