Switching my iTunes music from one computer to another?

Question

Alright, my last computer had a serious meltdown. All my music is on an external hard-drive. Unfortunately, that external drive was lost in the move.

Now, the laptop I'm using now has iTunes and I still have my iPod. What would happen if I plugged my iPod with a lot of songs on it into this laptop with only about 20? Will it transfer the songs from my iPod to iTunes or will it delete everything from my iPod?

Answer 1

Got a new computer and want to move your entire iTunes library? With iTunes 8 there is a backup feature that will archive your entire library to CD or DVD, including ratings and playcounts, which can be moved to another computer. If you are interested in moving your library using this method click, here.



If you do not have access to a CD or DVD burner then there is another option if you own an iPod. Because your iPod contains a high-capacity drive, you can use it to move all your music from your old computer to the new one (this document does not apply to iPod touch).



Note: While you can use the Transfer Purchases from iPod option under the File menu to copy iTunes Store purchases from the iPod to another computer, you can't transfer songs from other sources from the iPod library to iTunes, so you'll need to follow the steps below to use iPod as a hard disk to transfer music files from one computer to another. This process will require the use of iTunes 7 or later on all computers. Any computers running iTunes 6 or earlier will need to be updated to follow these steps. Download the latest version of iTunes here. Once you have the files transferred, you'll need to authorize any iTunes Store content. If you won't be using your old computer, you'll want to deauthorize it.



Important: Windows operating systems don't recognize Mac OS-formatted disks (HFS or HFS Plus formats), so you can't use a Mac-formatted iPod to move your music to a Windows PC. See "iPod: How to determine iPod's hard disk format" if you're not sure what format your iPod is.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1329

Answer 2

Unfortunatly, I think it will delete your songs from the ipod, so ideally it would not be best for you to do this. Just to let you know that it is worth getting your music insured, especially if you are using a large proportion of your hard drive capacity for music (in case you lose it through transition, or it physicaly is lost i.e. you lose your laptop)

Many people now spend a lot of money on downloading music, and fail to insure it. An intersting article on this can be found at:

http://www.noclaimsdiscount.co.uk/news/art_display.php?show=200901201

In terms of your music, just make sure that you regularly make a backup of your music. (either on an external hard disk, or even via email - which nw has a large storage capactiy)

Gd Luck

Answer 3

You may take a look at step by step guide, it will teach you how to copy music and video from iPod back to computer, it's easy to understand and works pretty well for me.

http://www.freedvdripper.net/how-to-transfer-music-from-ipod-to-another-ipod.html

Hope it helps. Contact me if you have any other question or use http://www.ask.com to search more answers.

Answer 4

you may consistently purchase an exterior hard disk. it easily relies upon on how plenty media you have. yet they sell exterior harddrives in all sizes now; i've got considered one as much as 600GB of area. you may in all risk purchase an 80GB one for a splash under $a hundred. you will possibly desire to in all risk take a verify out the backside of your iTunes window and notice how plenty it says you have.