# iPod Questions!



## Annie (May 28, 2009)

My laptop that I currently have is OLD, so the USB drives no longer update (that or I didn't correctly update them, even though I've tried basically everything). I can't use flash drives or anything really because it doesn't recognize them. Even when I plug in my Kindle, it doesn't recognize it. But I figure if I get a new laptop (going to be awhile), I could probably get an iPod - that was one of the reasons why I was holding off on getting any MP3 at all. In the meantime, I would use my parent's very bad desktop computer (which is even older than my laptop!) to download iTunes and download music onto the iPod. But I'm almost positive that if I delete iTunes on there, all my music is lost correct? It doesn't save with the login, it only stays on the specific computer, right? I figured, if all the music was on my iPod, I could somehow sync it so that I could transfer the music onto a different computer at a later time right? Would a Classic 160 GB iPod be better in the long run, than a Nano? TIA!


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## 911jason (Aug 17, 2009)

You can back-up your iTunes library to CD or DVD if your parent's computer has a burner. Even though Apple doesn't officially support retrieving your music from an iPod and placing it onto a computer, it is possible. If you search www.download.com for "ipod to pc" there are lots of free software solutions to do this. 

Not sure what your budget is like, but you could also buy an external hard drive (I got a 500gb for $79 from Amazon about 6 months ago) and hook it up to your parent's computer, then when you set up iTunes, set it up to store your music on that external hard drive, then when you eventually get a new computer, you wouldn't have to do anything other then connect the external hard drive to your new computer.

Your choice of iPod really depends on how much music you have and/or plan on buying. I have an iPod Touch with 16gb of memory. My music library is a little over 1800 songs and takes up 10 gigs. The benefits of the Nano's and the Touch's are the flash-based hard drives which have no moving parts and therefore are a little more sturdy and resilient if dropped. The Classic's obvious main benefit is the huge hard drive, but keep in mind that it is a standard (if smaller) hard drive and if dropped, especially while it's turned on, can be ruined.


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## Kristan Hoffman (Aug 6, 2009)

Is there a reason you need to delete iTunes from your parents' computer?

What I would do is use their desktop to get your music, then when you get your new laptop, just copy the whole iTunes music folder from their desktop to your new laptop. (This will include your playlists, your play counts, your preferences, etc.) I have done this when transferring from one laptop to another and it was fine, because as long as the music/settings from one computer to another are IDENTICAL, your iTunes/iPod will recognize them as being the same. Plus you can register up to 5 computers with your iTunes/Apple login, so that's only 2 (1 = your parents' desktop and 1 = your new laptop). Then when the transfer is complete, you can de-register your parents' desktop if you want.

And as 911jason said, you're not supposed to be able to transfer music from your iPod to a computer, but there are programs that will help you do it.

And also like he said, size depends on need. I prefer having a mid-size iPod (like 30 to 60 gb) since that gets all my current music plus leaves some room for movies and future music. BUT what I currently own is an 8gb iTouch, and it's been fine. I just created a few more playlists than I normally would have to help control what goes onto my iPod since the space is limited.

But of course, if you want to use the iPod as a backup hard drive too, then you will want a larger one. 

Kristan


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## Rasputina (May 6, 2009)

I'd recommend getting an external hard drive. You can store your iTunes music folder on it and then it's very easy to move from one computer to the next. How much data are we talking about? I have over 150 gigs of music and video. Which is why I choose not to store any of it on my laptops hard drive.


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## Annie (May 28, 2009)

I have LOTS and LOTS of music that I'm planning. Probably would easily fill up a Nano (which is why I'm considering the Classic). I also plan to movies on there, so that would take up even more room. I'm not big on deleting my music to put new music. I would just keep it all on the iPod.



kristanhoffman said:


> Is there a reason you need to delete iTunes from your parents' computer?
> 
> What I would do is use their desktop to get your music, then when you get your new laptop, just copy the whole iTunes music folder from their desktop to your new laptop. (This will include your playlists, your play counts, your preferences, etc.) I have done this when transferring from one laptop to another and it was fine, because as long as the music/settings from one computer to another are IDENTICAL, your iTunes/iPod will recognize them as being the same. Plus you can register up to 5 computers with your iTunes/Apple login, so that's only 2 (1 = your parents' desktop and 1 = your new laptop). Then when the transfer is complete, you can de-register your parents' desktop if you want.
> 
> ...


The problem with keeping it on my parents' computer is that (theoretically) it's taking up a ton of memory - which would make it even slower. And it's not like they use iTunes - it would be only temporary. How would I transfer the entire folder? Is it through iTunes itself?



911jason said:


> You can back-up your iTunes library to CD or DVD if your parent's computer has a burner. Even though Apple doesn't officially support retrieving your music from an iPod and placing it onto a computer, it is possible. If you search www.download.com for "ipod to pc" there are lots of free software solutions to do this.
> 
> Not sure what your budget is like, but you could also buy an external hard drive (I got a 500gb for $79 from Amazon about 6 months ago) and hook it up to your parent's computer, then when you set up iTunes, set it up to store your music on that external hard drive, then when you eventually get a new computer, you wouldn't have to do anything other then connect the external hard drive to your new computer.
> 
> Your choice of iPod really depends on how much music you have and/or plan on buying. I have an iPod Touch with 16gb of memory. My music library is a little over 1800 songs and takes up 10 gigs. The benefits of the Nano's and the Touch's are the flash-based hard drives which have no moving parts and therefore are a little more sturdy and resilient if dropped. The Classic's obvious main benefit is the huge hard drive, but keep in mind that it is a standard (if smaller) hard drive and if dropped, especially while it's turned on, can be ruined.


The external hard drive idea is not bad at all. I might actually do that, it seems a lot easier than any other method I was thinking of, unless you're able to transfer the entire folder from computer to computer through iTunes. Could you elaborate on setting up the hard drive, so that it automatically saves to the hard drive with iTunes? I'd say that I'm pretty computer savvy, but since I've never done it, I don't trust myself to get it right.


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## pidgeon92 (Oct 27, 2008)

If I were you, the first thing I would do is check to see if your parents computer can actually run iTunes. 

Laptops being as inexpensive as they are now, you might want to reconsider which you purchase first.


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## Rasputina (May 6, 2009)

Annie said:


> The problem with keeping it on my parents' computer is that (theoretically) it's taking up a ton of memory - which would make it even slower. And it's not like they use iTunes - it would be only temporary. How would I transfer the entire folder? Is it through iTunes itself?


Using up hard drive space doesn't in and of itself make a computer slower.


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## 911jason (Aug 17, 2009)

Annie said:


> The external hard drive idea is not bad at all. I might actually do that, it seems a lot easier than any other method I was thinking of, unless you're able to transfer the entire folder from computer to computer through iTunes. Could you elaborate on setting up the hard drive, so that it automatically saves to the hard drive with iTunes? I'd say that I'm pretty computer savvy, but since I've never done it, I don't trust myself to get it right.


Here's the link on Apple's website. It appears very straight forward and iTunes can do all the work for you. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1364

My only suggestion would be to download and install iTunes on the computer first. Then put a song or two in there, either from a burned CD or download something (maybe one of their free songs of the week?). THEN follow the instructions above and move everything to your new external drive. Afterwards, make sure it works by playing one of those songs you added. I just say to do it this way so that if something goes wrong, you're not dealing with several gigs of music files to re-do. Make sure it works first, then import/buy your music.


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## Rasputina (May 6, 2009)

You can actually just install itunes and then go into preferences and then change the drive and folder where your itunes music is stored. If you do it before you add any media files when you rip or download them they will go right there where you want them. 

It's much easier than ripping it all and them moving it all.


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## 911jason (Aug 17, 2009)

Rasputina said:


> You can actually just install itunes and then go into preferences and then change the drive and folder where your itunes music is stored. If you do it before you add any media files when you rip or download them they will go right there where you want them.
> 
> It's much easier than ripping it all and them moving it all.


This is essentially what I said too.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Current versions of iTunes apparently let you copy music back OFF your iPod onto another computer.  Seems like Apple realized everyone was doing it anyway and decided to build the feature in.  I haven't tried it yet, but the option seems to be there.  There are also 3rd party software packages.

Betsy


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## Annie (May 28, 2009)

pidgeon92 said:


> If I were you, the first thing I would do is check to see if your parents computer can actually run iTunes.
> 
> Laptops being as inexpensive as they are now, you might want to reconsider which you purchase first.


It's already on there. 

What laptops have you been looking at? LOL. All the ones I've been looking at are pretty expensive.



Betsy the Quilter said:


> Current versions of iTunes apparently let you copy music back OFF your iPod onto another computer. Seems like Apple realized everyone was doing it anyway and decided to build the feature in. I haven't tried it yet, but the option seems to be there. There are also 3rd party software packages.
> 
> Betsy


That makes it a lot easier. I would still get the external hard drive, so if the iPod went bye bye, I would still have the music on a different location.



Rasputina said:


> Using up hard drive space doesn't in and of itself make a computer slower.


Really? Then what does?



911jason said:


> Here's the link on Apple's website. It appears very straight forward and iTunes can do all the work for you. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1364
> 
> My only suggestion would be to download and install iTunes on the computer first. Then put a song or two in there, either from a burned CD or download something (maybe one of their free songs of the week?). THEN follow the instructions above and move everything to your new external drive. Afterwards, make sure it works by playing one of those songs you added. I just say to do it this way so that if something goes wrong, you're not dealing with several gigs of music files to re-do. Make sure it works first, then import/buy your music.


Thanks! I really appreciate the help. It really is pretty clear.


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## Rasputina (May 6, 2009)

Annie said:


> Really? Then what does?


What slows a computer down is programs running in the background, which uses up your RAM memory, which is something totally different than hard drive space.


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## mlewis78 (Apr 19, 2009)

I keep my itunes music files on an external hard drive.  I've had it a long time.  I used to have a Dell laptop with only 20 GB memory.  My current big laptop has about 92 and my netbook 160.  My external LaCie hard drive has 320.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

I'm not really up on the most recent version of Windows, I retired from user support a few years ago, but this is how it worked when I was working with Windows.

If the hard drive gets really really full, and Windows is set to use hard disk space to supplement RAM for swapping when having multiple applications running (and it usually is), a lack of hard drive space can result in a slower running computer as Windows will have to swap smaller bits and make swaps more often, which will use more system resources and slow down the computer. So, at least in the olden days  a full or almost full hard disk would slow down a computer. I tend to let my hard drives get too full, so I've run into this myself several times.

That being said, the amount of RAM available has a direct impact on the processing speed, as has been said earlier.

Betsy


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## Annie (May 28, 2009)

Betsy the Quilter said:


> I'm not really up on the most recent version of Windows, I retired from user support a few years ago, but this is how it worked when I was working with Windows.
> 
> If the hard drive gets really really full, and Windows is set to use hard disk space to supplement RAM for swapping when having multiple applications running (and it usually is), a lack of hard drive space can result in a slower running computer as Windows will have to swap smaller bits and make swaps more often, which will use more system resources and slow down the computer. So, at least in the olden days  a full or almost full hard disk would slow down a computer. I tend to let my hard drives get too full, so I've run into this myself several times.
> 
> ...


That's what I thought too, Betsy. And since I have an older computer, that's what I was referring to. The newer computers have much more memory than what I currently have. Not to mention my processor has a really slow rate.


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## pidgeon92 (Oct 27, 2008)

Annie said:


> It's already on there.


It is a more current version of iTunes? Like 8 or 9? Newer iPods will need newer versions of iTunes to sync.


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## Annie (May 28, 2009)

It's the newest version, iTunes 9. I'm not worried about having iTunes or not because I can always use iTunes at through my school or one of my friend's house. But I would need to plug in the external hard drive.


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## kwajkat (Nov 6, 2008)

iTunes 9 has the ability to let you use your library with different computers that are linked together via your router. It is called home sharing.


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## Kristan Hoffman (Aug 6, 2009)

kwajkat said:


> iTunes 9 has the ability to let you use your library with different computers that are linked together via your router. It is called home sharing.


Oh wow, really? That's cool! But what if the other computer has someone else's music on it? Like, me and my boyfriend both have our own music collections on our respective computers. Can we home-share, or no?

Overall I like the subtle graphical changes to iTunes 9.0, but does anyone else think the new page layouts in the Store (stark white vs. the old blue -- and SIDE SCROLLING?!) are... I dunno, not necessarily an improvement?

Kristan


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## pidgeon92 (Oct 27, 2008)

kristanhoffman said:


> Oh wow, really? That's cool! But what if the other computer has someone else's music on it? Like, me and my boyfriend both have our own music collections on our respective computers. Can we home-share, or no?


Yes, you can.


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## 911jason (Aug 17, 2009)

kristanhoffman said:


> Oh wow, really? That's cool! But what if the other computer has someone else's music on it? Like, me and my boyfriend both have our own music collections on our respective computers. Can we home-share, or no?


If you both are using separate Apple accounts, I don't think you can use Home Share. I believe that it's intended for multiple computers using the same iTunes account.


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## pidgeon92 (Oct 27, 2008)

911jason said:


> If you both are using separate Apple accounts, I don't think you can use Home Share. I believe that it's intended for multiple computers using the same iTunes account.


Someone will have to test this.... I have it installed on multiple Macs, but we only have one Apple ID to purchase iTunes music. However, all of the music (iTunes purchases, music from other sources, ripped movies and audiobooks) from each machine shows up on the other machines that are set up to share.


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## luvmy4brats (Nov 9, 2008)

I need to do this. I can move all the christmas music, kids music, tv shows and movies all down to the main computer and free up tons of space on my laptop. Weekend project.


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## carlobee (Jul 21, 2009)

based on the demo, the Home Sharing on iTunes 9 has the ability to detect duplicate songs when transferring. just need to have same account logged in on both computers at the same time. then click and drag that will eventually copy. haven't tried it though.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

O.K.  Just want to say. . . .I don't know from iPods. . .but we had a get together with some friends here and among those present were a couple who just had a baby.  Well, he's 6 months old but considering the youngest of the rest of us is in college that counts as "just had".  So Stan (dad) is playing with JD who's happily gurgling away and I look over and he's got this app on his iPhone (wait. . .I guess that's different than an iPod?. . .oh well) and it's basically a "See and Say" -- you know the old spinner that you pull the string and "The cow says "moo" ".  The baby was pressing the pictures on the screen and it made animal noises.  It was HILARIOUS!  

What'll they think of next?


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## Kristan Hoffman (Aug 6, 2009)

Ann in Arlington said:


> O.K. Just want to say. . . .I don't know from iPods. . .but we had a get together with some friends here and among those present were a couple who just had a baby. Well, he's 6 months old but considering the youngest of the rest of us is in college that counts as "just had". So Stan (dad) is playing with JD who's happily gurgling away and I look over and he's got this app on his iPhone (wait. . .I guess that's different than an iPod?. . .oh well) and it's basically a "See and Say" -- you know the old spinner that you pull the string and "The cow says "moo" ". The baby was pressing the pictures on the screen and it made animal noises. It was HILARIOUS!
> 
> What'll they think of next?


There's an app for EVERYTHING. Need to milk a cow? "There's an app for that." Want to one-up your mother in law? "There's an app for that." Breast implants? "There's an app for that!" 

Kristan


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## sem (Oct 27, 2008)

If he had it on his iphone, you can get it for the ipod touch. As said above -  there is an app for EVERYTHING!!!


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## carlobee (Jul 21, 2009)

yup. i am amazed that there really is an App for everything. that is why i am loving every bit of my iPhone.


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