A friend and I were recently talking about if you can have one iPod on two computers. He said you couldn’t, and I said you could. In my last post, we talked about how to prepare iTunes for multiple iPod users, so here are some tips on how to get one iPod set up on two different computers. We were debating quite heavily about two computers one iPod for some time, so I put together this guide on one iPod with two computers, or multiple computers.

First, you will need to make sure that both computers are running the same operating system. They both need to be running either Mac OS X or Windows. You can’t have one of each, as it won’t work because your iPod is formatted for either a Windows PC or a Mac.

To determine if your iPod has been restored for Macintosh or Windows, do this:

1. On your iPod, select Settings > About. If you’re using an older iPod with older iPod software (such as iPod Software 1.x), select Settings from the main menu.
2. Scroll down to the bottom of the screen.

If your iPod disk is configured for Macintosh, the serial number is the last item you’ll see listed in the About screen. If the disk is configured for Windows, the last item you’ll see is “Format: Windows.”

To change the iPod format you will need to restore iPod using iTunes. For more information on the how to restore iPod with iTunes see “Restoring iPod to factory settings” on the Apple support site.

Second, you need to set your iPod to “Manually manage music”. It really is helpful, almost required, that you be running iTunes 7 or newer. By default iPod is set to “Automatically sync songs to my iPod” sometimes called automatic mode. In order to transfer music from multiple computers iPod must be set to “Manually manage music” sometimes referred to as manual mode.

When your iPod is set to automatic mode, your iPod is automatically updated by the iTunes system. Your iPod’s music library is updated anytime you connect iPod to your computer. iTunes transfers new songs you’ve added, and erases songs you’ve removed.

However, the first computer you connect your iPod to is considered the “home” computer, and the music library from that computer is copied to your iPod. When you connect your iPod to another computer, an alert box appears with this message:

“The iPod is synced with another iTunes library. Do you want to erase this iPod and sync with this iTunes library?”

“An iPod can be synced with only one iTunes library at a time. Erasing and syncing replaces the contents of this iPod with the contents of this iTunes library.”

If you want to delete your music library on your iPod and make the second computer the iPod’s “home” computer, click Erase and Sync. iTunes will delete all songs and playlists on the iPod, and then will copy the music library and playlists from the new home computer to iPod.

If you want to keep the music library on your iPod, but copy songs or playlists from the music library on the second computer, click Cancel to this dialog box, and then set your iPod to manual mode.

You change the iPod synchronization mode to manual mode in iTunes:

1. Open iTunes, if necessary.
2. Select iPod in the Source pane.
3. Click the Summary tab.
4. Click “Manually manage music and videos” to enable that option.
5. Click OK in the resulting dialog box.
6. Click Apply.

It is normal for iPod to take a few seconds to change from automatic mode to manual mode.

When in manual mode, to add songs or playlists drag them from iTunes to the iPod icon in the sidebar. To remove songs or playlists select them on the iPod in iTunes and hit the delete key. You can also create playlists directly on the iPod.

Note: iPod shuffle is intended for use with a single computer. You cannot load music from multiple computers or iTunes libraries onto iPod shuffle like you can with other iPods.

Hope this helps explain a little more about the process of having one iPod with two computers and how to sync them up to play nicely with each other. Of course this also works on laptops. One of my favorite things to do when sitting around at night is to put my laptop on my laptop cushion and watch tv while downloading, updated and rearranging my playlists to get ready for the upcoming week.