My MacBook was stolen a couple of weeks ago…along with my iPad, ThinkPad, wallet, and all I hold dear (besides my wife, thankfully). Also stolen was my 2TB backup hard drive…yeah they got ya boy good huh?
Anyway, I got a new MacBook, and on my iPhone is all (most of) my media. Not all of it was purchased in iTunes, so I can't download it from the store. I can SSH into the phone, or use iPhone Explorer to steal my files back….from myself.
Here are my issues:
Music – easy. Copy from device, then import to iTunes. The funky file names don't mean anything since the iGods speak ID3.
Also, when I DID hit "Transfer Purchases" in iTunes, it put all my purchases on my MacBook, but now they won't show up on my iPhone. They're still there though. I can tell because the space is being used (feels kinda like "I know you're there; I can hear you breathing, fool…")
Pics – They're all in weird folders (F00, F01…Fxx). Importing to iPhoto doesn't organize them as nicely as iTunes does music. Does anyone know of a script that will put them all in one root folder? Then I could go from there. I'd rather not navigate through hundreds of folders, or have hundreds of unorganized iPhoto events.
Contacts – This is probably the easiest one, I admittedly just haven't researched how to reverse sync contacts. Seems possible, since they sync contacts in the Apple Store without attaching their computer to your newly-purchased iDevice. ::Alt+Tabs to iTunes:: Yeah, I actually just figured this one out. Checked "Sync Address Book Contacts" duh, Thomas. I've actually never seen the "Merge Info" option before. Maybe because I've never had my syncing computer stolen before.
Anyway, thanks for partaking in my ramblings. Any suggestions for my actual issues would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
Thomas
Best Answer
I am so sorry seeing your two questions about stolen data and property. Ugh.
I would recommend PhoneView to get the songs back (as well as all sorts of other structured data) - the free download works for a limited number of songs, contacts, etc... You pay to unlock the entire iPhone's worth of data once you are sure it's what you want for the job.
I have had good luck getting pictures, contacts and songs off an iPhone that iTunes insisted was corrupt and needed a restore. The OS on the phone needed a restore, but my data was luckily still fine and salvageable.
Lastly, you didn't ask, but I also really like CrashPlan which also has a free trial period for off-site backup of your data.