I have an old gen iPod (posting from work, so needed generational details will come later when I’m at home) and an equally ancient release of iTunes.
The iPod was purchased new under my mother’s account, not mine. (long story - short version: I bought this one for her at her request, moved, lost it, she needed it before I could find it, and I bought her a refurbished one, synched it to her account, and didn’t tell her I made the switch, and now (finally) I have found the original “new” iPod again) I want to 1) transfer it to show that it’s mine, not my mother’s, and 2) synch it to my iTunes account. I can get it to link up to my computer and charge, but not to synch.
Is there a chance I can call iTunes tech support and get any help *without them making me upgrade to the newest version of iTunes? * I really don’t want to do that if there’s a simple fix for this.
Otherwise, can anyone else think of something I can try to get this iPod to synch to my account and show that it belongs to me?
Maybe there are some iTunes gurus out there who know what you’re talking about, but I’m a little confused here. Why can’t you just use the Restore function from within iTunes? That will wipe your Mom’s name and all her music off of the iPod; then you can put your name on it and sync it up with your iTunes account via your ancient iTunes program.
It’s true, though, that iTunes didn’t always have the ability to erase (i.e. restore) & reload from within the program. There used to be an iPod Updater Utility which was a separate program that wiped the iPod for you, but I think that went out around '05 or '06.
I can’t get it to restore, because I can’t get iTunes to even recognize that there’s a device there! It will charge, but as far as iTunes is concerned, there’s *nothing *on the end of that cable.
Is your home computer running Mac OS or Windows? If Mac OS, I’ve had success in similar situations in the past by using Disk Utility to wipe the iPod entirely; since you don’t care about recovering the music on the iPod, that might be your best bet. Once you do this, the system should recognize it as brand-new, and iTunes will hopefully be able to see it again.
If you’re using Windows, I’m afraid I have less expertise. The Apple website recommends you use iTunes diagnostics to try to figure out why your iTunes won’t talk to your iPod, but I don’t know whether this option exists in your version of iTunes for Windows.