Recovering lost purchased itunes songs?

[scharah]

My laptop recently contracted 4 Trojan horses - yes, it was nasty. I had to have the entire thing restored, but luckily all my data was backed up before this.

Once my laptop was back to normal, I downloaded itunes and plugged in my ipod. Itunes then began automatically synching the empty itunes with my ipod - I tried to cancel it but it was too late, and the new itunes had effectively wiped my ipod of all it's content.

All my music was backed up on to data discs, so it could have been worse - however the songs which I cannot get back, are the ones I purchased off itunes, and that's quite alot.

Obviously, my itunes account has a record of all the songs I bought, but I have no way of accessing them. I was wondering if anyone could help?

the apple website/"helpline" is extremely unhelpful.

Thanks,

Sarah.

 

[CanadaRAM]

If all your music was backed up, then your purchased music was also backed up. After restoring from your backup, all you likely have to do is re-authorize your machine for those songs.

 

[scharah]

If all your music was backed up, then your purchased music was also backed up. After restoring from your backup, all you likely have to do is re-authorize your machine for those songs.

Yeah that's what I would have thought as well - but when I transferred all the music across into itunes, they don't seem to be there.

Do you know where I should be looking for them? they're definitley not in "my music", and when I click on "itunes libraries" it's jsut a massive page full of codes and html..

 

[ftaok]

Yeah that's what I would have thought as well - but when I transferred all the music across into itunes, they don't seem to be there.

Do you know where I should be looking for them? they're definitley not in "my music", and when I click on "itunes libraries" it's jsut a massive page full of codes and html..

Do a file search for "m4p". That's the extension for the iTMS song files.

ft

 

[Daiden]

If you really can't find them, send Apple an e-mail explaining that you lost your music downloads. I've heard they'll usually allow you to download your music/TV shows again. Keep in mind I've heard they only let you do this once, so be sure to backup your songs a bit better in the future.

 

[scharah]

Do a file search for "m4p". That's the extension for the iTMS song files.

ft

YES! that worked, thanks a million!

Sarah xx

 

[crawl45]

Lost iTunes music

I made my first Mac purchase about 3 weeks ago, switching from a Dell laptop that has since died. I had all of my music which was purchased from the iTunes Music Store on my iPod. When I first connected my iPod to my iMac, the dialog box appeared giving me the choice to either "Transfer Purchases" or "Erase and Sync". I beleive I may have accidentally chosen "Erase & Sync". Now, like other posts I have read, I see my purchase history located in my account info on the iTunes Store, but don't have any of my purchased music. I believe that some of my purchases are backed up to my external hard drive. Do I just have to figure out which purchased songs are missing (aka not backed up) and send an email to Apple? If so, does anyone have the link to where I am supposed to send the email?

Any other suggestions that may be easier than having to ask Apple if I can re-download? Thanks in advance!