Need to change computer ipad syncs too

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Ok this is driving me absolutely bonkers and im starting to get angry. Why is this so flipping difficult?

I have an ipad that i got through work and as such i was syncing it to a work PC which was a Mac. This was the ONLY thing this mac was used for. Well the company abandoned this project and i bought the ipad from them as i had apps on it that i paid for and i find it very useful in day to day working.

So here arises the problem. This mac is going away. The ipad is staying with me. I have loads of apps i have purchased on this ipad and i need to be able to sync my ipad to my windows 7 laptop. This is proving to be pointlessly difficult. I have googled around and one place said to copy your itunes library to an external device. Ok that's fine and dandy so i go to the mac which i have never used before aside from plugging in the ipad to charge. Where the heck is a file explorer? Find it 5 minutes later, plug in my usb stick and its freakin read only? I can see everything on it but i can't copy a **** thing to it? So how am i supposed to back up my dang library, and on top of that i can't even find an itunes folder to backup.

I tried an external harddrive as well that i have attached to my work laptop. Same thing, read only. I can see why Mac isn't more popular. Not bashing but the difficulty in being intuitive and easy to pick up is just not there.

I need to be able to sync my ipad to my laptop. Everytime i plug it in, it says it's going to erase everything if i hit sync and that is just not an option. I really dont want to lose the 50-100$ worth of apps i paid for or progress in any games i've played or settings i have setup, or my email, etc.

So how can i do this. There HAS to be a way. I find it very hard to believe that the device is simply a 1 pc device as that makes it **** near worthless when pcs get replaced every couple years or less.

Please help...im new, i know zero about mac and i need pretty detailed instructions. If you can point me to a post or write a new one for me i would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks
 
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Your Mac's Specs
Mac Mini i5 (2014 High Sierra), iPhone X, Apple Watch, iPad Pro 12.9, AppleTV (4)
You really shouldn't be too suprised that using the Mac is giving you issues. It's new, you haven't learnt anything about it. You wouldn't step out of an automatic transmission car into a manual car having never driven one before and just expect to be able to do it.

However, I understand your frustration and will try and help.

You can't write to the external drive because it's formatted with NTFS. Mac OSX can only read NTFS natively. In the Same way Windows can't read OSX's file system.

There are many ways round this. The simplest is to format the drive as FAT32. It has a max single file size limit of 4gb but I doubt your iTunes library will have any single files this big in it. Once the disk is FAT32 you'll be able to copy the iTunes library across.

If you can't format the drive (other files on there etc) then post back and I'll give you details of other ways to mount the disk/transfer the files etc.

Here's a link to the knowledgebase article on moving your iTunes library:iTunes: Back up your iTunes library by copying to an external hard drive
 
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I think i got it figured out. When i plugged it into my work laptop, i right clicked on the device and chose transfer purchasables or something like that and it copied my programs to the laptop. Then when i unplugged it and replugged it back in i just hit yes to the erase message once, it did a quick task and everything was still there. Now when i plug it into my work laptop it auto syncs and backs up like it is supposed too.

I think that warning message is worded rather strongly as i don't believe that it erased anything at all. Even the photos i had taken on it prior to today are still on it and i can see everything just fine in the itunes on my work PC just fine (not the mac my work laptop which i am now using as the itunes/charging station)

Thank you for your help and understanding.
 

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