What’s a person to do when their hard drive crashes, and they lose all of the songs that they purchased from iTunes? There is no option to re-download all of your iTunes purchases offered through either iTunes or the Apple website. However, while you may get chastised for not backing up your iTunes library (which you will do from now on, right?), it is possible to redownload all of your iTunes songs purchased through iTunes again, and restore your iTunes purchases.
First, it’s important to understand that Apple has always had a policy of not letting people download iTunes music purchases more than once per purchase, and that undoubtedly has to do with royalties that they have to pay on each download. So you get to download the song that you purchase through iTunes exactly once.
And Apple strongly urges you (and rightly so) to backup your iTunes library (and of course you should always make a regular backup of all of your data).
But, shift happens, and what can you do if, somehow, you lose your only copies of the songs that you have downloaded through iTunes?
Well, as it happens, Apple isn’t heartless, and they do have a way for you to recover those songs that you purchased and downloaded through iTunes.
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In fact, with iTunes 10.3, it’s very easy. In fact, the hardest part is upgrading to 10.3 if you haven’t already (and let’s face it, generally speaking that’s not very hard).
But first, make absolutely sure that you don’t have any copies, anywhere. It’s only prudent.
Once you are really sure that those iTunes songs are gone, here’s what to do:
1. Open the iTunes Store on your device.2. Make sure you are signed in with the same account used for the original purchase.
3. Tap Purchased from the bottom navigation bar.
4. From the Purchased tab, tap the artist name for the content you intend to download again.
5. Once you’ve located the music you are looking for, tap the download button.
(If you want to download all songs from an album that you’ve purchased, click on the button to swith to the “Album” view.)
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I would sincerely like to thank you, I was afraid I had lost 3 of my movies but it appears I have not!
I don’t understand why people would put so much of their faith into Apple, I couldn’t live without my open source software.
Or switch to Amazon Music, and never have to deal with the idea that you don’t really own what you’ve paid for, because it is stored in the cloud and you can download it whenever you need to.
Thanks!!!!!!!
Why make a fuss over this? The bestest surest way to protect your songs is NOT TO DOWNLOAD IT ONLINE.
1. Buy the discs.
2. RIP the songs.
3. Hide the discs.
4. Enjoy the ripped songs.
Your house will be filled with the original discs but who cares? As long as the songs are safe, right? Downloading songs online is DOWNRIGHT LAZY!
Apparently this does not count when the rights change for particular media. I owned the movie Annie Hall, which has since changed to rent only in the iTunes store. Now it is nowhere to be found in my cloud. It looks like having a backup of everything is really the only option.
Not really – i have the listing of songs in my account under purchase history – but when I click on purchased music, nothing shows up in the main panel. The side panel says I bought 53 songs. Same thing with books. Now what?
Will icloud let us redownload our content purchased before icloud was announced? Like the music I bought a year ago? will i get charge for redownloading?
SuretoShine
I lost everything on my computer and had to backup to beginning and now have lost all the music that I personally downloaded to my computer and shared with iTunes. I no longer have iPod to use. How can I get all the CDs, music that I personally downloaded and shared with itunes synced back to my media player on my computer again. Step by step information would be greatly appreciated. Thank you
Trich
“C:\Users\USERNAME\Music\iTunes\iTunes Media\TV Shows\The Secret Life of the American Teenager”
You can then drag and drop each folder of tv episodes.. for me somehow when I updated itunes, it just lost the TV SHOWS(annoying)
your user name and path may vary , but on Windows 7 this is the path
Yes, this is all great if such option was also available to all of us living in the countries outside the US.I find it curious that the conditions are not the same for everyone, no democracy here. Not all of us update our music all the time – I lost huge amount of songs recently and feel cheated because I can never get them back unless I buy them again. A minus for Apple in my book.:(
When I follow these instructions, it says ‘You do not have any purchased music available to download’. I’ve only just got an iphone and I purchased one song last week. I also can’t find on the web instructions for trying to get the song again from itunes on my computer. Any advice?? Tks.
This only works if the item(s) you are trying to re-download are still in iTunes. I have been having issues with shows and movies purchased in Itunes and disappearing. Like Dreamworks Puss in Boots.
Is there a way to recover an audio book? When I choose the purchase button on my device, the only options are music, movies and TV shows. And unfortunately, audiobooks are not in the music section either.
Thanks
Matt
I get as far as “download” on the music I want to redownload, but the “download” button is greyed out, and hence it does not work
Thank You SOOOOOOO much! This is a LIGIT operation. I lost a movie about five years ago off of my old computer… In just minutes I got it back! Thank You!
Sadly that is a “lie”.. I only have get “apps” and “books” as option. I have bought neither. I just want my music back. And it is not even an option.
@Kristen, you give me hope. I’m waiting to hear from someone now. suecan
thank you! i forgotten i’d downloaded a song a long time ago so when i went to buy it again it said i had downloaded it. your tutorial helped me get it w/o having to pay for it again :D
Here’s a problem: Apple deactivated one of the two or three Itunes accounts I had set up over the years, and no I can’t download music I bought with that account. Acording to an Itunes store senior advisor and supervisor, Apple did this due to no fault of mine, but because someone in Sweden had commandeered the account (fortunately, no credit card charges).
In any event, now I can’t get the songs back. I can’t log onto itunes and re-download them because there’s no account to log in with! My fault for setting up multiple accounts (due to moving, forgetting passwords, changing emails, whatev). But not my fault that they deactivated the account.
I’ve probably lost 1000 songs purchased during a relatively short timeframe. I’m honestly thinking about suing. Anyone ever heard of this?
With iTunes 10.5++ you can now download all purchased songs, tv shows, books, apps and *some* previously purchased movies.
And make sure to back up all purchased media from now on. My backpack containing my laptop and external drive was snatched last year and lost all my backup. I didn’t care so much about the albums since I burn mine into CDs. And the TV episodes/season pass since I usually watch the new episodes as soon as I finish downloading. But losing the movies at $10-$18 apiece is hard to accept.
So I’m extremely thankful that I can download all those movies again.
I started backing up my purchases online using megaupload premium last year(since it’s the cheapest cloud storage I could find)but now I lost my backups all over again. I hope the FBI will let us legit users retrieve our files. There isn’t anything illegal in my storage. Just my own photos, videos, documents and school files/papers/reports are there.
what about retrieving movies?
Guys, go to purchases on the left of iTunes, and then on the bottom right, it says download previous purchases. Voila! iCloud is your friend…
I just recently purchased and Ipod Touch and I did have 4 songs downloaded onto it but on 2 of the four will play all the way through and I have no idea how to get them to play all the way through and I do not know how to get them BACK onto my ipod touch even though I have tried the following things: Re-syncing my ipod numerous times but the other 3 songs are not back onto my ipod even though I have checked all of the songs that I want to have on there but they still do not show up on my ipod even after syncing it I don’t know how many times.I’d really like some help on how to get the songs to play all the way through and get them back onto my Ipod.Thank you~
I would think if it was a new hard drive or even a new computer if the person used the same email account and password they could find their purchase history and download their songs to their library again. My son’s hard drive died and we had sharing our music on both computers. I did have to deauthorize all computers and start over to authorize his again since of course he was unable to deauthorize his before the hard drive died. Its not like it gives you a warning its going to die! It was showing three computers authorized which caused the confusion. Some of his songs are backed up on CD’s but not all..wouldn’t work to back them up on his computer since the hard drive died. Anyway though I had sharing between computers his iTunes kept saying all songs had been downloaded though there were only three sample songs on it. Nothing worked. So I went into his purchase history and am currently downloading all his song on his computer again..over six hundred, back onto iTunes.
Listen to this., I had my ipod charging on my dock, When i went to unlock it needed a password, I dont have a password so i didnt know what to do i dont have a lap top so i had to restore it and im still trying to figure out how to get the form to fix it
Cheers, Mike, I hope it works (I’ve just emailed Apple, too!)
I’ll tell you my story in a nutshell. I’ve been away from home for a while and, before I left, I bought a Touch. Whilst I was away, I purchased 5 albums via the iTunes app on the touch. Last Thursday I was mugged, and my backpack was taken off me (I have a chronic illness, for which I have to take very strong painkillers (100mg Tramadol + 1g paracetamol 3 times daily, or as required). I’d been walking back to my lodgings and needed a dose but, just as I was taking my rucksack off, two guys approached me from behind, ripped it from my back, pushed me to the ground and legged it (I’m 112lb and 5’4″, so I didn’t stand a chance!). No cops, and no CCTV! I had NO opportunity to back up my purchases and I’ve had to return to my parents to recuperate.
I’m disabled and on benefits, and I saved long and hard for the iPod – it was hardly my fault I ‘lost’ it and now I feel like Apple are mugging me again!
The problem now is, I’m worried Apple are gonna think it’s just some BS I’ve invented because I didn’t back up!
Hello. Guys I need help i’m yet to be able to even email these guys some1 further up said to click on music purchases, then lost or missing items, i did that on the top right i see a little icon with a email thing next to it. But when i click it is says ”to” and then a box where you can write, and then send. Now. is this where you put in a message and email them? or am i doing it wrong? I’m using a MAC if that matters. Thanks.
Just login, and at Quick Links look for “Purchases”. That worked for me very well =)
it is annoying when you download a song you cant burn it to cd and put it on another computer
IVE BEEN TRYING TO SEE THE SONGS I HAVE PURCHASED FOR MY IPOD. I LOST MY I POD , HOW DO I RETRIEVE THE SONGS AND VIDEOS I PURCHASED?
AMDphreak your moniker suggests some familiarity with the IT world, but apparently not, with your lame and ignorant comment:
“12.What, did Apple PAY you to make this article, or are you stupidly giving them free advertisement … “check out the newest iPod Nano…” Comment by AMDphreak — 10/22/2010 @ 11:09 pm ”
First, its an ad for AMAZON, not APPLE. Second, did you read info on this site? Did you pay for it? You expect it for free, but the host actually has to pay to post this information, which you are apparently unaware. That’s how almost every site on the web works – advertising on the site.
your tutorials and everything you do for the computing world is extremely helpful except that your Itunes program isnt as up to date as your tutorials. your recovery for itunes music show an icon for purchases that doesnt exist on the current update with the itunes store on my phone or computer
im having nothing but problems trying to simply download music. wtf
@Kristin – where did you find the “store songs” feature in your iTunes account? I’ve looked all over my account and I can’t find it. Is it different because I have a mac?
LEARn how to torrent music first!!! if you feel bad about “stealing music” go watch the south park episode. All you gotta do it learn to use a torrent and tada free music to you itunes/ipod
well, that restore feature only works for purchased songs. so all these people saying their computer won’t let them transfer from ipod to itunes is because they didn’t pay for it in the first place
My hard drive crashed, and had to be replaced, last fall. Sadly, my iTunes library was not backed up. (I know, I know – my bad). I contacted iTunes and though I was lectured on the importance of backing up my library (which I totally deserved), they allowed me to download my entire library again. They made it clear though that this is something they will only let you do ONE time. The only problem I had was that they do *not* reissue items that have been “updated” since the date you originally purchased them, so that accounted for maybe 10% of my original library. I’m not complaining – it could have been worse, and most of the missing songs were already on my iPod.
I’m not sure why people think you can’t put iPod files back on to your computer. You simply have to use the “restore songs” feature in your iTunes account – puts them right back! Good luck everyone.
Simple solution people – www.gomusicnow.com
Songs only cost 15c each/album only $2-4!
And they wonder why people use bittorrents….
My i-touch crashed last week and I’m pretty sure the only hope of it working again is if I restore it meaning everything will be wiped. Almost all of my itunes purchases were bought via the i-tunes app on the touch which means that they aren’t actually on my computer (I didn’t know how to put them on/sync them), so I have no back-ups. So if apple don’t let me re-download even though it was THEIR product that broke, I’m out of pocket?…. great.
The link doesn’t work for me. No form of any kinda comes up. Help?
What if, i kept downloading apps through the app store in my ipad. I don’t have a copy of the apps in my itunes because my laptop (where my itunes is downloaded) broke. If i sync my ipad to a new laptop, will i lose all the apps i downloaded? Hope someone answers….. Thank you :)
I accidentally Deleted the App that Run’s iTunes, Q Viewer ? So all my Music went because my iTunes went. So Now after writing to them I am waiting to see if they will let me re download my Purchased Music ? I just got the ‘Acknowledgement of my email to them and have 24 hors to wait for their Reply.
What, did Apple PAY you to make this article, or are you stupidly giving them free advertisement with the “while you’re waiting on your iTunes, check out the newest iPod Nano…” “…with built in money waster and extra DRM to choke you to death slowly!! It’s exciting isn’t it! I can’t wait to be Apple’s slave!!!”
Thanks Jim – Have emailed apple and will let you know their response.
Thanks again
Mike, you need to give them a legitimate reason why you need access to your old purchases, and you need to give them a date range. So if you tell them that your computer crashed and you didn’t have backups (hopefully this wasn’t the case), then they may tell you to pound sand. In my case, my backups were unwittingly encrypted, and I lost the encryption key when my computer crashed. I then told them that I was able to restore much of my collection by back-syncing my iphone, but that I needed download access back to Jan. 2009. They responded positively within 24 hours.
Cheers Jim – will report back how I get on! if you have any tips for style of email or wording would be appreciated.
Thanks again Jim.
Mike
Mike – go to http://www.apple.com/support/itunes. Click on “Music Purchases”, then “Lost or Missing Items”. In the right-side panel, you will see a link to send an email. Click that.
@Jim
Hi Jim, per your comment number 55 I was just wondering how you contacted Itunes? was this by phone or email? if by email could let me know the web address as I cant seem to find out how to contact them just keep getting shown to another web page of useless support information!!!
Many thanks in advance for your help.
Mario – when a software company grants me a “license”, it’s not for the entire platform. I didn’t buy the software platform – that would be millions of dollars. I merely purchased a copy of it – that’s why they let me re-download another COPY. See, they keep RECORDS of my TRANSACTION. It’s simple AMAZING what they can do with computers these days – things like storing DATA!
Anyway, as for your CD analogy, I simply don’t see any connection whatsoever. If you can’t see the difference between the two, we have no hope of discussion, and we should all go back to owning clunky CDs.
Mario and KC – you can cling to the dinosaur model of one-download-per-customer, but the rest of the world, except Apple, is moving on to more modern digital content models. This isn’t a matter of determining “who’s to blame”, or evaluating whether they backed up their content or their content was simply stolen or their content encryption keys died with their computer. It’s a matter of moving into the 21st century. It costs Apple more money to maintain a staff of customer service reps who can sift through mountains of re-download requests one-at-a-time to see if they are “worthy”, than it would to simply connect their transaction records to the download function and leave it up to the customers.
Complain about lame users all you want, ten years from now this will all be moot because all content providers will be operating on the Kindle model. And you’ll be the church ladies no one is listening to anymore.
@Jim … When you purchase a software application you are not really buying the media you are buying the license . Thats why most software company lets you redownload. If you try to download an Itunes App that you have lost /deleted Itune will NOT charge you again. When you buy a song you are not buying a license you are buying the media. You lose the media you lose your rights :) … It is frustating dont take me wrong but it has nothing to do with Apple other than ppl always like to moan about companies getting bigger and bigger and we little people get nothing out of it. Happened with Microsoft and now its happening with Apple. We all think that they owe us so much because we bought their products. Easily fixed- DONT BUY from them :)
KC I completely agree with you..
Hey guys,
I lost all my music as well and yes I was annoyed. Very annoyed as it is MY fault. Not Apple, Microsoft or anybody’s else fault MINE. I had no backup!
So you go and buy a CD from HMV or whatever its called in your country and you do not create a copy of that CD and then it breaks cause of your fault.. DO you go back to HMV and ask them to give you another CD? NO! So what is the difference between that and the ITunes..
Of course I would like the option but be realistic !!! You buy something and if you lose it you dont go back and ask for another for free , REGARDLESS what that is ! People like to moan about nothing !!!
KC, great point. If we were talking about… say, 1995. Online content models have progressed way past the old one-purchase-one-download-per-customer model. When my computer crashed and I needed to rebuild it, I was easily able to go to several of the software companies I’d purchased software from and re-download – without customer support getting involved. If fact, they look at it as an OPPORTUNITY to sell you an upgrade to the latest version. Amazon actually maintains my entire Kindle library so that I don’t have to keep every book I’ve ever purchased on my device. After reading, I just delete it. If I ever want to get it back, I simply download again. That’s because content providers have COMPUTERS on which they can record DATA in meaningful ways – like ACCOUNTS with transaction RECORDS. Yes, of course it’s good practice to back up your content, but I lost mine even though I had DOUBLE backups – backups of my backups. Stuff happens, and content providers like Apple need to stop acting like old church ladies (I TOLD YOU SO! DO YOUR BACKUPS!) and recognize that that ancient model is sooo gone.
KC, great point. If we were talking about… say, 1995. Online content models have progressed way past the old one-purchase-one-download-per-customer model. When my computer crashed and I needed to rebuild it, I was easily able to go to several of the software companies I’d purchased software from and re-download – without customer support getting involved. If fact, they look at it as an OPPORTUNITY to sell you an upgrade to the latest version. Amazon actually maintains my entire Kindle library so that I don’t have to keep every book I’ve ever purchased on my device. After reading, I just delete it. If I ever want to get it back, I simply download again. That’s because content providers have COMPUTERS on which they can record DATA in meaningful ways – like ACCOUNTS with transaction RECORDS. Yes, of course it’s good practice to back up your content, but I lost mine even though I had DOUBLE backups – backups of my backups. SH&# happens, and content providers like Apple need to stop acting like old church ladies (I TOLD YOU SO! DO YOUR BACKUPS!) and recognize that that ancient model is sooo gone.
If you aren’t backing up your files (like every PC person tells you to do) you deserve to lose your entire investment. Those of you who have asked to re-download multiple times are just plain idiots.
someone should really bring a class action lawsuit against itunes, they make this crappy format that makes it soo difficult to transfer your library even from your backup, then when it doesnt work it takes hours upon hours to fix and when it crashes its wiped, its awful, and they can fix it easy without royalty infringements, every other company allows it, and I think its a winnable case for the thousands of people who’ve lost their money.
FWIW, I contacted Apple Support and within a day they’d reset all my purchases for immediate download. Not bad customer service, but still, it’s insane that we have to go through them to redownload our purchases. I can’t think of any other online content provider (including software vendors) who do that.
Its such a shame that people don’t realise that once you purchase a record you are legally allowed to copy it as many times as you want. itunes making you pay for redownloading a song you already have (or even if you downloaded it on the same account but on a different computer) is such an extortion for a multi billion dollar company… itunes is a total rip off.
Apple needs to bring iTunes into the 21st century by looking at the Amazon Kindle business model. Amazon keeps all your backups because THEY have the original content YOU purchased from them. All you have to do is go online and you can download ANYTHING you’ve ever bought from them. So if you have an iTunes account, and Apple has a record of everything you’ve ever purchased under that account, why isn’t Apple doing this?
i lost 2 movies restoring ipod when it crashed! is ther any way to get them back cus thats 20 lost dollars!!
How come I can play pirated music and videos that are purchased from itunes? thought it would only play on sixth autorized computer?
I’ve read all comments and looks like your only option is to download the songs you lost by ‘other’ means because essentially iTunes is part of a corporation which only wants your money, because corporations don’t have feelings or consideration. You are allowed only one download from iTunes but as already stated, you are allowed to have the files on your authorized computers.
My pc was stolen, along with ipod and shuffle, backed up to six months ago but had a lot of purchases from itunes since then. Replaced pc w/ macbook and trying figure out if I can recover any of itunes purchases. Is this possible?
If this has happened to you, they will usually send you a copy but only once. There is also a way to be able to transfer songs from your ipod to your computer. Always make sure under “preferences” under the edit tab and then under the devices tab, that you have the box checked next to where it says “don’t allow itunes to automatically sync phone or ipod.
I have a 1.000 original CD’s and I can play them at my stero, car and pc. I bought 1 itunes song and I can only play on my pc??? What a fuck up.
Updated to iOS4 on an iPod touch and bought “Avatar” and a few other movies, some songs and some games. Plugged it back into a Windows PC. Got an error message about not being able to load sync services, I should remove and reinsert the ipod touch. Did that and it still didn’t work. I reloaded my PC and it started to sync. Started looking for my purchased content and it was gone. Went through all the support stuff on apple’s support. Still no purchased content. Sent a support request 4 days ago and haven’t received a reply. If you think apple gives a rat’s ass about lost content take a look at Foxconn. I never drank apple’s kool aid and this is my first purchase. So far, sucks.
Comment in 43 – I lost just one purchased album so thought I would change settings as indicated. The album did not auto download. Do I need to authorize my computer first?
If I downloaded an album, but not all of the songs showed up or failed to download due to error 10000, will redownloading the album from iTunes solve it without spending money on it again?
Seems like comment from 34 (THANKS ROSHN), as it’s the most reliable solution. YES, you can redownload contents as long as its one of your six authorized computers. I use iTunes 9.2, went to EDIT -> PREFERENCES -> STORE -> Checked AUTO DOWNLOAD PURCHASED CONTENT … all my songs and tv shows are currently re-downloading…
Well this sucks, think gosh i have my Apple TV with my other music that i lost on my mac but i dont know how to get it on my newer computer…
god dam you itunes!!! this is so stupid i spent so much money and lost it all!!! with technology these day you would think you guys would of come up with a better system by now! thanks for nothing!
I love my iPod but am not very fond of Apple. My dell computer died multiple times, and I’ve lost things on iTunes. And before anyone says anything about backup disks, I do back my files up. The problem? When I put those disks in, half of the things on it end up screwed up. I’ve lost a movie, and countless songs, and I’m fed up. I’m going to try my best just to put it all on some mp3 cds. But I think it’s ridiculous that they’re doing this. It’s bad enough that you can’t just take music from your iPod to your computer.
All I want is MY music that I bought. They won’t let me access the files that I spent MY money on.
itunes decides to download things i have never seen mentioned.
as well, if you buy something from itunes, u can pirate it as much as u want, u bought it already.
its how i preffer to back things up, mainly as i can use it on diff media players, its not locked so i can make cds that other people can use.
plus its not a hassel like itunes decides to make itself
ITunes keeps deleting my music as well. I have no understanding if this is a bug with vista, a corrupted backup or what?
Just now I’ve tried restoring a Steve Jablonsky purchase and its empty! The icon for the album appears so I have to think this was a corrupted backup _ but why does iTunes randomly delete my purchases? What gives?
I’m now spreading purchases among amazon and zune, to keep my losses at minimum.
And everyone, backup your purchases the minute you’ve purchased! Thumbdrives, cds, whatever, its your money at stake.
Best of luck to all, don’t buy from just one source!
ok, this has happened to me numerous times, so i hav learned to back up my hard drive. but anyways,if you feel totally screwed by Itunes, and they wont give you your 2,000$ of music back (happened to me) get a good torrent program, (utorrent is virus free) and search for your songs and albums on google, or preferably a site that is safe. also, if you just go clicking on rendom links, you will probably get slammed with p0rn advertisments. kickasstorrents has no p0rn. just dont go crazy, and download tons of crap that you haven’t bought. if you have bought it, and have evidence of it, it is not illegal.
I’m glad I’ve only ever bought one album from itunes – that’s BS.
as of today this has worked for me—
edit -> preferences -> Store -> Auto download purchased content
Love my I-pod touch hate i-tunes. I have lost all of my music and now all of my movies, i-tunes restored my library but some of my stuff wont down load. Starts and then stops and but keeps running going no where. I wish i-tunes would come up with a external hard drive just for storing i-tunes material, one that your i-pod could just plug into and view or download from — saving space on your home pcm and making it easy to keep everything you pay for.
Just to add my two-cents, if anybody finds themselves with music on their iPod, but not computer: There’s a way to get your music. First, make sure you can view “Hidden Files and Folder”. Plug in your iPod (IF iTUNES POPS UP, HOLD DOWN LEFTCTRL+LEFTSHIFT UNTIL SYNCING STOPS). Open Explorer (Start Button, Computer). Double click on your iPod. Look for the folder that has your music in it (Usually iPod_Control, not credible folder name). Once you find the folder, copy it to your desktop. Right click on the folder, and click “Properties”. Under folder attributes, uncheck the “Read-Only” and “Hidden” button. When it asks you whether you want to do this to the folder and its subdirectories, do that and hit “Ok”. After the pop-up box goes away, open iTunes and click on the file menu. Click, “Add folder to library”. Navigate to your desktop, and double click the folder that you copied earlier. iTunes should now add all of your iPod’s music to your library. Enjoy.
I bought an album, but Itunes seems frozen in the middle of downloading it and it looks like I may not get the last four songs. Do they have an app for that?
Of course. Pirating is the wave of the decade. I get screwed no more.
Wow, seriously? I’m just going to pirate my stuff from now on. Good job guys!
I had a similar problem but instead of my songs, i lost my money! i had five dollars something left on my account, and then my pc was wiped. I had backed up all my songs but i lost me money! is there a way to get it back?
Guys… this is why people download music for free. Much less hassle. Purchasing something that you cannot see once is questionable but if you SOMEHOW LOSE IT. And you’re forced to purchase it again. That is entirely unacceptable. RIAA has sided with Apple because Apple wanted to somehow get in on this dying business model. And they did. Good riddance to both.
Tbh all this talk about backing up is annoying, I mean it does help if you do it, it is great but Itunes being such a high profile system should have something in place for peoples who hard drives go wrong, Itunes should not expect people to back up their music, its Itunes for gods sake!
Alrite So To People With The Music ON THEIR IPOD. there is something called sharepod, it lets you grab music off your ipod onto your computer. have fun!
I managed to lose my iTunes movie folder by restoring corrupt backup. Apple let me re-download my Movie purchases again, once I had explained what an arse I had been… Thanks Apple.
Just like the guy earlier said they block the songs you’ve purchased anyway so you cant even go back and buy them again…BS.
@Jeff – You lost all your music twice!, and still didn’t have a backup system in place?! You should not be buying media online, anywhere. I feel a little sorry for whoever you purchase from next.
This is just simply not true! Apple very clearly states their “one download” policy on albums or songs on the Apple Support page.
OMG!!! Thanks so much!! I almost had a heart attack! I lost ALL my stuff! Thanks SO SO SO MUCH!!
They DID let me off the hook two times, however, the third time they did not and resulted in probably a $2000 loss. I know of other music downloading sites that will give you the option to re-download songs.
So, iTunes, you have lost yet another customer!
I upgraded to Apple’s Snow Leopard OS and because of a bug (which they fixed a few weeks too late) I lost all of my data of which hadn’t been backed up in almost a year. Went to the Apple store and they basically said screw you, that’s your problem that our OS had the bug… the guy said go home and try and re-install your purchases. I guess they really do hire ‘geniuses’ to work there… they don’t even know their own iTunes policy. All these tech companies are the same… Apple’s crap is no better than Microsoft’s.
Itunes is screwing me. Even if I wanted to pay to redownload my $1000 plus in music, I can’t. They block it and say its already been purchased. But if that’s the case then why can’t I just have my fuckin music back. Its shady buisness ethics for sure
My cousin reinstalled vista without me knowing and I lost about $1500in music, movies, apps, OMG The ironing thing was that that day i was going to backup all files but i was too late
@g-man. there should have been an option to transfer purchases to your computer before you sync’d your ipod. also, there is a program called Diskaid that allows ipod touch and iphone users to transfer all contents from their devices to their computers (older ipods have disk mode). This allows for users who say buy a new laptop or computer, and transfer all 100% of their content to the new system. look up diskaid ipod to computer transfer on youtube
You used to be able to download again didn’t you? I’m pretty sure you could on 2 or 3 computers, this makes me far less likely to buy off iTunes now, I’m far too lax in backing up.
i know this is completly off subject but do yall know if apple can track where the purchase came from? lik if it was on a computer or an ipod touck?
if you have to redownload an app and you have already bought it, then you will have to go to the app store and then press buy now, then after that you just have to wait until it downloads again :) i lost $30 worth and then i just found it out and im getting them back as we speak
you know if i had a cd i could copy it over and over but if i download it from i tunes and my laptop get jacked ur shit out of luck with thousands of dollars worth of media. i say bullshit i dont care if they have to pay for every download renegotiate the contact and give use r music you commy bastards
I’m switching to the Zune and the zune pass…never lose music again.
Apple no longer allows you to restore your ITunes library. They have a new policy that states that buying a song only lets you download that song once. If you want to download it again, you have to purchase it again. Here is the link http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1469
I think thats huge load of crap!!! I only lost about $50 worth of music, but if someone loses their backup like I did, and the original, its their right to download it once more since Apple can still provide the original AND they have a copy of all of your past purchases.
Can you update the link or help me get the form i lost over 200 dollars in movies and music for the first time.
The link doesn’t go to a form anywhere, and I can’t find the form. Perhaps they don’t allow this for anyone anymore.
@g-man – It’s always been an unwritten rule that you can copy to, but never copy from an iPod. You should have burned your music to a disc or copied it to a flash drive as well as putting it on your iPod. Luckily, there’s always the email or file transfer solution to get the music from over at your brother’s place (if he hasn’t deleted it yet).
@anthony – Chances are that your music is still there, but iTunes software does get stupid from time to time and you have to delete your database files.
I Will try.
Does Apple tell people why they won’t let you do it or are we guessing? I know they let you redownload apps free.
I called tech support and they directed me to this form. The iPod was a birthday gift, and I was given a Visa debit card with a $50 limit I used to set up my iTunes account on my brothers computer (who lives 2000 miles away). I bought 5 Albums on iTunes while I was away on vacation for my birthday. I got home, downloaded iTunes and it synced with my computer at home which of course none of the songs were on. It’s been over a week and I’ve still not heard back from Apple about this other than the ubiquitous auto-reply form they send when you fill that out. Apparently, I got to enjoy those 5 albums for a total of 2 days before they were removed from my iPod when I returned home.
Thanks for the form. I will certainly give it a try. I had buying another USB stick on my list of things to do as my last one was full when my computer crashed. I backed up everything earlier this year, but not for the past five months. Naughty, naughty, I know, but it’ll be every month from now on.
I’m done with itunes my music disappeared two times already the first time they let me recover my music now that it happened again they didnt let me.!