I cannot restore my ipad from itunes error message says I need a newer version of Itunes but I have just updated it?

You've installed an up-to-date version of iTunes on your computer ? iOS 9 requires iTunes 12.3+ on your computer - that is what you have installed, and if not does your computer support it so that you can install it (iTunes requirements are listed on this page : http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/) ?

I'm not an expert on Windows and the requirements that an OS update requires

There are some help pages on Microsoft's site about updating : http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/install-upgrade-activate-help#install -upgrade-activate-help

I use Windows every day (also Macs). I would not update an old computer running Vista to the latest version which is W10. If your computer is that old, your hardware, while perhaps marginally able to support it, will run very slowly. Vista came out in 2006 - 9 years ago. A new budget/entry level computer these days will run circles around a 9 year old one so rather than spending money buying W10 (not free for Vista) you should consider a new computer preinstalled with W10 instead. Besides, a 9 year old computer can fail at any time, actually any computer can, but an old is prone to, specially the hard drive. Good luck...

You should be able to copy the backup folder over, on Windows it's stored under (the directories may be hidden, so you may need to change preferences in Windows Explorer to get them to show) :

Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8:\Users\(username)\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\

To quickly access the AppData folder, click Start. In the search bar, type %appdata%, then press Return.

Windows XP:\Documents and Settings\(username)\Application Data\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\

To quickly access the Application Data folder, click Start, then choose Run. In the search bar, type %appdata%, then click OK.

Copying it into the named folder on the new computer should get it to be automatically recognised and for it to show in the Devices tab in Edit > Preferences on your new iTunes.

And copy your iTunes library over (apps, films, music etc are not included in the actual backup, that just contains your documents, photos, settings etc).

There is this user-tip for syncing to a new computer : https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3141

Some of the steps on that page have changed slightly (it was written for a previous version of iTunes) :

5, is now File > Devices > Transfer Purchases

6, 'Reset Warnings' at the bottom of the phone's Summary tab in iTunes

7, File > Devices > Back Up

8, File > Devices > Restore from Backup (or Restore Backup button on the Summary tab)

Hi Colin,

I hesitate to offer advice that is somewhat different from King Penguin's, considering his level of expertise, however IMO there is a simpler method for what you are trying to accomplish. You recently mentioned (while I was sleep, I am in Texas) that you have a W7 computer at your disposal and this is relevant. I have been working on Windows since MS first issued it and I have a W7 computer - still my main workhorse despite this wonderful MBP I am typing on now.

Why not simply migrate the iTunes library now on your Vista machine to the W7 computer? This should be straight forward. What am I missing? As I understand it, and please correct me if I misunderstood (you too King), your Vista machine is up and working but you cannot use it to restore. IMO if you follow the simple steps in the article below, you can migrate your current iTunes library to your W7 computer and then restore from it (skip the "Before you begin" part, you already have a backup and cannot make a new one).

How to move your iTunes library to a new computer - Apple Support

While you can indeed access the backup by following the %appdata% process as King said, you may not need to if your main desire is just to restore you iPad. Also the User Tip that Wjosten provided, while excellent for a hard drive crash, is not needed in your case, your Vista HD is working and accessible.

I hope this helps... If not, I am awaiting the corrections!!! 🙂

Carlos (elcpu)

I guess it depends upon how soon the new computer will be bought, and which (the new desktop or the existing Win 7 laptop) you will be wanting to sync to going forward e.g. do you want to potentially copy everything over to the Win 7 machine if you will shortly be getting a new desktop which you want to sync to and will have to repeat the process to copy your library and backup over to that.

The steps in the user-tip probably aren't strictly necessary, as long as you copy the entire library and the backup over from your old computer - when you first connect a device to a new computer you are likely to get a 'do you want to replace the device's existing contents with that library or set it up as new' option, which the user-tip is designed to get-around (copying your existing backup over, should, I think, overcome that, though it's not something that I've tried)

Hi Col,

Attached are 2 screenshots taken on my W7 Dell. The first one shows what I see in iTunes under the Preferences > Devices tab. It shows 4 backups, 2 for my iPhone and 2 for my iPad. For a reason unknown to me, when I perform an iOS update through iTunes, i.e., 9.0.1 to 9.0.2, it creates a backup and adds a date to the name thus the 9/30/15 backups you see when I updated. These backups are not overwritten. When I do a manual backup like the ones I did on 10/1/15 they overwrite the old manual backups and are labelled as you see in that view.

The second screenshot is what I see by going to %appdata% (this bypasses the need to unhide files) and then going to Roaming > Apple Computer > MobileSync > Backup >. I see the same 4 backups dated the same of course. It is possible that you could have quite a few if you have done iOS updates through iTunes and those update backups have not been deleted before. If you are looking for an update to copy, I would copy the latest one but if you have more than one device like me, you will not know which one it pertains to thus not a good idea. Luck of the draw as you cannot backup an iPhone backup to an iPad and viceversa and on this view you will not know which one it is for.

Have you considered what I suggested, moving the iTunes library as per the Apple article above?

Cheers... Carlos (elcpu)

I am wondering if I might just be better upgrading my old Vista machine to Windows 7 if I can find a way of doing that {seems hard without Microsoft pushing windows 10 at you) which I don't think this old tub will cope with? then downloading iTunes which should load as it will be happy with the operating system. Or have I been staring at my computer too long ha ha

You have been staring at your computer too looooooooooong!!!! LOL.... Don't upgrade to 7, first you are going to be hard pressed to find a copy of W7 anywhere to use for your upgrade or so I believe, it would be difficult here in Texas. Secondly why waste good money? In the scenario you paint above why not just download iTunes to your current W7 machine and then migrate the Vista iTunes library to it?

You can also go here Apple - Support - Downloads and click on the link that reports iTunes version 12.1.3 for Windows 64-bit or 32-bit, depending on your system and install that version. It is dated September 16, 2015. It is for XP and Vista computers that cannot use the latest version of iTunes (12.3) that only runs on Windows 7 and up. This will allow you to use iOS 9.x.