How do I sync a never-synced iPad to iTunes without any data loss?

August 29, 2013 6:37 PM

I lost my iTunes installation in a hard drive crash. I have a backup from many months ago. I have an iPad and iPhone that have never been synced to iTunes because I got them since the hard drive failure. I'd like to re-install iTunes from the backup and sync my iPad and iPhone to the re-installed iTunes without losing any data or re-installing apps. How would I do that?

I had a hard drive crash that wiped out, among other things, my iTunes. I do have an ancient backup (Windows Backup), but I guess it is better than nothing. As I said before the jump, I would like to sync my new iPad and new iPhone to the restored iTunes installation. These particular devices have never been synced to any installation of iTunes. What do I need to do to avoid data loss when I sync them for the first time?

Additionally, I have an iPod touch and older iPhone that were synced to the installation of iTunes I would be restoring but the iTunes backup is from 8 months before the hard drive crash. I'd like to sync those devices to the restored iTunes installation as well. I'm not certain that those devices would be recognized by the restored iTunes as having been synced to it previously.

I don't mind spending money for third party software, if needed. Also, I will be more prudent about making backups in the future. I've been trying to Google this, but I'm not sure I'm distilling it down into an adequate search, so I thought an AskMe might help me out.

posted by Rob Rockets to Computers & Internet (2 answers total)

Best answer: First thing I would do is to make an additional backup of your iTunes library AFTER you have reinstalled it, maybe with something like Media Monkey.

Then make sure when you plug in your devices with the newer stuff, set them up in your iTunes preferences not to "synch to the computer" but "synch to the Cloud" or whatever.

Then when you synch your devices the newer apps, music and playlists on them should be saved in the cloud and can be downloaded (uploaded?) to your computer as well.

That should work, assuming you do not reset any of your devices or tell iTunes to restore them to an earlier backup.
posted by misha at 7:37 PM on August 29, 2013

Best answer: Oh, sorry, you will also want to find and delete the backups you made of your older iTouch and iPhone before you plug them in to synch. They should then synch to your newer installed iTunes as long as they are authorized on your Apple account.
posted by misha at 7:41 PM on August 29, 2013