Many folk on both Mac and PC use iTunes to manage a music collection, sync with your iPhone or iPad, and rent / download movies and TV shows. You can do most of these things on Chromebook, but you cannot use Chromebook to sync your iPhone / iPad / iPod or use Airplay to connect to an Apple TV (without installing a different OS, which isn’t a great idea for most people.)
Don’t panic though – let’s look at the best ways to deal with this situation.
Just use your iPhone / iPad on its own
You can use iTunes on your iPhone / iPad no problem without plugging it into a computer at all. Buy music, sync contacts, calendars, photos, books and iOS apps directly to Apple iCloud – all without syncing to iTunes on a Mac or PC. The downside is that your music and books won’t be available on your Chromebook (you’ll need to plug your headphones into your phone instead), and movies won’t sync at all. Mail / contacts / calendar / notes / reminders are available online at icloud.com:
iCloud
Migrate over to Google Music
If you still have access to your Mac, you can use the Google Music Manager to migrate all your tracks to Google Music. (If you don’t have access to a Mac or PC any more, you can try the Music Alpha app to upload tracks directly from your Chromebook.) It’ll take a while to upload if you have a large collection, but it’s a fairly straightforward process. You’ll get free storage online for up to 20,000 tracks, and once it’s up there you can play everything on your Chromebook.
It’s a bit tricky ongoing though – if you continue to buy music from iTunes, it won’t show up in Google Music, and if you buy music from Google Play, it won’t show up in iTunes on your Mac. If you go with Google, you can still access your new purchases on iOS using an app like GoMusic, it just won’t sync using the usual Music app.
GoTunes on iPhone
Amazon Cloud Player
If you buy MP3s from Amazon for download, you may have vaguely registered that it also saves everything you purchase to Amazon Cloud Player. Check it out – you might find a lot of your music is already available for you to listen to on your Chromebook.
Amazon Cloud Player
Chrome OS itself
Chrome OS has a basic music player built into it. Really basic. It will read MP4 movies, MP3 and OGG audio files (full list here), but if you have AAC, FLAC, WMA or any other file format you’re outta luck.
The built in music player
The built in movie player
Rockbox
If you have an iPod and you really need it to work with Chromebook, Rockbox is a radical solution – it’s a replacement firmware for your music player that will make it pop up as a drive in the Files app. In fact, you’ll no longer need iTunes to manage your music on any computer. The downside is that it only works with much older devices (up to the 1st gen iPod Nano or the iPod Video).
Drivetunes
If you snagged the 100GB free space on Google Drive, this is your chance to use it. Upload your music to Google Drive, then install DriveTunes to get a music player in Drive and access to to your tunes from wherever you are.
Drivetunes
Spotify
You’ll need to install this app from the Chrome store, which bumps you into the beta streaming site so you can access your subscription – but when that’s done, you should be able to access your Spotify no problem.
Spotify
Rdio
Rdio is pretty darn similar to Spotify, but it’s built for the web from the ground up, so it works great on Chromebook.
Rdio on Chromebook
Deezer
Deezer is French, but besides that it’s pretty similar to Rdio – built for the web, access to major label music, and not free. There is one major bonus with Deezer on Chromebooks – it works offline with the Chrome Web Store app.
Deezer
Netflix
If you’re used to using iTunes to get access to movies and TV shows, Netflix can stream movies in the same way over the web (although it does not work with ARM models, i.e. the Samsung Series 3). YouTube, Amazon Instant and Hulu also offer movie rental, and they all work great on Chromebook.
Grooveshark
Grooveshark is built for the web, so it works great as a replacement for iTunes radio functions and potentially parts of your music library.
Grooveshark
InstaDJ
If you’re after that major label music and you don’t want to go subscription, InstaDJ is a great option. You can find a lot of what you’re after on YouTube, and this site will help you build a playlist so you can leave it playing in a tab and get on with your day.
InstaDJ
Is it possible to add music and sync it onto your iPod or phone?
You can definitely add music to your Chromebook, same as you would with any laptop – download it from somewhere like eMusic or Amazon, pop it onto a USB key and plug that in, and so on. You can sync your collection with Google Music and use an app like this one to access it on your iPod, or use the Google Music app on Android. Hope this helps!
Can I view the movies I have already purchased through iTunes on a Chromebook?
I haven’t bought any myself so I haven’t tested this. If they are wrapped with DRM, then I’d say no.
So there is no way to sync iPod to iTunes through a chromebook and if there isn’t does it look likely that it ever will?
You certainly can’t do this today. I don’t see that changing, but stranger things have happened!
this did not help getting itunes downloaded
Sorry! Apple don’t produce an iTunes client or web interface. Best alternatives are above.
Why would anyone in their right mind buy this if you can’t sync up your iPhone/iPod/iTunes on it?!? WHAT A WASTE. Why not just provide this support, allowing users to access the library via an external hard drive, or access via the iTunes cloud??? Does Google really expect people to switch to Google Music from iTunes?
You certainly can’t sync your iPhone or iPod directly. You can sync up though, by using the Music Manager on the computer that’s currently running iTunes. As for the external hard drive though – that should work just fine. If you have your iTunes library laid out fairly sensibly on an external HD, you should be able to plug that into your Chromebook no problem. (Caveat – I haven’t tried this myself).
Can you still charge your iPad, iPod, iPhone on the chromebook?
Yes – you can charge USB devices (including your iOS devices) no problem.
Is there any way to convert all of my music from itunes on a different computer to this computer? Can you download music from, say, pirate bay onto this computer? And using these alternative options, can it sync music from them onto an ipod? Also is the computer able to keep up with the speed of online games and not lag? thanks
Wow, lots of questions!
How loud and clear do the speakers get?
They’re generally not bad, but it depends on the unit. The Pixel’s are very good.
and how much music from itunes would i be able to fit onto the chromebook?
You can store 20,000 songs for free on Google Music. Actually on local storage, again that depends on the unit.
Can i get photo & video from my ipod to my chromebook?
Videos probably not – I think (but I haven’t checked) that they’ll be wrapped with DRM which means you can only view them in iTunes or iOS devices. Photos yes, but you can’t do it directly – you’ll need to grab the photo files from your Mac or PC and copy them either into the cloud or just pop them onto a USB stick, which your Chromebook should be able to read no problem.
SO I JUST BOUGHT A CHROMEBOOK AND AM FEELING A BIT MISLEAD AT THIS POINT. I WANT TO UPLOAD PHOTOS FROM MY IPHONE TO MY CHROMEBOOK? THIS IS NOT POSSIBLE? BECAUSE I CANNOT SYNC ON THE CHROMEBOOK? I APOLOGIZE IF I SOUND LIKE AN IDIOT, I AM DEFINITELY NOT TECH SAVVY. BUT I DO NOT WANT TO LOSE MY PICTURES OF MY CHILD THAT I ONLY HAVE ON MY IPHONE AND I WOULD LIKE TO DO PHOTO EDITING, MY EDITING PROGRAMS ARE ALREADY ON MY CHROMEBOOK. SOUNDS LIKE I SHOULD HAVE STUCK WITH A REGULAR LAPTOP FOR CONVENIENCE. THANKS IN ADVANCE!
You could download the “Google Drive” app on your iphone — sign in using the same gmail account that you use on your chromebook.
From there, open up “Google Drive” on your iphone and in the top right corner there is a + — click that.
It will then give you the option to “Upload photo or video” and from there you can click and choose which photos/videos you want.
Any of the photos you upload will now be in your “files” folder on your chromebook under “drive”
no!! i was excited to get a chrmoebook because ireally liked google, but this completely threw me off. i really thoughtit’d be awesome if i could sync my ipod on my laptop, and it was really economic, but this made me sad. thanks for the moments of happiness.
Yeah, totally understandable – if you have an iPhone (or a iPod Touch on wifi) you can handle it, but a regular iPod is a tough one.