I went to update my iPhone in itunes and it made a backup and everything like normal except halfway through the update it just said error, and that everything on my iphone was erased back to factory settings. I went ahead and reloaded my contacts and everything but all of my purchased music (that I bought on my iPhone) is gone. Anyone know how to get it back?

I assume the music isn't on your PC?

If not, time to beg and plead with Apple to allow you to redownload your music. They do it on a case-by-case basis, and generally only once.

Inb4iTunes sucks.

No it's not on my PC. How do I even plead with apple? They don't list phone numbers or anything.

Damn that stupid tv show.
I read the title as you buying music that was from the show Lost.

Ha, digital distribution etc.

Cant you just say "download purchased music" ?

Nope. You can only transfer purchased music back and forth between PCs and iPods/iPhones/etc. If you don't have any copies of it backed up anywhere though, you're pretty boned and have to beg them to let you have it again.

hah wow that sucks.

To be fair, AmazonMP3 is sort of the same way. You buy the music, and if you lose it, oh well.

However, to be not fair, and because I love playing the flute for Zune, Zune's music service will let you redownload any music you've downloaded via Zune Pass, AND any music you bought in the marketplace. It even keeps track of all such music you ever got in the client software in case you need to recover portions or all of it.

Hahahaha, did you jailbreak that **** and then expect updates to work for the new jailbreak?

Wow, sounds like Apple sucks at digital purchases.
You should absolutely be able to re-download.

Yknow what else lets you do this? CDs.

If you lose a CD you can go to the store and get a new one?

...Yes?

cds are rather difficult to properly lose

just download them

Yeah, no.

But they are easy to scratch, worse than a lost CD is an unplayable CD. I try to keep all my physical media like CDs and DVDs in mint condition. But I have some very old CDs that don't play anymore

Yeah, CD's are old news, I'd much rather digitally purchase (though not through apple it seems cuz they don't keep track and let you re-download)

I'm not suggesting anything here, but if you already bought it, aren't you somewhat legally allowed to download it from a certain other site?

i've had very few that are completely unplayable... and all of them were that way when i got them

I've honestly never scratched a CD, DVD, or bluray disc to the point that it was unplayable.

My sister managed to accidently melt a CD once but I've never had an unplayable one either.

I've never scratched an MP3 to the point that it was unplayable either. Because you can't. Why is this even part of the discussion?

Digital download is better than CDs because they're of the same audible quality and typically cost less, more convenient, won't get damaged, and most online stores have vastly wider selections.

Incorrect, sir.

Corrupted data, bad CD.

Basically the same ****ing end result. Your **** won't play.

+1

Most of what is on iTunes is 128kbps, hardly CD quality.

Oh, and drizzt, I feel your pain, my backup drive crashed and I lost 7 years of iTunes purchases. I had just bought a new computer after my iMac died and hadn't transfered the songs to my new computer yet.

What about the iTunes Pro thing?

Also, I don't know what iTunes MP3s are encoded with these days, but they've gotten much better. For most samples, a properly encoded 128 Kbps VBR MP3 (with LAME) will be indistinguishable from CD audio under ABX tests, even with high end gear. 192 Kbps most definitely.

Well iTunes may be absolute crap then, but:

A. That's AAC, not MP3.
B. AmazonMP3 and Zune sells their MP3s at 320kbps, and Zune WMAs at 256kbps.

I'd put hard cash that no one here, even with hi-fi equipment, could successfully, reliably tell the difference between a CD and 320kbps MP3 by ear.

'Cept we're talking about iTunes in the OP.

The difference between 320kbps MP3 and uncompressed is definitely too hard to tell, but between 128 kbps AAC and uncompressed there is a huge difference in dynamic range and aliasing in the very high frequencies (8-10 khz and +).

Well, despite the fact that it's more about iTunes's failure to backup content and not quality, I'd say it's irrelevant anyway.

Also, iTunes sells music at 256kbps AAC now, ever since the move to DRM-Free.

I can only imagine if Microsoft pulled this kind of crap with xbox live dlc. People would go ape**** about how they're money grubbing *******s.

Or Valve with Steam. Can you imagine having to actually use the DVD backup feature, otherwise you could risk losing all your games? Plus having to use it to install a game on multiple PCs.

i've had mp3s become corrupted to the point where either
1. file won't play
2. file plays but with a very annoying noise at some point in the track



amazon mp3 is one of the following 256Kbps CBR, LAME -V0, ABR at ~256Kbps


sometimes i wish we had multiquote

As much as I'm not an Apple fan, it's not really their fault. Zune has to do the same thing.

Well, Zune only does it with DRM-Free music... I can still redownload the few DRM songs I've purchased.

And by purchased I mean I got them with the 10 free song credits a month that comes with a Zune pass. Most of the songs I've spent my credits on are DRM-Free, and can only be downloaded once. But the rest are still downloadable, even though I don't have the Pass right now...

Oh, and they're all either 256kbps or 320kbps.

Are you really trying to argue that MP3s, a digital file, is somehow less reliable than a physical media? You can take the same MP3 anywhere, put it anywhere, travel with it anywhere, and never once worry about it getting damaged, especially since its so easy to make copies.



We do, it just isn't on the skin for some reason, it's something I intend to look into.

Also, my recent MP3 purchase says otherwise. Some of mine are 256kbps as you described, but I have one I just bought not too long ago that was 320kbps. And yes, I am 100% positive I bought it from there, I still have the order email.



No, they can be downloaded more than once. Go to settings, account, purchase history. All purchased music is there. Subscription history is Zune Pass content.

There is a limit on number of redownloads, but I think it's like 6? And if you have to redownload that many times, you need to invest in backups.

I don't really doubt this, but unless you have some good ABX results, it's kind of meaningless. "Big differences" don't mean anything if you can't hear them (samples designed to showcase lossy encoding flaws don't count).

This. In fact I never see iTunes Store bought files below that anymore...

I really wish iTunes Store had lossless files, though. iTunes already comes with the Apple Lossless Format plugin for ripping CDs.

Who cares. You bought it, so even if it might not be the most popular option with the bureaucrats, I don't think you could make the case that it would be unethical to torrent it back.