Industry guru Dave Taylor offers free tech support on a wide variety of technical and business topics, including HTML, Apple iPhone, online advertising, Cascading Style Sheets, Web design, management, Unix, Linux, search engine optimization, online dating, Mac OS X, shell script programming and Microsoft Windows.

How do I pair my PC iPod with my new Mac?

I have a new Apple iPod that I've been playing with on my brother's PC, but now I want to pair it to my iMac. Every time I try to do that, though, it refuses to do anything and I'm ready to toss it out the window! Rather than do that, can you please tell me how to proceed? At this point I don't care if I lose the music on the iPod either, since I have it all on my Macintosh...

Dave's Answer:

One of the subtleties of the Apple iPod that is least understood is that it can only be "owned" or "paired" with one computer. Whether Mac or PC, if you hook it up to any other computer, you'll either only be able to access the music thereon to play (not copy or burn) or you'll be asked whether you want to 'restore' it, just to find out that's secret Apple code for erase everything on the iPod device.

If that's the situation you're in and there's music or other content on the iPod that you want to copy onto your computer before you pair it with your iMac then you'll definitely want to check out these articles: Copy music off your iPod onto your Windows PC or, if you're on a Mac, Copy music off your iPod onto your Mac.

You're not in that situation, so for you it's quite a bit easier!

Most likely, when you plug in your iPod, you'll find that there's a systems update available for it, so most likely the first thing you'll see on your Mac is this:

In this case, "MicroTV" is the name I assigned my 30GB iPod Video on my own Windows PC: your name will undoubtedly be different.

I'm going to click "OK" here, and then it'll give me the all-important window:

As you can see, since the iPod's formatted for a PC, the system can obviously see it, but can't actually update the software. No surprise. Instead, I want to Restore the iPod to its factory settings, which means that I am going to erase everything on the device. I click "Restore" and it reminds me of this consequence:

Apple iTunes: iPod Update Confirmation Window

I'm ready to zap everything, so I'll click "Restore" one more time, and...

Apple iTunes: iPod Restoring to Factory Settings

It only takes minute or two to completely reformat the device and restore it to its pristine factory, out-of-box state:

Apple iTunes: iPod Restored to Factory Settings

This is not when you want to suddenly say "Wait! No, that Green Day album I copied from my brother! Noooooooo....." :-)

At this point, when you do "Quit" the iPod Updater program and jump back into your iTunes application, you'll find that it's exactly as if you had plugged in a brand new iPod for the first time. You'll have a chance to name it whatever you prefer:

and you'll be able to re-register it with Apple if you're so inclined:

Click "Finish" and, no surprise, you have an empty iPod within iTunes:

To copy your music, either let it sync (if you left it to sync automatically) or copy your entire library or some subset you prefer onto the device. I copy my entire library onto the 30GB iPod I have, as you can see:

As it's copying, you'll see a status window. If you're copying a lot of music and other material, don't be surprised if it takes 30 minutes or longer. Even at fast speeds, gigabytes of data are, well, gigabytes of data:

Apple iTunes: iPod Updating / Copying Music

Finally, the copy will be done and your iPod will be ready to rock 'n roll, full of great music and happily paired with your iMac.

Help others find this article at Del.icio.us, Digg, Netscape, Reddit, and Stumble Upon

Subscribe!

Never miss another useful Q&A article again! Subscribe to AskDaveTaylor with Google Reader.

Comments

Hi Dave...How do I copy music videos I purchased at the I-tunes Store from my Ipod (or I-tunes Library) to my new Ipod? Dragging & Dropping will not allow the copy?

Posted by: Don at April 4, 2007 7:22 PM

Hi Dave,

I am replacing my sony (xp)windows laptop with an Apple mac pro book.
My itunes are on the sony laptop.

How easy is it to transfer all my music to the mac.
And change my windows formatted video ipod to the Mac

Regards,

Joe

Posted by: joe at May 20, 2007 2:30 PM

question, these instructions seem to imply I am ready to wipe my PC iPod clean to move it to my Mac. I have a full PC based iPod that I want to move to my mac permanently... but also move all my songs on there currently. I would hate to hate to have to re-load 500 of my CDs again.

any help would be super appreciated

Kevin of Parker
Parker, CO

Posted by: Lono at August 6, 2007 9:26 PM

I don't have that exact configuration to test, Kevin, but I think it would be quite interesting to use something like Senuti on the Mac to see if you can just grab everything on your PC-formatted iPod. Failing that, use something like iPodCopy on your PC to make a couple of DVDs worth of your ripped music (500 CDs? Well, more than a couple of DVDs) and then manually transfer it to your Mac.

Posted by: Dave Taylor at August 6, 2007 10:30 PM

Does the Creative Zen v MP3 player work if you install windows using boot camp? Has anyone successfully installed windows on a Mac using Boot Camp and then successfully downloaded to the Creative Zen mp3 player (specifically the V plus). I have read your recommendations regarding using the Parallel software - but, why would I spend more money on that software plus windows when I have boot camp?

Posted by: Brian Bolli at December 28, 2007 12:26 PM

Hi Dave,

Having read this i fear there is no hope for my Ipod but.......im gonna ask anyway in the hopes that you can!!..

I have a 60GB Ipod, that some friends gave me as a gift, and therefore loaded it with music for me from their ITunes, and it was Windows compatible.....I have ITunes myself on PC so have obviously uploaded from there, and it was all fine!!..so....moved from UK To Australia with a FAB collection of music - around 15000 songs! - no need to pack anything else!

Call me computer ILLITERATE but i had NO idea whatsoever that you need to start again if loading from a MAC!....so.....i plugged IPod into our MAC and.....it started loading on some music!.....HOWEVER!....it now shows that the IPod has the same amount of music on it, BUT it wont play most of it!...including everything that was loaded up for me by my lovely friends!....so.....i have lost pretty much it all!! ;o(

When i plug the ipod into the pc now it shows all the music still in ITunes as the songlist....BUT there is a ! next to any that it wont play!...PLEASE tell me this is fixable!!.....I cant BEAR to think that, that music was all so carefully loaded for me and now i have ruined it!...;o(

I have tried SENUTI but this program only takes the music i have since added back on the ipod from my PC....

Is this at all fixable!?? - you might make me the HAPPIEST gal in the world if you say it is!??!....

Posted by: Vix at April 2, 2009 11:44 PM

I have something to say, now that you mention it, but ...

I do have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but first I'd like to say thank you for all your efforts on this Web site by buying you a cup of coffee!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!