mchin314 wrote:
So is the only solution to delete everything off my ipod ?
No, I didn't say that.
Re-read what I've written. If you want to synchronise the music in your current iTunes Library to your iPod, then you will have to delete the music that's on there now. But - that is your choice. You do not have to delete anything off you iPod if you don't want to, but in that case, you will not be able to sync the iPod with the new Library. But before you do that, consider other methods for possibly recovering some of the music on the iPod.
Regarding the music that's on the iPod now:
- if you have copies of any of those songs in your new iTunes Library, you will not need to recover them from the old iPod
- if you have songs on your iPod that are not in your new Library:
- if you have a backup of those songs, import them into your new iTunes Library from the backup
- for online purchases, such as the iTunes Store, Amazon, Bandcamp, Beatport etc., go to your account with that store and download the songs again
- for songs from artist websites etc., return to those sites to see whether the songs are still available for download
- for songs that you copied from CD, if you still have the CD, re-copy from the CD into your new iTunes Library. If you no longer have the CD, your choice is whether to buy the songs again, or not
When all of the above exhausts your options, any remaining lost music can be recovered from the iPod by using the tip tt2 has provided, if that is what is necessary.
Finally, the next time you get a new computer, transfer the music folder an all of its content from the old computer to the new one. That's how it should be done. But, in the event that your computer suffers a sudden failure, that wont be possible, so make a back up of your music.
You should back up anything you don't want to lose (music, photos, documents etc.) onto an external drive and keep that backup up to date.