Backing up an iPad/iPhone and Restoring from Backup

To preface this post, I have always had Apple products and currently own an iPhone, iPad and MacBook Pro. I have also spent about 4 hours on the phone with Apple support staff and they recommended I make a post on the Apple Support Forums.
Basically, this is a warning that when you backup your iPad or iPhone, Apple only backups contacts, notes, photos, calendars, and mail.
According to the third representative I spoke to, Apple does not, I repeat DOES NOT, actually back up music and playlists in your iTunes on your devices or backup the apps you have on them.
I had to get my iPad replaced because the smart cover was corroding and I did a full backup before I brought my iPad in to the Apple store. When I tried to restore from backup, everything but my iTunes libraries and my apps reappeared. For most, the iTunes wouldn't matter, but I was using a newish computer and had not yet organized my music library, although I had transferred all the songs back from an external drive. The apps are always a pain, since you have to manually download all of the ones you want after going to your purchases in the iTunes store.
However, a helpful thing I did learn, despite the fact that all my music from my iPad was gone, was that you can restore old playlists by quitting iTunes and going to Finder > Home > Music > iTunes and selecting iTunes Music Library.xml and dragging it to the desktop. Then you open iTunes and click File > Library > Import Playlist and select iTunes Music Library.xml from your desktop.
Anyway, this is one of the first times I have been thoroughly fed up with Apple: if their policy is to not back up music or apps when a user clicks backup, then they need to make it clear. Before I restored from backup, those files appeared in my iTunes as if they existed, although according to my Apple representative, they never did.

All the information about what gets backed up is available from Apple.  Here's the article explaining what is contained in iTunes backups (see "iTunes will back up the following information"):
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4946
Most people will not have the unfortunate coincidence that you had wherein you wanted to restore a backup because your iPad needed replacement and simultaneously had an issue with your computer that had been storing your music.
So although the iTunes backup does not contain your music, you could subscribe to iTunes Match as described here and get that music all stored in the iCloud for you.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4914
I hope this helps.

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