New Laptop and iTuns/iPod question

My less than fertile grey matter | 02/09/09 | me

[Phantom Lord]

I am soon to pull the trigger on getting a laptop. Which one, I do not know.

But one thing that is slowing me down and is of great concern to me is transfering the bazillions of songs I have in my iTunes software to the new computer so I can use my iPod with that instead of the old desktop.

What is a quick, simple, and easy method of doing this for someone that knows jack squat about computers?

[Phantom Lord]

Thanks!

[Mr. K]

I got THREE Acer laptops for my children from BestBuy for $399 each for Christmas and I am VERY happy with them so far.

[Puppage]

http://www.jakeludington.com/downloads/20050420_ipod_access_for_windows.html

Best 19 bucks I ever spent

[Cousin Eddie]

Get a Macbook or Macbook Pro. I would imagine that you could link the two via a USC cable, or perhaps blutooth, to transfer the data.

[Richard Kimball]

If your old computer is a Mac, during the setup process it will ask you if you have stuff you want to import from another Mac. I did it last fall, and all you had to do was hook a cable between them and the computers did everything. Pretty painless, but of course, MS Office is a pain, cause it's now an "unauthorized installation." Everything else works great. It also imports all your iTunes songs, but you do have to authorize the new computer to play them.

[melissa_in_ga]

If some of your bazillion songs on your ipod were not purchased using itunes (for instance, ripping a cd, or perhaps downloading from a torrent site), using a transfer program won’t work. The new itunes library on the new laptop will not recognize those songs and you’ll have to transfer them in other ways. Trust me - we had to do this over Christmas with my daughter’s ipod.

Google using your ipod as a hard drive to transfer music. Print the instructions and go from there. It was easy.

[Phantom Lord]

I should have been more specific for all you cult members out there. My desk top is windows, and the laptop will be windows.

One big reason is the places I play poker do not work on a Mac.

[gondramB]

Simple if you have DVD burner in the PC.

Select Library, then backup to disk. Feed it DVDs (or CDs but it will take more of them).

On the new computer insert the first disk and it will import by itself.

[Phantom Lord]

I have never purchased a song from iTunes. My iPod consists entirely of mine and my wifes CD collection. Which, having worked at a radio station many years ago, is freaking huge.

[philsfan24]

how many is a bazillion? would there be enough space on a few burned dvds? they hold quite a bit of data if you have a dvd burner.

[cvq3842]

I just did something similar. Here is what I would do.

Once you have the new computer, install the iTunes software on it - just download from the iTunes website again.

Then, use a USB cable from the old computer to the new one to add the iTunes files as follows: click on top-left corner of iTunes on the new computer - I think it says “file” - and find “add folder to iTunes.” When you click on itm, find the file which on a Windows computer would be marked “My Documents/My Music/iTunes (again, the file on the old computer). Click on that, and the program should copy all the tunes onto your new hard drive. (Or, you could just downloady the My Music/iTunes file to a storage drive and plug it in to the new computer - same thing.)

Just connecting your old iPod to your new computer will NOT accomplish this - it might just erase everything from the iPod. In fact, once you have all the songs on the new computer, then you will have to “re-format” your iPod, since the new computer will not recognize it. The computer will re-add the songs back on the iPod.

There may be a way to choose “manage music manually” option/preference (on one of the drop-down menus at top left), and just load everything directly from the iPod, but I never did it that way.

Email me if you want me to try to talk you through. Or you might get better advice from others. But I have done this kind of thing myself, successfully. Good luck.

[Bearshouse]

I just moved a bunch of music, pictures and graphics from my old computer to a new one and just burned them to CD and installed directly from the CD. It seemed much easier for me than cables, because I am being so selective in what I move.

[Right Cal Gal]

That’s how it’s done. And iTunes will prompt you to put in a new DVD when the other is full.

Download iTunes on your new computer and “Authorize” it on your iTunes account and you can feed your entire library.

[the invisib1e hand]

iTuns is so cool.

[NellieMae]

I have 3 Macs and would like to keep all of my music synced on them. If I want to transfer my music from one Mac to another which file do I use?

[Right Cal Gal]

Yes, you can request “manually manage songs and videos” when you plug the iPod in for the first time.

Older iPods cannot be used to transfer anything but iTunes purchased music to a computer, alas. I don’t know if the newer ones have data transfer capability.

[ThomasThomas]

VooDoo Envy you can get any thing you want mostly under $5,000.

[cvq3842]

Thanks. I don't have iTunes on the computer I'm on now (at work) so I'm going from memory. For what it's worth, I do like using the program for managing music although I rarely buy fromn them. I just set the importing function to "mp3" and I can rip tracks that play on just about any player.

[Fawn]

I remember seeing your question in the Itunes ‘Help’ files.

[melissa_in_ga]

Okay, I’m not good at this html stuff on freerepublic, but here goes:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1329

this is the way we transferred my daughter’s itunes library from my computer to hers (I got an Iphone and wanted her library off mine). It took awhile, but follow the instructions. Sounds like Itunes won’t recognize your music unless you use your Ipod as a hard drive.