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Question

Does the Zune software tie you to a specific computer?

Jun 10, 2011 7:00AM PDT

Specifically, is it similar to the iPod that you have to sync to a specific iTunes on a specific computer for any music/video downloads or can the Zune move from computer to computer for loading music onto it? I have a very large digital music collection on an external hard drive and would like to be able to easily add and remove music from the player and the iPod is not user friendly in that manner. My original iTunes that I loaded my music from no longer exists and any other iTunes wants to completely wipe my iPod clean and start over again.

Discussion is locked

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Clarification Request
Sorry.
Jun 10, 2011 7:09AM PDT

I found that to be untrue with my pod. However I do not have any DRM restricted content.

As to the Zune, my bet is that it's same story.

As to stuff on the pod you need back, I can only guess you never heard or used iRip?
Bob

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Clarification Request
Not a clarification but an additional complaint about iPod
Jun 26, 2011 10:51AM PDT

I have the same problem. I copied all my music to a Seagate drive before getting rid of my old computer. Now all my music is on iTunes and there is no problem there. The problem is because I can't sync my iPod to retain all the organization of playlists and playlist folders I had. I am very upset and am looking for an iPod alternative. I called Apple tech support and all they said was that a lot of people have problems with this. The rep was nice but the product is such a closed system. The only reason I bought an iPod was because of the organizational capabilities. Sad

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What I discover most of the time.
Jun 26, 2011 11:04AM PDT

Is that folk copy their stuff out but use a method or procedure they think will work. Later, almost a disaster scene and bad feelings towards all makers about such systems.

There is only a few exits here, all are marked with different signage. Some are unacceptable because you have to know more than you wanted to know, others are plastered with company logos.

So far no nirvana.
Bob

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Answer
Restoring an iPod from a backup including playlists
Jun 26, 2011 6:48PM PDT

It is possible to move the iPod music from one computer to another. I posted that I had a similar complaint but found answers on Apple's Support Forums afterwards. I hope the links will work and help anyone else with a similar problem. I was able to copy the iTunes music from the Seagate backup into iTunes on the new computer by using the import function in iTunes. Then I decided to check the contents of the iPod by following these instructions: https://discussions.apple.com/message/797432?messageID=797432. The title of that thread is Computer Crashed. There was a difference of 75 files. Then I discovered this post to restore playlists: https://discussions.apple.com/message/13325171#13325171. The title of that thread is Restore Playlist. I got the library necessary to restore the playlists from the Seagate backup also. I followed the directions and decided to load both copies of the songs and eliminate the duplicates to be able to have the 75 songs that were on the iPod and not on the backup. All my playlists are there now and the iPod is synching to the new computer. And yes, I tried iRip first and it doesn't work with the latest version of iTunes. I am happy again with the iPod. However, some of the answers to similar questions on the support forums just told the person asking that there was no way to solve this problem. Just to advise, I was trying to do all this on a brand new computer running Windows 7. My old computer was 8 years old and was running XP Pro. I have an iPod classic. Happy