Q: I have recently had a complete failure of my computer (and my backups). HP completely wiped out my computer and sent it back to me. I had to re-download iTunes and Apple reissued me my entire library again. My question is two fold: When I connect my iPod classic will it have to be reconfigured since it hasn’t been connected since returned to me? Second, I have been reading iPod and iTunes Portable Genius concerning putting third party music back into iTunes without wiping it out of my iPod.
Will my iPod automatically sync without giving me a warning that it is doing it so that I can change it to manual or will I be okay to connect it and use Music Rescue to put back in iTunes? I’m just really scared that I am going to lose all my music that didn’t come from iTunes. Also there were about 100 items that iTunes did not reissue me, particularly music videos. Will Music Rescue let me put those back on iTunes, or will iTunes recognize them as purchased items from them?
– Leslie
A: Since you’re starting a brand new library, iTunes will not recognize your iPod as being associated with that library. As a result, when you first connect your iPod, iTunes should prompt you with a dialog box similar to the following:
From here, you can click “Cancel” and your iPod will remain connected.
You can then use Music Rescue to recover the other tracks from your iPod. Note that if you’ve already authorized your computer for your iTunes Store account, you may see an additional option to “Transfer Purchases.” Selecting this will transfer any purchased tracks stored on your iPod that were bought with any iTunes Store account currently authorized on your computer. This can be a fast way to get your purchased items back, but since the Music Rescue process will recover these items for you anyway along with your other music, this step is not strictly necessary.
Music Rescue does not draw a specific distinction between tracks purchased from the iTunes Store or those transferred from other sources, and it will simply recover all of your music and other media content from your iPod and copy it back to your computer.
