Boy Am I In The Doghouse...

[Midpack]

Downloaded some new music to iTunes today, and plugged DW's iPad in to iTunes on the PC to update her music. That's how music has been updated to her iPad for years.

Today when I plugged in her iPad, it restored her iPad - to a previous copy of MY iPad. She ended up with apps she didn't want and her contacts, calendar, messages, emails, photos and reminders were either empty or mine. Understandably she's none too happy.

After hours of work, I finally got iCloud to restore her contacts, emails and (she says most of) her calendar. Her reminders are still only on her iPhone (blank on her iPad) and she still has my photos and messages, though they're intact on her iPhone. We have all those features "ON" on her iPhone and iPad, but some are syncing and others not

I don't blame her, I sure hope I can figure out how to fully restore her iPad. And I sure wish I knew why iTunes decided to restore her iPad to an old copy of mine after all these years - whether it's something I did wrong/different or not.

 

[cathy63]

Do you have a more recent backup of her iPad on the computer? Or on another computer?

 

[Midpack]

Do you have a more recent backup of her iPad on the computer? Or on another computer?

Nope. Even though I've plugged her iPad into iTunes and it synced all music to her many times before, we I look at devices, there's only my PC, my iPhone and my iPad. There's no trace of hers (now).

We wanted to put iTunes on her laptop, to backup her devices to, but we assume we can't have "my" music library on her copy of iTunes. Obviously we're not going to pay for two copies of over 2500 songs.

We also have an old iPod that we use for music only occasionally, I'm afraid to plug it in to iTunes now for fear it will wipe that out too...

 

[braumeister]

Clearly a situation that Apple support should be called in on.

 

[RockyMtn]

if they are newer models of iphones and ipads you can just reset the ipad and then have it sync directly with the iphone through icloud via wifi. Don't even have to plug them into itunes. Basically the iphone will clone whatever is on it to the ipad. By resetting ipad you'll get your stuff off.

Just did this with an iphone 6 and a new iphone 11. Everything on the 6 was loaded onto the 11 including ring tones, notification tones, all music, apps etc. See instructions below:

https://www.lifewire.com/what-you-need-to-know-to-sync-iphone-to-ipad-1999222

 

[Midpack]

if they are newer models of iphones and ipads you can just reset the ipad and then have it sync directly with the iphone through icloud via wifi. Don't even have to plug them into itunes. Basically the iphone will clone whatever is on it to the ipad. By resetting ipad you'll get your stuff off.

Just did this with an iphone 6 and a new iphone 11. Everything on the 6 was loaded onto the 11 including ring tones, notification tones, all music, apps etc. See instructions below:

https://www.lifewire.com/what-you-need-to-know-to-sync-iphone-to-ipad-1999222

Thanks! You’re the second source to tell me that, and that’s what I am leaning toward to do next. But I’m going to let DW make that decision on her time. She’s understandably conflicted now that she has some of her content back, but not all. Losing some of her photos is hard to take (most were on her iPhone but not all she tells me).

 

[GrayHare]

Sorry to see another iTunes victim. In my experience iTunes is overly aggressive deciding what you should and should not have on your device.

 

[MarieIG]

My condolences to your DW from a fellow sufferer.

 

[kgtest]

Head into the Apple Techs or whatever they call those people that work in the store. Full Disclosure I own AAPL. But I do not own an AAPL product nor have I ever been in a store...I have USED them for work on occasion tho and DW has an iPhone and had an ipod until it died.

 

[cathy63]

Head into the Apple Techs or whatever they call those people that work in the store. Full Disclosure I own AAPL. But I do not own an AAPL product nor have I ever been in a store...I have USED them for work on occasion tho and DW has an iPhone and had an ipod until it died.

They call it the "Genius Bar", and by implication, the techs who work there are "geniuses". In my experience, that is an overly optomistic self-assessment.

 

[Midpack]

Sorry to see another iTunes victim. In my experience iTunes is overly aggressive deciding what you should and should not have on your device.

I’ve used iTunes for over 15 years and this is the first significant issue. It’s being replaced after 18 years, presumably the replacements will be an improvement.

 

[donheff]

I did something similar a few years back. I like iPhones and iPads but I hate iTunes and Apple's files "system."

 

[Midpack]

I did something similar a few years back. I like iPhones and iPads but I hate iTunes and Apple's files "system."

You may know, but Apple files aren’t as walled off as they used to be. You can see and organize files and folders now. FWIW

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT206481

 

[donheff]

You may know, but Apple files aren’t as walled off as they used to be. You can see and organize files and folders now. FWIW

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT206481

Maybe I don't understand how it works. I see some acrobat files but that's it. I can't see anything that is managed by other apps like books and photos. I am aware that I can now (finally) access photos from a PC via usb.

 

[GalaxyBoy]

Regarding the reminders, if you have more than one iOS or ipadOS device they sync with, once you upgrade one of the devices to iOS 13 the reminders app will no longer be compatible with older versions. You didn't mention what version(s) you're on so I'm not sure if this is relevant.

 

[jazz4cash]

And I sure wish I knew why iTunes decided to restore her iPad to an old copy of mine after all these years - whether it's something I did wrong/different or not.

Because Apple knows what you want better than you do.

 

[HI Bill]

Apple has discontinued iTunes. I'm not sure that's what caused the problem, but it may be!

Here's Apple's support page on the subject:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210200

 

[Midpack]

DW finally got so fed up with fighting her iPad that she let me do a full factory reset after making sure her iPhone was current on iCloud. And I was getting messages on my iPhone someone was tampering with my account, undoubtedly from (what was) her iPad.

I’m pleased to report she has all her contacts, calendar, messages, photos and emails back - thank goodness. All she lost was some apps, but those are easy to get from the App Store again. So by all appearances, we’re out of the woods.

Problem now is how do we get purchased music, movies, TV on her iPhone, iPad and iPod? We always used iTunes no problem but now I’m afraid to sync with iTunes again as it only lists our PC, my iPhone and my iPad under devices. Don’t know if the latest iTunes, iPadOS or something else caused the issue - or something I did inadvertently. But I’ve been syncing with iTunes for 15 years without issue.

 

[Midpack]

Apple has discontinued iTunes. I'm not sure that's what caused the problem, but it may be!

Here's Apple's support page on the subject:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210200

Not discontinued for PC owners like us. From your link.

If you have a PC, you can continue to use iTunes for Windows to manage your media library, make purchases, and manually sync and manage your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.

Manually manage and sync your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch
You can use iTunes for Windows to back up and update your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, and to sync content from your computer to your device. You can also use iCloud for Windows to access your photos, contacts, calendars, files, and more across all of your devices..

 

[prudent_one]

Experienced that unpleasantness myself some years ago. I had the bright idea of just backing up her iphone on my PC with itunes since she rarely backed her phone up. Never imagined it would decide to just put MY phone's backup on HER phone. I couldn't figure out what I had done to cause this disaster. Asked on an Apple tech site and got quite a few comments like "Duh, what did you think it would do when you plugged her phone in while you were logged into your PC account? Why didn't you create a separate login on the PC for that?"

Yeah, I still didn't understand how what happened made any logical sense at all.

 

[cathy63]

Problem now is how do we get purchased music, movies, TV on her iPhone, iPad and iPod?

Maybe Family Sharing would work? https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201088

I have not tried this, but it seems like it might work.

 

[Midpack]

Maybe Family Sharing would work? https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201088

I have not tried this, but it seems like it might work.

I set up Family Sharing years ago, at the time it was only local sharing over WiFi. It appears it may actually permit downloads now so DW could play “our” music anywhere. It’ll depend on whether or not I have to put music on iCloud, I’m not interested in that, would move us from free to subscriber. Thanks, I’ll give it another look, might work for us. I may go ask a “genius” - first time.

 

[Dd852]

Family sharing works well for us - key though is to have two separate apple ids , and one shares with the other. If you share an Apple ID (as we did at first) that’s when you run into the huge problems with backup restore. So my@xx.com runs my computer and buys my music and apps, hers@xx.com runs hers and shares my music and apps but also buys her own separately. Keep the separate identities or you’ll really regret it — we used to both use my@xx.com and it caused real issues similar to yours described in the original post

 

[Scuba]

Two words - Genius Bar. Seriously, make an appointment and bring your devices. Discuss with them in person. They should be able to guide you.

 

[GalaxyBoy]

It took me a while to realize this but (as noted above) having a separate Apple id for me and DW is important and solved similar issues for us.

Family sharing lets DW download copies of paid apps, music, video, books, etc. that I bought, as well as sharing iCloud storage space. It’s different from sharing iTunes libraries on a network and has nothing to do with paid subscriptions.

[edit to add] Except you can use it to share Apple subscriptions. See https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201085