iTunes & iPhone Help

[XIII Heartless]

I'll be getting an iPhone soon (4 or 8 GB, I'm not sure) and I recently started an iTunes account to avoid doing it later. Predictably, I got a little hooked with iTunes and my library expanded in a very huge way. Well, I live in two different houses, one with my mom, the other with my dad. My first question: Is there a way for me to transfer my iTunes Library and Account Information to my dad's computer for use there?

Secondly, when I get my iPhone, I'll be miles away from either of my houses (I'm getting the phone in Alabama and I live in Texas.) Will I have to wait until I get home to transfer my songs and videos to my phone? (I frown on this option). I know for a fact that you can access the iTunes store on your phone. Will I be able to acess my account info, including my library solely on the phone, or should I bring a DVD with my whole library to use?

Lastly, I know you can put full movies on the phone. Can you only put full movies, or just certain parts from a movie? To be specific, I want to put the beginning of the movie Stomp the Yard on my phone, but not the whole thing. Is this possible?

I'd greatly appreciate any help.

[Forever Atlas]

Originally Posted by XIII Heartless

I'll be getting an iPhone soon (4 or 8 GB, I'm not sure) and I recently started an iTunes account to avoid doing it later. Predictably, I got a little hooked with iTunes and my library expanded in a very huge way. Well, I live in two different houses, one with my mom, the other with my dad. My first question: Is there a way for me to transfer my iTunes Library and Account Information to my dad's computer for use there?

Yes all you have to do is download iTunes to your dad's computer and sign in.

As for the library, I'm not quite sure, but if you downloaded the stuff from iTunes then there should be a section of your recently downloaded things on your account.

Secondly, when I get my iPhone, I'll be miles away from either of my houses (I'm getting the phone in Alabama and I live in Texas.) Will I have to wait until I get home to transfer my songs and videos to my phone? (I frown on this option). I know for a fact that you can access the iTunes store on your phone. Will I be able to acess my account info, including my library solely on the phone, or should I bring a DVD with my whole library to use?

Yes you can access it.

Lastly, I know you can put full movies on the phone. Can you only put full movies, or just certain parts from a movie? To be specific, I want to put the beginning of the movie Stomp the Yard on my phone, but not the whole thing. Is this possible?

I'd greatly appreciate any help.

As long as the format is correct... (I think its .mp4) you can put any length of videos on there. The question is if you can transfer protected things... you can.. but there's a process there >.> ugh... reason I hate ipods xDDD

[XIII Heartless]

What if not all the songs I have are from iTunes? (That's a good 75% of 'em...)

[Forever Atlas]

Originally Posted by XIII Heartless

What if not all the songs I have are from iTunes? (That's a good 75% of 'em...)

well if you get them on your ipod then you can carry them where you go and put them on up to.. i forget like 3 different computers >.>

but if not the only way you can access them is through your computer by means of an extended network

[XIII Heartless]

What's an extended network, and how would I establish one?

[Petie]

I'll take things point by point here. First, you can indeed access your iTunes account from multiple computers. On the second copy of iTunes, simply click on Store and then Sign In on the top right. This won't automatically transfer your music though. You can either re-download it here (I believe - I haven't done any shopping on the iTunes store so I'm not sure about their re-downloading policies). If you're copying and pasting from the other computer, all you have to do is click (in iTunes) Advanced > Authorize Computer and sign in with the same Apple account you used to download the songs (you may have to do this for both methods, depending on whether or not re-downloading a song auto-authorizes the computer). As a point of reference, up to five computers can be authorized to play music from a single account and computers can be de-authorized at any time by following the same procedure you used to authorize them.

That takes care of computer to computer transfers. Now for the iPhone. Syncing an iPhone works the same way syncing an iPod does. When set to automatically synchronize, it can only be linked to one computer and plugging it into another will prompt you to erase the iPod and sync it with the new computer instead (to which you can click no). This can be solved by setting the preferences to manually manage your music though this obviously means that new songs will not automatically be transferred. It will, however, let you connect your iPhone to multiple computers as well as play the music on your phone through iTunes when it's connected.

As for your question about accessing your library from your iPhone, it can be done but not in the way I believe you meant. Now, I'm not 100% on this but I'm fairly confident that you should be able to re-download already purchased songs directly to your iPhone (as well as buying new ones). This means you'll be able to access your purchased content but none of the rest. You also need to be aware of the fact that the iPhone does not currently support 3G which means wireless downloads will be rather slow (unless you're within the range of a wireless router/access point). I'd personally recommend bringing your library with you (either on a DVD like you suggested or on something like a flash drive if you have one).

Finally, as long as it's in the correct format (MPEG4 video and AAC audio, though MP3 audio works too), you can put any video on your phone. In order to put just a clip from a movie though, you'd need software to edit the video to clip it to the portion you want. You can probably go to the video properties and set the start and end times before transferring it but you'd be wasting a lot of space if you take this route.

Anyway, I think that covers everything. I hope this helps and please feel free to ask if you need anything explained further.

Edit:
Oh, and as for your question about extended networks, you could either use something like Remote Desktop or preferably, a VPN connection but neither of these is simple to set up (especially the latter). I wouldn't recommend even attempting this route because of the extra level of complexity it adds to the situation.

[XIII Heartless]

One last question. (Sorry!)

I know you can drag any song to the "Purchased" section of your library. If I do this, will it still be accessable from the "Purchased" section later on?

Even if it isn't, I've got the essentials. Thanks for the help! If anyone's got anymore comments or advice, I'd still appreciate it.

[Petie]

The "Purchased" section is simply a playlist that iTunes creates when you buy something from the iTunes store. While you can drag any song into that playlist and it will stay there until removed, the "Purchased" playlist is still only a local playlist so you have to be at the computer you originally moved the songs on in order to access them.

[XIII Heartless]

Thanks for clearing that up. Any idea how much a blank DVD costs? Where can I get 'em? And will a flash drive be big enough for about 4 GB worth of music?

[Petie]

You can get blank DVDs just about anywhere that sells computers (Best Buy and stores like that and even stores like Staples carry them). As for price, a 50 pack averages around $25 so figure about 50 cents per disk. Here's a link to a search on the Best Buy site for blank DVDs under $25: Link.

As for a flash drive, I have a 4 GB flash drive myself so if you're slightly under 4 GB, you should can definitely find one to hold that much music for relatively cheap. They also make bigger ones though obviously, the bigger the capacity, the more it costs (and you'll have to go to more specialized stores for them usually, though for some reason, I think Staples carries at least one that's bigger than 4 GB). On the up side though, once you use it for your music, you can clear it and use it for other stuff too. Again, here's a link for flash drives on Best Buy's site: Link - in particular, the 4 GB PNY drive that is currently on sale for $24.99.

[Engineer]

Originally Posted by XIII Heartless

My first question: Is there a way for me to transfer my iTunes Library and Account Information to my dad's computer for use there?

As said, you can log onto your account across different iTunes folders. If you don't want to redownload everything, or if you have all of your iTunes Videos/Music/Photos on your iPhone, use Anapod Explorer™ iPod Software, iPod Backup, iTunes Alternative, iPod Transfer, iPod Manager, iPod Management, iPod Explorer, iPod Utility, iTunes Replacement, iPod Copy, iPod Freeware, iPod Managing, PC Software, Windows Software, Windows Vista Soft to rip everything off of it.

Originally Posted by XIII Heartless

Secondly, when I get my iPhone, I'll be miles away from either of my houses (I'm getting the phone in Alabama and I live in Texas.) Will I have to wait until I get home to transfer my songs and videos to my phone? (I frown on this option). I know for a fact that you can access the iTunes store on your phone. Will I be able to acess my account info, including my library solely on the phone, or should I bring a DVD with my whole library to use?

Yes, you should be able to access your iTunes account with your phone. Fortunantely, if you go to (In iTunes) Devices>iPhone>Manually Manage Music and Videos (instead of synching, allows for drag and drop for files), allows you to put files from across multiple computers

Originally Posted by XIII Heartless

Lastly, I know you can put full movies on the phone. Can you only put full movies, or just certain parts from a movie? To be specific, I want to put the beginning of the movie Stomp the Yard on my phone, but not the whole thing. Is this possible?

You can watch full movies, as long as you have the memory. But if you want just a certain part, you'll have to manually edit the movie using a movie editing program.

[Forever Atlas]

By the way, you might want to wait now to get your iPhone until July... thats when the new iPhone 3G will be coming out... <sigh> foolish apple >.> lol

Its cheaper... and "better" than the first one.

[XIII Heartless]

That's alright, I'll be happy w/o a GPS and the other *unimpressed* stuff.
I just want my 8 GB of memory and internet capabilities and I'm set.

Good lookin' out, though.