Section 43. Use a Large iTunes Library with a Small iPod


43. Use a Large iTunes Library with a Small iPod

BEFORE YOU BEGIN

4 Connect Your iPod for the First Time

42 Transfer Your Music to Your iPod


SEE ALSO

44 Autofill Your iPod Shuffle

48 Transfer Only Preferred Music to the iPod


Your iTunes Library increases in size as you acquire more music; your iPod, however, is a fixed size and can hold only a certain maximum amount of music. There might come a time, either because your iPod is an older model or because you've got a truly vast collection of music, that you won't be able to fit all the music you own onto the iPod using the automatic, zero-effort sync process. Perhaps that day is today.

You have several options for dealing with a situation in which your iTunes Library has outgrown your iPod. One is to do it all manuallyinstead of iTunes synchronizing all your music by itself, it shows the iPod as another item in the Source pane to which you can drag choice tracks from the library, just as though the iPod were a playlist . Another, more versatile method is to choose certain playlists that you want to synchronize ; with the clever use of Smart Playlists , you can use fill up the iPod with just enough automatically chosen music to suit your tastes.

NOTE

This task is intended for owners of hard-disk -based iPods; if you have an iPod shuffle, skip to 44 Autofill Your iPod Shuffle .


1.
Connect the iPod

For iPods with a Dock connector (3G and later models), place the iPod into the Dock's slot until you hear the soft chime that indicates the iPod has awakened and is ready to synchronize. If you don't have a Dock, or if your iPod is a 1G or 2G model, plug in the FireWire or USB 2.0 cable directly to the iPod.

2.
Open the iTunes Preferences

Instead of automatically copying your music, iTunes displays a dialog box warning you that the iPod is too small for your entire library to fit. Dismiss this message and open the iTunes Preferences window (choose iTunes, Preferences on the Mac, or Edit, Preferences on Windows). Click the iPod tab.

43. Use a Large iTunes Library with a Small iPod


3.
Choose a Method for Updating Music

There are three radio buttons describing the three ways iTunes can synchronize its music with your iPod. If your iPod is too small for your library, the first option Automatically update all songs and playlists is unavailable. You must pick one of the two remaining options.

If you like having a lot of control over the music on your iPod, choose the third option ( Manually manage songs and playlists ). With this option selected, the iPod appears as a mounted external hard disk on your computer. Within iTunes, you can drag exactly the music you want onto the iPod and remove music from the iPod to make room for other songs. When it's time to disconnect the iPod and go, you must first eject (or unmount ) the iPod from the computer, using your operating system's "eject" command, or the Eject button next to the iPod's icon in the Source pane.

A more versatile and less painstaking way to fill your iPod is to pick the second option, Automatically update selected playlists only . This option lets you select from among the playlists you've created to define which tracks are transferred to the iPod. Because this list includes Smart Playlists, you can combine some of iTunes' best features to make sure that your iPod is always full of music without the everyday sync process being any more complicated than what's described in 42 Transfer Your Music to Your iPod .

4.
Select Playlists to Synchronize

Choose the second option. From the list box below it, enable the check boxes for the playlists whose contents you want transferred to your iPod. Any music that is not in any of the selected playlists is not copied to the iPod, and iTunes deletes any music from the iPod that you don't say should be there, clearing off room for only the selected playlists' music. Remember that the iPod's primary navigation method is the same as the Browse lists of iTunes; the playlists are only logical groupings of tracks that might appear in more than one playlist. Regardless of how many playlists a song appears in, no track is copied to the iPod more than once.

See 48 Transfer Only Preferred Music to the iPod for an example of how to use Smart Playlists to efficiently fill your iPod with choice selections.

NOTE

Unfortunately, iTunes doesn't show you how much space each playlist takes up, which would allow you to calculate the total space a given selection of playlists consumes; you have to go by trial and error until you've filled up the iPod and no more playlists will fit.

5.
Synchronize Using the New Settings

Click OK to save the new settings for your iPod. If you chose to synchronize selected playlists, iTunes begins transferring the music in these playlists over the FireWire or USB connection (or tells you that your selected playlists take up too much space, if you went over the limit).

If you chose to manually update your songs and playlists, the iPod's icon becomes fixed in the Source pane (for as long as it's connected); it's now mounted on your computer as an external hard disk. Select library and navigate to music you want to copy to your iPod. You can drag individual tracks, or you can select items from the Genre, Artist , or Album lists and drag them to the iPod's icon. You can also drag playlists from their positions in the Source pane to the iPod's icon also in the Source pane; click the triangle next to the iPod's icon to see the playlists that have already been copied to the iPod. Click the iPod in the Source pane to view its current contents, which now appear in black text just like any other playlist. Select any song or group of songs and press Delete or Del to remove them from the iPod. Similarly, you can select and delete playlists from below the iPod's icon if you want to remove them from the iPod. The readout at the bottom of the screen indicates how much space is left on the iPod's internal disk.

TIP

Because no track is copied to the iPod more than once, don't worry if you can't remember whether you already copied a track; just try copying it again. iTunes ignores any tracks that have already been transferred.

When you're ready to disconnect the iPod, be sure to click the Eject icon next to the iPod's name in the Source pane; this action disconnects the iPod as an external hard drive from your computer and prevents data corruption or loss. You can now unplug the iPod or remove it from the Dock.

As you experiment with configuration options, iTunes can become confused about whether the iPod is connected (mounted) or not; if its icon appears in the Source pane and you've configured iTunes to synchronize automatically, try ejecting it by clicking the Eject icon next to the iPod's name, or by quitting and restarting iTunes. Make sure that the Enable disk use option is not selected in the Music pane of the iPod tab in the iTunes Preferences window; that option prevents the iPod from being unmounted after synchronization.



iPod + iTunes for Windows and Mac in a Snap
iPod + iTunes for Windows and Mac in a Snap (2nd Edition)
ISBN: 0672328992
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2005
Pages: 152
Authors: Brian Tiemann

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