Ipod originally formatted for PC, but now I have a Mac

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BiffyClyro

2 posts

Wannabe Geek

#49809 20-Nov-2009 15:33

Ok, when I originally got my iPod it was formatted on the PC. Now I have a Mac. When I first plugged it in to the Mac I got a message saying it wasn't formatted for Mac. That was no problem, as we still had the PC.

However, a couple of months I tried it again in the Mac and it worked fine and could upload songs from my Mac. Last week we got rid of the PC and now suddenly, my Mac has decided it won't recognise my iPod.

What is going on? Any hints about what I could do, without deleting all the songs on my iPod.

josephhinvest

1543 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

#274760 20-Nov-2009 15:48

My understanding is that an iPod can only be used on the OS for which is is formatted.
Restoring it from a Mac should allow you to sync it to the Mac, but you will indeed lose the music currently on it.

You could use an application like Senuti to copy the songs you want to keep from your iPod to your iTunes library first, then restore the iPod and copy the music back on.

Cheers,
Joseph.

vectran

59 posts

Master Geek

#274787 20-Nov-2009 17:50

A PC formatted iPod will work with a mac, but no the other way round.

You can only sync one computer with the iPod. If you want to use it with the mac, you'll need to erase the songs from it and start again. iRip or Senuti (as jofizz suggested) will work to rip all songs to your mac. You can then import these into iTunes and sync the iPod from scratch...

allstarnz

1719 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#274814 20-Nov-2009 19:36

another reason to love Apple and their cr@p systems..... seriously I know of so many people caught out by this

BiffyClyro

2 posts

Wannabe Geek

#275066 21-Nov-2009 23:59

Cool, thanks for the tips. I'll try them out tomorrow. But will I be able to rip the songs to my Mac before the ipod is formatted to it? And any ideas why it was working fine a couple of months ago but now won't?

Thanks for all your help :)