Ipod and new computer

[Albertan mom]

I have an Ipod Touch.
All of my Itunes stuff was on my old laptop.
I just bought a new laptop, because my old one was running terribly.

How do I get all my songs, apps, etc onto my new laptop?
I heard if you just plug the Ipod into the computer, it will erase all your apps and songs on the Ipod.
Is this true?

How do I get Itunes onto the new one?

Help!!

 

[bonoriffic]

This is the main reason people hate Apple and their horrible method of managing music. iTunes is awful. I'm so thankful I have Android and can just drag and drop media to and from any computer.

You have to install iTunes on the new computer by downloading it from apple.com. (If you are using Windows it will also try to install a bunch of other applications so watch out) On the old computer, back up all your songs in some way that allows you to move them to the new computer. Flash drive, DVD, or network the two computers. Just move all the music from the old to the new. Hopefully you didn't select the option to let iTunes manage your music for you, which may add another wrinkle to this. iTunes puts stuff in hidden folders when you allow them complete control.

On the old computer select "deauthorize this computer" from iTunes menu. On the new computer select "authorize this computer" from iTunes. Also on the new computer select the iTunes option to not automatically sync when an iPod is connected. This will prevent the iPod from having everything overwritten when you first plug it into the new computer.

Once you are happy that iTunes on the new computer can see all your music, plays it, cover art is there, etc. then and only then can you plug your iPod in and start the new process of syncing it anew. Your downloaded apps will be available to copy back to the iPod, so you won't lose them.

 

[snapppyd]

I was wondering about this also, thanks for asking the question.