Switching to a new iPhone, iPad or iPod touch: dispelling the myths

Time for a replacement?

If you currently own and use an Apple mobile device (iPod touch or iPhone / iPhone 3G / iPhone 3GS) and you’re considering upgrading to a newer one or you’ve been given another one as a gift or a warranty replacement, or perhaps you’re even considering switching to an iPad, the question of what to do with all the content you’ve bought and synced to your current device and how to avoid losing it has probably crossed your mind. There are a lot of myths and presumptions floating around out there, largely because iTunes and the way it syncs to your devices is so misunderstood. Here, we’ll try to clear up a lot of those misunderstandings and set the record straight on what’s involved with switching devices.

First things first; The Golden Rule of iTunes Syncing. Syncing from your computer to your iPhone or iPod touch is one-way (i.e. you can sync content from your computer to your device, but not from your device to your computer) with the exception of content that you have purchased from either iTunes or the App Store.

The second rule worth knowing relates to the differences between purchasing an app and purchasing music. With iTunes Music Store purchases, downloads are a one-off, one-time only affair. This means if you buy a track and then later delete it, you cannot just go ahead and download it from iTunes again for free. Instead, you’d need to purchase it again.

With apps, it is a very different story. Here, you are effectively paying for a license to use an app, rather than for the actual download of it. What this means is that once you have bought an app, you can re-download it as many times as you need to and you won’t be charged a single extra cent.

So what does this all mean? Well, let’s say you currently own an iPhone and you have the following content loaded onto it:

• Apps that were purchased via iTunes on your computer and synced to the device
• Apps that were purchased via the App Store on the device itself since the last sync
• Music that was purchased via iTunes on your computer and synced to the device
• Music that was purchased via the iTunes Store on the device itself since the last sync
• Music that has been ripped from CDs on your computer and synced to the device

The apps that were bought on your computer and synced over to your device are safe. Even if you somehow manage to format your computers hard drive or have some other catastrophic data failure or loss, you can pull the apps from iTunes again at no cost.

The apps that were bought on the device itself are, likewise, safe. To avoid having to download them again, though, make sure you sync to your computer one last time before switching to your new device. This will make sure that any apps bought since your last sync are transferred back to the computer and added to your iTunes library.

The music that was bought from the iTunes Music Store on the computer and synced to the device is safe as long as the tracks are still present in the iTunes library on the computer. Again, one last sync of the current device will ensure that any purchased music present on the device but not on the computer will be transferred over.

As for the music that was bought on the device since the last sync, that is safe as long as you sync back to your computer one last time before switching to the new device. If you buy music on your device and then switch to a new device without ever syncing the first device back, that music is gone-burger. Still with me? Good!

Music that has been ripped from a CD, added to your iTunes library on your computer and then synced to your device is a trickier matter. Like the purchased music, if the content is still in your computer’s iTunes library then it will safely sync to your new device good as gold. If, however, you have managed to somehow delete the music from your iTunes library and you’re consequently stuck in a situation where the music is on your device but not your computer, you’re a little out of luck I’m afraid. As I mentioned in the first golden rule, syncing is one-way unless it’s purchased content we’re dealing with, so there’s no easy or official way to rescue your precious Dave Dobbyn collection before switching to the new device. There are unofficial ways, but you’ll have to Google for those. It gets messy.

So the moral of the story is that with all of these, your purchased content is safe as long as you sync your device one last time, right before you make the switch. Your ‘ripped’ content should be treated with care and backed up regularly.