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Two Ipods, One Computer

Q

qzak

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jan 19, 2005
251
0
alright, if i have an ipod and itunes all set up, and my friend comes over with her ipod and wants to put some of my songs on her ipod, can this be done without completely erasing what she has on her ipod already? i put hers in the docking station and it came up saying it needed to be reformated to be able to be used on my computer. any ideas?
 
Officially Apple will only allow an Ipod to Sync to one computer at a time. Unofficially there are utilities available to do what you want to do.

Apple / Music Industry have deliberately done this to stop people copying music from one computer to the next using an iPod as it is not legal to give the music to someone who has not purchased it.
 
cool.. yeah forgot about that whole stopping piracy thing, hehe. i don't have my mac yet, it's comin in March.. so know of any programs for the PC?
 
Just load the songs on to her iPod as files rather than through iTunes. Then load it on her computer, and sync it there.
 
I have no problem using two iPods on my Powerbook. I have a 20 gig 4G iPod, and my brother plugs in his iPod Shuffle to my computer as well, since his iBook is broken. Perhaps the two iPods are able to coexist peacefully on one computer since they sinc differently, but I have no problem with it. Don't worry, we aren't illegaly sharing music. My brother and I have very different musical tastes and I would never listen to any of his stuff!
 
stampy - the ipods u use on ur mac, are they only used on ur mac? i think its something on the ipod that sees if its a different computer than previously set up for, and if it is it has to reformat to be used on that new computer.
 
qzak said:
stampy - the ipods u use on ur mac, are they only used on ur mac? i think its something on the ipod that sees if its a different computer than previously set up for, and if it is it has to reformat to be used on that new computer.
Click to expand...

This is absolutly correct, the iPod basicly attaches itself to a computer and can then only be synced with that computer. If you plug it in to a different computer it can either reformat itself to be used on the new machine, or just be seen as a device, aka you can view the songs on it in iTunes and play them but can not copy music to it. More than one iPod can be used on a single computer, but a single iPod can not be used on multiple computers. At least not out of the box.
 
Norouzi said:
This is absolutly correct, the iPod basicly attaches itself to a computer and can then only be synced with that computer. If you plug it in to a different computer it can either reformat itself to be used on the new machine, or just be seen as a device, aka you can view the songs on it in iTunes and play them but can not copy music to it. More than one iPod can be used on a single computer, but a single iPod can not be used on multiple computers. At least not out of the box.
Click to expand...
Ah, you're probably right. I don't think my brother ever used his Shuffle on his computer, so mine is probably the only one it knows. Very interesting, you learn something new every day!
 
Stampyhead said:
Ah, you're probably right. I don't think my brother ever used his Shuffle on his computer, so mine is probably the only one it knows. Very interesting, you learn something new every day!
Click to expand...
Yup, and if he ever get's his iBook fixed, he'll have to "re-Link" the shuffle with the iBook
 
Norouzi said:
If you plug it in to a different computer it can either reformat itself to be used on the new machine, or just be seen as a device, aka you can view the songs on it in iTunes and play them but can not copy music to it.
Click to expand...

when i plugged hers into my pc and said no to the reformat, it still showed as a device of course, but it wouldn't see it in iTunes like u mentioned.
 
qzak said:
when i plugged hers into my pc and said no to the reformat, it still showed as a device of course, but it wouldn't see it in iTunes like u mentioned.
Click to expand...

Yes, because PC's can't read the Mac format. The PC will show that there is something connected but it won't be able to read it. Now if you were to format the iPod for a PC then take it back to your mac and relink it without reformating it to Mac HFS ( I think that is possible, I haven't tried it) then you should be able to use it on your Mac as usual, since the Mac can read and write to FAT32 and be able to see it on a PC in iTunes as well.

EDIT: OK, I forgot you had a PC iPod to begin with. I have to say that I have not tried connecting one PC iPod to another PC and tried to play songs off it in iTunes. I've only done that on a Mac, and in that case the iPod showed up in iTunes and I was able to play songs off it, just not modify it in any way.
 
i (bymistake) upgraded to 4.71 and i realized that with 4.70 you can use the shuffle with both.

i have one one compter at work and one at home.

now, I need to find an old version of iTunes but it seems apple scours the net looking for old copies of its software. pisses me off.

anyway, i could add music to the shuffle but there was no autofill feature i believe.

i really want this feature!

rotten apple.

I can't copy OFF the bloody ipod anyway, so why can't I just use two computers with the bloody mac!

stop treating me like a criminal!
 
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