Setting up 2 accounts in iTunes 4.7

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Setting up 2 accounts in iTunes 4.7

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Q: My wife and I each own an iPod mini. I’d like to set up two accounts in iTunes so we can each have our own library. When I connect my iPod and open iTunes, iTunes tries to transfer the songs in her library to my iPod. Is there a way to set up two accounts in iTunes?

- Lad

A: iTunes is designed to work with one iPod for automatic syncing; it doesn’t yet allow you to have multiple libraries or accounts. If you want to use a second iPod (or a third, or a fourth, etc.) the easiest way is to sync one of the iPods manually. To do this, choose “Manually manage songs and playlists” in the iPod Preferences menu, then, after you connect one of the iPods and see it in the iTunes Source list, simply drag songs, albums, playlists, artists or entire genres to the iPod. One of the best ways to manage two iPods is to create separate playlists for each of you: you can name them, for example, His Playlist 1 and Her Playlist 1 to differentiate them.

Note that you can allow one iPod to sync automatically and set the other to manual management. In that case, the first iPod will get all the music in the iTunes library, and the second iPod will only have what you put on it manually. We think that a multi-user update for iTunes is highly likely in the near future.

Kirk McElhearn is the author of several books including iPod & iTunes Garage. His blog, Kirkville features articles about the iPod, iTunes, Mac OS X and much more.

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