ipad is synced with another itunes library??

If you want to use your laptop as the one and only computer to which you will sync your iPad, this should work for you. This is copied from a thread where a user had his computer crash on him and he wanted to transfer all of his iPad content to his new computer - which is what you want to do - correct?

The words in italics are the OP's. The non italics are my notes. The keys to this are to turn off auto syncing - step 1. Then transfer purchases next and then backup - ALL PRIOR TO SYNCING!

1) Without connecting your iPad to your laptop, start iTunes. Click on Edit. Click on Preferences. Click on Devices. Check the box next to "Prevent your iPod etc. from automatically syncing." Click OK.

2) Now connect your iPad to your laptop and start iTunes.

3) When iTunes starts, right click on your iPad under Devices in the left column. Select Transfer purchases etc.

4) After it finishes transferring all your apps to your new laptop, right click on your iPad and select Backup your iPad.

5) After it finishes backing up your iPad, right click on your iPad and select Restore. The poster did not specifically state this but you want to restore from the backup that you just created, that is where your iPad's current data should be.

6) After it finishes restoring, left click on your iPad , then click on the Apps tab on top, and check the box next to Sync Apps, then click on Apply below. Make sure that you have all of the apps selected in the iTunes library on the right make sure there is a checkmark next to the names of the apps.

If everything on your iPad looks good after the sync, go back and click on Edit / Preferences / Devices and UN-check the box next to Prevent your iPod etc. The only other thing you may want to check is if your contacts, bookmarks, etc. are syncing correctly now. If not, go to the Info tab after connecting and make sure you indicate which features you want to sync with what sources.

When you transfer purchases - it should transfer your purchased music content as well. You can always download purchased songs again for free if your are in the U.S. All apps can be downloaded again at no charge as long as you use the same Apple ID to re-download that you used to purchase originally.

Message was edited by: Demo

Connect your iPad to your current Laptop / PC, open iTunes, go to file and click transfer purchases from iPad. All your purchases on your iPad will be transferred to your PC. You can recover all your songs stored on previous Laptops / PC under Itunes by burning to disc and uploading to your current PC/ laptop.

Regards Ausqld

If you follow the advice from Demo you will not loose the data. It so important to transfer your purchases to your PC/ Laptop ASAP. Beware in the future any data you have recorded to an APP like road trip Le or password will be lost if sync without ticking check box next to the APP.

Regards ausqld

If you backup - yes you can restore from the backup if you mess something up when you sync. The backup is what you are really concerned with since that is where your data is contained and saved.Read this support article. This is all of the info contained in the backup in this list copied from the site.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4079

Information iTunes will back up

• Safari bookmarks, cookies, history, and currently open pages.
• Map bookmarks, recent searches, and the current location displayed in Maps.
• Application settings, preferences, and data.
• Contacts.
• Calendars.
• CalDAV and subscribed calendar accounts.
• YouTube favorites.
• Wallpapers.
• Notes.
• Mail accounts.
• Autocorrect dictionaries.
• Camera Roll.
• Home screen layout and web clips.
• Network settings (saved Wi-Fi hotspots, VPN settings, network preferences).
• Paired Bluetooth devices (which can only be used if restored to the same iPad that did the backup).
• Keychain (This includes email account passwords, Wi-Fi passwords, and passwords you enter into websites and some other applications. The keychain can only be restored from backup to the same iPad. If you are restoring to a new device, you will need to fill in these passwords again.)
• Managed Configurations/Profiles.
• MobileMe and Microsoft Exchange account configurations.
• App Store Application data (except the Application itself, its tmp and Caches folder).
• Per-app preferences allowing use of location services.
• Offline web application cache/database.
• Autofill for webpages.
• Trusted hosts that have certificates that cannot be verified.
• Websites approved to get the location of the device.
• In-app purchases.

Transfer purchases only transfers the apps and the purchased content - not the data. Your game data and app data should be in the backup that you just created.

Restore from the backup that you just created - do not restore to factory settings. I know it sounds redundant - but this is how you ensure that the iPad will retain the saved data - you are restoring from the backup. When you sync, a backup is created during the process but you dont want to sync yet. Restore from the backup.

When you right click on the iPad name and select restore from backup - your recently created backup will appear in a popup window and you can select it from there.

After you change the data, you have to backup again before you restore from that backup. Unless I'm reading your post incorrectly, you made change and restored without backing up again.

I should qualify something here - I don't play many games - at least I haven't played that many with my iPad in the last few months. I did play a few games the first six months I had the iPad and I restored my device once and all of my data was restored. Perhaps you should contact the game developers to find out how and where the backup data is stored before you complete this whole process.

Nonetheless, if you make changes to your data, you have to back the device up again before your restore from that backup in order to include all of the most recent data.

Well now if I understand correctly, that's a good thing meaning that the game data stays current so if you continue to play the games - but restore the device to the backup - the current data stays with the game. If the games are Game Center games maybe that data is stored in the cloud and unaffected by a restore but I don't know that much about the game center.

The support article states that app data is stored in the backup but maybe game data remains curruent as long as you do not restore to factory settings. I'll try to do a little more research and see what I can come up with.

I did a quick Google search and entered how game data is backed up on the iPad.

http://www.google.com/search?q=how+is+game+data+backed+up+on+the+iPad&ie=UTF-8&o e=UTF-8&hl=en&client=safari

Read some of these threads and posts from this discussion site and the iPad forums. Apparently many games are backed up on the developers servers in the cloud. Read these and see what you think. I found one thing on this search that I thought was interesting from the How to Geeks. Look for it and read it and see if that appeals to you.

OK so you didn't need to restore but your kept all of your apps and data in place. If so, that is very good news.

But iTunes is syncing songs that you do not have selected to sync? I would simply sync again, but before you sync - or even if you auto sync you can do this anyway - just go back and uncheck all of the songs that you don't want to sync and then sync again. Make sure that you haven't mistakenly selected anything that would cause all of the songs to sync. I'm not sitting at my Mac right now but it's all pretty self explanatory as you are looking at the music section of the iTunes window.

The songs that you say were gone - were they purchased songs or music that you imported from the CD and are they still in iTunes on your PC?