Formatted comp, now can't "manually manage music" without clearing iPhone.

[Vidder]

Ok, so I formatted the computer, i still have all my music on my external. After reinstalling iTunes and plugging in my iPhone, i go to the "manage music manually" check box, check it off...and it asks me if i want to re sync which will result in losing my music off the iPhone, only to put it back on again afterwards.

Normally this wouldn't be too much of a hassle because I still have all my music, but in my case it is because all my playlists are "smart" playlists based off of play counts, so clearing off the iPhone's music and re-adding the iTunes music will reset all the play counts to zero; which I don't want.

So, i think my iPod thinks its connected to a different computer and not allowing me to manually add music unless i clear it first.

My questions:
1 - Is there anyway to change it to manual mode without having to clear it first?

2 - if not, is there a way of transfering my playcounts from my iPhone to my iTunes before clearing my iPhone? This way when i re-add the music from iTunes to the phone the playcounts won't change....

[uberamd]

You need to clear it. And there is software to transfer your music off your phone, its called pod2mac. Try that, but you will need to wipe it no matter.

[Vidder]

i still have all the music on my external HD, losing the music isn't the problem as much as losing all the playcounts for each song thats on my iPhone. (also, i'm using a PC, not Mac)

[Vidder]

this thread is like a year old. anyhow...i don't manage the music automatically anymore. I just edit all my playlists in itunes and have my iphone sync to them automatically.

My problem was more that i was going to lose all my smart playlists because all the playcounts on each song were going to reset to zero. i was looking for a way to sync the songs playcounts from my ipod to my newly formatted computer. Which i still don't think it possible.