A few months ago I was required to do a restore on my Mac and I lost most of my iTunes library, except for purchases. I still have all of this music on my iPhone and want to put it back on my Mac? If I try to sync my iPhone it wants to delete all of my music off my iPhone and match it to my Mac, I want to do just the opposite?
iPhone 7, iOS 11.2.6, Bob's iPhone
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 from a device. The exceptions are iTunes Store media purchases which can be transferred to a computer.
iTunes for Mac: Transfer iTunes Store purchases from iPod, iPhone, or iPad - https://support.apple.com/kb/PH19615 - This feature works only for media content (not apps) bought from the iTunes Store. Alternatively: Redownload apps, music, movies, TV shows, and books from the iTunes Store, iBooks Store, and App Store - https://support.apple.com/HT201272
Attaching an iDevice to a computer for the first time, or if the computer considers it is a first time because that database no longer recognizes the phone, will result in the computer trying to erase the device.
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.
Don't take all the above personally. Apple doesn't explain the reason for this policy but if you think about who else may have an interest in introducing anti-piracy measures you can probably guess what's going on.
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 from a device. The exceptions are iTunes Store media purchases which can be transferred to a computer.
iTunes for Mac: Transfer iTunes Store purchases from iPod, iPhone, or iPad - https://support.apple.com/kb/PH19615 - This feature works only for media content (not apps) bought from the iTunes Store. Alternatively: Redownload apps, music, movies, TV shows, and books from the iTunes Store, iBooks Store, and App Store - https://support.apple.com/HT201272
Attaching an iDevice to a computer for the first time, or if the computer considers it is a first time because that database no longer recognizes the phone, will result in the computer trying to erase the device.
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.
Don't take all the above personally. Apple doesn't explain the reason for this policy but if you think about who else may have an interest in introducing anti-piracy measures you can probably guess what's going on.
Thanks so much, I will explore my options. I loved iTunes early on, today it is so restrictive that legitimate owners of CD's cannot control the content on MY device. Are you aware of another Music option for my Apple devices that is more user/owner friendly?
Import iTunes library from my iPhone to my iMac?
