By J. D. BIERSDORFER

Q. I have many CDs that I purchased from various retail stores (not Apple[1] iTunes) and loaded into my iTunes library on my computer. Is it possible to download these albums to my iPhone and iPad? If so, how?

A. If you have the music in your iTunes library, moving it can be as simple as connecting the device to the computer with the USB cable that came with the iPad and iPhone. Once you have everything plugged in, open iTunes and look for the iPhone/iPad icon[2] in the upper-left corner of the iTunes window.

Click on the icon and in the left panel of the iTunes window, click on Music. In the main part of the iTunes window, click the box next to Sync Music and choose what you would like to sync[3] — all your iTunes music and playlists, or just sections from your collections. Click Apply and then Sync to copy the music to the iOS device over the USB cable. (Apple's website also has instructions on syncing over a Wi-Fi connection[4] after you flip on the right setting in iT unes during a USB syncing session.)

You can also sync other content from the iTunes library[5], like podcasts, photos and videos. Some people do not like using iTunes to transfer files, as it might be unwieldy and can only sync with one other iTunes library, unless you turn on the "Manually manage music and videos" option[6] on the device's iTunes Summary screen.

As an alternative approach, you can also upload the music from your iTunes library to a cloud-based service, and either stream it or download it to your iOS device. Apple's own iTunes Match[7] service (which costs $25 a year) can do this with its iCloud Music Library[8] function, but free services can work as well.

The Google Music Manager program[9] for Windows and OS X works with a Google account and its iOS apps for the Google Play Music service[10]. You can upload up to 50,000 songs[11] for free, although you need to supply a credit card number to verify your country of residence. Microsoft's OneDrive service[12] and Groove Music app for iOS[13] let you store and stream[14] up to 15 gigabytes of music for free. The Amazon Music service[15] works in a similar manner, but you can upload only 250 songs free. Other online file-sharing services like Dropbox[16] can stream and store uploaded music too, as long as you have room within your storage allowance.

Personal Tech invites questions about computer-based technology to techtip@nytimes.com. This column will answer questions of general interest, but letters cannot be answered individually.[17]