iPod question: using the iPod with two computers (a Mac AND PC)

[Lorien]

Hi all-

A friend is having her 40th soon and her friends and family, including myself, got together to buy her aa video iPod.She has two boys under five, so uploading her CDs to her iPod will be tough (no time), therefore we decided that since I have a similar music collection I would upload as much as I can into the iPod before shipping it to her (i'm in FL, she's in NY). When I plugged it in this morning it "optimized for Mac OSX" , and I chose the "manual" over "synch" setting to use it as drive. My question; since it "optimized for Mac", will it be able to talk to her PC? Does anyone have experience with this?

Thanks!!

:hi:

[REP]

1. Well...

The problem is that when she hooks it up to *her* computer, it will say "This iPod is linked to another iTunes library. Do you want to connect to this computer's iTunes library?"( or something like that) which will wipe out what's on there. Unless you two work it out so you have the same libraries and 'ownership' (you can sync an iPod up to I think 7 computers, but don't quote me one the number) she might have to delete what you put on there to add/delete anything.

If you have an Apple Store, go in and ask at the Genius Bar. It's free, and they'll be sure you understand before you leave.

[Dangerously Amused]

2. Ditto on the Genius Bar.

And also the Apple Care line if there isw no Genius Bar nearby. There should be a number for free tech support in the package, you can call anytime as long as the iPod is under the original warranty.

[dpbrown]

10. My Genius Bar...

...is available 24/7 for your convenience.


;)

[Dangerously Amused]

16. Ohhhhh yeah!

:woohoo:



:hi:



:7



:hug:

[Rosie1223]

3. My similar experience

My daughter got an ipod for Christmas and my nephew offered his music library to her from his Apple laptop. After they loaded all his music on she plugged the ipod to my PC laptop and it wouldn't download anything from it. Since we're a PC family, we ended up having to re-format the ipod for use with PC (erasing all the music downloaded already). Then it would load music from either format.

[Lorien]

5. Aha! So once it was reformated it would work with BOTH computers?

Does that mean that if I plugged it into a friends PC to format it to that computer, then it would accept music from either the Mac or PC? Or would it still erase everything if a third computer were introduced? :shrug:

[Rosie1223]

6. It worked for us

After formating the ipod on the PC the ipod then accepted songs from my PC laptop, my nephew's apple, and my niece's apple. When we returned home, the ipod then accepted songs from our regular PC computer and her friend's computers. There is something about the ipod having a 'master' (for lack of a better term) computer for saving playlists and such but since the ipod is my daughter's I'm not exactly sure.

Good luck!

[Lorien]

9. Thanks so much!

I'm going to ask the neighbor if he can hook it up to his PC and put a couple of songs on there, then I'll try again with it on my Mac and see if the songs remain.

It'll be a grand experiment anyway!

:hi:

[CatholicEdHead]

13. Macs can read any PC disk, PCs cannnot read Mac disks

Since any iPod, HD (Video) or memory stick (Nano) based is seen as a mini disk drive. Macs have always been able to read Windows formatted disks. Windows still cannot automatically read Mac disks. There have been programs to allow you to do this, but they may not be stable or even work in this situation

[Lorien]

14. Thanks for the clarification

:hi:

[hfojvt]

4. my question is

Why are IBMs called PCs. A PC is a Personal Computer, so clearly a mac at somebody's house, or in somebody's office is a Personal Computer, and hence, also a PC. Maybe it's not politically correct to say so. :hide:

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

7. I thought they stood for "Piece of Crap" nt

:hide:

[sir_captain]

8. Simple answer

in the early 1980s, IBM released a computer called the IBM PC. Unlike Apple, they then farmed out their technology to anyone who wanted to license it, and consequently, these companies (Dell, Gateway, etc) called their computers IBM PC-compatible. And so the term PC came to be known as referring to the processor architecture (x86) that the IBM PC originated and which extends to this day.

[northzax]

11. make sure it is on manual updating

otherwise it will wipe everything.

then go here:http://macs.about.com/od/ipod/a/copy_via_ipod.htm

[Lorien]

12. Thanks for the link!

I do have it on manual, but I forgot about the formating issue. That link is very helpful!

:thumbsup:

[Guy Fawkes]

15. Different file system...

PC will set it to NTFS while Mac is set it to HFS+. Macs can read NTFS drives but not write to them. PCs, on the other hand, can not see HFS+ drives without special programs- and they can't write no matter what.

Formating the iPod in Fat32 will fix your problems. You may wish to google that...