iPod iPod Nano 7th Gen - Can't sync to both Mac AND PC?

dmk1974 · Feb 20, 2014

I just bought a 7th Gen iPod Nano. Seems like a neat little device for using during workouts (definitely not the swiss-army knife like my iPhone is of course).

I set it up last night at home on my Mac and sync'd with iTunes to get my music on. I also created a Nike Plus account so I can use this as a possible replacement to my FitBit and track steps and sync at work.

So at lunchtime at work, I try to sync the Nano to my Windows laptop and I get an error in iTunes that says I need to re-format it. It almost seems like the Nano can only sync with a Mac OR PC, but not both. Is that right? I've never had an issue like with with my iPhone or iPad when connecting to different machines, even if one was a Mac and the other a PC. Thanks!

Jessica Lares · Feb 20, 2014

That's always been the case with the regular iPods. It's because of the file system and how you can put it into disk mode. Macs can now read fat drives and such, but that wasn't the case before the Intel switch.

dmk1974 · Feb 20, 2014

Jessica Lares said:
That's always been the case with the regular iPods. It's because of the file system and how you can put it into disk mode. Macs can now read fat drives and such, but that wasn't the case before the Intel switch.

I don't want to have to set it to any disk mode and would prefer to be able to sync to both platforms. May be the final deal breaker for me if I can't sync to Nike+ from both a Mac and a PC.

Jessica Lares · Feb 20, 2014

dmk1974 said:
I don't want to have to set it to any disk mode and would prefer to be able to sync to both platforms. May be the final deal breaker for me if I can't sync to Nike+ from both a Mac and a PC.

Yeah, you have a deal breaker here.

dXTC · Feb 20, 2014

This is a "deal breaker", as Jessica Lares just stated, and not just for the Mac vs. PC format reason. A single iPod cannot be synced to two separate iTunes libraries, regardless of OS. If I were to sync my 5th gen nano to my MacBook's library, iTunes would say that the nano was already associated with another computer's library and ask to erase the nano's contents, even though that "other computer" is an iMac.

dmk1974 · Feb 20, 2014

dXTC said:
This is a "deal breaker", as Jessica Lares just stated, and not just for the Mac vs. PC format reason. A single iPod cannot be synced to two separate iTunes libraries, regardless of OS. If I were to sync my 5th gen nano to my MacBook's library, iTunes would say that the nano was already associated with another computer's library and ask to erase the nano's contents, even though that "other computer" is an iMac.

For my music, I only have it syncing to my Mac Mini at home. On my laptop as well as my work PC, I have everything unchecked except for the Nike Plus. Just seems like not quite as good of a device as I was hoping for.

If the Bluetooth would even connect from the Nano to a MacBook or even an iPhone to transfer the Nike data, that would be a huge plus.

Jessica Lares · Feb 20, 2014

dmk1974 said:
For my music, I only have it syncing to my Mac Mini at home. On my laptop as well as my work PC, I have everything unchecked except for the Nike Plus. Just seems like not quite as good of a device as I was hoping for.

If the Bluetooth would even connect from the Nano to a MacBook or even an iPhone to transfer the Nike data, that would be a huge plus.

I think your only solution would to Bootcamp/virtualize Windows on your Mac as a dirty fix.

Hallivand · Feb 26, 2014

Another solution is to "manually manage music and videos" that should be presenting itself as an option on the landing page of your nano. This way you can copy songs from any library onto it - create custom playlists and such too.

Jessica Lares · Feb 26, 2014

Hallivand said:
Another solution is to "manually manage music and videos" that should be presenting itself as an option on the landing page of your nano. This way you can copy songs from any library onto it - create custom playlists and such too.

The problem has nothing to do with his iTunes Library, it's the limitation of not being able to use an iPod on both Macs and PCs like you can an iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad.

SkyBell · Feb 26, 2014

Just of of curiosity - why the need to sync the workout data on more than one computer?

dmk1974 · Feb 26, 2014

SkyBell said:
Just of of curiosity - why the need to sync the workout data on more than one computer?

I had wanted to so I could sync pedometer data while at work or at home. But as I just found out, Nike+ abandoned support for pedometer data over a year ago with no ETA of implementation planned.

http://support-en-us.nikeplus.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/36812/p/3169,3171

At this time, pedometer workouts cannot be uploaded to nikeplus.com through iTunes. Depending on your specific configuration (iPod nano generation, iTunes version, etc.), you may receive either an error message or no response if you attempt to upload pedometer data.

The Nike+ team may create an upload option for iPod nano pedometer users in the future. We appreciate your patience as we work to implement this option, and we encourage you to keep tracking your steps in the meantime.

Hallivand · Feb 27, 2014

Jessica Lares said:
The problem has nothing to do with his iTunes Library, it's the limitation of not being able to use an iPod on both Macs and PCs like you can an iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad.

To an extent you can, for example I use my 3rd Generation iPod shuffle between my work PC and my rMBP at home - I can add songs from work as well as from home with no problems. The key is to ensure its initially formatted for Windows FAT32 first (I know it's a small limitation for 4GB files or more but lets be honest is anyone dumping those kind of files onto a Nano?). OS X natively reads FAT32 and so subsequently iTunes does too.

Hope this helped

EDIT:
Just realised this is for syncing Nike+ data, well anyway the above holds true for music

- long day

Slix · Feb 27, 2014

dmk1974 said:
I had wanted to so I could sync pedometer data while at work or at home. But as I just found out, Nike+ abandoned support for pedometer data over a year ago with no ETA of implementation planned.

http://support-en-us.nikeplus.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/36812/p/3169,3171

At this time, pedometer workouts cannot be uploaded to nikeplus.com through iTunes. Depending on your specific configuration (iPod nano generation, iTunes version, etc.), you may receive either an error message or no response if you attempt to upload pedometer data.

The Nike+ team may create an upload option for iPod nano pedometer users in the future. We appreciate your patience as we work to implement this option, and we encourage you to keep tracking your steps in the meantime.

This doesn't answer your original question, but I wanted to say that I've been syncing walking (pedometer) workouts from my 6th gen nano for a while now, and there's never been an issue uploading it, and Nike+ now even shows that workout in mile format.

dmk1974 · Feb 28, 2014

Slix said:
This doesn't answer your original question, but I wanted to say that I've been syncing walking (pedometer) workouts from my 6th gen nano for a while now, and there's never been an issue uploading it, and Nike+ now even shows that workout in mile format.

You actually get your pedometer steps data from the left-hand icon to upload? How? So on Nike+ it actually shows your # of steps?

The only uploads I ever get to Nike+ are if I use the right-hand icon and track any specific workouts.

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