Playing songs from iPod shuffle through other computer?

[Xenious]

Ok this is driving me nuts! I've got a new 1gig ipod shuffle which I fill with songs from my Mac. I want to play it at work through iTunes on my windows box. When I plug it in iTunes loads and asks me if I want to link the iPod to that iTunes library, I say no and then it doesn't mount the shuffle in iTunes.

Someone tell me there is some way to trick iTunes and make this work!?

I want to listen to my tunes through my pc's speaker setup and not via headphones.

I know it is mounting the ipod shuffle ok because it prompts me to re-link. Also I can see the disk mounted and browse the files on it. (tho explorer doesn't hide the . files)
-jim

 

[mcmav37]

This is theoretically not allowed by iTunes. iTunes can talk to any number of iPods, but each iPod can only talk to one computer. This is to prevent you from taking your entire music library and just transferring it to each of your friends' computers.

There are, however, programs that allow you to make the transfer in the other direction. They are designed so that you can restore your music library if your computer crashes. Search for iPod on versiontracker.com. I don't know for sure if any work with the shuffle, though.

 

[Xenious]

I don't think you understood what I am wanting. I don't want to copy back from my shuffle to my windows box. I just want to listen to the songs on my ipod shuffle through itunes.

From reading the apple forums this is possible on any other ipod just not the shuffle. On others if you setup to manual sync you can listen to the ipod's songs through another copy of iTunes.

 

[mcmav37]

I don't think you understood what I am wanting. I don't want to copy back from my shuffle to my windows box. I just want to listen to the songs on my ipod shuffle through itunes.

From reading the apple forums this is possible on any other ipod just not the shuffle. On others if you setup to manual sync you can listen to the ipod's songs through another copy of iTunes.

Okay, I think I know what you are talking about, but I'm not sure how to do that. I was a little off track apparently because your original post referred to wanting to "trick iTunes."

 

[parrothead]

The iPod, whether it is an ipod photo or iPod shuffle, is only allowed to be linked to one library. As the previous poster suggested you could look for a program that allows you to extract the music from the iPod and put in on your work HD. I know this isn't what you want to do, but I had to suggest it. You could also try one day to allow the shuffle to be linked to the work computer, thus erasing the music currently on there. Once the ipod is connected and iTunes sees it, go into iTunes prefs and uncheck auto-updating. Then take the iPod home and reload it. When you bring it back after choosing the "no I dont want to link the iPod to this library" choice, iTunes might still be able to read the music off the iPod. My final suggestion is to unplug the speakers from your computer and plug them in directly to the iPod.

 

[pyrotoaster]

Don't worry, I get what you're asking. (No, he doesn't want to copy songs from his iPod)

Unfortunately, I don't have a solution.
While my 20GB iPod has no problem just mounting in any iTunes library and playing through the machine, I haven't been able to get my new 512MB shuffle to do it.

I believe it's just a current limitation of the shuffle/iTunes software connection.

 

[dotdotdot]

Wouldn't you be able to just like, charge it and plug the headphones OUT from the computer and into the headphone port on the shuffle?

 

[lalcan]

... is right, you would only have to plug the speakers directly to the Shuffle and you could listen it.

Other option would be to load the mp3's as data in your main computer, and download them to your secondary computer, just dropping them to iTunes, i'm sure it would work, but, then again, you wouldn't be able to listen them directly from the iPod Shuffle.

I have my own question, is it possible to listen to the iPod Shuffle while it's connected to the computer?

 

[wwooden]

I think the problem comes from the fact that your iPod is formatted to be used with your Mac and the windows computer doesn't recognise it. You should be able to say "no" to linking with the windows computer and then selecting manually load songs. It would then be possible to play the songs as you want to.
I don't know if you're willing to do this, but try formatting with the windows computer by saying "yes" to the question. Then bring it back to the Mac and add all the songs you had on it. The Mac will recognise the windows formatted iPod and should work like normal. Then the next time you connect to the windows computer, select "no" and see if it mounts.

 

[wwooden]

I have my own question, is it possible to listen to the iPod Shuffle while it's connected to the computer?

I don't know about the shuffle, but the only way to do it with the other iPods is to unmount it but leave it plugged in. It would be like it is charging from the wall outlet.
I suppose it could work the same way with the Shuffle.

 

[sethypoo]

I know of a program called iPod Rip. Search for it on MacUpdate or Version Tracker. Or Google. You can't stream music directly from the shuffle to the computer, but you can quickly load music into iTunes on any computer and play you music. I believe iPod Rip lets your computer and iPod talk to any other computer or iPod. You can "rip" music from an iPod and put it on to a computer, whereas iPods can usually only accept music from a computer.

Hope this helps!
Seth

 

[pyrotoaster]

I think the problem comes from the fact that your iPod is formatted to be used with your Mac and the windows computer doesn't recognise it.

The shuffle is formatted as a FAT32 MS DOS disk by default, so that's not the problem.