iPhone/iTunes music lost - how to get it back without having to pay again?

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Level 1

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iPhone/iTunes music lost - how to get it back without having to pay again?

I have an iPhone 3Gs I am very frustrated and upset at the moment. I have spent a lot of money over the past year on downloading music for my iPhone, some of it straight to the phone and sometimes straight into iTunes.

Now I just upgraded to the 4.0 software and it has wiped all of my music from my iPhone except what I purchased on my iPhone that day. I have some of my music backed up on a harddrive, but there seems to be loads of albums missing still (I have all the receipts emailed to me).

Is there not a button that tells you which things you have purchased in iTunes so can just redownload them for free? It wants me to pay again when I have tried!

This is not fair! I don't understand why it wipes my iPhone every time I update the software. Please someone help me find my music and get it back on my iPhone?

Many thanks,
Shelly

iPhone, iOS 4

Posted on Jun 29, 2010 4:07 AM

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Answer 1

Jolly Giant

Level 7

25,464 points

Jun 29, 2010 4:20 AM in response to ShellyKemp

though slightly off topic, the following post by Zevoneer in this thread http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=8794716 says it all:

Did you back up your purchases before you you reinstalled your system? If you erased your drive then the purchases will have been erased along with everything else. If you didn't make a back-up of your purchases to restore from (as you are advised to do) then I'm sorry to say that the policy on lost purchases is that you have to pay to download them again:
"Once a Product is purchased and you receive the Product, it is your responsibility not to lose, destroy, or damage the Product, and Apple shall be without liability to you in the event of any loss, destruction, or damage." iTunes Store: Purchased content can be downloaded only once

You could try contacting the iTunes Music Store Customer Service and you might be able to persuade them to sanction a second free download. There have been occasional reports in the iTunes forum of this happening, however just be aware that they are not under any obligation to do so. If you click on this link you'll be able to email your query: iTMS Customer Service

If you have an iPod that still has the purchases on it the transfer of purchased content from the iPod to authorised computers was introduced with iTunes 7. You'll find details in this article: Copying iTunes Store purchases from your iPod or iPhone to a computer

You might also want to check out these pages for future reference:
How to back up your media in iTunes
Back up your iTunes library by copying to an external hard drive

J GG

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Answer 2

Jul 10, 2010 6:11 PM in response to ShellyKemp

I did back up my songs but after installing the new 4.0 almost all of my albums were gone!! I will get them back, if I have to contact my ag, I will. I also upgraded to itunes 9.2. Now, its not my fault that 4.0 screwed everything up. All was supposed to be backed up from my iphone, now nothing. Everything was and has been fine before 4.0 I also will contact my senator and thats Charles Schumer. I am sure someone in his office would love to take a shot at apple. I have my receipts and my cc statements. These ******** will not get away with this! So far, I think 4.0 *****!!!

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