Alrighty...after having my new iPhone for roughly three weeks the honeymoon is now over I think. Yesterday my main hard drive went south on me. Crash, burn, all that fun stuff. Luckily, I didn't lose anything important as I back up regularly and keep all my music, videos, etc on an external hard drive. One thing I did lose though was my iTunes Library. I know when you move an iTunes Library to another computer there is a correct way to do it as I've done it before with no problems. Sadly, because I was not able to do this I've run into a snag. When I connected my iPhone to my freshly reloaded computer today to delete a song off my phone I was told by iTunes that because my phone was synced with another iTunes, it must be wiped clean to be able to sync with this installation. I expected that I would just be able to add/delete files on my with no problem. I understand why Apple does this, but still, its a pain. Normally, I wouldn't mind just wiping it, but because I had just gotten everything set I'd rather not start over. So I ask: Is there a way that I can unlock my phone so I can add music/videos/apps to it again without erasing it? If not, is there a way I can pull all the files off my phone and put them back in place after I've wiped it to allow this version of iTunes to sync with my phone? Also, if I do wipe it because I can't save the files off the phone or unlock it, will I lose my contacts and settings or will it just affect the music/videos/apps? I ask because I will wipe my phone and re-add the media if I have to even though I would really rather not do it. One thing I can't just simply re-add is my contacts. If I lose those I will be really pissed as I have 129, many with multiple numbers and email addresses added to them. I guess in the future I'll have to make regular iTunes back ups as well.
I'm sure there's a 3rd party app out there to do it. I recently transferred some music onto an iPod shuffle with a Winamp plugin (can't remember which one, I think it was just a simple google job). Don't give up hope just yet!
I posted my plea for help to soon. After another hour or two of googling I found my solution. This article provided me a lot of answers. If something goes wrong with your iPhone, iTouch, or iPod give this article a read. It may save your stuff!
I'm not sure, but maybe this can help: http://www.iphonehacks.com/2008/10/synciphone-hack.html#more If you lose some app you bought from AppStore and try to buy (download) it again, it says: "You already purchased this app. If you want to download it for free, press OK." At least you don't have to pay again for some application you had before, if you lose it Is your iPhone jailbroken?
Sorry I wasn't clear guys. The article I found solved my problem. Even though my phone is/was synced with my old iTunes it still let me transfer my purchases off after I authorized my computer again. But because I have music and videos on there that I did not buy though iTunes I had to use a program suggested in the article I found called TouchCopy to pull the rest. TouchCopy worked perfectly. It let me pull off all my songs in regular format(.mp3, not Apple's strange broken up file system format). After I backed everything up I simply let iTunes erase my iPhone. Luckily when you erase an iPhone through iTunes it does not touch your contacts or settings, only the files which you can add though iTunes(Music, Videos, and Ringtones). After it was erased I simply added my files back. It was a lot less painful than I thought it would be. I panicked and posted on here hoping someone would know how to fix my problem before I had done the amount of googling I should have. Sorry.
touch copy works pretty well but i would also check out nero move it and iphone browser. both are handy tools.
I tried iPhone Browser, but It only shows the files as they appear/are on the device. Not as individual files ready to be pulled off. Still a handy tool if you need a complete backup of your device though. I've never heard of Nero Move it. Thanks for suggesting it. I'll have to check that out.
