Best way to merge music without deleting existing music on an IPAD

Question

sapguy1960 Author

Level 1

8 points

Best way to merge music without deleting existing music on an IPAD

I have had issue with my ITunes library- many issues. I have a ITunes clean and sorted App on my PC laptop which I would like to keep intact. On IPad I have ITunes App that has many different added music files that I want to keep- in an ideal world I would merge one into the other, but need to do this without erasing content on either version.

I do have an ITunes sweeper software program that removes duplicates on the PC. Any ideas to best merge these two would be really appreciated

iPad mini, iOS 12

Posted on Apr 29, 2020 1:09 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

i_rina

Community Specialist

Apr 30, 2020 2:46 PM in response to sapguy1960

Good afternoon sapguy1960,

Welcome to the Apple Support Communities!

I understand you would like to merge the music you have in iTunes for Windows on your PC with the music that you have on your iPad. Before you make any changes, I would suggest you create a backup of your iTunes library on an external drive.

Back up and restore your iTunes library on your PC

How did the music get on your iPad? Usually it is synced from the iTunes library on your PC. Was your iPad synced with a different iTunes library? If the only difference between the two is that you have downloaded iTunes Store purchases to your iPad, then you can redownload those purchases to your PC.

Redownload apps, music, movies, TV shows, and books

Another way to keep these two devices in sync is to purchase an Apple Music subscription and enable Sync Library on both devices. Be sure to have your iTunes library backed up, or a duplicate copy of the file on an external drive in case you decide to cancel the subscription later.

Join Apple Music on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac, or PC

Turn on Sync Library with Apple Music

Take care.

Reply

Answer 2

sapguy1960 Author

Level 1

8 points

Apr 30, 2020 3:35 PM in response to i_rina

I had my IPad synced to the PC last year but changed the operating system to Windows 10. Not sure what happened but my had drive got wiped and I reloaded via a back up external drive. Guessing that some of this music was not saved. I also uploaded some music via a different laptop which crashed.

Long story short I have about 100 cds worth of music on my iPad that are not saved anywhere else There are about 54gb of duplicate files that I was hoping to clean out after merging the two folders also. This issue is all about my own downloaded music- not ItTunes or apple store purchases which are easy to find and reload,

Wondering if Apple Music would permanently merge the two iTunes OR just make the music accessible via online streaming? I can certainly access the old music just by saving my older IPad but this is not ideal. I also have made have several great playlists that are only on my older ipad and not on the pc. Guess those are toast once I merge the PC iTunes content. I bought a new 128gb iPad just to help get all this fixed with twice the memory, so kinda upset that I have run into so many issues.

I am also seeing many 3rd party app developers offering software t transfer files from iPads to PC folders- thought that might be a way to do this but not sure of which one to get.

thanks for your help

Reply

Best way to merge music without deleting existing music on an IPAD

Similar questions