[Hat Trick]

My daughter got a new latop (dell, windows/vista) for college. She installed the version of itunes that we had (7.2 I think) on her laptop but it would't let her run itunes. It said she needed to upgrade to the latest version. We were away at the time and she couldn't remember which version it asked for so she plugged her ipod into the laptop to find out. It said to upgrade to 7.7 so she did, but she left the ipod plugged into the laptop while it installed. When we got home from vaca, she plugged her ipod back into the desktop (windows/XP) to make sure her ipod was updated w/everything in her library and itunes ended up getting stuck in a loop on the 'registration' page. It also wouldn't 'recognize' her ipod so she couldn't even do anything manually.

So she bought an external drive, copied everything from her itunes library on the desktop onto the external drive then copied it to her laptop. Her library is intact on her laptop and it recognizes her ipod. However, it will not sync. It just displays the 'do not disconnet' sign on her ipod. It says it syncs in itunes (on the top bar) but no music is displayed and it just zips right by really fast and nothing gets updated on her ipod.

From what we've read on the support/discussion boards it seems that lots of folks are having problems with the 7.7 itunes upgrade. If things are working fine we never upgrade unless forced to do so.

We also don't know if the syncing problem it itunes 7.7 related, Vista/XP related or a bit of both.

She has resorted to manually moving songs/playlists from her library to her ipod and she can't even use the desktop anymore for her ipod.

The only support from Apple (um, unless you pay for it) is the Apple discussions boards. We've posted tons of posts asking for help but short of uninstalling then reinstalling an older version of itunes (and from what we've read that may not work) we're lost as to how to get her ipod to sync again.

We did a 'test' with an ipod and library (set up under it's owner user acct.) on the desktop for Christmas music. Copied it to her laptop, made some changes in the Christmas library then tried syncing and it worked fine. BUT that caused problems when we plugged the Christmas ipod back into the desktop. We ended up doing a restore on that ipod. In addition to wiping the ipod (which it's suppose to do) it somehow also deleted everything from the desktop library with the exception of 12 purchased songs and 12 songs uploaded from cd's. All other 88 songs (which were all uploaded from cd's but the cd's are like 15 yrs. old or so) are gone! We've searched the entire desktop (even the recycle bin) but they don't seem to be anywhere. ????

So of course we are reluctant to do a restore on my daughter's ipod for fear that the same things may happen and she may lose nearly 400 songs, over half of which were uploaded from cd's. I hate computers.

Any tech type person out there with any info or thoughts or ideas or . . . anything? Sorry this is so long. But that seems to be the case when it comes to computers and techololgy . . . and Apple. Thanks.

[ronni62]

Hi. Sorry you're having problems with computers. They're a pleasure until they become a pain in the butt. Now, please understand that we are not computer experts at all. We're just users of Apple equipment. Wondering if there is a licensing problem. When we got our laptop and wanted to download iTunes to it from the main computer (both are Mac) we found out that the ipod can only be synced to one computer, meaning that the other one will not recognize it if plugged in to it. If plugged into the computer that doesn't recognize the iPod, the computer will reformat the iPod and you risk losing the music stored on the iPod.

If we understand the licensing agreement, you can't transfer iTunes from one computer to another, as you must repurchase any music for the new computer. Sorry we don't know how to correct the issues you're having, but hopefully you'll get many more replies. Best wishes.

[Apple Cheeks]

I get a message every time I open my iTunes on the computer asking me if I want to download the latest version (7.7). I always check off the box for the update and click "Accept." Then the box rolls up like a roll of toilet paper, and back down again as if nothing happened.

I can click "Accept" until the sun goes supernova and it probably won't download the newest version. I have no idea why it does this.

But now, after reading your post, maybe it's a good thing it won't download onto my computer.

[Meg]

I'm using iTunes 7.7 without any problems at all on my Apple iMac. I installed the upgrade without any issues. Hat Trick, I wish I could help but I'm not very computer savvy. Good luck!

[Hat Trick]

Originally Posted by ronni62

If we understand the licensing agreement, you can't transfer iTunes from one computer to another, as you must repurchase any music for the new computer.

It may be like that for Macs (I've never used one ) but my daughter's music is now on her laptop and she can manually manipulate her music. She copied her itunes library from the XP desktop to the Vista laptop. That part worked just fine, it just won't sync now. It doesn't make sense to me that you could only have itunes on one computer; people upgrade computers all the time. You should be able to move your music to it w/out tons of problems. Ah, if we lived in a perfect world that is! And it doesn't make sense to me at all that if you purchased music once that you would have to purchase it again just because you got a new computer. That's ridiculous.

Originally Posted by Apple Cheeks

I get a message every time I open my iTunes on the computer asking me if I want to download the latest version (7.7). I always check off the box for the update and click "Accept." Then the box rolls up like a roll of toilet paper, and back down again as if nothing happened.

I can click "Accept" until the sun goes supernova and it probably won't download the newest version. I have no idea why it does this.

But now, after reading your post, maybe it's a good thing it won't download onto my computer.

I almost upgraded once to version 7.2.something but I was quite leery as I read so many people having problems. I posed the 'should I/do I need to upgrade' question on the Apple discussions forum and was advised not to if I wasn't having problems and all was working the way it should. I would advise you the same thing; if it ain't broke, don't fix it! The ONLY reason my daughter upgraded was because her laptop has Vista and the itunes version we have was too old to be supported on Vista. Hmm, me too.

[Meg]

I'm pretty sure you can have your iTunes library on up to five computers at once but you need to authorize them and I'm not sure how you do that. I know that when my DS got a new computer, he had to deauthorize the old one in order to use his iTunes on the new one. That's probably not helpful but maybe it's an authorization issue rather than a 7.7 issue?

[Hat Trick]

Originally Posted by Meg

I'm pretty sure you can have your iTunes library on up to five computers at once but you need to authorize them and I'm not sure how you do that. I know that when my DS got a new computer, he had to deauthorize the old one in order to use his iTunes on the new one. That's probably not helpful but maybe it's an authorization issue rather than a 7.7 issue?

Do you know if some kind of prompt or message occured when he tried to use the new computer that told him to deauthorize the old one? We aren't getting any messages like that but I will check it out.

No clue as to what the actual problem is. LOTS of folks on the Apple Discussion boards are having problems. All different but all related to syncing and itunes freezing. Windows and Mac alike. Thanks.