Which format for my ipod? mac or pc? or both?

Question

I have the new version of itunes on my pc, it has just converted all my tunes from wma. Now it seems that in itunes I have multiple copies of tunes, presumably in different formats. All good so far. Now when I plug in my ipod to my pc (I haven't before now) it wants to restore factory settings (I also have a macbook and previously used that). I'm guessing that if I restore factory settings it will change my ipod so that I can use it in itunes on my pc but not the mac. Is it possible to have all these files on my ipod and use it with either the pc or the mac at different times? Will a program like Toast help? Any guidance welcome...

Answer 1

PC!!!!!!

If its in PC format it can be used on both a Mac and a PC

If its in Mac format it can only be used on a Mac.

Just make sure its manually managed in PC mode and you can use it with any computer and any itunes library without ever losing any music.

Just plug it into a computer, the computer will recognize the ipod and load it, it will appear in that computers itunes and you are good to go

When its manually managed you just drag and drop the songs, playlists, videos, from the itunes library to the ipods name.

Right click and delete the things you dont want from the main playlists under the ipods name.

Dont sync it to an itunes library!!!!!

here is a suggestion

In itunes go to edit/preferences/advanced/import and change the default from aac to mp3.

Then highlight your songs and go to the advanced tab in itunes and convert all those aac songs that just converted from wma into mp3.

This way that music is now usable on any computer and with any program.

This will also make any songs you import from a cd an mp3 file instead of aac.

mp3 files are used with any program, esp windows programs, aac are not

another suggestion

whenever you purchase songs from the itunes store, burn them on a cd and then immediately, without taking that cd out, reimport those songs

If you changed the default like I said it will import as an unprotected mp3 file and you will have no restrictions on that song anymore

Keep it as it is from the store and you will be limited to how many computers you can put that song on and how many times you can burn it to a cd and you wont be able to use those songs with windows programs, like movie maker.

Another suggestion

change the info on your songs (highlight the songs and right click then click get info) in one of the many categories to match your playlists that you make.

This way if anything happens to your itunes library you can easily remake your playlists by categorizing your songs in whatever category you made those changes in.

I personally change the genre to match my playlists, but there are many other categories you can change, too.