itunes library is different on iphone and PC. HELP

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LJborn Author

Level 1

6 points

itunes library is different on iphone and PC. HELP

Only have one itunes library, i.e. one sign in, etc.

Used to sync with USB cord between PC and iphone.

iphone had subset of PC itunes music library.

Computer crashed, and had to reinstall windows10 and then reinstall all apps.

Now, the itunes library on my PC has NONE of the music that is in the itunes library on my iphone.

I went and downloaded everything supposedly that Apple could find in my itunes library onto my PC.

No help. Still whole artists and albums gone from my PC, which is supposed to be the repository of all my music.

I do have an icloud account, which works fine for calendar and notes, but doesn't want to do anything with music that isn't associated with a subscription to Apple Music.

How do I get the part of my itunes library that is on my iphone back onto my PC?

Help!!!!

iPhone 6, iOS 8.1.2

Posted on Mar 12, 2018 10:47 AM

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Answer 1

KiltedTim

Level 10

195,153 points

Mar 12, 2018 10:50 AM in response to LJborn

You can re-download music that you have purchased from iTunes at no charge. If you do not subscribe to iTunes match any music that you had on your PC from other sources is not uploaded to the cloud. You would have to restore that media from a backup of your PC or re-rip the original CDs and/or re-download it from wherever you got it to begin with.

Music sync between an iPhone and computer is one way. Computer --> phone, not the other way round.

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Answer 2

LJborn Author

Level 1

6 points

Mar 12, 2018 10:58 AM in response to KiltedTim

The problem is my iphone. NONE of the music on my iphone shows up in the itunes library on my PC.

albums are either in one place or the other, but not both. i didn't selectively only transfer to my iphone albums that were not purchased from itunes. I just transferred a subset that I wanted on the phone.

Are you saying that by definition anything that didn't re-download could not have been purchased from itunes?

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Answer 3

LJborn Author

Level 1

6 points

Mar 12, 2018 1:50 PM in response to KiltedTim

OKay, I don't think I am explaining the situation clearly: I transferred a SUBSET of my itunes library to my phone, since too much music to keep it all on the phone anymore. This was years ago, when I was still syncing with USB cable. I had checked particular artists/genres, and that was what would sync to the phone.

Suddenly, almost all of the music on the phone disappeared from the itunes library on the PC.

I no long er have a complete itunes library on the PC. When I hook up the USB cable, it gives me an error message because there are songs in each location that are not in the other location.

My icloud backup does a great job with contacts and calendar, but doesn't seem to want to backup my itunes library. I also thought I should be able to sync through the cloud, but can't figure out how to do that either.

Are you saying there is no way to sync between the phone and the PC? Seems strange, but so does the disappearance of music..... Doesn't correlate with whether bought or transferred from cDs.

I went back into my itunes backup libraries from external hard drives back to March 2017 and that wasn't helpful. Have to see if my other external drive goes back farther. I only started using LastPass six months ago, so that didn't help with this issue either.

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Answer 4

KiltedTim

Level 10

195,153 points

Mar 12, 2018 3:43 PM in response to LJborn

LJborn wrote:

Suddenly, almost all of the music on the phone disappeared from the itunes library on the PC.

I no long er have a complete itunes library on the PC.

Do you have a backup of your PC from before the media went missing from it?

There is nothing that can take place on your phone or as a result of connecting your phone to your PC that would cause media to be deleted from the PC.

LJborn wrote:

My icloud backup does a great job with contacts and calendar, but doesn't seem to want to backup my itunes library. I also thought I should be able to sync through the cloud, but can't figure out how to do that either.

Music an other media on the phone has never been part of either an iCloud backup or a backup of the phone to iTunes. Doing so would be redundant as the media had to come from iTunes on your computer (or directly from the iTunes store from which it can be re-downloaded) to begin with.

The only way to 'sync' music through the cloud is if you subscribe to iTunes Match.

I went back into my itunes backup libraries from external hard drives back to March 2017 and that wasn't helpful. Have to see if my other external drive goes back farther. I only started using LastPass six months ago, so that didn't help with this issue either.

I'm not sure how LastPass enters into it as that's a password manager and has nothing at all to do with backups.

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Answer 5

LJborn Author

Level 1

6 points

Mar 12, 2018 4:25 PM in response to KiltedTim

Sorry, I meant Backblaze, not LastPass.

The problem is that 95% of the media on the phone is not on the PC. When I go to do a sync with a USB cord, it says that media on the phone that is not on the PC will not be synced to the PC. The task was to try to get a complete itunes library back on the PC.

I gather I can't do that. Wish I understood how this happened.

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