Creating and Using an iPod On-The-Go Playlist

Working with playlists that you create in iTunes is very useful, but you can also create a single playlist on the iPod and listen to that playlist as much as you'd like. This enables you to create a playlist when you are away from your computer in order to listen to a specific collection of music.

Creating the On-The-Go Playlist

To create and add a song to your On-The-Go playlist, view a listsuch as the list of songs on an albumon which the song is listed. Highlight the song you want to add and hold the Select button down until the highlighting on the song flashes. Continue adding songs using the same process until you have selected a group of songs.

Tip

When you are viewing a playlist, including the On-The-Go playlist, that contains the song that is currently playing, it is marked with a speaker icon.

When the On-The-Go playlist is empty and you select it, you will see an informational message about how to add songs to it. This can be handy if you forget and you don't have this book with you (which I know is unlikely to ever happen).

If you highlight an album, artist, or other category and hold the Select button down until your selection flashes, the entire contents of the selected category will be added to the On-The-Go playlist. This makes it easy to add multiple songs to the playlist quickly and easily.

Viewing and Playing the On-The-Go Playlist

To see the contents of your On-The-Go playlist, move to the Playlists screen and scroll to the bottom of the Playlists menu. Highlight the On-The-Go playlist and press the Select button. You will see the contents of the On-The-Go playlist that you have created. You can play this playlist just like any other playlist on your iPod.

Caution

After you create an On-The-Go playlist, you should play at least one song it contains. If you don't, it is possible you will lose the contents of the playlist if it isn't played within 36 hours.

To see the contents of your On-The-Go playlist, choose Main menu, Playlists, On-The-Go. You will see the contents of the On-The-Go playlist that you have created. You can play this playlist just like any other playlist on your iPod.

Tip

As long as you play at least one song on the On-The-Go playlist, you don't need to save it. It will remain on your iPod until you clear it. You really only need to save an On-The-Go playlist if you want to create a new one without getting rid of the current one.

Saving an On-The-Go Playlist

If you create an On-The-Go playlist that you want to keep permanently, open the On-The-Go screen. Scroll down until you see the Save Playlist command. Highlight Save Playlist and press the Select button. Then, choose Save Playlist again on the resulting Save screen.

When you do this, the playlist will be renamed "New Playlist X," where X is a sequential number that represents each playlist you have saved. The current On-The-Go playlist will be cleared as soon as you save it. So, you can create another playlist without changing the previous one.

Using this technique, you can create and save as many playlists as you'd like.

When you connect your iPod to your computer, the current On-The-Go playlist and any On-The-Go playlists you have saved will be transferred into iTunes and will be available on the iTunes Source List. You can change them in iTunes, such as renaming them, changing the songs they contain, and so on. The next time you update your iPod, the changes you make to these playlists in iTunes will be reflected on your iPod.

Clearing the On-The-Go Playlist

If you want to clear the On-The-Go playlist without saving it, open the On-The-Go playlist screen and choose Clear Playlist, and then Clear Playlist on the Clear screen (no, that isn't a mistake, you choose this command twice, but each is on a different screen). All the songs that were in the playlist will be removed, and it will become empty again. (The songs that were in that playlist are not removed from your iPod; the playlist is just cleared of those songs.)

Note

As far as I know, you can't remove just a single song from the On-The-Go playlist; you have to remove all of them or none of them. Also, you can't use the same techniques to change playlists that you created in iTunes. This works only for the On-The-Go playlist.