I own a second-generation iPod touch and I’m thinking about upgrading to a third-generation model. Will I be able to use all the apps I’ve purchased for the 2G touch with the 3G touch without paying for them again? In order to do so, would I first have to delete them from my 2G touch?

- Ron

You can use your purchased apps on any number of iPhone or iPod touch devices that are synchronized to one of your authorized computers. When upgrading to a new iPod touch or iPhone, you simply need to connect the new device to your iTunes library and set it up as you normally would. Any applications that you have in your iTunes library can be automatically synced to the new device.

Note that by default, this only includes the applications themselves and not your actual application data. However, if you’re replacing your old iPod touch with the new one, you can simply restore the backup from your old iPod touch via iTunes, and in fact iTunes will prompt you to do this when you first connect the new iPod touch:

Restoring the backup from your existing iPod touch will also restore all of your sync settings in iTunes, so this should set up your new 3G iPod touch to behave identically to the way your old iPod touch was configured.

Note that you do not need to remove the applications from your existing iPod touch before syncing them to the new device. There is no limit on the number of iPod or iPhone devices that can be authorized for a given iTunes Store account and the iTunes Store does not actually keep track of which devices you have your apps installed on. Note that you can only have content and apps from up to five different iTunes Store accounts stored on a given device, however.

I have a second-generation iPod touch. I was wondering if I could transfer apps from my iPod to my friend’s iPod without going to his house and using his computer. Is there any way he could come to my place get the apps? I do have a computer so that’s not a problem.

- Anonymous

Applications purchased from the iTunes Store are copy-protected and can only be used on iPods that are authorized for the iTunes Store account that was used to purchase them. Apps and other iTunes protected content must either be purchased on the device directly using the iTunes Store user ID and password or transferred to the device from a computer that is authorized for the iTunes Store account that was used to purchase the apps.

While technically you can authorize your friend’s iPod for your iTunes Store account it should be noted that this is against the iTunes Store Terms of Service which clearly state that purchased apps and other content are solely for your own personal use.

The Facebook app on my iPod touch announced it was not supported anymore and I had to download the new version. When I try the new Facebook download at the App Store it says that I need the iPhone 3.0 update. Can I get this? What went wrong?

- Scott

Many of the new applications on the App Store now require iPhone OS 3.0 as a minimum, with some having even higher requirements. While this is not a huge issue for iPhone owners as they should be running the latest OS anyway, iPod touch users are in a different situation as the iPhone OS 3.x update is a paid upgrade.

Unfortunately, there is no workaround for this, as this is not an arbitrary restriction—apps require a newer version of the iPhone OS as they take advantage of new features that are only present in the latest OS and therefore simply won’t even work on the older versions.

The iPod touch 3.1 Software Update can be purchased on the iTunes Store.

Once purchased, iTunes will automatically back up your iPod touch and update it to the newest firmware version after which you should be able to install any of the newer applications.

I have moved my iTunes library to an external network drive. I have configured the Music folder in iTunes to point to the corresponding folder on the external drive. iTunes finds the music and plays it without a problem. However, if I exit and restart iTunes, the music folder has been reset to the default location in my user folder and iTunes is unable to find any of my music. I have to manually reconfigure it to the external network drive to be able to play any music and to be able to sync to my iPod. What’s going on here? Shouldn’t iTunes just be able to reconnect to the network drive at each startup? Why does it change the location of the music folder in the config? This setup used to work just fine when I was still using a Win XP box.

- Alberto

When using an iTunes Media folder on an external hard drive or network drive, iTunes will default back to its default original path if it cannot find the external drive or network path when it’s first started. This most commonly happens if the external hard drive is disconnected or you are not logged on to the network share.

Once iTunes is running, it will remain set to this path until you either set the path back to the external or network drive manually, or shut down and restart iTunes after connecting to the external drive or network location. iTunes will not automatically connect to or map a network share at startup—you must establish this connection manually before starting iTunes.

Note that this default iTunes Media folder location should not affect your ability to actually play your tracks as iTunes still references those using a full path to the network share regardless of what the iTunes Media folder path is set to. Again, however, if the network share is not connected, then iTunes will not be able to find the music until you’ve manually connected the network share.

The easiest way to solve this is to ensure that you’ve actually connected to the network share in Finder before starting iTunes by using the Connect to Server command on the Finder menu, or selecting the server from your Finder sidebar and establishing a connection to the actual shared location.

I seem to have successfully copied part one of a Twilight audiobook that I purchased from iTunes onto CDs - purely as protection against losing it if there is a problem with my PC. However, the process has already used several CDs and I have not even started on part two. Is there a way to “save” audiobooks without using so many CDs?

- Elizabeth

It sounds like you’re probably burning your audiobooks to actual audio CDs. In this case, you would be able to actually listen to them on any CD player, but as you’ve observed it will potentially take a lot of CDs, since an audio CD only holds up to 80 minutes of audio playback.

Since you’re only burning the audiobooks for backup purposes, you can save CDs by burning them to a Data CD instead. To do this, simply select “Data CD” from the dialog box that appears when you begin burning your audiobook to CD.

This will simply copy the audiobook files directly onto CD in their original format, and in fact you will probably be able to fit both part 1 and part 2 on a single data CD. You will need to reimport these files back into iTunes to play them again, but at least you’ll have them backed up.