How to Use Multiple iPods on a Single Computer

There are two easy ways to use multiple iPods with a single computer. These two ways work the same with either Windows or Mac installations of iTunes. Here is how.

Difficulty:

Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• A computer
• iTunes
• Two or more iPods

1. The simpler of the two ways is to set up iTunes with separate playlists. Create a playlist for each iPod or each person who will be synching an iPod with your one installation of iTunes.

2. For each iPod, set up iTunes to sync only the playlists you want on that iPod. When you plug an iPod into the computer, the computer recognizes which iPod it is, and you're on your way to synchronization.

3. What if the easy way won't work for you? Perhaps you have accounts set up on your computer especially for your children that restrict what they can do on the computer. If you want your children to be able to sync their own iPods while signed in to their own user accounts on the computer, that's possible as well. Each user can have an individual Library in iTunes with this method.

4. If the child's user account does not currently give them access to the iTunes application, sign in to your computer as admin. Edit the child's user account. Grant access to the iTunes program in the Programs or Applications folder of your computer--then sign in to your child's account and open iTunes. You will still want to set up which playlists from iTunes will be synched to the chlld's iPod in the way described previously.