Q: I have a first-generation iPod touch that I would like to give to my aunt. I now have an iPhone which I sync with my home computer, but my iPod touch still has songs and other information on it. How can I give the iPod touch to her so that she has her own iTunes account, put her own music, pics and downloads on and have it not be identified with me? Also, can this be done and the songs, pics and apps will still be on the touch?
– RJ
A: The only easy way to do this is to restore the iPod touch completely via the “Restore” option in iTunes, which will erase everything on it and set it up as a brand new device. Following the restore, you would just disconnect the iPod touch before it reboots and your aunt will go through the new iPod setup process when she first connects it to her computer.
You won’t be able to preserve any of the purchased content on your iPod touch such as apps unless you’re willing to share your iTunes Store account with your aunt. Purchased content is associated with your iTunes Store account and can’t be transferred to another account. Although this content could be left on your iPod touch, it would be erased the first time your aunt tried to sync the iPod touch with her own computer to load any additional content onto it. Non-protected content can be transferred off of the iPod touch using any of the methods described in our tutorial on our iPod 201 article, Copying Content from your iPod to your Computer, but this is a process that your aunt would have to go through on her own computer, after which she would erase the iPod and resync the content back onto it.