Travel Technology - Should I download iTunes 7.6 or go with Anapod?

I have iTunes on my old laptop, but never upgraded to 7.6 because so many people reported problems with it.

So, on my new laptop, should I download iTunes 7.6 and try to transfer the music files or would it be better/simpler to use Anapod?

If I go with iTunes, is it really that hard to move the music files to a new computer?

If I go with iTunes, is it really that hard to move the music files to a new computer?

Can't answer about anapod vs itunes, but you can certainly try it and change your mind later if you don't like it.

It's very easy to move your itunes library to a new computer. You have to consolidate the library and tell itunes to put all the music files into the library, then you can copy it to the new computer (directly or by using an external hard drive) and then copy it to where you want it on the new computer, then tell the new itunes where it is.

Here's Apples instructions for moving the music using the ipod as a hard drive.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=300173

You can use any external hard drive or just move the folder itself to the new computer after you follow the instructions for making sure everything is consolidated in the itunes library.

If you don't like those instructions, do a google search for "moving itunes music to a new computer" and you'll get dozens of good tutorials and articles on the subject. The main thing you have to do is check the box that tells itunes to copy all the music into its library. Once you do that, everything is under a single folder, so you can just move that folder and everything under it.

BTW, I ended up buying a 16G ipod touch at the mothership on Friday, and installed the latest version of itunes on my laptop to play with the new ipod touch and I didn't have any problems with itunes. This was on a laptop running Windows XP.

-David

I dont really know anapod but imo better/simpler is the way to go.

I used and loved anapod but when I upgraded my ipod to the touch I had to give up anapod.

Anapod is simple, quick and painless to use as long as you understand the windows drag-and-drop file interface.

I bought Anapod many years ago, back when I ran Win98. Anapod doesn't cause all the headaches of synching computer to iPod (overwriting of music). I recommend it completely

As far as I can tell (from the anapod web site and googling around), the ipod touch is not supported by anapod.

-David

If I go with iTunes, is it really that hard to move the music files to a new computer?

iTunes won't let you. It doesn't know this is YOUR computer, just another computer. Apple had to concede this to the RIAA as part of the DRM. You can sync a computer to an ipod, but you can't sync an ipod to a new computer with itunes. It will erase your ipod.

Rule of thumb, anything is better than an Apple software product for the PC. I have used Ephod in the past without any issue.

iTunes won't let you. It doesn't know this is YOUR computer, just another computer. Apple had to concede this to the RIAA as part of the DRM. You can sync a computer to an ipod, but you can't sync an ipod to a new computer with itunes. It will erase your ipod.

Rule of thumb, anything is better than an Apple software product for the PC. I have used Ephod in the past without any issue.

I had no problems just copying my itunes library folder to my new computer via a usb hard drive and then inside of itunes I went to the menu selection to add this computer as authorized to my account. No rocket science involved.

As far as I can tell (from the anapod web site and googling around), the ipod touch is not supported by anapod.

-David

My emails with Cardinal @ Redchairsoftware has left me scratching my head as to why they havent picked up the support for the touch yet.

But you are correct David; Anapod does not currently support the touch or the iphone

I had no problems just copying my itunes library folder to my new computer via a usb hard drive and then inside of itunes I went to the menu selection to add this computer as authorized to my account. No rocket science involved.

Yes, that's correct. It's relatively easy to move your itunes music from one computer to another, and I'm pretty sure that was one of the OPs questions.

sdsvtdriver is also correct in a sense. If you have two computers with itunes on it, and haven't copied the itunes music library over from one to another, itunes on the new computer will recognize that and present a pop-up warning you that if you continue, your music on the ipod will be erased. Obviously you hit cancel at that point. itunes will only copy itunes purchases from the ipod into itunes if the new computer is "authorized". He said "itunes won't do it", and that's correct, but slightly misleading because you don't do the copy using itunes itself.

Clearly you want to manually copy over your itunes library and music from the old computer to the new computer before you start using itunes on the new computer.

There's also a good article on ilounge in the ipod 101/201 series of articles that describes other ways of moving the music to the new computer, including getting the music from the ipod's internal directory structure itself.

-David

Surprised nobody mentioned this one - better than Anapod, use YamiPod:

http://www.yamipod.com/main/modules/home/

It is free, doesn't require an install on the host machine, and allows drag and drop to your iPod.

Even cooler, plug in your iPod and drag the small (single file) executable onto your iPod. Then, any machine that you plug in your iPod and see it as a drive letter, you can run YamiPod right off your iPod and move music around.

It's free too! Works really well, and I never use iTunes now to manage my music on my 'pod.

Anapod does not support the touch or classic.

Lots of issues with non-support.

Pity, as it is a decent app.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anapod_Explorer

More iPod tools posted here:

http://lifehacker.com/software/feature/the-20-best-ipod-utilities-329507.php

i was using 7.6 with my iPod Touch, but it was constantly having problems so i downgraded to 7.5 and it's working wonderfully

Yamipod has worked great for me

Much easier to use than anything else

Free, allows you to drag your music directly to the ipod (so does itunes) and avoids the bloat.

Good stuff.

Well, idiot that I am, I decided that surely by now Apple had solved all the iTunes 7 problems.

So today, after updating and recharging my iPod on the old computer, I downloaded and installed iTunes 7.6 onto the new laptop as well as upgrading from iTunes 6 on the old.

No problems on the new laptop (where, of course, there's nothing in the library), but every single time I open iTunes on the old laptop, iTunes hangs.

Tried a System Restore on the old laptop, but was then unable to open iTunes at all (error message to the effect that some files were missing/unavailable, please reinstall iTunes). So I undid the Sys Restore, which puts me back to the point where iTunes hangs every time I try to close it.

A cursory glance at the ilounge and Anapod websites indicates that whatever I do, I have to have some form of iTunes installed on both laptops in order to transfer/synch files, so my options seem to be:

1. Uninstall and then reinstall iTunes 7.6 on old laptop and try again.

2. If step 1 is unsuccessful, install Anapod or other music copying program onto old laptop. Copy music files from iPod to old laptop (so that at least they'll be somewhere). Uninstall and reinstall iTunes 7.6 on old laptop and try again.

3. If step 2 is unsuccessful, uninstall iTunes and Anapod (or whatever) on old laptop. Start all over again by creating a new library on the new laptop and see if I can copy that to the old one.

Am I missing something here that would be obvious to anyone less technologically challenged than I am?

BTW, I did go to the Apple website and tried their suggestions. Whatever is happening on my old laptop is systemwide and not curable by checking the more obvious sources of problems.