IOS 5 update deleted everything

Just find all the apps and books you had before and download them again. It's a pain but you won't have to pay for them again and you shouldnt lose any data.

Good luck

Did the firmware update last night. It killed the phone. I got nothing. Getting the -50 backup error. There does appear to be informaiton on the phone, but I can't access it from the touch screen and it will not respond to cell calls. I don't really give a CRAP about the music and apps and other stuff. I just want my phone to operate. It was dang expensive when I bought it. My cell service isn't free. So, I think APPLE needs to figure this crap out. I have tried several fixes in this thread to no success. There is a second phone that has not been connected yet and I am affraid to do so. I don't want it to die like the other one. Oh, and why should I have to PAY apple to fix THEIR mistake.

"Superiormac" has the "Correct Answer". This is the answer just before the marked "Correct Answer". Luckily for me my apps remained organized as I had them when I last sync'd (with the addition of the few new ios5 icons. Correction - it has now sync'd ALL my apps. I still have the original apps organized as I had them, but now I have all the other ones that I never used to keep on the phone. I just had to uncheck them, but somewhat of a pain in the *&#. Unlike Superiormac, I did not have my music automatically restored. I had to go to the "Music" tab and select "Sync Music". Unfortunately, the "Selected playlists, artists, albums and genres" did not remain selected. In other words, I had to click the specifc songs/playlists I wanted to sync again. This was only a minor inconvenience. My original playlists were no longer in iTunes. I had to click File\Library\Import Playlist and then click the iTunes Music Library.itl file. I had to turn on "Genius Mixes" again from the "Store" menu in iTunes. I had to individually select my podcasts again. Overall, this was a 5+ hour ordeal. I'm sure I'm going to love ios5, but the process was super frustrating. I'm a pretty competent computer user - I'd had to watch a novice try to figure this out on their own. I'm not impressed.

Matoi, I have the same problem as yours and deeRN. Waiting for a fix...

****---I've just updated my ipod touch and I've lost all my music and apps, is there anything I can do--Please I'm in tears

Happened to me too. The stuff isn't even on my computer anymore. I paid for some of these.

you can download all the apps again, you will just need to remember what they are and reorganize them

for music my iPod wasn't syncing due to some album artwork problems. uncheck everything and just try syncing a few things. if that works, keep adding more until you get all your stuff on there again. if there is a problem, try and figure out what file is causing the problem.

hope this helps!!

Most of my downloads (music) where on my ipod and not on my itunes

happened to me too, but just with apps, but if u plug back into computer u can resync everything. if your apps arent showing up under iphone, go to itunes store and click purchased. it will bring up all the apps uve ever downloaded. re-download them. will show up under iphone apps tab and u can individually click each one ud like to sync

I'm going to try to lay it all out. Let me know if this is helpful.

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So, I figured that I had lost everything before from an auto-sync gone badly. After 3 weeks with Apple support the first time around, trying to convince them that I had done my due diligence in advance, that I'm not computer illiterate, and it wasn't my fault (i.e. I must have ignored a warning and hit okay anyway or something), I had to face some hard facts:

1) Lost data cannot be retrieved if they were never saved in the first place, even if I was under the impression that it was saved.

2) Backing something up doesn't really back something up (not like we think it takes a snapshot of everything as is and therefore if we restored from said backup we would return everything to the way it was at the time of the snapshot). So restoring from backup does ... well ... I'm not really sure. I only know what it says it does. (Contacts, etc. stuff that really doesn't need to be backed up because, hey, your Contacts are pulled from your e-mail account presumably anyway.)

3) Transferring purchases doesn't put the stuff you got from your device onto your computer. It tells the computer about the stuff you got from your device. In effect, it stores the concept and not the actual content. "Hey, I see you got App XYZ. I'll remember that for you, but not where on your device you put it (which folder) or any data that you put into that app unless you specifically told me to do so (and that function is available) through the app in iTunes." So if I decided I had to prep for a training, make a presentation on Keynote, make some handouts and scripts on Pages, and make some charts and spreadsheets on Numbers, every time I wanted those files backed up, I would either have to A) from my iPad in each app tell it to send to iTunes next time I hook up to the computer, or B) from iTunes, go to the apps tab, find each app, check all the documents, and tell it to upload them to my computer.

4) Syncing doesn't make the computer (which one would presumably use to back stuff up on) look like the device (that you use more regularly and customize regularly). Syncing makes the device look like your computer. If your computer's brand spanking new (as in it has nothing or barely anything on it), syncing will cause your device to have nothing or barely anything on it.

The awful reality is that if I have say 3 computers that I have authorized to sync with this device, I have a ton of work ahead of me, because I have to basically reproduce my iPad on each of these computers (all the folders and what goes in them, go into each app, upload all the files, go into my music, upload all my playlists, go into my pictures, etc.). You get the idea.

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Okay, so they learned something from my situation. Great! Maybe the next iTunes or the next other piece of software will be better, will be more user-friendly, give us less trouble, etc. But just in case...

We put iTunes on Computer 1 to start up the iPad after we purchased it, so if I had to restore to factory settings, that would be the go-to computer.

We put iTunes on Computer 2 as my main backup source. Figured out where the computer likes to hide the backups, regularly copy & relocated the backups to several alternative locations (including portable hard drive), and renamed them with distinct dates, times, and relational info (like pre-iOS5).

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But, as luck would have it, Computer 2 died. Thus far, we have not been able to get it to load the operating system even though it powers up. It's okay, it's old. It deserves eternal rest. So all we have is ... Backups! But wait! Backups aren't really backups!

We put iTunes on Computer 3 as my new main backup source. Checked the Prevent Automatic Backups in Preferences, did a manual backup, copied the backup to a separate location, transferred purchases, did NOT sync because there is NOTHING on Computer 3, and downloaded iOS5. Looked up the instructions in several pages on the Apple website to be sure I did everything I was supposed to, and crossed my fingers. Told the computer to go ahead and stick the new OS in there. It made its own backup, transferred purchases, etc.

iPad started up, asked me to do a few setup steps that I don't remember having to do the last time I updated the OS, had me change my passcode, agree to stuff, locator function, iCloud or no, etc. Then it said I was all set to go. Hooray!

BAM! All stuff was missing. Really? Can't update the OS without getting rid of all my stuff?

Keep it cool. I did my homework, right? No worries. I can restore from backup. Goin' on over the Preferences and Devices ... Well this doesn't seem like good news:

Device backups:

GlaiveLady's iPad Today 12:32 PM

GlaiveLady's iPad - Oct 28, 2011 2:28 PM Today 12:32 PM

Okay, goin' over to the left column, right click on my iPad, hit Restore from Backup, select the first one (pre-iOS5) instead of the second one (during installation of iOS5). Chugging away...

When it was done, I woke my iPad up, and it asked me for my Passcode. Okay, well, if it was restoring things, it would be my old Passcode and not the new one I selected after upgrading to iOS5, right? Nope. New Passcode worked. Everything looked exactly the same as before I restored from backup.

Okay, maybe it got confused. So I deleted the second backup and tried restoring again. No changes. Lots of time spent. And then the Devices Preferences gave me this:

Device backups:

GlaiveLady's iPad Today 12:32 PM

GlaiveLady's iPad - Oct 28, 2011 2:28 PM Today 12:32 PM

GlaiveLady's iPad - Oct 28, 2011 2:58 PM Today 12:32 PM

Somewhere, in iTunes, time is able to stop time on the right, and have it keep going on the left. Wouldn't it be nice for me to have my cake and eat it too! And I could've sworn I deleted that second backup, you sunovagun.

So, here I wilt, tech-supportless because I'd have to purchase some extended warranty or pay some exhorbitant amount like for Microsoft or be able to find time to talk to them when they're working and I'm not. Why bother putting anything on my iPad anymore? Especially work stuff? And especially not looking forward to reconstructing my iPad from iTunes, again, like I did for Computer 2 that crashed.

(Locate the correct "Backup", reorganize all the transferred purchases into their appropriate folders, put files in their appropriate apps, find all the music and pictures from various sources, put them all on the computer accessible to iTunes, etc.)

If I am able to bring myself to finish the reconstruction, I will hesitate next time (even more than I already have this time) to upgrade to the next iOS because I'd rather have an older version with stuff that functions and not have to spend the better part of my weekend making sure my iTunes looks identical to my iPad (which I should be able to do with one click and some waiting) each time I upgrade and still risk losing everything. Glad I didn't spend much purchasing apps or books or songs, but definitely thinking about trading in my iPad for a different Tablet (again). Fool me once, shame on you: Fool me twice, shame on me!

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Hopefully this brings a bit more of a wholesome understanding rather than trying to put together all the fragmented and much repeated info that have been in these posts (which all seem true but also all very case-specific), thus far.

Excellent post. In short, having to sync all your data thru a music store is nothing short of insane.

I love apple products, but their insistence that I need to sync everything I have on one device on all my devices is moronic.

It might be fine with a teeny, facebooker social-mobber.

However, I'm a grown adult who like to keep different files on different devices.

I also like to be able add or delete an item to one device without loosing all my the data on all my devices.

Looking forward to the day when apple grows up and offers direct drag & drop functionality to each device.

I updated to iOS 5 as well, and iTunes is no longer on my desktop and the actual iTunes folder in my programs says 'empty'. Now, when I connect my iPhone to my PC it starts charging but iTunes does not open. The phone itself retained everything perfectly, but my computer seems to have lost all... Any suggestions?

This most likely won't apply to 99% of you, but my ex wife had this same problem.

She download iOS 5 and installed it, and hey presto all her apps and god knows what else were gone.

In this particular case she had recently installed a new operating system on her computer and had to redownload iTunes. As a result of this her computer was no longer authorised. as soon as she authorised her computer she got everything back again.

I hope this helps some of you.

P.S. When i updated my iphone I didnt experience any of these issues.

I AM FURIOUS! I lost everything!!!! WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT THIS APPLE!!!!

Hi well I had the same issue - itunes still had my music. It showed that the music was still loaded on my iphone, but when I tried to access the music from the phone it said there was none!

After loads of very very frustrating surfing for solutions - of which there had been none - I spent the next hour experimenting with ideas. No matter what I did the phone synced, but the songs remained absent from it despite what itunes was telling me.

HOWEVER!! I had a brainwave - switched to MANUAL management of songs etc, then selected ALL of them ON THE IPHONE ONLY and deleted the lot.

Then unchecked manual management, re-synced and no more than 5 minutes later 683 songs restored to a fully functional iphone

YIPPEE!!!!!!

A much more preferable variation on the song-by-song suggestion I had seen somewhere.....hope it works for you guys