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Transfer music from iPhone to computer

My computer's hard drive completely died and had to be replaced. I have several GB of music on my iPhone that I want to transfer to computer. I tried using the "backup" option and after 9 hours it was only 1/4 done and I had to unhook to use the phone! And then the files can't be found.

I tried going into "my computer" and accessing the phone as an alternate drive, but could only access the pictures from the camera in this way.

I tried synching my podcasts and the 10 podcasts that were on my phone were replaced with the one on my computer.

How do I transfer my music without losing it? And in less than 8 hours as I do need to use the phone during the day?

frusterated andi

HP

Posted on Jun 5, 2009 7:44 AM

Reply
5 replies

Jun 5, 2009 8:03 AM in response to pluimville

Welcome to the discussions,

Syncing music is one way only. You'll have to use 3rd party software like touchcopy or similar to copy your songs back to your computer, such software is not supported by Apple.
Desktop mode is not supported at this time.
About backups and what they contain: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1766
Syncing and merging data: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1296

Jun 5, 2009 8:04 AM in response to pluimville

pluimville,

Unfortunately it isn't possible to transfer music from the iPhone to a computer using iTunes.

And I do believe it is against (don't quote me on this though!) to discuss how to get the music from your phone to your computer.

All I can suggest is that you jump onto google, and search for something like +"how to get music from iphone to computer"+

Regards,
Bryce Fraser

Jun 5, 2009 8:07 AM in response to pluimville

The sync process for iTunes content is a one way transfer process only - from your computer to your iPhone, and the same for photos transferred from your computer.

The iPhone does not support disk mode, so in regards to iTunes content an iPhone can be synced with an iTunes library on a single computer only. When syncing iTunes content with another computer and transferring photos from another computer, all iTunes content and photos transferred from a different computer will be erased first. Your computer is detected as a new or different computer due to the hard drive being replaced and re-installing the OS.

iTunes includes an option to transfer iTunes content from an iPod or iPhone that was purchased from the iTunes store, but this is for iTunes content that was purchased from the iTunes store only.

With your iPhone connected and without syncing, at the iTunes menu bar go to File and select Transfer Purchases From - the name of your iPhone.

Photos transferred from your computer to your iPhone are optimized for viewing on your iPhone as part of the iTunes sync/transfer process, so the original resolution of these photos are reduced on your iPhone. This is one reason why Apple doesn't support transferring these photos in the opposite direction.

If some or all of your iTunes music on your iPhone was not purchased from the iTunes store, there are 3rd party utilities that provide for transferring this content in the opposite direction, and the same for photos that were transferred from your computer. Such utilities are not supported by Apple, and the original resolution of these photos will be lost.

This is one of the reasons why maintaining a backup of all the important data stored on your computer is important - stored on an external drive used for backup purposes only, which should include your iTunes library, photos, documents, etc.

The iPhone is not designed for nor intended to be used as a backup storage device, and should not be considered as such.

Jun 10, 2009 9:04 AM in response to pluimville

Apple doesn't support this transfer due to the copyright issue.
But I think there should no such problem if you only transfer the songs that belong to you to your own computer.

And you can do it easily with the third part program such as "iPod Computer Wizard"
With this kind of programs, you could transfer music, playlists, and photos from iPhone to computer or iTunes.
Check it yourself at http://www.ipodcomputerwizard.com/

Transfer music from iPhone to computer

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