iPod Syncing with a library larger than iPod

[MoparShaha]

I've always had iPods with greater capacity than my iTunes library. I've never given a second thought to syncing. Now, I'm interested in either the new Nano or Touch, which will have less capacity than my library.

How does syncing work? Will iTunes automatically fill the iPod with my most played songs? Will I have to manually tell iTunes which playlists to sync? Can I still browse by album, even if the whole album isn't on the iPod? I'm just a little lost on how syncing works with a smaller iPod than the library.

 

[gloss]

I think it'll just sync as much as it can until it runs out of space.

I've always manually managed my music, so I'm not sure.

 

[dustboy]

When you first connect the ipod, itunes will ask if you want it to fill the ipod with a random selection of your music.

You can also create a specific playlist that will be synced with the ipod. If you want the ipod to be filled with the most played music, you can create a smart playlist with criteria that selects the songs with the highest play counts, or stars, etc.

 

[mkrishnan]

How does syncing work? Will iTunes automatically fill the iPod with my most played songs? Will I have to manually tell iTunes which playlists to sync? Can I still browse by album, even if the whole album isn't on the iPod?

You are given the choice between three or four options --

1) Let iTunes worry about it -- like you say, it picks your most played songs and independently figures out what to exclude.

2) Sync whichever playlist(s) you want.

3) Totally manually manage it -- drag and drop songs onto it

4) If your library is close in size to the capacity, what you can also do is opt to only sync checked songs, and then uncheck enough songs so that the volume of the checked songs does not exceed the capacity, and you continue automatically syncing. You'll get a warning if you add new songs and go over capacity again, and you'll have to uncheck more songs.

The Genre, Artist, and Album entries continue to work essentially the same. If any song by an artist or from an album is on the iPod, that album or artist will list, but you'll only see the songs that are actually on the iPod.

 

[MoparShaha]

Thanks guys, this is exactly what I wanted to know. Now I just need to justify buying a new iPod when I've got a perfectly good one .

 

[EricNau]

1) Let iTunes worry about it -- like you say, it picks your most played songs and independently figures out what to exclude.

I thought that option was only available for the shuffle.

 

[mkrishnan]

I thought that option was only available for the shuffle.

I think my 15GB iPod 3G uses this option now, but I could be wrong? I know that some options are shuffle only, like dynamically re-encoding songs. I think the iPod also has some kind of autofill that fills it with random music... I don't think you can do that (randomize) with the other iPods.

 

[EricNau]

I think my 15GB iPod 3G uses this option now, but I could be wrong? I know that some options are shuffle only, like dynamically re-encoding songs. I think the iPod also has some kind of autofill that fills it with random music... I don't think you can do that (randomize) with the other iPods.

Oh, gotcha. I didn't realize there was a difference between the "let iTunes decide" and the randomized syncing that gives you a different set of songs with every sync. ...Now I can see the difference.

 

[jamwin]

I think my 15GB iPod 3G uses this option now, but I could be wrong? I know that some options are shuffle only, like dynamically re-encoding songs. I think the iPod also has some kind of autofill that fills it with random music... I don't think you can do that (randomize) with the other iPods.

You could AUTOFILL with the old shuffle at least - a very useful option as it allowed you to manually add the podcasts you wanted that week, then fill the rest with random music from your collection...alas autofill does not work with the Nano (which I bought today). One either has to let iTunes fill the nano completely (thus you can't manually pick podcasts) or do everything manually....which is a pain as autofill was so much easier for the music part. I called support and asked them to add the autofill feature for the Nano, since it was so convenient. Anyone know of a way around this?

 

[Sesshi]

Smart Playlists are your answer.