While synching my iPad I noticed that I was missing an ep of a tv show; it was on the home pc, but not the iPad. Having never movied anything from pc to iPad, I watched the tutorial, which said select tab, select item, click apply, then sync. Itunes promptly erased ALL my videos, then plopped the missing file on the iPad, and inexplicably wiped all my books and music as well. Now I get the joy of adding all my files back onto the iPad.

I've re-watched the tutorial and I followed the instructions exactly. There seems to be no procedure for individual single files from pc to iPad; you have to erase everything, then copy everything back over. Which is nuts. So first a declaration, then a question.

In the week I've owned my iPad, I've learned to loathe iTunes. It strikes me as an incredibly stupid and inconvenient way to manage digital files.

Is there a way to move only a single file or group of files from pc to iPad, or is this SOP? Everything I've read (help, tutorials, user guide) talks bout from iPad to pc only.

The problem is they fail to make one thing clear.... Music, videos and books are linked. On the first tab for your iPad there is the choice to manage books and videos manually. It does not say it, but that includes book. If you click that box, the next sync will erase all your music, videos and books. Then you can move them manually. But, if you say click sync music on the music tab, behind the scenes iTunes will un click your sync manual option for music, videos and books...... And delete all them so you can do a regular sync.

What I ended up doing, was leaving the manual thing unchecked. Going to each of the music, video and book tabs, and setting them to sync only the files I checked. This works perfect. Before I did this iTunes wiped my iPad twice.

iTunes is a really good program, it just takes a bit to see how it all works, and some points are not clear. I sync 2 ipads and an iPhone to one netbook without issues.

On the subject of moving files from iPad to PC..... When you sync, that happens.

Some apps use "cloud" computing, and files for that app are synced that way. For example.... I have Drop Box, and apps that use it (Goodreader, documents2go...etc) move Word and Excel files and others that way....

Originally Posted by Bremen

On the subject of moving files from iPad to PC..... When you sync, that happens.

Some apps use "cloud" computing, and files for that app are synced that way. For example.... I have Drop Box, and apps that use it (Goodreader, documents2go...etc) move Word and Excel files and others that way....

Thanks for the first post - that cleared things up tremendously, and playing (cautiously!) with the settings, I see what you mean.

On the subject of the 2nd post, my issue is more moving files from my pc to the iPad. Synchronization, to me, implies iTunes is coordinating between the two. What actually happens looks to be one way - files go from the iPad to the pc. Things get much more complicated when you try to reverse the flow of data - in my case, trying to move an episode of Fringe onto the iPad after downloading it and viewing it on the pc.

What appears to be the simplest fix is adding the file from the pc "purchased" playlist to the ipad's "purchased on iPad" playlist in the "Store" menu.

I will first of all admit i do not watch TV or movies. So I don't actually sync movies at all... But music, movies and books all act the same way...

In iTunes go to file/add file to library or add folder to library. find the file you want to add, or folder for adding several at once. Depending on how you have iTunes set up it will ether copy the file into iTunes or point iTunes to it. For me it is simpler to just have it make it's own copy.

Now the video will show Up in videos. If you have it set to sync only checked items, be sure your new video is checked. Plug in your iPad and sync. Eject the iPad and view your video using the video app.

Of course the video has to be in a format the iPad can show..... I don't know your knowledge level on this, but there are tons of threads on converting video here. The short and easy answer is get Handbrake. Handbrake is a free program for PC or Mac. Just Google it..... When you run handbrake choose the "apple tv" setting. This will make the file smaller and it will play correctly on the iPad screen, and of course it will be in the correct formats. Convert before importing into iTunes.

Hope that helps.... I have used iPods, iPhones for years. So for me the move to the iPad was easy since I was a veteran iTunes user....

I also don't mind iTunes at all. Maybe it just takes getting used to, and I've been using it a long while! It does synch both ways easily, after setting it up to tell it what you want to sync. I get music and apps on my PC and iPad/iPhone, books on my iPad, movies on my PC and it all synchs, both ways.

My complaint about iTunes is that purchased songs (it seems to me) cannot be moved from my iPad to a different device from the one they were purchased on. I purchased some on my desktop machine and some on my iPad. I created a custom playlist with combinations of music from both sources. The playlist gets reset to the version of it on my desktop computer when I sync. But I can't seem to copy the iPad purchased songs onto the desktop computer and that prevents me from mirroring the playlist on my iPad onto my PC. Seems like there should be some way to do this, but I guess I'm just stupid.

I'm sure anyone reading this is having trouble deciphering the problem. Kind of hard to describe.

Just buy your tunes from Amazon... No DRM and you put it on whatever device you want. I do not buy music, books or videos from Apple/iTunes store.

Originally Posted by write-stuff

I'm sure anyone reading this is having trouble deciphering the problem. Kind of hard to describe.

No trouble at all - it's exactly what was happening to me. iTunes seems to only pull files from the iPad when it syncs - it doesn't push data to the iPad.

I'm not sure why my experience is different, probably some settings that are different. But I purchase songs from iTunes on my iPhone, iPad, and from iTunes on the PC. When I sync, they sync both ways. What I purchased on the computer transfers to my iPad, what I purchased on my iPad transfers to my computer. I also copy these files onto a thumb drive and move them to other computers, to sync onto my daughter's and son's computers/ipads/iPhones, as they are authorized users of my account, but use their own computers to sync.