iPod Working from secondary computer

[Howard Brazee]

I have iTunes set up as a secondary on my work computer. I copied over all of my songs (purchased and ripped) to that computer.

I was listening to a song and looked up its lyrics and added them to my work copy. Is there a way to get these lyrics to my iPOD without doing the same thing at home?

Also - I get tempted to buy something at work, but have been hesitant to experiment. I will want it on my iPod which means I want it on my primary computer.

 

[mad jew]

If your iPod is set to automatically sync either the entire library or selected playlists, then it can only work with the original (home) computer. If it is set to be manually managed, then you can update it from any computer. How is it set to get its music?

 

[Howard Brazee]

I keep going back and forth - the safest seems to stay away from any command which indicates that it might sync to an alternate computer. I just don't have confidence it won't screw me up if I try to do what I expected would be easy.

Even when I sync everything from my main computer, I find that it doesn't sync - especially movies.

I guess I could turn off sync whenever I buy something at work or change anything at work - drag back and then sync again when I get home.

 

[mad jew]

If I were you, I'd continue getting it to automatically sync, but then I'd enable hard disk mode in the Preferences and store whatever I add at work on the iPod's drive (but not in its library), and then add it to the home library when possible. That may be the easiest option.

 

[Howard Brazee]

If I were you, I'd continue getting it to automatically sync, but then I'd enable hard disk mode in the Preferences and store whatever I add at work on the iPod's drive (but not in its library), and then add it to the home library when possible. That may be the easiest option.

That's how I got my ripped songs across in the first place. But I see they are there twice, once where I copied them, and once in iTunes. Oddly enough, I searched for a lyric and found it where I copied it - right after I added it to that song via iTunes.

I'd like to find a way to avoid copying the whole library over - eventually I won't have the space. And I'm not sure what to copy - when I tried copying the iTunes library, running iTunes got me the blue screen of death until I deleted it. So it appears that I need two copies of every song and remember what got changed so I can copy it over by hand.

 

[mad jew]

Sorry mate, you've kinda lost me. What exactly are you trying to do?

 

[Howard Brazee]

Sorry mate, you've kinda lost me. What exactly are you trying to do?

Sorry. I have two computers with iTunes on them. I only have bought a dozen or so songs from iStore, the rest are ripped CDs.

When I set up my work computer to be a secondary iTunes machine, I saw that it would transfer my iStore songs, but not my ripped songs. So I copied them to my iPod's hard drive and copied them on my work machine. When I started iTunes, it copied those songs - now they exist twice on my work machine. Ugh.

Trouble is, I'm not finished. I'm starting to add lyrics, I'm ripping more CDs, and I'd like to keep these two machines synchronized. Eventually I won't be able to copy my whole library but will need to only copy changed or new songs. I'd like to be able to add or change from work or from home (or from my wife's iMac).

Having identical libraries is a form of backup - both windows machines are flaky.

 

[mad jew]

Sorry mate, I don't know of an easy way to do that... If I were you, I'd get an external drive and keep the library on that. That way you just have to plug it in to any computer, open iTunes while holding OPTION, and you've got all your music. Plug your iPod in and it'll sync with the external drive's library.