$%$^& !!!! Why is Apple so difficult? iTouch...iTunes...new laptop...WTF!!

[SkyStorm82]

I had a laptop, (not a Mac) with iTunes installed. Every now and then I would hook my iTouch to it via USB and it would open iTunes and Sync. Well that laptop is about to give up the ghost.

So I bought a new laptop (still not a Mac)and installed the newest version of iTunes. Now when I plug in my iTouch it says:



The iPod " " is synced with another iTunes library. Do you want to erase this iPod and sync with this iTunes Library?

An Ipod can be synced with only one iTunes library at a time. Erasing and syncing replaces the contents of this iPod with the contents of this iTunes Library.

Erase and Sync or Cancel



I tried to google but didn't have much luck. How do I sync it without erasing everything?

[77bawls]

Sorry bud, I don't drink any of Apples Kool-aid.

[jakekanen]

Are you signed in with another account by chance?

[SkyStorm82]

Originally Posted by jakekanen

Are you signed in with another account by chance?

No. It's all the same account.

[jakekanen]

Originally Posted by SkyStorm82

No. It's all the same account.

I would try logging out and then back on. If this doesn't work, you would have to physically transfer your music from your previous lap-top to your new one.

[Packy]

Try clicking "Manually manage my music and video's" on the main ipod settings. You would have to do this on the old computer.

EDIT

You can also try ripping the music from your device to the new computer, there are many free programs online to do this.

[alexf2k9]

Im not a fan of apple and how they only allow syncing to only 1 library but i do have 2 160 gb ipods, and a iphone 4 and a ipod shuffle.... lol

[Rivers]

iPods are slave devices, meaning that the info/data/music is placed on it from the "mothership" like your laptop or computer. You should copy over your music library from your old laptop, then a normal sync will return life to normal. If you can't do that, you can find a program to install on your new laptop that will allow you to access your iPod like a USB hard drive. You can then take the music library from your iPod to the laptop. When you have iTunes working normally on your laptop, you can then sync to your iPod.

The big mistake here is assuming that the iPods, etc. are actually computers. They do a lot of stuff really well and that tricks the user into thinking they can do more. They probably can but they are designed with a specific function, to be dependent upon a computer. They were never designed or intended to allow music transfer from iPod to computer, probably the only way that Apple could get the music industry to cooperate with DRM (digital rights management) at that time. Your frustration should be directed to the music industry lawyers, not Apple.

One last thing: if you have DRM-restricted songs, you need to DEACTIVATE your old music library when you are done with that laptop. Some songs are limited to five devices. Computers and iPods count. So don't orphan one of those five on a dead laptop. Deactivate that library in iTunes before it gives up the ghost. This won't affect your current laptop or iPod.

[trapshot68]

Dude:

http://cnettv.cnet.com/move-itunes-t...contentBody;1n

[fastpowerstroker]

Select manually manage ipod from the old laptop then use the drag and drop method for any other music. Though you will not be able to auto sync again because you will lose the contents from your ipod. Or transfer the library from old laptop to new and auto sync from new computer. Pods can only use data from one computer unless manually manage is selected or you have other programs installed on your computer.

[97F1504RAD]

I feel your pain man I just went though this whole thing. My kids all have ipod and one has an iphone and they use my computer so it really had things jacked up. I ended up buying this program which allowed me to do what you need. I wish they had a way to create two libraries as sharing music with my daughter seriously sucks. I have to make sure all her music is unchecked everytime I Synch.

Yeah it sucks *** that I had to buy another piece of software to get it to do what i wanted but it was worth it in my opinion. You have to pay for the full version in order to do all your songs. The free verson only allows you to tranfer 10 songs.

http://www.easyipodtransfer.com/ipod...FeoZQgodmgnWCQ

[DaveInOroValley]

Put blame where it's supposed to be on the feds and the record industry. What you're experiencing are the DRM (digital rights management laws) not an "Apple" issue.

[Rhythm of Life]

Originally Posted by daveinwoodland

Put blame where it's supposed to be on the feds and the record industry. What you're experiencing are the DRM (digital rights management laws) not an "Apple" issue.

I must be confused.... why is it that all other media players don't have this issue? Must be Apple...

My Zune works fine....

[greasemonkey]

As others mentioned, move your music from old to new comp or get a program to read your ipod like a USB drive.

Having used several ipod touch devices with a Windows machine, I'm now a big fan of my Android based handheld. For one, Google's apps/programs aren't blocked. Google released the beta version of their cloud-based media player which allows you to upload your music to the 'cloud' and either stream or download to your computer or device when you want to play.

[nick]

There're many other programs you can use for synching with your laptop, it doesn't have to be iTunes. They don't have such limitations, either. MediaMonkey is one example I can think of off the top of my head.

I believe, iTunes also has the option to import your device and its content, but for the life of me I don't remember where it is. I haven't used iTunes in a long time.

[ubet]

I cant figure out why people love apple, everything about them is so locked down and ridculous, it drives me nuts. My android phone can do as much, or more than an Ipod/iphone and I dont have to go through all this headache transfering files between computers. Im surprised that apple does as well as it does.

Rant off

Good luck

[Rivers]

Keep in mind that had Apple (Steve Jobs) not hammered on the music industry labels for so long, then hammered some more, there would be no digital music for anyone. Because Apple was the first and ONLY major player to work with the music labels (as opposed to pirated illegal downloads), the songs purchased were saddled with the DRM that the industry demanded at that time. Although time has changed, those songs still have those DRM restrictions.

To strip the DRM off purchased songs, you can add them to a playlist, then export them to a CD as AIFF files (doesn't support DRM), the type typically burned to commercial CDs. Then insert the CD and reimport the songs into iTunes. You have to relabel them but they are free from DRM restrictions now.

[elnielsen]

[high_revs]

you think apple is problematic. ever since they started pushing out these itunes updates, i have hella hard time synching up my 2 ipods (gen 2 and gen3). i'm like.. .wtf? these aren't even proprietary itunes format. they're mp3 that I converted from my itunes music! grrrr

[Nose Nuggets]

this is an easy fix. you just need to transfer the media library from your old system to your new one and re-sync. even if it removes everything, provided the library source is the same, you wont lose anything.

[JDay]

You have to copy your iTunes folder over to your new computers Music directory. Then install iTunes, load it up and all your music will be there. You will still have to sync it though. iTunes sucks for this very reason (and that is is a resource hog), it should have an option to import your music collection off of the iPod, they only let you do this with stuff you bought from them. There are also 3rd party utilities that will do this.

http://www.copytrans.net/

[DaveInOroValley]

Originally Posted by Rhythm of Life

I must be confused.... why is it that all other media players don't have this issue? Must be Apple...

My Zune works fine....

You legally cannot transfer drm protected media between different users/systems. That's the law, not a device choice. I used to work at Apple so trust the above.

There are plenty of technically illegal third party hacks to do want you want.

[JDay]

Originally Posted by daveinwoodland

You legally cannot transfer drm protected media between different users/systems. That's the law, not a device choice. I used to work at Apple so trust the above.

There are plenty of technically illegal third party hacks to do want you want.

Then you should know two things.

1. iTunes downloads no longer have DRM.

2. You can have your iTunes account authorized on 5 systems at a time.

Why do I get the feeling you never worked at Apple?

[Rhythm of Life]

Originally Posted by daveinwoodland

You legally cannot transfer drm protected media between different users/systems. That's the law, not a device choice. I used to work at Apple so trust the above.

There are plenty of technically illegal third party hacks to do want you want.

A Genius!



Dude you have no idea what your talking about. I have my Zune library on 3 computers, all I did is download the Zune Media Player.

[97F1504RAD]

Originally Posted by daveinwoodland

You legally cannot transfer drm protected media between different users/systems. That's the law, not a device choice. I used to work at Apple so trust the above.

There are plenty of technically illegal third party hacks to do want you want.

Well I can tell you one thing that is all Apple's fault and that is the inability to be able to have multiple libraries on one computer.

You have multiple people in a household and not all listen to the same music and all may have an iPod and a iphone as well and you have to share one freakin library it is utterly ridiculous.

[JDay]

Originally Posted by 97F1504RAD

Well I can tell you one thing that is all Apple's fault and that is the inability to be able to have multiple libraries on one computer.

You have multiple people in a household and not all listen to the same music and all may have an iPod and a iphone as well and you have to share one freakin library it is utterly ridiculous.

Perhaps you should make a separate account on the system for each user? This way they will all have their own iTunes library. They'll also all have their own system settings, bookmarks, cookies and any malware they get will be confined to their account. Just make sure you do not make them all administrators. In fact you should replace the default account with a non-administrator account so that the machine cannot get infected as badly. In the event of an account getting infected you can just create a new account and move your documents over.

[Jel]

I don't own a Mac so I don't know if this would work, but I would go to one of their stores and talk to one of their "Geniuses".

[stix213]

Originally Posted by daveinwoodland

You legally cannot transfer drm protected media between different users/systems. That's the law, not a device choice. I used to work at Apple so trust the above.

The DMCA gives several exemptions, so its not that black and white.

[97F1504RAD]

Originally Posted by JDay

Perhaps you should make a separate account on the system for each user? This way they will all have their own iTunes library. They'll also all have their own system settings, bookmarks, cookies and any malware they get will be confined to their account. Just make sure you do not make them all administrators. In fact you should replace the default account with a non-administrator account so that the machine cannot get infected as badly. In the event of an account getting infected you can just create a new account and move your documents over.

Thanks for that tip. Much appreciated.

[Rivers]

Originally Posted by JDay

Perhaps you should make a separate account on the system for each user? This way they will all have their own iTunes library. They'll also all have their own system settings, bookmarks, cookies and any malware they get will be confined to their account. Just make sure you do not make them all administrators. In fact you should replace the default account with a non-administrator account so that the machine cannot get infected as badly. In the event of an account getting infected you can just create a new account and move your documents over.

If that's true, explain why so many users who get malware on their PC end up wiping the drive and reinstalling everything. Malware does NOT stop at the border of user accounts. Malware can install at the ROOT level of the computer where it will impact all users. One user gets the PC infected, then shares the joy with everyone.

[Bryansix]

Originally Posted by Rivers

If that's true, explain why so many users who get malware on their PC end up wiping the drive and reinstalling everything. Malware does NOT stop at the border of user accounts. Malware can install at the ROOT level of the computer where it will impact all users. One user gets the PC infected, then shares the joy with everyone.

Nope. You missed the part where he said not to make them local admins. If an account is not a local admin, 99% of the time the malware is confined to the profile and does not affect other profiles/logins.


Getting back on topic. I hate dealing with libraries. Just get your music from Amazon so you get a file that you can copy from your computer to your music device, back to your computer, onto a cloud based storage, back to a music listening device and then to mars with no freakin' restrictions!

[JDay]

Originally Posted by Rivers

If that's true, explain why so many users who get malware on their PC end up wiping the drive and reinstalling everything. Malware does NOT stop at the border of user accounts. Malware can install at the ROOT level of the computer where it will impact all users. One user gets the PC infected, then shares the joy with everyone.

See below. One of the first rules about computer security is to not run everything with administrator privileges. You should only use an admin account when you need to do administration.

Originally Posted by Bryansix

Nope. You missed the part where he said not to make them local admins. If an account is not a local admin, 99% of the time the malware is confined to the profile and does not affect other profiles/logins.

[greasemonkey]

Originally Posted by Bryansix

Nope. You missed the part where he said not to make them local admins. If an account is not a local admin, 99% of the time the malware is confined to the profile and does not affect other profiles/logins.


Getting back on topic. I hate dealing with libraries. Just get your music from Amazon so you get a file that you can copy from your computer to your music device, back to your computer, onto a cloud based storage, back to a music listening device and then to mars with no freakin' restrictions!

I'm still waiting for an invite for Google Music Beta to use as my cloud storage/media player. I've been downloading from Amazon for a while, even when I was still using iTunes/iPod Touch. For those using iTunes, just download from Amazon, import into iTunes, the artist gets more money from the sale and YOU own the music and can transfer it to whatever device you want to use.

[Sam1]

check manually manage device, end of story

[JDay]

Originally Posted by greasemonkey

For those using iTunes, just download from Amazon, import into iTunes, the artist gets more money from the sale and YOU own the music and can transfer it to whatever device you want to use.

Apple dropped DRM a few years back.

[97F1504RAD]

Originally Posted by JDay

See below. One of the first rules about computer security is to not run everything with administrator privileges. You should only use an admin account when you need to do administration.

Well I tried the other user function and I still cannot transfer all my daughter music form her ipod to the itunes library under her user account. It still wants to delete all the music off the ipod.

What a PITA!

[97F1504RAD]

Originally Posted by Sam1

check manually manage device, end of story

That doesn't work either. Tried that as well. The only thing that allows me to do is transfer the music that was purchased at the iTunes store to her library.

[JDay]

Originally Posted by 97F1504RAD

Well I tried the other user function and I still cannot transfer all my daughter music form her ipod to the itunes library under her user account. It still wants to delete all the music off the ipod.

What a PITA!

Use the program I linked to at the top of this thread.

Edit: It was further down than I had remembered.

http://www.copytrans.net/

[97F1504RAD]

Originally Posted by JDay

Use the program I linked to at the top of this thread.

Edit: It was further down than I had remembered.

http://www.copytrans.net/

You know what really weird. Is iTunes allowed me to transfer her paid for music but not any of the other music. Also another odd thing i I have a program called media widget that also allows the transfer but for some reason I cannot get it to work while the computer is signed in under her user profile. It won't recognize her ipod but as soon as I switch back to my profile it works.

[Mute]

The real Bill Gates and Steve Jobs: