Recovering iTunes Music without my iPod or Harddrive.

[Feliks]

I did a search for this problem but all the solutions seemed to involve using your iPod or old harddrive to recover.

I recently had two tragedies in a short period of time. First, my iPod broke - a tragedy, but one I could get past.

The second was the horrible death of my laptop's hard drive. I had some backups of important school and work related files, as well as a few other things like old tax documents, and much of my older files, but I did not have my iTunes folders backed up, because I was under the impression that I could download these songs again through iTunes should the need arise, since I had purchased them in the past.

Now, on my new computer, I have downloaded iTunes, and have been trying to recover my old songs. I authorized this computer, but when I "check for available downloads" it says everything has been downloaded, and that I should try to transfer the songs from the other computer. This is of course, impossible at this point. I can still see my purchases in my history, and if I try to purchase a song I had before, it warns me that this will create a duplicate.

Am I out of luck? Will I have to purchase these songs again? I can see how I should have backed up my music, but I thought that iTunes would allow me to acquire them again.

Thanks

 

[stides]

Depending on the total value of the music, iTunes support can sometimes reauthorize download of the songs. They definitely won't do it more than once, but they can, and have done so in the past. Give them a call and try 1-800-my-apple.

 

[kemperman]

Sorry mate but you're outta luck on this one. Unless you can either get someone to recover the stuff off the hard drive or your house insurance covers digital downloads.

 

[Feliks]

This is what I was afraid of. It was only ~$30-40 worth of stuff, but I still would rather not buy it again. Maybe I'll give 'em a call.

Thanks. I'll be more careful in the future.

 

[THE Jason Rice]

Download latest version of iTunes, authorize the computer, sign in, then open the iTunes store. In the "Quick Links" column on the right, click "Purchased". In the window that comes up, click the "Not In My Library" tab (top right), then click "All Songs" in the left column. Your purchases should show up in the main window; you can download individually or there is a button at the bottom to download everything at once.