How to get ipod songs on new computer

[gnGracie]

I got new computer a few months ago and am still unable to get songs from old computer onto this one. I use windows XP and have all of my songs stored on an external harddrive. However, I'm totally clueless how to get them working on new computer! I've posted on the ipod/itunes forums, but they're so technical and confusing (at least for me), so I thought I'd see if any of you ladies can offer me some dummy-proof advice on this. Surely there has to be a fairly simple way to do this!

Also, we have 3 ipods (all nanos) in our household, so I'll be creating 3 separate libraries and synching each ipod to its own library since we don't all like the same music. With that being said, where do I want to store my "main" library - in other words, where do I want to store all music we've saved between the 3 of us?

TIA

[alpinerabbit]

All your music should be stored somewhere in a folder called itunes music. Search for that and copy over?

You do not need to keep 3 different libraries. You can transfer the songs you want manually to each ipod.

[OakLeaf]

You don't need to transfer the songs manually (huge PITA), you can each create playlist(s) and sync different playlists to each iPod. Actually, having to copy music manually onto my Palm was the #1 reason I decided resistance was futile and became assimilated into the iBorg.

And, you don't need to copy your music onto your computer's internal hard drive (probably it's a good idea to keep it external, actually). I'm on a Mac, but DH has a Windows computer and keeps all his music on an external drive. On the Mac side, open iTunes, select "Advanced" from the menu bar, and the first option there will be "iTunes Music Folder Location." Then click the "Change" button and browse for the location of your music folder. (obviously making sure the drive that stores your music is connected). I'm pretty sure everything is the same on the Windows side, but if that doesn't work for you, let me know and I'll ask DH when he wakes up

You will also need to authorize the new computer onto your account at the iTunes Store if you have any music that you bought from iTunes. After you've authorized the new computer, if you're decommissioning the old one, deauthorize it (you only get 5 authorized computers at any one time, and they can add up if you forget to take your old ones off).


ETA: not on point, but another handy hint that not everyone knows about their iPods: you can create a smart playlist (either independent, or a subset of another playlist) that's limited in size and sorted by date last played. That way, you don't have to put artificial criteria into a playlist just to make it small enough to sync with your iPod, and once you've played a song, it scrolls off for a while, and you don't wind up hearing the same songs over and over while other songs never get played.

[gnGracie]

Thanks AR and OakLeaf.

I did get the songs onto my computer. I always create separate libraries because the kids and I sometimes listen to our own tunes on the computer, plus my son and I each have around 1000 songs on our ipods and I'm not sure how many songs I can put on a playlist.

I did my daughter's ipod and messed up because I xferred the purchased songs 1st, then did a synch, which wiped out all of her other songs (yeah I know, big duh on my part). Not such a big deal in her case because she only had about 350 songs on her ipod, but I don't want to make the same mistake on mine and my son's. So, now that I have all songs available how do I keep the songs on our ipods and synch with our individual libraries?