"There are purchased items on the iPhone..." message appearing

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Level 1

0 points

"There are purchased items on the iPhone..." message appearing

When I plugged my iPhone into my laptop this evening I got an update notice for iOS 4.3.1. When I clicked to update the phone I was given the following error:

"There are purchased items on the iPhone that have not been transferred to your iTunes library. You should transfer these items to your iTunes library before updating this iPhone. Are you sure you want to continue?"

I've sync'ed my phone and I also clicked File > Transfer Purchases from menu item but I still get the above error when I click update. I'm concerned that something isn't sync'ing properly and when I do the the update something will be removed from my phone, or worse, the entire phone will be deleted. This had to be the most worthless error message ever. If iTunes knows that something hasn't sync'ed why can't if give me a list of these items?

iPhone 3GS iOS 4.3, Mac OS X (10.6.7), iTunes 10.2.1, MacBook Pro 2.66Gz Intel Core i7

Posted on Mar 25, 2011 7:31 PM

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Answer 1

Sam M.

Level 3

598 points

Mar 26, 2011 12:13 AM in response to stubear

stubear wrote:
I'm concerned that something isn't sync'ing properly and when I do the the update something will be removed from my phone, or worse, the entire phone will be deleted. This had to be the most worthless error message ever. If iTunes knows that something hasn't sync'ed why can't if give me a list of these items?

I was concerned as well when this happened to me when I got my iPhone 4 from my 3GS. I am a very heavy user with hundreds of apps and when paired with my OCD this caused quite a delay for me. I ended up just taking a leap and doing it and compared the before and after lists I had made and they were identical. I agree it is a useless message but your phone will certainly not be wiped. I say go for it.

-SM

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Answer 2

stubear Author

Level 1

0 points

Mar 26, 2011 6:16 AM in response to Sam M.

I guess my concern is that my phone was just updated to the iOS 4.3 update a week or so ago and I didn't receive the error message then. The only things I've purchased on the phone since then have been books and I specifically ensured they were sync'ed in iTunes. The annoying thing, beyond having to use iTunes to sync the iPhone of course, is the error message is completely useless. Why can't it give you a list of what's been purchased on the iPhone that has not been properly sync'ed so you can make an informed decision? I guess I'm going to just have to cross my fingers and hope for the best.

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