Library

What to do if music, videos, and other content disappear after an iTunes update

It’s not that uncommon for the music, videos, and other content in your iTunes folder to disappear after updating iTunes. It doesn’t seem to happen to everyone, but as many internet stories will tell you, it does occur to a number of users on some occasions.

In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to get your iTunes music, videos, and more back when you notice it has gone missing after installing an iTunes app update.

How to transfer your music to a new computer using iTunes Match

iTunes Match is a paid service from Apple that allows you to store all your music in iCloud, regardless of where it originated from. For example, it could be music imported from CDs, downloaded from online music stores, or even music that was downloaded in ways that go against copyright laws. In short, iTunes Match matches or uploads all your music to iCloud so you can stream or download it from any of your Apple devices, including Mac, iPhone, and Apple TV.

With that said, iTunes Match offers an easy way to move your iTunes library to a new computer without having to deal with transferring files from one hard drive to the other. In this post, I will show you how to transfer your iTunes library to a new computer using iTunes Match.

How to transfer your iTunes library to a new computer

The best thing about getting a new computer is that, well, you’re getting a brand new computer. It’s exciting to have a shiny new toy to play with, making you wonder how you could have been using that old machine for so long.

To me though, the major downside of getting a new computer is that you have to set it all up from scratch. I’m not going to lie; some of that is part of the fun, but it can also be stressful and time consuming. Take migrating your iTunes library to your new computer for example. There is nothing really fun in that, and if you have a large library, it could take hours.

In this post, I will show you how to move your iTunes library to a new computer. Unfortunately I won’t be able to save you time or stress, but at least, you’ll have simple instructions on how to do transfer all your iTunes songs, albums, album covers, and playlists to a brand new computer.

Nike Makes Its iPhone App More Accessible

Running is a lot of work. That’s why the previous version of the Nike+ iPod was a bit of a hassle since you had to have special equipment just to participate in the experience. Apparently Nike agreed.
Now in the App Store is an app called Nike+ GPS which is a stand alone version of the aforementioned application. The $2 selection which you can download here utilizes the iPhone’s accelerometer and GPS capabilities (must be running iOS 3.1 or higher), which ditches the need for any additional adapters that it once required…  

Movies Rented on The iPhone 4 Can’t Be Transferred Back to iTunes

iLounge reveals a bit of discerning information that took a mysterious amount of time to surface. It turns out that the iPhone 4 shares the same limitations as the iPad and the Apple TV in regards to being unable to transfer rented movies back to your iTunes library.

The ability to move rentals had never been a problem before when renting on previous iPhone models. An excerpt from the iPhone iOS 4 User Guide briefly mentions the limitation on page 99, and it reads as such:

How to Copy Your iTunes Library to A New Computer

If you recently bought a new computer, you may have faced the issue of moving your data from your old computer to your new one. In most cases, it’s pretty easy, simply put your documents (ie. photos, videos, folders, etc…) on an external hard drive and move it to the new computer.

However, it’s a bit more tricky if you want to move your iTunes music library while preserving your ratings, play counts, and playlists. Fortunately, Apple made it pretty easy for us to copy our iTunes library to a new computer.

This article will show you how to move your iTunes music library to a new computer in just a few simple steps. It’s simple, but it does take some time though. Kudos go to Simon for this trick.

This method will work with every item you can get from iTunes. You will be able to backup the following files:

Applications
Music and Podcasts
Movies, Videos and TV Shows
Ringtones

In order to copy the iTunes library to a new computer we will use iTunes’ backup feature.

Step 1: In iTunes, go to File > Library > Backup to Disc.

Step 2: Choose Back up entire iTunes library and playlists.

Step 3: Insert a DVD or CD and start the backup process. Depending on the size of your library, this process could take hours, maybe days… If your DVD or CD is not enough to backup all the data, iTunes will offer you the option to backup to several discs.

Step 4: Once the backup process is over, open iTunes on your new computer and insert the first disc.

Step 5: iTunes will be smart enough to recognize the backup and will ask you if you want to restore from this disc. Click restore and let the magic happen.

This works pretty well if you don’t have much data to backup. However, if you have tens of thousands of songs and movies like I do, this will take you days to just copy the data.