Stupid apple question

I think your best bet is to continue using iTunes, and be sure to back up your iTunes library. I read somewhere that using encrypted backups stores more information than unencrypted, but, it does not store music. Podcasts are a different issue, and the podcatching app may have an option to include its data in a device back up.

Hi Siobhan, if you bought your music, apps and ringtones from iTunes, it will transfer all of them to your computer when you click the "transfer purchases from iPhone, iPod or iPad." As long as you can provide all the associate password for iTunes accounts that you bought them with. However, if this is the first time you are going to back your iDevice to that particular computer, and you never bought any of your music from iTunes, it'll delete all of them. The only work around with this is if you can use a third-party software to grab all your music from your iDevice and back them up using the traditional way, prior to you syncing your iDevice on Itunes. Then, import those music to Itune Library and sync them back to your iDevice. It's really a mess how this things work. That's why I always suggest to people to synce and back up their iDevices using a particular computer all the time, so they are rest assured that all their contents are safe, unless your hard drive crashes, then I don't know what else to tell you. You are really out of luck. regards, Musicruz