Digital DJ Tips reader Mark writes: “Just a quick question for you please, as you are well up on iTunes. My home laptop has packed up – the one with iTunes on it. “When I get the new computer up and running is there any way I can get my iTunes back to the way it was, or have I lost any playlists and iPhone backups?”
Digital DJ Tips says:
If you can get the iTunes folder off of your old computer, yes, you can do that. iTunes stores your playlists and some extra info (for instance, your track ratings) away from the files themselves, which is why you need the libraries in that folder to come across as well as the actual music files.
There are a few hoops to jump through, but it’s possible. You’ll need an external drive, or to have both computers on a shared network. Here’s a step by step guide. If your only backyp is on your iPhone, don’t plug the phone into a fresh copy of iTunes whatever you do, as it’ll ask blank the phone before linking to it. You need to be cleverer than that to get it off the phone. There’s a good discussion of your options over on the Apple Support Communities. You may find it easier to try and get a specialist to recover the data from your hard drive, though. Good luck!
Have you ever had to restore your music after a hard drive fail? Have you got advice for restoring an iTunes library from an iOS device? Please share your thoughts in the comments.