How-to: Sync your iPod to both a Mac and PC
September 24th, 2007 by Donald Bell
You can absolutely set up your iPod to work with both a Mac and a PC. The problem is that while PC-formatted drives (FAT32) can generally be used by both Mac and PC, Mac formatted drives (HFS+) can only be read by Macs. To complicate things, iPods by default will only work with one iTunes library. Making your iPod capable of syncing to both a Mac and a PC requires formatting the iPod as a PC drive, and tweaking its settings to make it compatible with multiple iTunes libraries. Before doing any of this, be sure you have the contents of your iPod backed up somewhere. Reformatting will completely erase the contents of your iPod.
To see if your iPod is formatted as a PC-compatible drive, just connect your iPod to a PC and see if it is recognised in iTunes. If your iPod pops up in iTunes, then skip to the next step. If your computer prompts you to reformat your iPod, make sure your files are backed up and then hit OK and let iTunes walk you through the steps to reformat your iPod (this should only take a minute).
Next, in order to allow your iPod to sync with multiple libraries, you'll need to make some adjustments in iTunes. With your iPod still connected to your PC, go to your iPod's summary window in iTunes by clicking on your iPod's icon under Devices in the left column. At the bottom of the large summary window, you'll see a section called Options. Under this section, make sure that both the "Enable Disk Use" and "Manually Manage Music and Videos" options have checks next to them (if the disk use box is checked, but grayed out, that's fine). Next, safely eject your iPod and then connect it to your Mac. If all goes well, your iPod should show up in iTunes on both Mac and PC without any problems, although you may need to check off the same Options boxes on your Mac version of iTunes as well.
Sherene, did you get an email receipt when you bought the product. I am assuming it is an iTunes voucher. I would suggest you reply back to the email you received when you bought the itunes voucher and explain the situation. 
Pete
September 26th, 2007 at 10:40pm
hi, i like your web site and generally find it quite helpful. however, on this occasion, i'd say this article and its title are misleading. unless i'm mistaken, you're using the term "sync" incorrectly. "syncing", as the term is generally understood in ipod language, can only be done with one itunes library at a time. ipods can be "managed" by multiple itunes libraries, but "managing" and "syncing" are quite different concepts, and your article and its headline are clouding this issue. thanks
Arnold
October 12th, 2007 at 7:23pm
I agree with Pete, I was hoping i could sync my mac to pc and vice versa as to keep three identical copies of my library....
tavon
October 19th, 2007 at 4:41am
i have a problem, when i connect my ipod, to i tunes the program freezes on me and i dont know what i did worng. i tried on the pc at home and it works fine. is it my lap top or the ipod?
Greg
May 6th, 2008 at 10:33pm
When you connect the iPod to the Mac, should there be no content in the Mac's iTunes library? If that is the case, will the iPod's content start copying onto the Mac? (This is my hope, as I want to copy my PC's music library--incl. playlists, movies, etc.--to my mac.) Thanks!
HAC
July 12th, 2008 at 12:56am
So, what is the trick to move all your songs you bought over iTunes Store while had a PC to my new MacBook Pro?
HAC
July 12th, 2008 at 1:15am
So, what is the trick to move all your songs you bought over iTunes Store while had a PC to my new MacBook Pro?
Aleksandar
July 12th, 2008 at 7:52pm
I've just bought a second hand ipod but I cannot acces the files through my computer. I'm a starter with iPod and I dont have a clue about iPod. Please, give me starting tips how to put music on him!
Aleksandar
July 12th, 2008 at 7:53pm
I've just bought a second hand ipod but I cannot acces the files through my computer. I'm a starter with iPod and I dont have a clue about iPod. Please, give me starting tips how to put music on him!
Aleksandar
July 12th, 2008 at 8:01pm
I've just bought a second hand ipod but I cannot acces the files through my computer. I'm a starter with iPod and I dont have a clue about iPod. Please, give me starting tips how to put music on him!
Aleksandar
July 12th, 2008 at 8:04pm
I've just bought a second hand ipod but I cannot acces the files through my computer. I'm a starter with iPod and I dont have a clue about iPod. Please, give me starting tips how to put music on him!