AppleTV 1st Gen and new computer

Question

How do I connect AppleTV 1st Gen to different computer than the original laptop that I synced with? The laptop has very little space left and I want to synch with larger desktop. Do I have to disconnect it from laptop some how? The desktop has seen AppleTV, but it won't let me sync anything.

Answer 1

kellyfromnew york wrote:
Thanks for the reply! I copied the iTunes Music folder to a removeable drive so I don't lose any of the info before disconnecting with AppleTV.
It is always wise to have a backup of your itunes library media on external drive etc - you never know when you might have a hardware failure on a computer/AppleTV etc.
Disconnecting AppleTV from the laptop itunes will not delete the content in iTunes on the laptop, but will wipe media synced to AppleTV from iTunes.
The big thing to ensure is that any purchases of music/video etc you made directly on AppleTV have synced back to the sync (laptop) library - right click on the AppleTV in iTunes on the laptop and choose Transfer Purchases to check if unsure.  In theory, things that haven't synced back should remain while stuff synced from the computer to AppleTV will go, but I don't fully trust it and best to ensure direct purchases are safe before disconnecting AppleTV.
The important point to get across is that AppleTV 1 does not operate like a backup of media - there is no simple or official way to recover media from it say your laptop iTunes hard drive failed.
kellyfromnew york wrote:
need to put it on the desktop, can I just copy this into the iTunes Music folder on the desktop and it will now have all the appleTV stuff?
Don't do that (just copy into new itunes folder) as iTunes won't recognise the stuff you've copied in this way.
Either import to iTunes using iTunes' File>Add to Library and navigating to the iTunes media folder on the external or drag and drop this folder onto itunes to copy it over. 
Another way to do this you might want to try is via Home Sharing - enable in iTunes on the laptop and desktop and this will allow the desktop iTunes to copy stuff over from the laptop - either all or selected content you choose form the Home Shared library icon - this will probably be slower than using the copy on the external drive, but is a good way to copy content from one machine to another across the network.
After adding your media to iTunes you need to go through the steps Winston and I outlined to change the sync computer entry on AppleTV under Settings>Computers.
Ac