[ghporter]

I was about to update my iPhone 3Gs to the latest OS when I got this message:

There are purchased items on the iPhone "Glenn's iPhone" that have not been transferred to your iTunes library. You should transfer these items to your iTunes library before updating this iPhone. Are you sure you want to continue?

I have no clue what I may have bought on the phone that was not automatically synced, like apps are. How do I find out what this message is talking about? When I know what's on my phone that hasn't automatically transferred to iTunes, how do I transfer it?

[chabig]

In iTunes...File > Transfer purchases from "Glenn's iPhone".

[ghporter]

Well that's why I couldn't find it-I was looking on the phone, not in iTunes.

I still don't know what it was I purchased. I've tried listening to samples in the iTunes store, but I never found the way to make purchases, so I haven't even tried lately.

[DarkStarRed]

Do you have the Purchase icon under the iTunes store in the sidebar you should should be able too see it their.
If you click Purchase but can't make out what was last bought try iTunes>View>View options & select purchase date.

[imadethisforonequestion]

i made purchases on my iPad from the iTunes store and my PC wont recognize them. i have never been able to transfer my purchases to my library so i just gave up. but now i cant even synchronize new downloaded songs or update my iPad to the latest version because my library says that files or directory is corrupt or unreadable. i have a few songs, 5 music videos, and a season of a TV show that wont transfer. only app purchases are transferred. I'm not willing to pay for technical help from apple and the apple online store has nothing of what i need. Please help.

[turtle777]

1st off, once you made the purchases, the iTunes Store knows about it. They know what you paid for, so at any time when you download it again, it will not charge you.
Sometimes when you want to download something that you have already purchased, it won't tell you right away. It will present a "purchase" button, and only after you click it and log in it will tell you that you already purchased the item, and that you can download it for free.

Downloading past purchases from the App Store, iBookstore, and iTunes Store

That being said, you should probably do a factory reset of your iPad and then try to sync again.

If your iTunes is jacked up, you could delete all iTunes preference files and start from fresh with a new library.
HOWEVER any items (music, videos) that you added from other sources than the iTunes Store need to be backed up first, and later imported back into iTunes.

iTunes: How to re-create your iTunes library and playlists

Again, be cautious about any data that you added from other sources. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A BACKUP of these.

-t

[gradient]

You can also right/ctrl-click on you phone from the Devices list in iTunes and select 'Transfer Purchases...'

[sparkles]

Thanks . Great answer . ive been wondering abotu this for aes and havnt beeen syncing my iphone.

[letahowards]

Transfer purchases first, otherwise they will be lost. You could always download them again, but not everything may still be available in the Store.

With the phone connected, launch iTunes and select Transfer Purchases from the File menu.

[spicetrader]

I think there is no "Transfer" on the "File" menu in iTunes, so it's not possible to choose it. Also, I see no "Devices" list.

The message tells us that something bad will happen unless we do something, but it doesn't tell us what the bad thing is or what to do. I think the message is nonsense, and I will just ignore it.

[andi*pandi]

Are your devices plugged in? Which version of itunes are you using?

There are good instrux ^^^ up there.

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally Posted by spicetrader 

I think there is no "Transfer" on the "File" menu in iTunes, so it's not possible to choose it. Also, I see no "Devices" list.

The "Devices" section is only visible on previous versions of iTunes, or if you have the sidebar turned on.

If you have the iPhone selected in iTunes (and you're looking at the iPhone's sync settings), you should find the "Transfer purchases" item in the File menu.