Using itunes on two different computers

Mellor

Itunes question, want to double check before I wipe my ipod my mistake.

Is it possible to put data (songs, video, apps) onto an ipod from two different sources.
Basically, I'm traveling and I have my ipod with me. Theres a good chunk of music on it from my own collection. I load this on with my itunes back in ireland. I have a good few apps and popcasts too that I loaded on via wifi and itunes while traveling.

I want to update my ipod, mostly the software, some videos and maybe soem music. I can get itunes put on to my work pc. Is it possible to update my ipod from this pc without messing up what is already there. I want to be sure, as if I do wreck it, I don't have access to my old library to fix it.


I have a feeling it is manual sync or something. (No ituens yet so can't check)

larchielads

not 100% but i think you can as long as you use the same itunes account on the 2 computers so you would need access to the net for both computers. as i said i'm not 100%.

Stephen

No, it won't allow you to sync the one device with multiple computers, it will offer to wipe it and replace it with whatever is in the library of the current computer. I had the same dilemma myself. I'm in the US for work for a few months and itunes lives on my desktop PC back in Ireland. I installed it on a laptop here, but what I did was use some free program I found online (the name of which I can't for the life of me remember, sorry) to copy all of the music off my iphone and then add it to itunes on the laptop and sync it all back. I had to redownload my apps. I also used a program to automatically rename the files copied off the iPhone based on their ID3 tags, as they have gibberish filenames when they come off the device.

....

how ridiculous is that ?
yet another reason not to buy an ipod.
a normal mp3 player that cost half as much would not have this problem

Mellor

.... wrote: »

how ridiculous is that ?
yet another reason not to buy an ipod.
a normal mp3 player that cost half as much would not have this problem

Simply because other manufacturers, unlike Apple, aren't going to be harassed if they don't prevent illegal downloads. Plus it's in their interest

jimbling

eh, can you not just click the "manually manage music and videos" option???

I haven't done so on the iphone, but all ipods were like that. Then you can just click it into any PC you want and drag and drop songs/videos into it. Probably wont work for apps though.

J-blk

jimbling wrote: »

eh, can you not just click the "manually manage music and videos" option???

You can manually manage music on the iPhone but it still only works from one library - it won't let you drag and drop from a different library so it still doesn't solve that problem.

hallelujajordan

OP, I think if you connect your ipod to a different library it will maintain the stuff that you bought directly onto the ipod and will copy it into your new library altogether, however it will also remove everything that you put onto the ipod from your original home library once it syncs. .

If you buy stuff on itunes while you are away you will also lose that once you re-sync with your home computer (although you can download it all again for free)

Fingleberries

Hi,

Just a couple of points that I have run into with this same thing.

hallelujajordan wrote: »

If you buy stuff on itunes while you are away you will also lose that once you re-sync with your home computer (although you can download it all again for free)

This is only true for Applications. Any songs you buy on iTunes you would have to buy again if you wanted to redownload them again. Link. They recommend that you make backup copies of any songs or albums
In some instances you might be able to plead with Apple Support, and depending on the way the wind blows that day they might let you away with it and you could get the song(s) again for free.

hallelujajordan wrote: »

OP, I think if you connect your ipod to a different library it will maintain the stuff that you bought directly onto the ipod and will copy it into your new library altogether, however it will also remove everything that you put onto the ipod from your original home library once it syncs. .

If you are using an iPhone it is different to the iPod. You can only sync with one computer - if it detects that you are plugging it into a different computer, it asks if you want to wipe the iPhone and sync the information from this computer.

This Article Talks about how to configure iTunes on two (or more) computers so your iPhone thinks they are the same one and syncs without prompting to erase the details.

It does involve a bit of file editing shennanigans and there are a couple of Gotchas, too...

1) If the iTunes library is different on both machines, and the iPhone is set to automatically sync beware.

• This caught me out a couple of times. I filled the iPhone with music from home and plugged it into my work PC and it promptly wiped all the music because there was no music on my work PC.
• Workaround: Using the Manually manage music option in iTunes worksaround this.
  

2) Be careful with your contacts, too.

• Similar to the music fiasco, I managed to accidentally wipe the 100+ contacts off my phone by doing this.
• Workaround: select to Merge information if asked.

Hope that helps.

Mellor

jimbling wrote: »

eh, can you not just click the "manually manage music and videos" option???

I haven't done so on the iphone, but all ipods were like that. Then you can just click it into any PC you want and drag and drop songs/videos into it. Probably wont work for apps though.

Doesn't work on the iphone, but works on the ipod, problem solved regarding music, the software is a concern at the minute.
If I update software, I may lose other stuff.

acidburn51737

you can try CopyTrans (formerly CopyPod). works great. you can also try IMToo iPod/iPhone computer transfer