My old computer no longer works. I want to transfer my music from my Ipod to itunes on my laptop, but now mix it with my wife's music. How do I do that?

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My old computer no longer works. I want to transfer my music from my Ipod to itunes on my laptop, but now mix it with my wife's music. How do I do that?

My old Gateway is dead. I have saved my 20 gigs of ipod music on an external hard drive.

On our Dell laptop, my wife has itunes music installed. I want to add my music and use itunes to add more,etc., but I want to keep it separate from her music.

First, how can I transfer my music from the external hard drive to itunes, without it affecting her itunes. Do I need to set up multiple itunes with separate names, or, as support mentioned, make two playlists.

If it's the playlist version, how do I make a playlist with my 20 gigs of ipod music? Thanks, Hup42

iPod classic, Windows 7

Posted on Feb 9, 2014 8:52 AM

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Answer 1

matt00

Level 5

4,041 points

Feb 11, 2014 9:45 AM in response to Hup42

Hey Hup42,

Thanks for the question. Based on the information you have provided, the best option may be to operate multiple user accounts on your Wife’s computer. The following article outlines this solution, along with another solution of having multiple iTunes libraries:

How to use multiple iPhone, iPad, or iPod devices with one computer

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1495

Create multiple user accounts

Do you share your computer with someone who has different tastes in music and media? You can create separate user accounts for each person who uses the computer. You can maintain separate, personalized iTunes libraries and customize each devices' sync settings accordingly.

Mac OS X users

Learn how to set up other user accounts.

- OS X Mountain Lion v10.8

- OS X Lion v10.7

- Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard

Windows users

Look in your computer's Help documentation to learn how to set up other user accounts. To find this information:

1. Click the Start Menu and click Help or Help and Support.

2. Enter "new user" in the Search field.

3. Press Return.

If you create multiple user accounts on one computer but want the same media to be available in iTunes for all users, you can share music between different accounts on a single computer.

Thanks,

Matt M.

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Answer 2

Hup42 Author

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Feb 12, 2014 8:45 AM in response to matt00

Hi, Matt,

Thanks for your help. I thought of doing it that way. How difficult would it be to create two playlists, one for my ipod and one for my wife's iphone and sync the music separately. I have 20 gigs or so of stuff. How would I create a playlist so huge and then fix it so that I could sync our music separately.

If I can't do it the playlist way, I would do multiple users or multiple libraries. Thanks again, Hup42

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Answer 3

turingtest2

Level 10

272,821 points

Feb 12, 2014 8:51 AM in response to Hup42

See Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device.

You can recover the media into the current library and divide into playlists based on date added (initially) which is probably easier than remembering to switch libraries, unless you already run separate profiles on the machine.

tt2

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Answer 4

Hup42 Author

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Feb 14, 2014 10:26 AM in response to Hup42

Hi again, one last question. I've decided to go the Playlist way. My wife's music is already in itunes on our laptop. My music is still on my ipod. What's the best way to transfer it to itunes without it getting removed from my ipod. Can I copy and paste or drag and drop? I also have a copy of the music on an external hard drive. Thanks again in advance. Hup42

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Answer 5

turingtest2

Level 10

272,821 points

Feb 14, 2014 10:33 AM in response to Hup42

The user tip Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device should let you recover any media that is on the iPod and nowhere else. iTunes itself only allows you to transfer purchases. If all the media that you want for any of your devices is on on or more hard drives then you can import it all into one iTunes library, organize it into playlists, and then sync the devices with the new playlists.

tt2

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Answer 6

Hup42 Author

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Feb 16, 2014 1:29 PM in response to Hup42

So far so good. I had my music on an external drive, so I imported it into itunes and then manually synched my ipod to the itunes music.

When I attached my wife's iphone to the computer and changed the setting to "Manually manage music and videos", I wanted to synch her phone to a playlist I made. I didn't know how to do it. Nothing showed on the screen giving me a choice as to what to synch to the iphone or to select a playlist. I didn't want to use the "Synch only checked music" because when I clicked on "Music" on itunes, the albums came up and there was really nothing to check. Plus, I have twenty gigs of music and her playlist is small. How do I synch a playlist to my wife's iphone? Thanks again. Hup42

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Answer 7

Hup42 Author

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Feb 27, 2014 12:40 PM in response to Hup42

Thanks for all your help and advice. I was able to figure the rest of it out, esp, how to update my wife's iphone. I guess one just drags and drops. Cool. Anyway, thanks again. Hup42

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Answer 8

turingtest2

Level 10

272,821 points

Feb 27, 2014 12:45 PM in response to Hup42

Sorry I missed the question the other day. Glad to hear it is all sorted now. 🙂

Take a look at that backup tip I mentioned. 😉

tt2

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