iPod touch Transfer Music to Kids iPod Touch

[tardman91]

I have an iPod touch that my daughter uses, and I'm trying to transfer music to it, but not my entire iTunes library. It doesn't come up in my sidebar or in the Music app, even though I've "trusted" my computer. Any ideas the easiest way to do this? I was hoping there's some click and drag, or just selecting certain folders or something. Google was not terribly helpful and mostly suggested these transfer apps that you have to pay for.

 

[tardman91]

Well, after restarting everything it now at least recognizes the device. I have to see how I want to transfer the music now. I have it in folders on my desktop, but it looks like I'll have to add it to my library before I can sync it, which I didn't really want to have to do. 😑

 

[arw]

Some thoughts:
- In iTunes/Music you have to select the iPod and activate "Manually manage music and videos" and confirm it.
- You should now be able to drag compatible audio files from your desktop directly onto the iPod in the Music.app sidebar.
(The same probably works via Finder depending in your version of macOS)

Option 2
(or if you want to manage the music before transferring it onto the iPod):
- If you start iTunes/Music with the Option key (⌥) pressed, you can select/create a new library. By default iTunes/Music will always open the last library selected that way.
- To avoid the music from your desktop being copied again to your iTunes/Music folder, make sure to unselect "Copy files to iTunes Media folder…" in the iTunes/Music settings before adding music to it.
- Then you can manage the music and create playlists etc specific for the iPod.
- You can now either sync your library to your iPod (or parts of it) or select "Manually manage music and videos" to drag and drop individual albums/songs from your library onto the iPod.

Use multiple libraries in Music on Mac

On your Mac, use multiple libraries and switch between them.

support.apple.com

 

[clueless88]

I have been using iTunes on Windows machines for over a decade so am not sure how to navigate Itunes like functionality on an iTuneless newer Mac.

I create playlists on my iTunes desktop and add selected songs or albums or artists to the playlist. On my version of iTunes one can create a playlist by selecting File>New>Playlist. Can populate the playlist by selecting songs or albums or artists either singly or do multiple select by holding control and left mouse clicking the desired selection(s)--then with a single right mouse click over one of the selected items click "add to playlist".

Once iTunes is open and an iPod or iPhone is recognized, one can choose to have a certain playlist to sync with the device. Pretty painless to do and to make changes to the playlist even without having the device attached to the computer. Make sure to deselect "sync entire library" when enabling playlist syncing. Obviously any changes will only take effect when the device is sync'ed to the desktop.

For me the best way to view the music library is to select "songs" then sort by clicking on artist--that way all the songs are sorted alphabetically by artist but are subdivided by albums.

 

[jagolden]

Well, after restarting everything it now at least recognizes the device. I have to see how I want to transfer the music now. I have it in folders on my desktop, but it looks like I'll have to add it to my library before I can sync it, which I didn't really want to have to do. 😑

I’d just do it manually. In iTunes drag a playlist to the ipod near the top of the list.

 

[clueless88]

You don't need to manually transfer folders of music into iTunes library. You can use the associate function where itunes will add the songs/albums/folders to itunes but keeping the actual files in their original locations.

Just realized that the OP hasn't done any followup posts on this for over 2 months--wonder how he got things sorted out.

 

[MBAir2010]

I had to restore my 2010 ipod touch from silicon music to intel itunes, just now.
whew! thankfully i had a 'somehow" backup on the intel macbook pro or that would not have worked
since older OSX cant connect to itunes store.
these newer security methods are making an issue out of older  products!

my cat helped tho.....

 

[transmaster]

Here is how you can do it. I have used an app called Equalizer Pro. I have used it for years, starting with the iPod Touch. My last Touch is the 5. This app loads directly you can do it from I Tunes or you follow the instructions and set up a music server on your Mac or PC. Once this is done it is a simple drag-in-drop operation. It works from the root file. In order to save time I copy everything in one file folder and drag and drop that in. WhatI dropped into this iPad was a 70 GB file.This app gives the iPod Touch FLAC and OGG playback I have it going on the Mac Studio, iPhone 14 Pro Max, and this iPad.

‎Equalizer Pro +

‎Professional Equalizer + Full featured MP3/OGG/FLAC Player HIGH PERFORMANCE EQUALIZER - Highly optimized equalizing algorithm. Uses much less battery than other EQ apps with comparable algorithm. - High quality equalization without distortion. Uses 32-bit float processing. - Draw EQ curves...

apps.apple.com