Syncing your iPod/iPhone to a new iTunes library? Look here first.

Following up to my own post. My friend's iPhone developed an intermittent problem with the headphone jack and made an appointment with a Genius. After only a few minutes of inquiry and examination, the Genius gave him a "new" refurb. I asked about the apps and our syncing dilemma to which the Genius replied that there should be no problem since the phone had been backed up before our visit. George examined the "new" phone and noted that no apps were there after the in-store backup and we went home to restore from his backup. Again, no apps transferred over so he proceeded to download each from the App Store. As he was using his existing account, each was recovered without question. Lo and behold, the app data had been saved by his at in-home backup and he can sync his apps without fear of data lose. A happy ending for our problem.

back-up location??

Does anyone know where to find the last iPhone back-up? As I explained in my earlier post, I recently deleted my iTunes folder in My Music (as having been directed by the APPLE how-to site), after having transferred all of my iTunes files over to a new external hard drive, and now my library is gone and my iphone thinks i'm trying to sync it with a new iTunes library. My iTunes library appears to have been permenantly deleted but can i still find the last iPhone back-up I made somewhere?

I read in another forum that the file is found under - "Cocuments and Settings\USERNAME\Application Data\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup".
I looked and my file extention stops at the user name. There isent any Application Data and so on. I'm using Windows XP Professional. Please help!

Application data is a hidden folder. You have to go into windows explorer view options and enable showing of hidden folders.

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/...s/win_fcab_show_file_extensions.mspx?mfr=true

I cannot believe that to date, iTunes has not come up with a simplified way to sync between two computers.. I have been looking for weeks to find a way to do this and finally, having come across this thread, there is light at the end of the tunnel..

My old laptop is running windows XP Home and my new laptop will be running Windows 7 (after I wipe vista and install Win7).

So am I to take it that the instructions in the first post, in 2008, are still valid and correct today with iTunes9?

Any advice/tips would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Sammie

Yep, everything should still work the same.

wow, that would be great for me too - I've got iTunes 9 and XP on one laptop and Windows 7 on the other
I can't find the link to the advice - could someone give it to me?

http://www.everythingicafe.com/foru...library-look-here-first-42429.html#post405798

thanks, I did find that one but didn't really understand it - I'll read it more carefully next time!

If you have questions, just ask.

Hi..

I don't have Outlook on my new machine, so what would happen to my contacts and notes when I try to synch to the new iTunes instance?

Thanks

Sammie

Hiya,

In your guide, you say to consolidate the library in iTunes by going File -> Library -> Consolidate, however I don't have that option in iTunes 9. Is there an alternative to achieve the same thing (i.e. consolidate library for the purpose of moving everything over to another computer)? Thanks

Contacts and notes are saved in your iPhone backup file. So as long as you locate and transfer that to your new PC (step #2), you should be good.

That did change slightly in iTunes 9. it is now File->Library->Organize Library->Consolidate Files. I'll edit the original post to reflect this. Thanks for the catch.

Thanks hippo!!

Two more questions please if I may?..

I don't have this file structure directory (from Step#1):

XP: C:\Documents and Settings\Users\UserName\Music\iTunes

Does that only get created once you do the consolidation?

Also, I've found the backup files for the iPhone (under ...\AppleComputer\MobileSynch\Backup). There are two folders in thar direcctory. One is pretty old and the other folder has files in it dated more recently. Do I need both back up folders? I am guessing that one of the folders, (the older one) was before the 3.1 upgrade so I only need the folder that is more recent?

Thanks

Sammie

Might as well back up both of them, but, yes, the more recent one is probably the best.

As for the file structure; what is missing? The itunes music folder? It should be there as soon as itunes is installed unless you moved it somewhere. If you think it was moved, open itunes preferences, and go to the advanced tab. The top field in that window should tell you where your iTunes folder is located.

Hi,

I'm moving from WinXP to Win7.

I've backed up the iPhone back up file from winXP and am now trying to get to the below location in WIn7 (on another laptop) so I can copy over and place the backup files here..

Vista/Win7: C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\AppleComputer\MobileSync\Backup

However, I can't find this location on my Win7 laptop. I get as far as AppleComputer and I don't have MobileSynch\Backup to navigate to.

Would the process detailed in the sticky still work as intended if I just create the directory and then paste the back up files in there?..

Thanks

Sammie

Yes, I'm sure that will work.

Sounds like you just haven't synced any devices with that computer yet. Worst case scenario, you could sync your iPhone first, so iTunes will create the necessary folders. Then put the backup in that folder, and then restore your phone to that backup.

But I bet it'll work if you just manually make the folders.

This is driving me mad.

I followed all the steps.. Backing up my music and back up files and copying them over to the relevant Win7 locations. (An additional step which you might want to add to the sticky was to transfer purchases). I then hit synch and the phone said synch in progress. I checked the phone and everything was still on it, contacts, apps etc etc.. (My music wasn't copied over but I am not bothered about that as all the music files are still on my external hard drive.. but I had hoped my playlists would have been copied over.)

I then realised that I didn't come across step#5 (merge contacts) and that was because I didn't check the "Synch Contacts" option in iTunes. So I clicked on the info tab of iTunes which allowed me to decide if I wanted to synch contacts with either Google Contacts, Windows Contacts or Yahoo! Address Book.. But I have none of these currently so don't know how to use them or what to do now inorder to synch/backup my contacts..

I'm stuck. I haven't got outloook (what I used previously) on my new laptop and would really like something "universal" so I don't run into this problem again..

This whole process is driving me mad and making me wish I never purchased an iPhone..

We'll get it straightened out. I'm currently travellig, but once I'm settled, I'll check back in.

I did the synch again... and this time remembered to go into the info tab and select synch contacts to windows address book. I hit synch and all my contacts are now in windows contacts (on Win7). My notes are still on the phone so no idea if they have been synched to PC and if so where because normally they were synched to Notes in Outlook. I got the "merge" option in step 5 and it all worked fine.