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iTunes

PuroEsq

PuroEsq

The Member Formerly Known as "JAEwing"
Joined
May 17, 2005
Messages
1,753
I will attempt to tap into the unrivaled "Brain-Trust" that we have here on CP and ask what is probably a simple an stupid question.

I recently added anoher computer to the house for my daughter's primary use. She has iTunes and an iPod (thanks to the grandparents) and wants to transfer all of her music to that computer and use her iPod on that computer.

Can this be done and is it an easy thing to do?

- Jason
 
Not sure if you are saying you want to use her iPod on both computers or just switch to using the new one.
If you just want to switch to the new one, download iTunes and plug in the iPod. iTunes will automatically sync the songs on the iPod to the new computer. You cannot plug it into both computers back and forth though, it will cause problems.

Dave
 
Several ways of doing this, depending on what you have available. To start with, all the songs should be in this folder (default):

My Documents\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music\...

Usually each artist has their own folder, each song will be a *.m4a or *.mp3 file.

-If you have the computers networked, it's just a file transfer - copy all the files you want to transfer from the same folder on one computer to the other.

-If they're not networked, you need some kind of transer media, either a portable hard drive, a flash memory stick, burnable DVD or CD, etc. Then copy all the songs you want onto the transfer media device and take that to the new computer. Open the transfer media on the new computer and drag and drop the songs into iTunes, it should automatically place them where they need to be on the new computer.
 
SouthsideCigar said:
Not sure if you are saying you want to use her iPod on both computers or just switch to using the new one.
If you just want to switch to the new one, download iTunes and plug in the iPod. iTunes will automatically sync the songs on the iPod to the new computer. You cannot plug it into both computers back and forth though, it will cause problems.

Dave
Click to expand...

DO NOT DO THIS! IT WILL ERASE THE CONTENTS OF THE IPOD.

Automatic iPod synchronization from iTunes is, for the most part, a one-way experience. Some information does come back in the other direction, such as ratings and play counts, but the bottom line is that iTunes considers the library on your computer to be “authoritative”—meaning that the iPod mirrors the iTunes library, rather than the other way around.

The unfortunate downside to this is that if you have an empty iTunes library on your computer, an iPod that is automatically syncing to it will happily mirror the content of your empty library. In other words, everything on the iPod will be deleted and replaced with, well… nothing.
Click to expand...

http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/...od-to-computer/

You need a third party program to do what you want to do. The other option is to copy the iTunes library from the 1st computer to a DVD if it will fit and then copy it to the 2nd computer.
 
SouthsideCigar said:
Not sure if you are saying you want to use her iPod on both computers or just switch to using the new one.
If you just want to switch to the new one, download iTunes and plug in the iPod. iTunes will automatically sync the songs on the iPod to the new computer. You cannot plug it into both computers back and forth though, it will cause problems.

Dave
Click to expand...

I WOULDN'T do this - if you plug in a full iPod into a computer with iTunes but no songs, it'll sync the iPod with the new computer and erase all of the songs off the iPod. You can only transfer songs from iTunes to an iPod, not the other way around - copywrite issue Apple built in.

EDIT - mrjinglesusa beat me to it :)
 
we have a external usb 300gig hard drive for just such an occasion. my son's toshiba mp3 player can be used like a portable Hard drive too as long as you don't have more than 40gigs of music.
are there ethernet cards in the computers?? if so you can get a crossover ethernet cable, plug one comp to the other, and transfer files that way too.
 
Irish said:
SouthsideCigar said:
Not sure if you are saying you want to use her iPod on both computers or just switch to using the new one.
If you just want to switch to the new one, download iTunes and plug in the iPod. iTunes will automatically sync the songs on the iPod to the new computer. You cannot plug it into both computers back and forth though, it will cause problems.

Dave
Click to expand...

I WOULDN'T do this - if you plug in a full iPod into a computer with iTunes but no songs, it'll sync the iPod with the new computer and erase all of the songs off the iPod. You can only transfer songs from iTunes to an iPod, not the other way around - copywrite issue Apple built in.

EDIT - mrjinglesusa beat me to it :)
Click to expand...


Precisely as these good brothers have stated, do not do this unless you wish to erase the contents of her iPod. I learned this the hard way while far from home, when I thought it would be possible to transfer the contents of my iPod to a laptop (upon which I had downloaded iTunes...via a very sketchy wi-fi "hot" spot in the middle of the Caribbean). Lost most everything I had on the iPod, and that which remained was all screwed up, out of "synch," different orders of playlist, etc. It was a nightmare for me.

I am by no means an IT expert, but I would opt for an external hard-drive, 500g or so, and just transfer all her music/videos/etc to that, then hook that up to the new computer and use it as her drive, save to, etc. for music/videos. I have so much stuff with my iPod/iTunes, that I have everything on an external. Works great.
 
X2 on the need for an external hard drive. Because these days all my photos are digital, my music is digital, hell even my tax returns are digital, I'm careful to keep all these things duplicated and backed up on not only a 2nd hard drive in my computer, but an external one. I can't imagine losing thousands of songs and irreplacable pictures because of a crash. But the external drive is really useful for doing this type of thing, moving large amounts of files to other computers.

Also if the music was downloaded from iTunes you may have to "authorize" the new computer with the iTunes account, but it'll work I think you're allowed up to 5. It'll prompt you for this.
 
mrjinglesusa said:
http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/...od-to-computer/

You need a third party program to do what you want to do. The other option is to copy the iTunes library from the 1st computer to a DVD if it will fit and then copy it to the 2nd computer.
Click to expand...
I agree. You need some third party software to accomplish what you want. I got a new computer last year and I used iGadget to download all my music from my iPod to my new PC. If I recall correctly it cost me $13. Plus, it puts all the songs in your iTunes library.
 
My $0.02. Make a back-up copy to a rewritable DVD. iTunes will prompt you through this process. This is something you should be doing no matter what. If your computer crashes, you'll be able to restore your songs to the hard drive.
 
Semi computer savy? You can copy the songs off of the iPod and onto your computer. They'll show up in a bunch of funky looking folders, but if you make that your "Itunes Folder" and click the option for iTunes to automatically organize your music, iTunes will fix the folders and put them under Artist/Album.

First, on her original computer or whatever, go to iTunes with her iPod plugged in and make sure you have the option for the iPod to be used as a disk drive on. I'd give you exact details but my iPod is in a box somewhere.

Now, plug the iPod into the new computer.

1) Go to My Computer.
2) Click on Tools>Folder Options>View tab
3) Change the radio button to "Show hidden files and folders"
4) Apply>Ok
5) Double click on the iPod
6) You should see a semi transparent looking folder (this means it's hidden) called ipod.control or some such. double click on this
7) In this folder, look for a folder labeled "music." All your music files are here.

Here is where you have two options on how to proceed. If you have the option checked that says, "Copy files to iTunes music folder when adding to library," you can just file> add folder to library in iTunes and it'll copy the music to your iTunes folder. And if the above option is checked that lets iTunes organize files, the files will be organized. Tada, you're done.

If you don't have the "copy..." option enabled, follow the following steps.

8) copy this folder to your computer, literally click and drag to your desktop.
9) Go to iTunes, file> add folder to library. And tada, you're done.

3rd party software may be better because it'll save play lists and so on. I just do it myself. My playlists are minimal, since I listen to anything and everything on my iPod.

Hope this helps.
 
NEED HELP with my iTunes: :0
I have an iPod and A LOT of music (15K+songs). Here is the situation. My iTunes is installed on my laptop, my music files and i-Tunes Library are on an extrnal 500G HD. Every once in awhile I'm looking at my i-Tunes library and a few songs here and a few songs there and MORE the next day have the little ! in a circle icon = original file cannot be found. this was a pain when I first discovered it because there were 500 songs the first day then another 1K the next, so I just deleted the entire i-Tunes Library & started over, 3 times already!!! :( now :angry: I'm approaching my 4th. What the H-E-Double Hockey Sticks can I do. I've searched & searched, even went to Barnes & Nobel to read off the shelf = BUBKUS!!!
HELP!!!!!
 
Guys, not sure why you would need a third party app to do this.

Apple/ipod gives you step by step driectrions on how to do this. Depending on how much space you have on your iPOD you dont even need CD/DVDs. Saves evertyhing including playlists

IPOD

I did this with all three of our ipods with in the past few months.

It was easy and worked perfectly.

Al
 
Thanks Al!!
That's exactly what I was looking for. :thumbs:
 
Apple specifically designed the iTunes/iPod process so that you can't (easily) use an iPod as a mechanism to transfer music files from one computer to another. For the music industry to be happy, Apple had to employ quite a bit of DRM and iTunes is how they manage most of it.

By default, when you plug an iPod into a computer, the music files can only flow one way...from computer to iPod. If iTunes doesn't recognize the iPod, it will automatically wipe it and then reinstall the music from the computer.

This isn't a design flaw, it is supposed to work this way.
 
The problem has always been what does the average person do when they buy a new computer. Their music is on the old machine. In the past it was 'hello third party transfer' software. Now it sounds like iTunes 7 may be addressing that. I haven't bought a new computer yet, so I haven't 'played' with that feature yet.
 
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