Restoring an iTunes library

I previously posted a question about trying to get some music transferred from one iPhone to another and, as one of the posters said, the only way seems to be to use a 3rd party app since the original iTunes library was on a computer that has since been restored to its factory settings and given to another family member. I could, of course, use the original cds and rebuild the library from scratch, but since there are more than 2700 tracks I would prefer something less time intensive.

One of the posters to my original message suggested iMazing and I also looked at iExplorer, but neither seems to allow me to select multiple playlists that I want to transfer and instead makes me either transfer one playlist at a time or the entire library. I can see no real difference between the two apps and they cost exactly the same, so I was wondering if anyone could give me any feedback on them before I buy one or the other. Also, if any suggestions as to other apps would also be appreciated.

Thank you.

I have both apps and prefer the interface and ease of use that is presented by iMazing 2. I suppose it's a matter of personal preference since both apps work pretty much the same way. You can probably search the Mac App Store or do a Google search for similar apps and look them over. But those (iMazing 2 and iExplorer) are the only two that I have any experience with.

@Mike You may be right about the need to transfer either the entire library or playlist but playlist. I haven't looked at that yet. Here's what I would do and I think it would go pretty quickly:

1. Transfer the entire library from the phone to the Mac.
2. Once that is complete delete the albums / tracks that you do not want to use.

Deleting the unwanted tracks should go quickly. You don't have to do it track by track. If you want to delete an entire album click it so that the tracks are showing then press command A to select the tracks. Now you can hit delete to remove the tracks.

chscag said:

I have both apps and prefer the interface and ease of use that is presented by iMazing 2. I suppose it's a matter of personal preference since both apps work pretty much the same way. You can probably search the Mac App Store or do a Google search for similar apps and look them over. But those (iMazing 2 and iExplorer) are the only two that I have any experience with.

Click to expand...

Thank you for the reply. I have also looked at both and downloaded both to my Mac, but do not see any real differences between them based on what I see as to the available functionality. One odd thing - iExplorer was unable to mount the iPhone 6 or iPhone 8 on my Mac and it did not say why, but only told me to see the error log.

The questions I have about both are pretty much the same -

if I copy the entire music library from the old iPhone to my Mac, will it also copy the playlists? Or would I then have to create new playlists?

Is there any way to copy multiple playlists? I can only seem to select one playlist at a time and she has perhaps 100 or more of them.

Is copying from iPhone to iPhone any different functionally from copying from iPhone to Mac and then Mac to iPhone?

Slydude said:

@Mike You may be right about the need to transfer either the entire library or playlist but playlist. I haven't looked at that yet. Here's what I would do and I think it would go pretty quickly:

1. Transfer the entire library from the phone to the Mac.
2. Once that is complete delete the albums / tracks that you do not want to use.

Deleting the unwanted tracks should go quickly. You don't have to do it track by track. If you want to delete an entire album click it so that the tracks are showing then press command A to select the tracks. Now you can hit delete to remove the tracks.

Click to expand...

Thanks, but I have the same questions for you as for @chscag. If I copy the entire library to the Mac will it also transfer the playlists? Or would I then have to create each one separately. Given how many there are I don't want to have to do that again. The first time I did it, it took me days.

Part of this might be easier as I do not think there are any tracks that she does not want on her new iPhone. All I am trying to do now is to get the stuff from her old iPhone (or her old iPod Touch or her even older iPod Touch) onto her new phone with the playlists.

I think this method might get the job done. It transfers the music to iTunes on your computer first. You should be able to select different playlists as needed. even if it doesn't work it shouldn't erase anything from the phone so you should be Ok there.

Slydude said:

I think this method might get the job done. It transfers the music to iTunes on your computer first. You should be able to select different playlists as needed. even if it doesn't work it shouldn't erase anything from the phone so you should be Ok there.

Click to expand...

Thank you for the link.

I spent this afternoon copying 150+ playlists from the old iPhone to an external drive, so I should be ready to do the second part of the copy tomorrow morning. I still do not know why the app is limited to only copying one playlist at a time, but that restriction is a major pain.

I first tried to copy the entire library out to disk, but there are multiple tracks with the same name and the same "unknown" title, so I ended up with a very large number of duplicates and ended up having to do the whole thing by hand. Still, it was easier than trying to mount and use all of the cds again, especially since my Mini and MBP do not have a cd reader ...

As is usual when something like this happens I remembered that it was probably a good idea to back this stuff up this time.

Hopefully that link will help a bit.

I hadn't noticed that one playlist at a time limitation because right now I don't have multiple plansylists set up on my phone. when I have time I am going to have to experiment with that a bit and see if there is a work around that speeds up the process.