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Reimage your computer to brand new state, what about iphone?

chaoses

chaoses

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 22, 2008
59
0
Maryland, US
I searched through the forums a bit but didn't see any threads about this topic. Basically, I'm trying to recover my computer to brand new state by formatting everything (because it gets so slow now). Is there a location that itunes saves all the music files, apps, contacts... so that I can copy to a hard drive?

Also, If I want to transfer the contents of itunes from 1 computer to another, how do I do that?
 
chaoses said:
I searched through the forums a bit but didn't see any threads about this topic. Basically, I'm trying to recover my computer to brand new state by formatting everything (because it gets so slow now). Is there a location that itunes saves all the music files, apps, contacts... so that I can copy to a hard drive?

Also, If I want to transfer the contents of itunes from 1 computer to another, how do I do that?
Click to expand...

If you have a Mac, everything is stored in Music>iTunes. Copy that folder to an external hard drive or USB drive and put it on another computer. Sorry but I am not aware of where iTunes media is stored on a Windows machine. You could also put everything on your iPhone and just click transfer purchases in iTunes on the computer you are putting everything on.

David
 
FCP.guru.guy said:
That's where I expected it to be but wasn't sure. Do a search for "iTunes" in Explorer (I think that's what it's called:p).

David
Click to expand...

Everything should be in "Itunes Library" except for IPHONE/Ipod backups. You will NEED this folder to resync with your phone after the format other wise forcing you to wipe your phone in order to re-sync. (Because of itunes lib file.) Copy that folder and you should be fine.
 
FCP.guru.guy said:
You could also put everything on your iPhone and just click transfer purchases in iTunes on the computer you are putting everything on.
Click to expand...

That only works for apps. Music, video and pictures won't transfer from an ipod/iphone back to a computer.
 
Night Spring said:
That only works for apps. Music, video and pictures won't transfer from an ipod/iphone back to a computer.
Click to expand...

Music and videos will transfer if you click Transfer Purchases. For Photos you will need to get them off the iPhone by going in Explorer and finding the pictures. You can Google how to do that and I'm sure you'll figure it out. If not, we're here.

David
 
FCP.guru.guy said:
Music and videos will transfer if you click Transfer Purchases. For Photos you will need to get them off the iPhone by going in Explorer and finding the pictures.
Click to expand...

If you purchase and download music and videos from the itunes store onto the iphone, then yes, they will transfer back. For music and videos synced from a computer to iphone, that won't work. Notice how the option is called "Transfer Purhcases," not "Transfer Media Content."

As for pictures, going in through explorer and getting them off the iPhone is fine for pictures taken with the iphone or saved onto the iPhone through safari. But if you had high-def pictures on your computer that you synced to your iPhone, then they get compressed during transfer, so using this method, you would get back lower quality pictures.

My point is, DO NOT THINK OF YOUR IPHONE/IPOD AS YOUR MEDIA BACKUP DRIVE! If you value your media, make frequent backups on an extra hard drive, dvds, flash drives, etc.
 
Ok I got the photos and music by just copying them into a hard drive. But the apps and contacts weren't backed up so I didn't get those :( I saved all contacts using windows contacts so I can add one by one again but that would be the last thing I'd do.
 
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