iPod touch Cannot Sync Songs

[expos4ever]

I am very much not a techie and am in my late 50s. Can someone please provide very specific and complete instructions re how to get content (music, for my immediate intentions) from itunes onto my Ipod? I need to led by the hand on every detail (sorry about this), so please - if some tiny checkbox needs to be checked in some obscure corner of the page that I cannot see, please tell me. I have Itunes version 12.4.3.1.

I tried creating a playlist in Itunes and that seemed to work. Then I followed some instructions I found online and was unsuccessful in copying the playlist to my ipod. The attached screenshot may be helpful.

 

[Jessica Lares]

Everything looks fine in your screenshot, try this:

Click on the Summary tab and make sure that under Options "Sync only checked songs and videos" is NOT checked. "Manually manage music and videos" shouldn't be checked either.

And then click Sync.

 

[expos4ever]

Everything looks fine in your screenshot, try this:

Click on the Summary tab and make sure that under Options "Sync only checked songs and videos" is NOT checked. "Manually manage music and videos" shouldn't be checked either.

And then click Sync.

Well, I had indeed checked "Sync only checked songs and videos", and when I unchecked it, I was indeed able to sync.

But, if you will excuse my "ranting" tone, why in the world would one reasonably expect that it is correct to uncheck that option? I was syncing a playlist and while there was no choice offered such as "sync only checked songs and / or playlists", I think it would be conceptually correct to conclude that if one wants a playlist to be synced - which is, after all, a set of songs - one should indeed check the "Sync only checked songs and videos" option.

If, repeat, if the above point is indeed conceded, I have to say that this adds to my growing belief that while Mac technology is routinely touted as intuitive, I have found it to be quite the opposite. Of course, I am open to being set right as to why it makes conceptual sense to leave "Sync only checked songs and videos" unchecked when intending to sync a playlist.

In any event, thank you for your advice.

 

[Jessica Lares]

I'm really glad that worked. Usually you'd get an exclamation mark if there was an error with the tracks themselves.

There are checkboxes next to every song in iTunes (in the Songs view), which is what the "Sync only checked songs and videos" setting refers to. Usually everything in your library is checked by default and you'd remove it from items you don't want synced. It's main use is so you can sync the entire library without having to make a playlist without those items included.

You might want to make a playlist that has music, video, and podcasts, but you don't necessarily want to sync the videos to the iPod because they take up too much space. Or at least there are a handful of people with such a use case.

iTunes has a lot of weird obscure options because it still supports everything after the first iPod along with all the iOS devices ever made. The majority of people have complaints about it. It's supposed to get better with 12.5, but not much.