Transferring songs from Itunes

[canman]

My son is off to university and we are about to buy him a new laptop. He wants to know how to transfer all the songs he has on the old computer. I thought that once he connects his Ipod to the new computer it will download all the songs into Itunes. Is that correct, or will he have to do something else. Also any advice for a good starter Laptop for a first year university students?

[Charles]

My son is off to university and we are about to buy him a new laptop. He wants to know how to transfer all the songs he has on the old computer. I thought that once he connects his Ipod to the new computer it will download all the songs into Itunes. Is that correct, or will he have to do something else.

No. iTunes is the master library, the iPod is a secondary, temporary storage device. All the music resides on the computer in iTunes, you are merely loading a second copy onto the iPod. If you want to move the music, you have to move the original files on the old computer over to the new computer.

[Kuang_Grade]

Also, once you have switched the files from the old computer to new one, if he or she has purchased any music from Itunes, be sure to de-authorize the old computer for itunes (it should be under the store tab in the menu bar). Itunes will only allow purchased songs to reside on so many computers at a given time (either 3 or 5 at the same time). But this does not apply to music that has been loaded by you on the computer.

The ipod was designed as one way device in regards to music...you can put stuff on it but you can't move it onto another computer (although there are software programs out there that can do it).

[Charles]

..purchased any music..

[ttjereth]

Also, once you have switched the files from the old computer to new one, if he or she has purchased any music from Itunes, be sure to de-authorize the old computer for itunes (it should be under the store tab in the menu bar). Itunes will only allow purchased songs to reside on so many computers at a given time (either 3 or 5 at the same time). But this does not apply to music that has been loaded by you on the computer.

The ipod was designed as one way device in regards to music...you can put stuff on it but you can't move it onto another computer (although there are software programs out there that can do it).

You can move it if you set it up as an external hard drive rather than as an IPod, but you could also just network the two computers and copy the stuff over that way.

[james]

ah, the joys of drm.

my ipod nano is currently running rockbox. depending on your needs, it may be worth checking out. rockbox.org. you'll need to download a version specific to your ipod. most models are now supported, though notalbly the later generation nanos weren't last i checked.

pros:

- use ipod like any other connected usb storage device, drag and drop mp3s to and from (yay).
- support for .ogg playback
- with an ff converter pc side, you can even convert then copy mpg files so you can watch porn, home videos or porn home videos. - though doing so on a nano is rather pointless..
- skinnable
- your original library is available via a "database" diry in the filetree.
- games
- apparently easily removeable though i haven't tried yet

cons:

- battery life, at least on the nano seems to take a really bad hit. there may be pre-installation settings to improve this before putting rockbox on but i could find nothing post-installation. i've noticed that while the backlight does fade, the display doesn't completely shut off and i think this is part of the problem.
- your wife may find the home videos your friend put on there when you lent it to him

[JimDanger]

You can just use a program like EphPod. It's free and allows you to copy music to and from your iPod.

[Baka Chan]

purchasing an external hard drive maybe the easiest way. but, I am a Mac Head. I use Mac at home for everything.

[Charles]

purchasing an external hard drive maybe the easiest way. but, I am a Mac Head. I use Mac at home for everything.

An iPod is an external hard drive. I use it to move a few tunes to other computers. I have an 8Gb nano and lately it's about half full, so there is about 4gb remaining as a storage partition. But music files in the storage partition aren't accessible for music playing, so I dump them off ASAP to reclaim space for playable music.

You can pull songs off the iPod, iLounge has an extensive report this subject. But most people have a way bigger music library on their computer than can fit on their iPod. So just move the main music library from computer to computer via networking, or via an external hard drive like you suggest (that's why I bought a 1.5Tb drive).

[Mike Oxlong]

How to turn your iPod into anything (75 tutorials online).

http://www.airlinecreditcards.com/travelhacker/how-to-turn-your-ipod-into-anything-75-tutorials