iPod Managing playlists - Am I failing to Think Different?

[mahashel]

Alrighty.. let's get down to it.
I copied a large number (~5GB) of hand-picked tracks from my iTunes library to my iPod (10GB 2nd or 3rd gen).
I did not create a playlist for these tracks. I simply drug them to my iPod.

Now, a week or so later, I realize that this collection of tracks is fabulous, and I want to save them as a playlist in iTunes on my G4 iBook.
How do I do this? It seems so simple, but all my attempts have ended in failure.
I tried:
1) Creating a new playlist in iTunes, then trying to drag all the tracks from the iPod to the playlist. No-go.
2) Creating a new playlist on the iPod, using iTunes, and moving all iPod tracks to the new playlist. This worked, but I still cannot copy this new iPod playlist to the iTunes list of.. um playlists. (this is turning into a tongue-twister)
3) Created a new playlist on the iPod, using iTunes, and created an identically-named playlist in iTunes itself.. Then I tried dragging all tracks from the iPod playlist to the iTunes playlist. Still got nothin'.

Am I going about this all wrong? What part of the intuitive Mac/iPod/iTunes experience am I failing to grasp?
Perhaps it has something to do with where the music is located? On the iPod, the tracks are obviously stored on its hard disk. On the iBook, the tracks are stored on a network share that must be mounted before I fire up iTunes.

 

[BoyBach]

Maybe an 'On-The-Go' playlist is the solution you're looking for?

Saving your On-The-Go playlists - Apple

Syncing On-The-Go playlists from your iPod (Click Wheel) to iTunes - Apple

 

[mahashel]

On-the-Go didn't get me any closer, unfortunately.

I did dig a bit deeper, though. I do not have Sync enabled in iTunes on my iBook for this iPod. When I try to enable it, it says
"This iPod is synced with another iTunes library. Do you want to erase this iPod and sync it with this iTunes library?"
My options at this point are 'Cancel' and 'Erase and Sync'.
Since I want to try and save the iPod music to a playlist, I obviously don't want to erase it.

I have an older graphite G4. I wonder if the iPod was initialized on that machine long ago, and I've not tried any complex playlist management on my new(ish) iBook since then.
At any rate, is there any way around this error aside from destroying all my data and re-attaching it to the library on my newer iBook?

 

[swiftaw]

So, you are managing the songs on your ipod manually.

When your ipod is connected you'll see it under Devices on the left hand side. Select it and it will show you what songs are on your ipod. Hit Apple+A to select all songs then Shift+Apple+N which will create a New Playlist from Selection.

 

[BoyBach]

Perhaps the Senuti App could help?

EDIT: Try swiftaw's advice first, it appears to be the solution!

 

[mahashel]

swiftaw's advice got me close.
It creates a new playlist from all the music on the iPod. However, it creates the new playlist on the iPod itself. I cannot copy this playlist to my playlist manager in iTunes.
I guess I'm trying to accomplish something iTunes hates. I suppose what I'm really doing is trying to create a playlist from the *song* list on the iPod, without copying any physical music files. (I'm just trying to steal the playlist file with the track list in it)

 

[balamw]

swiftaw's advice got me close.
It creates a new playlist from all the music on the iPod. However, it creates the new playlist on the iPod itself. I cannot copy this playlist to my playlist manager in iTunes.
I guess I'm trying to accomplish something iTunes hates. I suppose what I'm really doing is trying to create a playlist from the *song* list on the iPod, without copying any physical music files. (I'm just trying to steal the playlist file with the track list in it)

Doesn't senuti allow you to pull both the files and playlists back from the iPod?

If you want the goodness that comes from playlists you really want to have all your tunes on the one machine and let iTunes sync it for you.

Try it you'll like it.

B

 

[PwrBuk4Eva]

the problem is you can't move tracks from an ipod back to your mac. it's a one way street. mac to ipod=ok, ipod to mac ain't gonna work. unless you get a program that allows you to do that, and there are some out there.

 

[swiftaw]

the problem is you can't move tracks from an ipod back to your mac. it's a one way street. mac to ipod=ok, ipod to mac ain't gonna work. unless you get a program that allows you to do that, and there are some out there.

If you read what the OP wrote, the tracks are on his mac. All he wants to do is create a playlist using the songs that he chose to be on his ipod.

 

[DCBass]

Mashal,

Don't even worry about the iPod for now. Using only iTunes, make a playlist. Now, in your 'music' section of your iTunes library, sort by Date Added (if you don't see this item, right-click on the row of column headers and select 'Date Added' to view it). This should help you figure out which tracks you would like to add.

Now, while still in 'Music', select all of the songs you want and drag them into the new playlist.

That's it.

Now, when you plug in your iPod, you can drag this playlist onto your iPod since it appears you're syncing manually.

Have you tried automatic syncing? It's truly wonderful and I highly recommend it.

Good Luck.

-DCBass

 

[PwrBuk4Eva]

If you read what the OP wrote, the tracks are on his mac. All he wants to do is create a playlist using the songs that he chose to be on his ipod.

Correct, the tracks are on his mac, but he selected tracks and copied them to his ipod. now he wants to make a play list of said tracks on his mac by moving them from the ipod to his mac. or am i reading this wrong?

 

[mahashel]

Correct, the tracks are on his mac, but he selected tracks and copied them to his ipod. now he wants to make a play list of said tracks on his mac by moving them from the ipod to his mac. or am i reading this wrong?

Precisely. After filling my iPod, I thought it was as simple as dragging all the files from the iPod to a freshly-created playlist in iTunes. This didn't work. Typically iTunes is intuitive, in the sense that I can drag files wherever I need them, and all is well. This is a case where the option to drag something doesn't seem to work, and I'm mostly making sure I'm not crazy.

I've not tried 3rd-party iPod/iTunes management apps. I'll have to look into it.
From the sound of it, my main issue (to restate what PwrBuk4Eva said in a previous reply) is that iTunes is where the organization needs to occur. Once a playlist is created, iTunes is designed to move this structured music to the iPod. One-way street. Moving playlists from iPod to iTunes seems more or less blocked.
DCBass' suggestion of sorting the library by 'Recently added' was brilliant. It solved my main issue by allowing me to quickly reconstruct the playlist I needed. (thanks!)
This takes us back to the one-way street discussion, though. I got what I needed, but had to totally rebuild it in iTunes. Never did solve how to move data from iPod -> iTunes. I'm guessing this is a "feature" that's only solved by additional software.
I'm okay with it, but still a little irked that iTunes' typically drag & drop-friendly usability has let me down.
Anyway, thanks for the help, everyone!
The moral of the story: "Let iTunes manage everything for you". Old-school control freaks like me will just have to learn to trust the software to decide what I'll be listening to.

 

[decksnap]

The moral of the story: "Let iTunes manage everything for you". Old-school control freaks like me will just have to learn to trust the software to decide what I'll be listening to.

No, the moral is simply build your playlists in iTunes before syncing to your iPod.

 

[balamw]

One-way street. Moving playlists from iPod to iTunes seems more or less blocked.

Not quite as you seem to be uncovering.

The power of surrendering "control" to iTunes is that you can create smart playlists in iTunes. (e.g. I have an SPL of recently added tracks that have no rating) and you actually get MORE two way communication in this mode than otherwise.

When you set iTunes+iPod to sync automatically (even if all you sync are selected playlists), you can rate tracks on the iPod and have that sent back to iTunes and iTunes gets updated playcount, skip count and last played date information from the iPod.

Of course these then let you gain even more control over your tracks, as you can create a smart playlists of most played tracks, most skipped tracks, highest rated tracks etc... In manual mode you don't get any of this info back from the iPod.

And, even though I find the on-the-go playlist UI cumbersome, you can create playlists on the iPod and have them come back into iTunes when you sync.

Manual mode is just that manual and essentially non-interactive, auto sync mode is where iTunes+iPod really shine. Don't think of it as surrendering control, but merely getting more tools to help you control things.

B

 

[mahashel]

Not quite as you seem to be uncovering.

The power of surrendering "control" to iTunes is that you can create smart playlists in iTunes. (e.g. I have an SPL of recently added tracks that have no rating) and you actually get MORE two way communication in this mode than otherwise...

Interesting. I guess the title of this thread is more accurate than I know. iTunes is a lot more powerful that I've been able to grok, thus far. The software is, indeed, designed to accommodate a different mindset than I've been using to manage my media.
Seems I have some re-training to do. Thanks for the input, everyone!

 

[bmb012]

Here's an excerpt from the Senuti site...

"Playlists Senuti not only reads the playlists that you made on your iPod, but it allows you to transfer them back to your computer as well. A simple drag and drop action within the application will not only copy songs to your computer and and add them to iTunes, but it will make a new playlist with the same name and add all of the songs to that list."



And if it doesn't create a playlist with the tracks since it's just from the iPod, I would imagine would at least update the 'date added' tab with the new date, even if it doesn't re-copy the songs into iTunes.