I have an iPod that I’ve been using on my Mom’s macintosh, but now I want to use it on my PC. How do I get my PC to see the iPod, and then how do I connect the two so I can transfer stuff?
When you’re used to working with the Macintosh, where the core software for working with iPods is installed with the OS itself, it’s frustrating that there’s a bit more effort involved in getting the PC to see and work with an iPod.
First off, though, the bad news: you’re going to have to reformat the disk on your Mac-bsaed iPod to get it to work with the PC. Once you’ve done that, though, it’ll work for both Mac and PC. I’ll document exactly how I dealt with the siutation your’e talking about when I got my shiny new iPod Video so you can see how that might not be a huge crisis.
The first step – and if you don’t have a Mac or an iPod that’s already full of music, you can skip this step – is to connect the iPod to your Mac then sync the two. Now you have a complete copy of the iPod data on the Mac and won’t have to panic when it comes time to reformat the iPod’s disk. Right? 🙂
Now, plug in the iPod to your PC and you’ll doubtless see an error message like this:
Since you probably don’t have the original CDROM you can just grab the software from the Apple site as the dialog box suggests. Go to the Apple iPod Download Center to grab the necessary drivers and utilities for your computer, install them, and reboot.
Now you should be able to install iTunes if you haven’t yet (you need iTunes to work effectively with the iPod) by grabbing it from the Apple site too. You can easily download it from Apple iTunes Download Center.
Start up iTunes once it’s installed then hook up your iPod to your PC. You’ll now see this scary message:
Click on “Update” and you’ll be taken to the iPod Updater:
(Your version number might vary slightly as Apple’s constantly tweaking the OS on the iPod: this is the version as of mid-February, 2006).
Click on “Restore” and it’ll wipe your iPod clean and reformat the disk to work with Windows XP, which is – believe it or not – what you want! This takes a few minutes of time.
The next (and last) step is for the iPod Setup Assistant to run. It gives you a chance to name your iPod and set a few important preferences:
You can see the two options you have here: I have the app automatically sync the songs on my PC with my iPod (though it doesn’t work in the other direction: if I add songs to my iPod from another computer, I need to manually copy them from the iPod onto my PC when I want to complete the transfer).
Once you’ve set things as you’d like, click on “Next” and it’ll actually format and configure your iPod. Then you’re done! Congratulations.
If you want to restore all that music you pulled off the iPod just before you reformated it, eject the iPod from your PC, unplug the iPod from your PC and plug it back into your Mac. Now it’ll show up in iTunes, but won’t autosync. Simply drag and drop the music you want to restore back onto the iPod name on the left side of the iTunes program.
Hope that gets you up and running!
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HELP!!! About a week ago I updated my I-tunes on my new Windows 8 laptop to include the new I-Tunes Radio stuff. Well, ever since, I can’t get my I-pod nano (7th gen) to synch up with my laptop. I just get an error message that says I-tunes doesn’t recognize my i-pod, (doesn’t “identify” my ipod) and I’ll have to uninstall I-Tunes and reinstall. I have done that FOUR TIMES!!!!! It doesn’t WORK!!! So then it tells me if that doesn’t work, I need a new USB cable. OK, I got a new USB cable. Guess what? IT DOESN”T WORK!!! I get the same message. I can trace this problem DIRECTLY to the day I downloaded their upgrade! NOW what do I do? I saw one site that said to rename my itunes library from a file extension of .itl (or .ilt or whatever it is) so I did that and guess what??? It deleted my whole I-tunes library. THANKS!!! HELP!!!
I bought a mini ipod from my friend. She didn’t erase any of her songs or pictures or videos. Now, I want to save some of the songs, but delete her other personal stuff. I am using my sister’s PC and I know she has Itunes, but I have no idea what to do next. Each time I plug in the ipod I get a message saying “you must restore before using a PC”.. But I don’t want to erase all the songs…help!
How can I keep the DEVICE shpowing on my menu, on the left, so that I can access the SYNC command and puch APPLY..Please help!!!
I cant get into the I Tunes on my computer. I
do you want to delete this shortcut keep getting the error message,
The item ‘I Tunes.Exe’ That this shortcut refers to has been changed or moved, so this shortcut will no longer work properly.
Do you want to delete this shortcut. yes or no
I have just bought a ipod. I switched it on, it is asking me for newtwork which I have inputted but can go from there. Need help on this with this new apple ipod purchased.
Hi. I have a problem with my iPod Shuffle. It doesn’t show up in iTunes and Windows.
I’ve got Windows XP service pack 3. iTunes is up to date. Uninstalled / reinstalled iTunes and reset the device a couple of times. I went through all the troubleshooting steps on Apple site. My brother took iPod Shuffle to the store he had bought it from and they verified that it works on their windows PC. They did something to it. When first connected to my computer afterwards it appeared with a strange icon. 10 min later when connected again it appeared with yet another icon. Then it suddenly disappeared from both iTunes and My computer and was unresponsive.
Please, help me.
dave, a totaly differant topic,
in regards to the itunes accounts theft and paypal issues that itunes is claiming they are secure.
Being in china, and able to speak chinese, i have stumbled across what i feel is apples little secret.
is there a topic area i can post this? or perhaps and email from you?
im sure i can surprise you with this
mark
at first my ipod was showing up on itunes now its not
i have just erase all my data with my ipostouch 1st g and now it was jst lyk nt starting its condition is wen i turnd onn my ipodtouch apple logo iz showing nothing else is happening so can any body help me wat can i do n how…!
I have an iPod Touch (4G). Till sometime, it was working fine. For last almost 02 months, I could not charge it. Now, when i connect it to the USB charger (connected with my laptop), it does not charge. I have tried all the USB ports and even left it connected overnight. Still, the result is the same and it is not getting charged 🙁
can you please suggest something?
Thanks in advance.
hey i baught a new i pod touch i synced it with my friends computer and now my own home pc wont show it in devices and i m not able to get it synced :'( what can i do :'( and i cnt get to my friends hous eshe lives in another state :'( what can i do get my ipod touch recgnised in my itunes :'(
Hi, my sister just bought a new ipod. i already have itunes but it will not recognize her ipod. what do i do?
this didnt help at all
i just purchased a ipad2 today, and i downloaded the newest itunes for it, but its not doing anything, idk what to do, or what the next steps are, nothings popping up, & idk how to sync it. -___-
HELP.
I just got a new ipod touch an i cant get it to work i plug it into my computer and nothin happens i have itunes but it takes me to there home sreen i need help do i can get it to work or do i have to take it back and get a new one someone plz help……
I recently transferred my library from one laptop to another. All the songs (purchased songs and songs I downloaded from my personal CD collection)seemed to have transferred without issue to the new laptop however when I synced my IPOD to the new laptop, only the songs purchased from iTunes transferred successfully to my IPOD. How do I download the library of songs from my personal collection that reside in my new laptop iTunes library? Your advice would be most appreciated.
Hi, i just bought an ipod nano 5th gen and i cant seem to register it on itunes. I always get the message “You must complete the entire form”. There are only few fields to fill in before i click on Submit: Salutation, Name, Last Name, Address, City, Province, Postal Code, Email Address, Area Code and Phone. All of these fields are already filled up with the needed info. I wonder why always get the same message “You must complete the entire form” Please please help me.. Thanks in advance..
Hi Dave, I have the new Ipod Shuffle and im trying to register it to my computer, but when i first connect it, a pop up for my windows said it has to be fomatted to windows so i accepted it and click yes, but it has not shown up as a new ipod in my itunes what did i do wrong and what can i do to restore it? it is a new ipod..
I am trying to down load some of my itunes library to my grandsons ipod, yet his ipod does not appear in the devices window to begin. I have tried this before and seen his ipod show up; however, no luck the last two times, any sugeestions?
.. my little sister finally got an ipod so i decided to put the songs off of my library into here ipod. after i hooked up her ipod and syncronized i ejected the ipod from my laptop. i then decided to charge my ipod classic. when i took it off the usb charge cord, there was NOTHING on my ipod !!!! everythng is still in my itunes library but not on my ipod. i hooked my ipod back up to my laptop and tried to re-sync it but my ipod didnt even pop up ! i didnt see my ipod name or anything so i wasnt allowed to sync it. i am lost without my ipod !! uhhhhh, what do i do ???!!
Ummm, im trying to get my new ipod to work but itunes wont work on it. I’ve tried many things, but nothing seems to work.
Jamie, if your old iPod Nano is already paired to your computer, it should be easy: plug it in, then iTunes should copy all the music from the Nano to the computer. Then plug in the new iPod Touch and indicate you want to copy everything onto the new unit by configuring the sync properly. Done.
If your old iPod Nano isn’t paired with this computer, I suggest you check out my article on how to get music off your iPod before you do anything else (to make sure you don’t accidentally delete everything):
https://www.askdavetaylor.com/how_do_i_get_songs_off_my_ipod.html
Good luck!
I had an ipod nano for a year, and now i got an ipod touch. can my old songs be downloaded onto my new ipod? I downloaded the new i tunes but… now what? i would love not to redownload all my songs.
hi i have an ipod touch and it had a code on it and i didnt know it so i reset it and now when i plug it in itunes says to restore it but i dont want to restore it….. i just want to be able to have my music and apps still please help
Hi I just bought an Ipod nano. Can’t get itunes to recognize it or download anything to it. Is there anyone that I can call to walk me through this? Thanks
Hello! I have a 120 gb ipod classic. It syncs against a Vista Home Premium system. The ipod shows a large number of photos are synced to it. I would like to have the option of going through those photos and deleting some, and perhaps replacing some. However, when I follow the apple documentation for the classic, configuing itunes and the ipod to manually manage the files and to treat the ipod as a disk, then I open the disk from the My Computer box, I see a photos folder, but only a Thumbs folder that has 3 or 4 small files in it.
What do I need to do so that I can see the actual photos (which is what the apple doc says I need to do from windows)?
OK so iTunes 10 is out I so far hate it, but I have to get use to it and accept the change. However, I can not see Music CD’s or blank CD’s in the side bar, so it is kind of hard to import a Music CD if I can not even see it. Help.
:o)
I would like to charge my ipod shuffle on my new pc and still keep my music which i have on my ipod.how do i do this with out the loss of ipod music.The music is important to me as it was my son’s and we lost him 2 years ago.any help please.
Hey dave i realy need some help.i want to sell my ipod touch 8gb but their are pics.i dont know how delet pics from it so some told me to go into settings then reset and then delet all media.i did that and now my ipod says connect to itunes.i connected it but nothing happened.what am i suposed to do to get it working again?
Kat, really sounds like you need to go into the local Apple Store and talk with them about what’s going on. Make an appointment through the Web site for an iPod “genius” beforehand and you’ll save lots of time, but something sounds very wrong…
I sincerely hope that you can help me.
I have been having issues ever since I downloaded iTunes 8.0. I NEVER had a problem before that. I have a Macbook Pro. It’s never had any problems before. I have the 120 gb ipod. It worked on this computer when I got it, and it worked on my old laptop.
Itunes keeps telling me that my ipod cannot be synced, and gives me the error message #13014. I have already searched online of ways to be rid of this and have tried EVERYTHING it has suggested. NOTHING has worked. I don’t know why it keeps doing this. If that’s not enough, on a regular basis it now just decides to randomly not recognize the ipod or show that it is even connected.
There is nothing wrong with my ipod. It works fine when I am listening to it with the earphones, portable speaker, with my docking station, AND in my car (with the usb cord–the SAME cord that goes into the computer). I do not want to hard reset it because I will lose everything if I do that. I think it is an itunes issue, because I never had either of these problems before this.
There is also nothing wrong with my usb ports. I am able to charge my blackberry with its sync cord on a regular basis.
PLEASE help. I would SO appreciate it. It is driving me insane. I am not even able to keep it connected to edit my playlists, because as I said before it just decides when it wants to that it is not even going to recognize the ipod.
Thank you.
i just got this new laptop but my itunes was on my old laptop and it crashed on me so i dont want the music i saved on a usb transfer the viruses to my new laptop so when i install itunes it doesnt let me see my music from my ipod i only see my sample music that came with the laptop so what do i do how can i get my itunes from my old computer and transfer it to my new computer and also let my laptop make me be able to see my music on my laptop ??????? cuz i got new music and want to put it on the ipod but idk i need help plz oh and mby if this helps umm this email i gave u is the one i use i did another email for my itunes so umm yea idk am i supose to sign in to itunes with tht one c idk im not really a tech person so yea hellllllppppp!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I want to rip songs from Mac formatted Ipod to my PC, but program wants to reformat ipod first. I will loose all my music as my library is on a Mac that crashed. How can I rip Mac formatted Ipod to my PC when I do not have access to my music library on my Mac?
hello,
I have a big problem with my ipod touch. i Bought it about two years ago, its a first generation, about two months ago it stopped connecting to itunes, the pc wouldnt recognize the divice, to try to fix this i hard reseted it, now it doesnt connect to itunes and it is stuck on the connect to ituness logo. can u help me?
oops….im very sorry to bother u again….
i mean if riddimmaster@yahoo.com dont work then try
riddimmaster305@yahoo.com OK….
thanks a million!!…….
I’m sorry…..
I’m very desperate and your that last person i can turn too!…… please at least email me OK :~)
my email is riddimmaster@yahoo.com
and again…..awesome site..really!!!! :~)
hello Mr. Taylor!……
please help me, you see,i got normal a apple iPod and I’m having allot of difficulties with it..first of all, when i plug it into my acer aspire one notebook laptop a blimp pops up at the bottom that states that the software cant be recognized….also, my iPod is locked and i cant unlock it….they say if i sync it that will allow it to unlock but i cant even find the sync button in my iTunes…..I beg u….please help me!….
and P.S
keep up the good work, awesome site!!!
Hi :
I just pushed the upgrade/update button for Itunes on my computer . Now I cant get into the Itunes store ? Any help would be grateful.
Have a great day
Hey Dave.
I had to get my CPU tower replaced, which means i had to download itunes all over again. and Now Itunes wont locate my ipod. Ive tried restoring it. I downlaoded the latest version of it and still nothing. Can Yu help me please?
Hello – can you help? I have just installed itunes on my new lap top and have clearly clicked or ignored a message because my ipod is only recognising the list on my old laptop and isnt syncing to the recent additions to itunes on my new laptop,
I have uninstalled and reinstalled itunes but this isnt helping – can you help? Apologies I am a complete technophobe so idiot speak would help!!! think I have ticked the wrong box when a message came up asking if I wanted to erase lists.
Mick, go into your Preferences and you should be able to find a checklist of different types of content, pretty sure that’s how ya solve that problem.
Lauren, sounds like you have a problem with your iPod. I’m sure it has nothing to do with your friend having plugged hers in unless she damaged your USB plug? Can you try plugging your iPod into a different computer and see if it charges? If not, reinstalling iTunes might solve the problem, though I am skeptical. 🙂
i have an ipod shuffle, and i plug it into my laptop (the usb), however it won’t charge and also it says the default cannot play, or something like that. then this association device comes up, and has all these audio’s such as wave sounds, ipod, however they are all ticked, and my ipod still cant be connected, it also won’t charge. i don’t know whether to uninstall itunes, and update it.
my friend recently plugged her ipod touch into my laptop, which i think has made this happen, and it’s got used to the ipod touch’s device. please help?
dave, I have deleted the word “audiobooks” from my itune sidebar.Could you please tell me how to retrieve it. regards Mick.
hey Dave,
I have an ipod nano, i have had it for a while now..
I am unable to restore it..at times my itunes detects my ipod and prompts me to restore it but it is still unable to restore it..I have downloaded the new version of itunes still no change..There are times when my itunes does not even detect my ipod..please help
Hey Dave, or anyone else that can help!
I have an ipod nano, i have had it for a while now so i know that it works just fine, but a couple weeks ago my computer crashed! I have a windows XP and the computer, and my itunes are both not recognizing it! A box pops up saying i have to reformat my ipod to windows, but i have no clue how to do that without my ipod showing up in the itunes! I called apple but they couldnt figure it out eithor! Please help!!