So I plug my iPad into my computer (same one I usually hook it up to, really) and a short while later, I find that a lot of my games are gone. I figure I can redownload them, but am I going to be missing my save data? I don't really want to lose my saves for Jukebeat, Jetpack Joyride, Trainyard, etc. considering how long it took to get some of my scores / solutions. Transferring purchases isn't getting my games back, which is bizarre because yes, they are all legit purchases from the App Store. Is there some way to restore stuff to its pre-sync status? (PS, sorry if this is in the wrong forum, I'm not sure where to put this and I'm kind of panicked.)
I only have one account. The games that vanished seem to be the ones I bought/downloaded using the iPad itself, as far as I can tell. I know you're supposed to use the transfer purchases function to get them onto the computer, but now that they're all gone it doesn't seem to be working.
Is this what happened: You had previously backed up your iPad. You then bought some games on your iPad, and played these games, so had saves for these games. You then synced your iPad, which caused the new games (and their associated data eg saves) to disappear from the iPad? If so, that is the normal behaviour of iTunes. In future, Transfer Purchases from iPad to PC iTunes before syncing. Transfer Purchases won't get your games back, because they are not on the iPad any more so cannot be transferred from the iPad to the PC. I have no idea if you can get your saves back, I assume not though (iTunes probably deleted them when it deleted the games), but you should be able to get all the games back from the Purchased tab on the App Store. Basically, iTunes is pants, and not to be trusted. Watch it like a hawk to make sure it is only doing what you want it to do. And always Transfer Purchases first. Although it does normally give a warning if you tell it to sync while you have apps on the iDevice that aren't on the PC.
I'm travelling at the moment and had been hooking my iPad up to the wall charger instead of my laptop, so when I plugged it in to charge it decided to sync on its own and erased my stuff. Sad. Anyway, thanks, I'll have to keep a closer eye on it from now on
I ran into this problem before, so I've set iTunes so that it doesn't sync unless I give it the okay.
