Nano g/f's xmas gift. Can I load it with a playlist from my computer before giving?

[Brownie]

I have a 30g black video iPod. I just got my g/f a red nano for Christmas. We do not live together so we both have computers. I am afraid to Plug her iPod into my computer first. Will it register the nano with my itunes account and make it difficult to use with her computer? I know I can authorize her computer with my itunes account and she can do the same for me. I would love to have her open her gift with a playlist already on it. Can I do this for her and will she be able to use my itunes account when she visits me? Am I correct in thinking this is legal because I can share music with up to 5 authorized computers?

Thank you and Happy Holidays!

[jhollington]

Hi and welcome to iLounge.

Connecting the iPod to your computer will not automatically result in the content being removed unless you both originally started from the same library. Basically, when an iPod is connected, iTunes will check the iPod to determine if it's "associated" to it's own library before automatically synchronizing it.

If the iPod is associated to a different library, you will be prompted as to whether you want to erase the iPod and sync it with the current library (ie, your library). You should answer "No" to this question.

Once you're past that stage, you can set the iPod to manual mode by selecting the option to "Manually manage my music and videos", at which point you can drag-and-drop a playlist from your library onto her new iPod.

The iPod will remain in manual mode even after she connects it to her computer, so the music will be retained on the iPod until she switches back to automatic sync, at which point the playlist you've added would be removed as it is not in her own library.

The one exception to this is if you're building a playlist of music that was purchased on the iTunes Store, and are using iTunes 7. iTunes 7 offers you the ability to reverse-sync iTunes-purchased tracks from your iPod back to your computer. In this case, your girlfriend could just select "Transfer Purchases" after connecting the iPod to her computer and that music would be transferred from the iPod back to her computer, provided she has the iTunes Store account for that music 'authorized' on her computer.

Which brings us to the question of the legality of doing this... There is nothing I've been able to find in Apple's "Terms of Service" for the iTunes Store (see http://www.apple.com/legal/itunes/us/service.html), which really just says that it's for "personal, non-commercial use" and you can use the content on "five Apple-authorized devices at any time". There is nothing in there about same person, same primary user, or even same household. Obviously normal copyright law would fill in the blanks here, but that's a grey area at best and going to vary depending upon where you live.

[Brownie]

Thank you. If I understood correctly, I don't think I want to have her brand new iPod associated with my itunes first. I want her itunes account to be primary. I'll leave her iPod blank so it can be associated with her library. Sounds like if my computer is the first to sync with her iPod then her iPod will always be primarily associated with my library. When you say you both originally started with the same library does that mean if I don’t put the same songs and files on her as mine it will be a different library?

[jhollington]

Actually, that depends on whether you autosync her iPod to your library or not... For fairly obvious reasons, iPods only "associate" with a library they're automatically syncing to (automatically syncing to more than one library could get very confusing). In manual mode you can load music from anywhere, and there's really no library association, per se.

Assuming it's an empty iPod, then this is actually pretty easy if you want to pre-load it. Connect it to your iTunes library, and give it an appropriate name in the iPod Setup Wizard that comes up. Do NOT select the "Automatic" options that appear.

This will leave the iPod connected to your iTunes library in "manual" mode, which means nothing will be put onto the iPod except for that which you specifically drag-and-drop to it. From there, you can transfer some content to it manually, even drag-and-drop whole playlists, or create playlists directly on the iPod itself.

When you've got it loaded with the music you want, simply eject the iPod by clicking the little eject symbol to the right of the iPod's name, and it will be good to go.

When she later gets it home and connects it to her computer, it will remain in manual mode (the setting travels with the iPod). She can add more music from her iTunes library by dragging and dropping (the same way you did), or she can switch it into automatic mode, at which point it will become associated with her home library.

Note that switching to automatic sync, however, replaces everything on the iPod with the content of the associated library. So, if she doesn't have that music in her library, it will be removed and replaced with the content of her library when she turns on automatic sync.

If she wants to keep these tracks and use automatic sync, she'll have to copy them off before turning on automatic sync. If they're purchased from the iTunes Store, and her computer is authorized for your iTunes Store account, she can do this very easily by selecting "Transfer Purchases" from within iTunes. If the music is from another source, however, she'll either need to use a third-party utility or you can just give her the content of the playlist using another method (ie, burn a CD for her).

Note also that none of this has anything to do with iTunes Store authorizations. These are simply transferred to your iPod when you transfer the purchased music itself (provided it's authorized on your computer in the first place), regardless of auto/manual sync modes. You can have up to five different iTunes Store accounts authorized on a single iPod or computer.

[Brownie]

Thank you very much for clearing that up :)