Updating iTunes

Unless something drastic has changed in Window 10, I doubt that you will be able to have two versions of iTunes on the one computer. A good indication of this is that if you try to open iTunes on the second user account on your computer, you will see a message telling you that it can't because iTunes is already in use (on the other user account).

In addition to this, if you update iTunes on one account, you're actually updating the iTunes programme on your computer (not on the individual account). You have no control over this, Windows is in control.

However, this is not an issue. Your iPod Classic will, work with any version later of iTunes, including the new one that you're being asked to install now, for your iPhone.

Skywalker1989 wrote:

Oh, I saw if I consolidate my entire library on iTunes to iTunes Media folder, it saves everything and all info I’ve input, correct? So after I move that folder to an external drive, I can replace the new iTunes folders with these older ones. Correct?

Not really correct. Consolidating copies any content currently outside the designated media folder into it. If you want a self-contained library on an external drive you can use elsewhere see Make a split library portable - Apple Community.

As given you can only install one version of iTunes on a computer at a time. Depending on the versions involved and whether or not the library has been accessed with the newer version going back to an older build of iTunes may mean that you also need to restore an older backup of the library database, assuming you have one to hand.

tt2

I suggest you concentrate on the fact that iTunes isn't recognising your iPod rather than worrying about which version of iTunes you're using. As mentioned, the Classic will work with the latest version of iTunes. Check this Apple article: If your computer doesn’t recognise your iPhone, iPad or iPod – Apple Support to see if it helps. One thing though; the article frequently refers to iOS, which the the iPod Classic does not use, so you will have to use your judgement to decide whether a step referring to iOS is relevant, or not, to your iPod.

But before you do that, restart your computer and the iPod if you haven't already done so. If that doesn't fix the issue, all you've lost is a bit of time. Oddly, these two steps are numbers five and six on Apple's list.

If you get as far as step seven in that article, make sure you follow the link in that step to the Windows 10 article, which does include checking other versions of Windows.

Be careful what you're doing.

In the following explanation, I refer to the "file" when I mean the computer file and the "song" when I mean the "thing" you ask iTunes to play and you then hear. In other words, when you ask iTunes to play a "song" it looks for, and uses, the "file" for that song.

If you use iTunes to make changes to a song's information - tags such as song title, artist name, album title, artwork (except .wav files) year, genre and track numbering, iTunes saves those changes to the song's file and that information travels with the file. However, tags such as the song's rating, addition to a playlist, remember playback position, skip when shuffling and start and stop times are not saved to the song's file. Instead, iTunes remembers this information. If you then start moving files about, iTunes will lose track of their location and be unable to play the song until you manually tell iTunes where that file is now located. In some cases, if you get into too much of a muddle, you may lose that latter information (rating, playlist etc.).

You need to consider these same things when playing around with the file for a song. If you move the file, or rename or delete it (or the path to it), iTunes will not find the file, so will not be able to play the song. If you use iTunes to consolidate your Library, that should be okay. Personally, I don't take the risk of mucking that process up.

Skywalker1989 wrote:

So after I move that folder to an external drive, I can replace the new iTunes folders with these older ones. Correct?

I'm not sure what "new folders" you're referring to. However, as stated, be very careful about moving files about after you've added them to your iTunes Library.

I spent a whole week inputting artist info, track title, etc back on this old iTunes version. Wasn’t fun.

In that case, are you sure that you now want to move files about? What are you hoping to achieve by now consolidating your Library or moving folders to external drives?

iTunes will happily deal with the music files you tell it about, regardless of where they are located, but only providing the files stay in the same place as they were when told iTunes about them. As a consequence, I very rarely move files about (I do move them, but only very rarely). I have had to find "lost" files. Definitely not fun.

You can ignore my recommendations, because that's what they are. However, I will point out that a more important thing to do is back up your music files, rather than spending time moving stuff around. Hard drives fail, so make at least one full copy of all your music files, onto a separate drive, preferably external to the computer. That way, even if you lose your computer and your iTunes Library and associated files, at least you still have copies of your music so that you can re-build your Library. Songs have been known to be removed from the stores we buy them from, which means you cannot simply re-download them.

Skywalker1989 wrote:

I just read recently Apple stopped supporting such old devices to be used on newer versions, but I'll try again.

To the best of my knowledge, all iPods will, with the possible exception of iPods using firewire (really very old), work with the latest version of iTunes.

The most important thing is to back up. Your iPod is not a suitable backup device. iTunes and iPods (as well as other iDevcies) are not designed to get the music from the device into iTunes. An iPod can be lost, stolen, damaged or simply fail. Computer hard drives fail.