How to backup music before updating OS on iPod

[disneysteve]

My daughter has never upgraded her iPod Touch to OS4. The main thing stopping her is she is afraid it will wipe off all of her music. Of course, we have all of it in our iTunes library but she doesn't want to have to reload it all song by song. Is there a quick way to create a playlist or folder containing everything she has on the device so that she can easily reload it after the update?

 

[*NikkiBell*]

I'd like to know the answer to this question myself. I have avoided upgrading my iPhone to the new OS because I heard so much about how it slows down certain iPhones. I am sure someone will be along shortly to help you out.

 

[ukwildcat]

You shouldn't have to back anything up, as iTunes does a backup every time you sync the iPod. Just do the update and everything should reboot as it is with the upgraded iOS.

 

[ukwildcat]

In fact, one of the options in iTunes is to restore your iPod from a backup. Just update away, everything will be fine. Worst case scenario is that you have to restore from the most recent backup after the update.

 

[Willow1213]

I always tell people if you are hesitant that you should do a backup manually. To do this you will find the device on the left side of iTunes and right click. It will give you a few options including "Transfer Purchases" and "Backup". I always make sure to do both in case there is anything that I have (apps, etc) that has not been transferred to my iTunes library. This way if something does go wrong you will always have a current backup and won't lose anything.

 

[MelissaFromRI]

Everytime I buy a new song or app from itunes , I backup my itunes library to blank discs. There is an option for this on the top left of itunes.

Hope this helps

 

[disneysteve]

Thanks everyone. So if she does a back up before doing the upgrade and for some reason her music gets wiped off, she can restore it from the back up? That would be fine. I thought the upgrade deleted all media (since that's what the pop up window says).

 

[vicki_c]

Thanks everyone. So if she does a back up before doing the upgrade and for some reason her music gets wiped off, she can restore it from the back up? That would be fine. I thought the upgrade deleted all media (since that's what the pop up window says).

The media though is stored on your iTunes library and when you sync the iPod to the computer/iTunes, it makes a backup. After the upgrade, you just sync it again if needed - if there's a problem, you can restore it from the backup (although I don't believe I have ever needed to do that).

 

[MelissaFromRI]

Thanks everyone. So if she does a back up before doing the upgrade and for some reason her music gets wiped off, she can restore it from the back up? That would be fine. I thought the upgrade deleted all media (since that's what the pop up window says).

You should be fine. I've never had a problem with my ipod after any upgrades

 

[rtobe]

I've had to replace an iPod twice due loss - as long as the library is on the computer, it just took synching the thing.

The more problematic thing I've had happen was with an iTunes upgrade, after upgrade, iTunes would not recognize my CD drive and some other odd issues. That one took Apple tech awhile to fix and involved walking me through fixing the registry (yes, I have a PC not a Mac and don't normally fuss with those things).

The thing that was more of a problem was when I got a new computer and wanted to transfer my iTunes library. Lost my playlists that I had created. Still had all the music but had to recreate playlists.

 

[sayhello]

You should be fine. I've never had a problem with my ipod after any upgrades

I just upgraded my iPod Touch to the newest version a couple of weeks ago, and it totally bricked, and I had to reset it to factory settings. Checking online, it was not that uncommon an occurrence with the current OS version.

Sayhello

 

[MelissaFromRI]

I just upgraded my iPod Touch to the newest version a couple of weeks ago, and it totally bricked, and I had to reset it to factory settings. Checking online, it was not that uncommon an occurrence with the current OS version.

Sayhello

Oh great , so I have something to look forward to...lol

 

[LSUmom4kids]

I always tell people if you are hesitant that you should do a backup manually. To do this you will find the device on the left side of iTunes and right click. It will give you a few options including "Transfer Purchases" and "Backup". I always make sure to do both in case there is anything that I have (apps, etc) that has not been transferred to my iTunes library. This way if something does go wrong you will always have a current backup and won't lose anything.

This is exactly what I was told to do by an Apple Tech.

 

[sayhello]

Oh great , so I have something to look forward to...lol

Pretty much. After the "fun" with my iPod, I refuse to update my iPad until there's an update to the update!

Sayhello

 

[disneysteve]

We took the plunge and did the update. As we feared, it totally wiped everything off her iPod. All the music gone. She had to manually transfer back all of the over 300 songs she had on there. That really sucks. Apple seriously has to fix that.

So beware everyone. Doing an update DOES wipe everything out despite what a couple of people said above.

 

[ukwildcat]

We took the plunge and did the update. As we feared, it totally wiped everything off her iPod. All the music gone. She had to manually transfer back all of the over 300 songs she had on there. That really sucks. Apple seriously has to fix that.

So beware everyone. Doing an update DOES wipe everything out despite what a couple of people said above.

Sorry you had that problem. I've never experienced this, and I've upgraded multiple iPhones/iPods/iPads multiple times and never had a problem.

Anyway, just wanted to say I was sorry since I gave you advice to the contrary. Hope it all worked out in the end.

 

[disneysteve]

Sorry you had that problem. I've never experienced this, and I've upgraded multiple iPhones/iPods/iPads multiple times and never had a problem.

Same thing happened each time I upgraded my iPhone. Music got wiped off. She was annoyed by that but at least the apps were okay. She didn't want to lose data and levels she's gotten to in games. That was okay. Only took her a few minutes to replace the music, though it probably isn't quite the way she had it before.

What we're going to do from now on is keep a playlist in iTunes of the music on each of our devices. Then after an upgrade, we'll just have to drag that playlist to the device to transfer the music back on. Guess we should have done that all along.

 

[vicki_c]

What we're going to do from now on is keep a playlist in iTunes of the music on each of our devices. Then after an upgrade, we'll just have to drag that playlist to the device to transfer the music back on. Guess we should have done that all along.

Oh - now I get it. If you have playlists that are you are syncing to the phone, you wouldn't have had any issue, I don't believe. In other words, when I update my phone, it does erase everything on the phone, but when you sync it to the computer it all gets put back on. So now I see why you had a problem.

 

[sayhello]

Oh - now I get it. If you have playlists that are you are syncing to the phone, you wouldn't have had any issue, I don't believe. In other words, when I update my phone, it does erase everything on the phone, but when you sync it to the computer it all gets put back on. So now I see why you had a problem.

I don't sync my music at all, I do it manually, because I have different music on different devices, and I just don't like the way iTunes handles syncing (I *REALLY* wish you didn't have to sync photos! What a pain!) So yes, if you don't autosync, you can have tons of issues.

Sayhello

 

[vicki_c]

I don't sync my music at all, I do it manually, because I have different music on different devices, and I just don't like the way iTunes handles syncing (I *REALLY* wish you didn't have to sync photos! What a pain!) So yes, if you don't autosync, you can have tons of issues.

Sayhello

You don't have to sync photos - just uncheck that on the Photos tab when your iPhone is attached to your computer.

We sync 5 ipods and iphones on one account - and do it all with playlists and smart playlists and it works great. I have all kinds of complicated nested smart playlists that update themselves based on # of times something was played, my rating of the song, etc. I think iTunes is awesome for that personally.

We own 70 GBs of music so there's no reasonable way to do it without using smart playlists unless we all just want the same songs on our devices all the time (and none of us do).