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iPod Does the Shuffle have to be "linked" to a specific computer?

H

hikeNM

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 29, 2004
537
0
Somewhere close to a dairy in East Texas
I purchased a Shuffle a little while ago to keep from carrying around my trusty 2G iPod. I loaded songs on it at home and carried it to work where I'm lucky enough to have an iMac. When I plugged it in at work, a screen came up saying that the Shuffle was "linked" to another computer and did I want to erase all my songs on it and link it to my work computer. I don't want to do this at all. I would like to listen to the songs I brought from on through itunes.

Is there any way to not link it other computers and listen to the songs on it through iTunes like I'm able to with a regular iPod?

If not, then this is a bummer.

Thanks
 
I've never heard of the "linking" before...I just bought a Shuffle off my father, who never uses his. I haven't got around to using it yet, but maybe I'll find the same message when I plug it into my computer. Perhaps you need to authorize the computer at work to listen to the purchased songs from the Shuffle?
 
if i'm not mistaken, when it asks if you want to link there is an option for basically responding "no". click it and the shuffle should go merrily on it's way. if you're just at work (and assuming an 8 hr. day), why do you need to plug it into anything at work?

i got this message every time i plugged my daughter's shuffle into my iMac. she fills it on mom's ibook, then wants to charge it in mine. once i wanted to use it myself (before i got my own shuffle) and so i clicked yes to the linking question. doing so simply allows you to click yes all over the place as it's way of working on any mac you stick it into. when you get back to the mothership, click your final yes and it's back home again. conversely, click no and it should just recharge if it's in a high-powered usb slot. i think it even mounts on the desktop if you click no, but shows as an empty folder. not as sure on these things since i got my own.
 
hikeNM said:
I purchased a Shuffle a little while ago to keep from carrying around my trusty 2G iPod. I loaded songs on it at home and carried it to work where I'm lucky enough to have an iMac. When I plugged it in at work, a screen came up saying that the Shuffle was "linked" to another computer and did I want to erase all my songs on it and link it to my work computer. I don't want to do this at all. I would like to listen to the songs I brought from on through itunes.

Is there any way to not link it other computers and listen to the songs on it through iTunes like I'm able to with a regular iPod?

If not, then this is a bummer.

Thanks
Click to expand...

You can't play songs off your iPod through your computer (through conventional methods... I'm sure there's some roundabout way to do it... maybe).

What I do at home is select all the songs I want to listen to and copy them to the iPod's disk. Then I plug it into my work computer and copy the songs to the hard drive...

Guess it depends on the environment you're in if that's okay or not...
 
if i'm not mistaken, when it asks if you want to link there is an option for basically responding "no". click it and the shuffle should go merrily on it's way. if you're just at work (and assuming an 8 hr. day), why do you need to plug it into anything at work?

i got this message every time i plugged my daughter's shuffle into my iMac. she fills it on mom's ibook, then wants to charge it in mine. once i wanted to use it myself (before i got my own shuffle) and so i clicked yes to the linking question. doing so simply allows you to click yes all over the place as it's way of working on any mac you stick it into. when you get back to the mothership, click your final yes and it's back home again. conversely, click no and it should just recharge if it's in a high-powered usb slot. i think it even mounts on the desktop if you click no, but shows as an empty folder. not as sure on these things since i got my own.

edit: just read your post again, but more thoroughly. i understand now what you are asking. the answer is no by default. however, there are some thirdy party hacks that enable ipod to itunes copying. one of them is called ipodrip, and i'm sure there are others. a trip to versiontracker should be a great help.
 
homeshire said:
if you're just at work (and assuming an 8 hr. day), why do you need to plug it into anything at work?
Click to expand...

I can't have headphones on at work. I can, however, listen to itunes on my computer. With my regular ipod, i can plug it in an listen to songs that are on the ipod and not have to erase my ipod. I'd like to do that with my shuffle.
 
I guess I should be a little more clear with what I mean.

When I plug my regular iPod into a computer, it shows up in my source list of itunes. I can then listen to songs off of my ipod through itunes without copying them to the computer. I don't want to copy anything to my work computer, just listen to what's on my shuffle through my computer. I'm not allowed to download anything to my computer, but with my regular ipod, I don't have to. I can listen to my ipod through itunes.

With the shuffle though, when I plug it in, it seems I have to erase the songs on it before it will show up in the source list. Therefore, rendering me unable to play the songs on it that i've brought from home.

Is there any way to make the shuffle show up in the itunes source list without erasing the songs on it first?

I appreciate all the help!
 
i ran into the same problem. It's RETARDED! And encourages me to copy it to my work computer. I want to be able to take, for example, a List of all the songs to play at a wedding or party and interface with any iTunes... only playing is just fine. I can take a CD with me, why can't I take a bloody 2-bit iPod Shuffle.

The day someone makes an MP3 Player that works with iTunes... I'm switching away from iPod.
 
atomiton said:
i ran into the same problem. It's RETARDED! And encourages me to copy it to my work computer. I want to be able to take, for example, a List of all the songs to play at a wedding or party and interface with any iTunes... only playing is just fine. I can take a CD with me, why can't I take a bloody 2-bit iPod Shuffle.

The day someone makes an MP3 Player that works with iTunes... I'm switching away from iPod.
Click to expand...

The retarded thing is I can take my regular ipod and do this between my computers, but why would they make it where I cant' with the shuffle? Why is the shuffle different?
 
I thought the Shuffle was just a flash disk with a play button but it isn't, is it? I wanted to put a song from my PB onto my friends Shuffle but I couldn't unless I linked his Shuffle to my iTunes library. I thought the Shuffle was just a flash drive, so I thought I could just copy the song across onto his Shuffle using Finder (thus bypassing this linking crap with iTunes). But you can't! (Well you can, because the Shuffle is a HD like a regular iPod, but he wouldn't be able to listen to the song until he went home and put in his iTunes library and uploaded it yada yada) The Shuffle has all those weird folders and files on it just like a regular iPod so you can't put a song on it and listen to it right then and there unless you mess with iTunes.

Correct me if im wrong bec im thinking of getting a Shuffle.
 
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