iTMS and syncing multiple computers

[Porchland]

This is probably a rudimentary questions that I should have already figured out the answer to, but here goes anyway:

I set my iPod up on my desktop at home that had my entire iTunes database, including all of my purchased music. When I tried the iPod with my laptop, with auto-update on, it wiped out the iPod and synced it to the tracks that were on that computer.

How I can I set iTunes on two different computers to sync the iPod without wiping it out, i.e., how can I buy a track from iTMS on one computer, download it to the iPod and transfer it to the other computer without confusing both computers and the iPod?

[rueyeet]

Without a third-party utility, you can only sync from Mac to iPod, not from iPod to Mac. Apple didn't design the iPod as a vehicle to transport songs from computer to computer (though that use would seem perfectly obvious).

Try iPodLounge (http://www.ipodlounge.com/downloads_macosx.php) or Versiontracker (http://www.versiontracker.com/php/search.php?mode=basic&action=search&str=iPod&plt%5B%5D=macosx&jumptoCat=0) to find utilities that will allow you to transfer from the iPod to a Mac (don't know if anyone's enabled uploads from iPod to Windows).

[Porchland]

Without a third-party utility, you can only sync from Mac to iPod, not from iPod to Mac. Apple didn't design the iPod as a vehicle to transport songs from computer to computer (though that use would seem perfectly obvious).

Try iPodLounge (http://www.ipodlounge.com/downloads_macosx.php) or Versiontracker (http://www.versiontracker.com/php/search.php?mode=basic&action=search&str=iPod&plt%5B%5D=macosx&jumptoCat=0) to find utilities that will allow you to transfer from the iPod to a Mac (don't know if anyone's enabled uploads from iPod to Windows).

Thanks for the tip.

So if I change later this year from a PC to a Mac as my primary iTunes computer, can I upload everything to the iPod, dump to the Mac, wipe out the iPod and then reload it from the Mac?