Do you want to erase this iPhone and sync with this iTunes library?

Question

Why ON EARTH would I want to do this??  Come on Apple, copy protection aside, this is the stupidest prompt in the history of prompts.
The basic problem (if you Google it) that many many many many legitimate purchaser's of music are running into is this prompt.  And here is why:
1.  We have an iPhone with a bunch of purchased songs on it and was at one point working with another iTunes library.
2.  For whatever reason our computer crashes, the computer is gone/sold, not available, dead, pick your poison, it happens.
3.  We setup a new computer and install iTunes and get a prompt to "Authorize" this computer (apparently we get 5 authorizations total).
4.  We try to get all the songs from our iPhone back into iTunes and click the Sync button and ...
5.  We get the following:
The iPhone "Your iPhone's name" is synced with another iTunes library.  Do you want to erase this iPhone and sync with this iTunes library?
An iPhone can be synced with only one iTunes library at a time.  Erasing and syncing replaces the contents of this iPhone with the contents of this iTunes library.
Really?  This is what I have to do, wipe out all my purchased songs so that iTunes and sync with a new library?  At what point did Apple think this idea was even remotely in the best interest of their customers?  Seriously?
So now I'm stuck with an iPhone with songs on it, a computer with songs on it, but neither able transfer songs ... Happy Happy Joy Joy.  This is NUTS!?  Why punish people that you can verify they've purchased their songs with this bizarre scheme ... and further more, what if some of my songs on my iPhone were brought in from a valid CD purchase?
So my only way out of this craziness, is to use a 3rd party app that will hack the transfer for me?  This is good how?  I'm sorry, but at what point did Apple's $40 Billion (yes Billion) profit for 2012 instigated this sort of treatment to valid paying customers?
So ... here I am, anyone have a solution to this using "valid" means (without losing all my music) or is 3rd party hacks my only option?
Rob

Answer 1

Rob A. wrote:
tt2,
So if I understand you correctly ... I can't move or sync content that was imported via my own CD's that is now on my iPhone back over to my computer?
Not with iTunes as your only tool, no.
The ONLY way I can proceed is with an iPhone backup and then restore that iPhone backup to my computer rather than my iPhone?  I assume this will trigger yet another "used activation"?
No you need a third party tool that will copy your other non-iTunes purchased media and photos not in the cameral roll across to your computer. (Some are listed, you can search the web for others).
When you have recovered all the media you want you can then backup the iPhone to the computer (this backup ONLY includes application data and settings, and the cameral roll. After you have backed up this data to the computer you can then immediately restore the recently made backup to the iPhone. The data in the backup will obviously be copied back but all media must have been added to the library or it will be removed from the device.
Your lost computer will count as an "activation" as will the new one. Apple devices don't add to the count. You can reset all your activations (including those you can't physically access) every 12 months should the need arise.
Am I the only one that thinks this is the most crazy and bizarre process of simply moving a music file from one of my devices to another of my devices?  Especially ones that were imported from CDs.
You still have the CDs? You can import them again. You sold, gave away, threw away the originals? Technically you no longer have the right to listen to the tracks you ripped. Is it inconvenient? Sure. One might argue that the very reason Apple & iTunes were able to drive the move to digital music to start with is that their system was designed to prevent the casual use of their devices as a means for "the kids" to simply "gift" their music libraries to each other without the tediously time-wasting efforts that the previous generation had to go through with home-taping. This no doubt helped get the content owners on board. Of course memory sticks and portable hard drives now make it trivially easy to copy content from one computer to another and indeed to simply backup your own content against a disaster but most people don't do either. Likewise they don't read instructions or terms and conditions until they are inconvenienced, and then complain. You and I might both wish iTunes made it easier, but it doesn't. And this isn't the place to complain about it. Use iTunes Feedback. You want help, it has been offered. Please read and inwardly digest it all properly this time. It does explain what you need to do to recover your data and safeguard it for the future.
tt2