Ask Dave Taylor: Tech and Business

Tuesday

Transfer music via iPod and iTunes on your Mac

I'm running iTunes v 4.9 on my Mac (running Mac OS X 10.2.8). I screwed up somehow and deleted my old music library trying to fix a diiferent problem. I learned my lesson on that. I have on older v 1.5 iPod with all my music on it. Can I transfer those songs into my library?

This is actually easy once you know the secret of working with the iPod as a regular device, rather than as a special auto-synchronizing device. Of course, the sync feature is one reason the iPod is so popular, but just for a few minutes, let's disable it, okay?

Plug your iPod into the target computer and launch iTunes.

In addition to the usual "Library", "Podcasts", "Party Shuffle", etc,. you should also see your iPod on the left side. Click on it to select it.

Now, along the bottom right edge of the iTunes window are a bunch of little icons: click on...