iPod to iTunes Library - help please

onesixfive

Morning. I have all my old CDs (now gone) stored on an old iPOD but I love to listen to it via a sound dock.
I've an old laptop holding all my My old CDs on iTunes,
but when I plug this iPod into iTunes on newer laptop, only the "officially downloaded" stuff now appears in the itunes library.
Both itunes are logged in as me - but both look different ??!!??
I need to get rid of the old laptop.
So I was trying to shift the old CDs into the library on my new laptop - I was trying to do this (a few at a time) using my iPOD, but I cant move the ipod tunes into the library
How can I shift my self-loaded CD-loaded tunes on there into the library?
I dont want to lose my music
Please - nothing too techie - I'm 61 & not too switched on. I have a HP laptop (not MAC).

googler

The whole iTunes ecosystem is designed to go one way; from the iTunes library on the PC (the Master) to the portable device, the iPod or iPad (the Slave) through the Sync process. 

It's not designed to copy stuff back from the iPod to the master library.

iTunes on both machines knows, through internet connection, what you have purchased, but only the old machine knows what you have copied from CD. You haven't told the new machine about them. 


It sounds like you need to follow a process to "Transfer itunes library from old PC to new PC", such as this - 

https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-10831

However, in the section on restoring FROM an iPod, they say "iTunes only permits the transfer of iTunes Store purchases. If your device contains other media that you've ripped from CD or downloaded from other online stores you can either go back to the original sources or use third party software to extract your data from your device. "

Did you keep the old CDs in any other form, apart from loading them into iTunes? 

If you have them stored as (for instance) a folder of mp3 files, FLAC files, or similar, you could Import this folder into the library on the new PC

What do you actually want to achieve here? Simply to add newly purchased music onto the iPod?

googler

I decided long ago that loading CDs directly into iTunes was not the way to go, for similar reasons to the problem you're having. 

What I do is use EAC to rip CDs to mp3 files, and store those in a folder on the PC. 

In iTunes, I use the Import Folder dialogue to get them into the iTunes library. That way, if things go awry, or I get a new PC, all I need do is copy the folder to the new machine, download and open iTunes, and click "Import Folder" again to restore the library. 

It also means that the mp3s are available for other playback applications outwith iTunes and iPod. 

onesixfive

googler said:

Did you keep the old CDs in any other form, apart from loading them into iTunes? 

If you have them stored as (for instance) a folder of mp3 files, FLAC files, or similar, you could Import this folder into the library on the new PC

What do you actually want to achieve here? Simply to add newly purchased music onto the iPod?

I no longer have the old CDs
I simply loaded them onto iTunes - nothing else.
They wont all fit onto the iPod at once,- It was like the whole of my "CD Collection" on iTunes
I used to select a playlist from the masses, then pop them onto the iPod a chunk at a time.
I'd like to move the whole collection the CD tunes into the library.
I was going to move a few at a time using the iPod.
But I cant move my CD Tunes from the iPod into the Library - like you say it's a one-way system.

onesixfive

googler said:

What I do is use EAC to rip CDs to mp3 files, and store those in a folder on the PC. 

In iTunes, I use the Import Folder dialogue to get them into the iTunes library. 

What is EAC please?

Here's a view from the "old" laptop...this is the one which is going
and below, a screenshot from the "new" laptop
It's the same login on both for itunes !
When I loaded itunes on the newer laptop yesterday I couldn't understand why the Library was all but empty.

hence my attempts to move it using my ipod

As you can see - 99% of my content is downloaded CDs.

googler

EAC is Exact Audio Copy, (one of) the best tool(s) for ripping CDs to files.  But that's moot, since you no longer have the CDs. 

You say you need to get rid of the old laptop, but it appears that since your only source of your copies of your old CDs is contained upon it, you now have a good reason to keep it. No?

Yes, I get what the problem is - you've loaded iTunes (the program) onto both machines, but only the old one has the library with your CDs contained in it. 

This is because the new machine only knows about the stuff you've downloaded over the internet. It has no method of reading what is on the hard drive in your old machine. You have not uploaded your CDs to an online storage area, you've stored them in a library on the hard drive of the old machine.

Apple may have a method whereby you could network the two machines and access the old machine's library from the new, but you'd need to browse their help pages for that, I've never tried to do it. 

So, in summary, solutions;

1. Keep the old machine and load your iPod from that at intervals

2. Also keeping old machine, look see if Apple have a method of sharing an iTunes library on the old machine over a network connection shared with the new one

3. Look for independent software (non-Apple) which can offload the contents of the iPod, maybe to a folder of mp3s which can be imported to the new machine. 

4. Trawl the charity shops for the CDs you used to have, rebuild the collection, EAC them to mp3, import to iTunes on new machine.

5. Look see on Apple's help pages for an "Export" option from the old machine's iTunes library. I know there's the facility to burn from iTunes to CD, so you could investigate getting a pile of recordable CDs and recreating from there....

Sorry, but all would have been much easier if you'd done the legal thing, and kept the CDs in a box somewhere.

chrisw

There are a number of programs available that let you transfer music to and from iPods. I used to use one called idump but that's a good 10 years ago now.

onesixfive

chrisw said:

There are a number of programs available that let you transfer music to and from iPods. I used to use one called idump but that's a good 10 years ago now.

I'm just using one I googled... ubackup ... but there is a gap somewhere because although it's bringing the albums over to new laptop, about half won't play, they show error "clouds" see pic

onesixfive

I give up!
I've spent a day & a half on this!
I've put the best of music from itunes from the old laptop, which I desperately want to save, onto the ipod
I've deleted the rest everything off the old laptop, factory reset it & packaged it for sale.
That's it - end of my business with apple!

mrochester

onesixfive said:

I give up!
I've spent a day & a half on this!
I've put the best of music from itunes from the old laptop, which I desperately want to save, onto the ipod
I've deleted the rest everything off the old laptop, factory reset it & packaged it for sale.
That's it - end of my business with apple!

Why didn’t you just put the music folder onto a USB stick and move it to the new computer?