[biscuit]

Hi all,

I'm really stumped by this and would appreciate any input.

tl;dr version

How do I transfer music from iTunes onto an iPad that's never been synced to a computer (set up 'PC Free')?

Long version

My Dad bought my Mum an iPad for Christmas and has given it to her early. Part of the reason for getting it is that my Mum's Vista laptop is hopelessly corrupted and slow.

So, my Dad didn't want to connect it to that PC and went through the 'PC Free' set up, which included setting up a new Apple ID for my Mum.

Now, I should add that her present a couple of years back was an iPod Touch, which I set up on her Vista PC with an Apple ID and music from CDs, etc. That iPod then hasn't been plugged into a computer since.

Although the iPad works great, it has no music or photos on. So I plugged it into the Vista PC (after updating iTunes), expecting to see some option to sync music with that PC. Unfortunately the only options I'm presented with are:

a) Set up as a new iPad; or
b) Restore from a back up of the iPod Touch.

Neither of these will do the trick. I don't want to lose what's been entered into the iPad, although it is all backed up to iCloud should that be necessary.

Any thoughts? Is this how it's supposed to work? Seems like an oversight on Apple's part.

Thanks,

biscuit

[P]

I suggest that you update the iPod touch to ios 5 and enable iCloud. Make sure that you use the same apple id on both. That way you should be able to sync music that way.

[biscuit]

Thanks P.

I suspect that part of the problem is that the iPod Touch was set up with a different Apple ID. My Mum has since changed her email address (and my Dad had forgotten that she even had an Apple ID).

Ideally I'd have recovered the old Apple ID and done the set up with the PC from the start. Now that it's all set up and working I'm reluctant to start from scratch.

I think I'll try doing this from a different PC. I'm not bothered about the old iTunes account.

But it does seem weird that this doesn't work. Surely there are lots of people who will turn on their new iPads, run the PC Free set up and then decide to put their music on?

[P]

If the PC has iTunes, you should be able to:

• set up that installation with the new AppleID and iCloud
• add whatever music you have to iCloud from there
• switch the iPod Touch to the new AppleID

Or am I missing something?

[biscuit]

Well, I did sign into the new Apple ID on the PC, but there's still some remnant of the old one on there. I haven't yet updated the iPod and synced it to the new Apple ID. Maybe I need to work on getting rid of all that.

I didn't see any options regarding iCloud in iTunes itself.

When you talk about putting music into iCloud, are you talking about iTunes Match? That's not available in the UK.

I won't be back home for a bit now. With any luck it'll have magically resolved itself in my absence.

[P]

iCloud lets you have 5 gigs of non-iTunes music and as much as you like of any other music. iTunes Match is just about converting music bought elsewhere to iTunes music. You should still be able to sync 5 gigs that way - I think. Honestly haven't tried iCloud yet.

[TETENAL]

You cannot sync music though iCloud unless you purchase iTunes Match. In the US however you should be able to redownload all music purchased on iTunes. For that purpose you can enter the old Apple-ID into the iTunes app.

[biscuit]

All the music is from CDs. I'd also like to be able to put some photos on it.

I suspect starting from scratch is the only way. I'll update here on my progress.

[amazing]

Why not just sync directly to your Mac? You'll get music and photos...

[biscuit]

I had another look at it with no success. I think being set up PC Free is equivalent to setting up via a PC, meaning the only way to change it is to wipe and start again - as if you were changing PCs.

I don't have the time to sort this at the moment so she's going to do without music for now. Photos we managed to do via DropBox.

[biscuit]

So we now have iTunes Match in the UK and we've realised we could easily transfer photos with the camera connection kit (if we buy one).

I'm still going to have to do a reset at some point though I think. It's really very frustrating that there's no option to 'add' a computer/iPad relationship to a 'PC free' iPad.

I can see how people get annoyed about these things. My Dad thinks it's all planned to make his life harder and just expects everything to go wrong. AirPrint is another problem too...