i have had to flatten my pc and rebuild it which means i have lost my itunes library. Am i right in thinking that if i now sync my device with itunes it will wipe it as itunes is now blank? I have a lot of stuff on my device that hasnt come from itunes so i cant just simply download it from the icloud. Does this mean my only option is to take the files off my device directly in to itunes media folder? I was hoping i could sync my device TO itunes but i dont think it works that way.

Yes, if you sync it will treat as a new device – can’t you turn off sync in iTunes and set to manually manage?

Cheers dezb, i have now set to manual so i can try and figure out how itunes works all over again.

You could sign up for itunes match on you phone, and then that will sync you files up to the cloud. and download them back onto your phone. It matches the songs on your device to the itunes library, and uploads any that isn’t there already (so if you have some old mp3’s it will download better quality aac instead).

It is 20 quid a year, but I use it to keep my music libary synced between my phone, home pc and works pc.

If it’s an iDevice you can’t just drag the stuff off.  You need an app like Senuti (there are others) which will let you pull the music files off the device, and import them back to iTunes so you can sync again,.

It matches the songs on your device to the itunes library, and uploads any that isn’t there already (so if you have some old mp3’s it will download better quality aac instead).

hmm.  maybe my library was too large but I’d be very careful with this.  When I tried it there were definite issues with remixes and versions and uploads didnt’ seem to work.  I gave it a couple of months but things like DJ mixes were never available on my other devices.

I turned it off, unsubscribed, and reinstalled my music from a back up.

iTunes Match will convert everything to 256Kb, so if everything is ripped to 320 or Lossless the entire library will be lower quality, something I will not accept, so I refuse to use Match. If Apple were to offer an upgrade to Lossless on subscribing to Match, I’d give it serious consideration.