How to put iTunes library on new computer from iPhone 5S

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How to put iTunes library on new computer from iPhone 5S

I've seen other people ask similar questions, but all the answers involve doing a back-up from your old computer. I cannot do that. My old computer is gone, I no longer have any access to it, I cannot under any circumstances do any kind of back-up. I have a new computer now, and after much delaying due to simply not wanting to struggle with it, I've decided to finally put iTunes on it and sync my iPhone 5S. Now I've been bitten by this before. Several years ago, the same thing happened with another computer, and when I tried to sync my iPhone 4, everything on the phone's iTunes got erased and I could no longer access the dozens of songs I had bought on the phone. They didn't show up at all in my iTunes library, Apple told me they could not retrieve the songs even though I bought and paid for them, and I ended up wasting hundreds of dollars. I will not do that again.

I'm wondering if there is ANY way at all that I can sync my current iTunes library on my iPhone 5S to the iTunes library I am about to download onto my new computer. Every other reply I've seen says I need to do a back-up on my old computer, but I cannot do that. Is it at all possible to just transfer the library from my phone directly to my computer iTunes library? All the music I have is bought legally through the iTunes store on my phone and shows up in my library on my phone. My new computer has Windows 10, fully updated, and everything else on the computer functions normally.

Thanks in advance for any help you guys can offer!

iPhone 5s

Posted on Feb 11, 2016 11:52 AM

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Answer 1

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Limnos

Level 10

411,193 points

Feb 11, 2016 11:54 AM in response to clr004

Your i-device was not designed for unique storage of your media. It is not a backup device and media transfer was planned with you maintaining a master copy of your media on a computer which is itself independently backed up against loss. To use a device with a different setup you transfer the old library from a computer or a backup directly to the new setup, not the device to the library. Media syncing is one way, computer to device, updating the device content to the content on the computer, not updating or restoring content on a computer. The exception is iTunes Store purchases which can be transferred to a computer.

Redownload or transfer your iTunes Store purchases from an iPhone, iPad or iPod to a computer - https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201267 - "This feature works only for content bought from the iTunes Store." As of iOS9 it no longer does apps which now must be re-downloaded directly from the Store.

For transferring other items from an i-device to a computer you will have to use third party commercial software. See this document by turingtest2: Recovering your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device - https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3991 Even this method may not fully recover what you had in the library originally. For example if in order to save space when syncing you had converted music files to a lower bitrate, or photos to a lower resolution, it is those lower quality files you will recover.

If you subscribe to Apple Music, tracks which are not part of content you have purchased or uploaded cannot be transferred and have to be downloaded directly from iCloud.

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