Multiple iPods On One Computer

[harveymt]

My sister-in-law has got an 8GB iPod Nano for my father-in-law. She's given it to me, along with 30 or so of his CDs. Im going to rip them to my computer and put them onto the Nano for them as they are not computer inclined. Does this tie the Nano to my computer or can it be updated via another machine?

My wife is getting an iPhone this week and I have a 4 year old iPod. I plan on getting an iPhone in new year when current contract is up. Are there any problems with running multiple iPhone/iPods off one computer?

I had planned to set up one or two smart playlists for each iPhone/iPod, can you set iTunes to auto sync these playlists to the corresponding iPhone each time I plug it in?

 

[John Duncan]

iPods are tied to one computer. If you hook one up to another, it asks you to clear it before syncing.

On the other hand, you can have as many iPods as you like runing off one computer, and they'll remember what paylists you want to sync with when you plug them in.

 

[harveymt]

So I am thinking that best bet would be to tie the Nano to my Netbook. I'll not be ripping his CDs in a high bit rate as I'd doubt he'd notice the difference. I could then store all his tunes on my netbook. It'll be less than 8GB so won't take up too much room. Then, when I want to update his Nano I'd point iTunes at that folder and sync it.

When Im in my own house and using the netbook to stream Lossless files off a NAS to Airport Express I'd point iTunes at that folder instead.

Would this work?

Syncing to Netbook means I'll always have it with me. It doesnt have a CD drive but I could use any computer to rip the files, transfer them to a USB memory stick and then to my Netbook adding them to the Nano folder.

 

[mattatnotts]

The easiest way is to create different libraries. When you start itunes, if you hold the right shift key it will give you the option to create a new library. This will start itunes with nothing in it and you can put whatever music you want into that library, without affecting your own library. Then sync the nano to the new library.

Once you have more than one library, holding right shift when starting itunes lets you pick which library to open. I think by default it will open the last library you opened. Be careful not to sync the wrong ipod to the wrong library though (it will give you the erase and sync warning before doing it)!