How can I get songs off my Apple iPhone?
file this under: things you hope never to need to do
so a little over a week ago, my macbook was stolen. i don't know if its because i'm unnaturally attached to my mac (have you ever met a mac owner who wasn't?) or because as i searched through the car with a fine tooth comb and retraced my steps trying to find it, it began to dawn on me just how much i had lost.
the computer itself isn't worth a ton (new, it retails for $998.00), but the pictures and music were. as i was calling my insurance and H was calling the police to file a report i desperately tried to remember when i'd last backed up....well, anything. i remembered it had been sometime early 2008, when my PC went to data heaven and some wizard at a computer 'hospital' was able to save most of my pictures and music, the only things i really cared about on the hard drive anyhow.
since then i'd accumulated over a year's worth of pictures (so many with the kids) and enough music to make me nauseous at the thought of replacing it. the pictures are priceless and i'm sure that there are going to be quite a few that i will not be able to replace. lost and gone forever....
I suffered under the arrogance (or delusion) that most computer users have about backing their computer up regularly. Most of us just assume nothing will go wrong: you wont see that familiar Blue Screen Of Death, your computer won't be stolen, etc. so really, what's the rush? we'd back it up later...
As for the music, it was not the first time i wished there was some way that apple could honor your digital download history if your data was lost. a way to back up files via some mac membership that would probably cost a pretty penny i'm sure. I wouldn't care, would you? I'd probably pay the ridiculous fee to have them back up my music online. does Apple Care cover lost music? anyone? that's not cheap either at nearly $300. No, I don't have Apple Care either, and yes, i should have that too...
Anyhow, this sounds so silly to me now, but i was scared to plug my iPhone into the new mac because i was afraid i would lose the newer music that my new computer missed. i figured the computer would want to sync and would overwrite my iphone's music.
i feel silly that it took me til yesterday to admit this to H, even more so because he pointed me to a feature in iTunes that allows you to transfer purchases to the new computer from any iPod or iPhone. Under the file menu there's this really simple feature that just whisked that music onto my new mac. between my iPod/Phone, i restored all of the music i had lost. Was this feature always here? Part of me thinks that it wasnt there until relatively recently, but i could be wrong.
though i'm still trying to piece together pictures (which unfortunately, didn't have as easy a resolution) that were lost by culling pictures from facebook, picasa, etc, i feel better that some of the priceless pictures are being restored.
i back up everything religiously now. on a mac, there's a Time Machine feature that backs up your computer whenever the external HD is plugged in. I don't know if there is a PC application that works the same way, but if you have a PC find out and then immediately back your hard drive up. don't wait and intend to do it later, seriously, do it. now.
Last night as i was backing up the newly restored music and i had the thought that the external hard drive will become something that we will grab in a fire, one kid under each arm and the hard drive in my teeth. the kids will carry mami's macbook between them.
<edited to add that the computer pictured is NOT mine, though i would not turn away a computer like that. its a 24k gold mac book pro and the signature apple icon is blinged out with diamonds. there's also, for those of you out there somehow able to afford it, a 24k gold iPhone case. I just want mine to be ruby/garnet red with red rhinestones on the apple....>





