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iPod What Do You Do After Your iPod Fills Up? *Storage Suggestions*

SamIchi

SamIchi

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Aug 1, 2004
2,716
137
I'm about to go over 40GB on my iTunes, and I have a 40 GB iPod (i know it's really like 37.xxGB). So I was thinkin' how i'm goin to keep my iPod updated now. I'd like to keep all my music on the iPod but of course I can't. What do you guys do?

I was thinkin', maybe burn the albums, that I don't listen to that much, onto cds, and keep my iTunes library under 40GB. Or, just keep playlists updated? I don't really want to do either. Suggestions?
 
I converted all of my files to AAC. That saved me ~2 gigs.
I'm not a huge audiophile, so I can't really hear any difference.
 
I keep all of my music on an 250 GB external hard drive and have my iTunes advanced settings locate the "iTunes Music" folder there. As a safeguard I have everything backed up on a second hard drive as well as DVDs.

My iTunes: 29084 items, 113.5 days,, 194.51 GB
 
When I ran out of room on my 2G 10GB, I created a Smart Playlist that only included songs I had listened to at least once. I happened to have enough songs that I had never listened to in my collection for this to work. When it stopped working, I just upped the number so that only songs that had a playcount of 2 or more worked.

I also had additional playlists to include new songs that I hadn't listened to yet, but wanted them on the iPod anyways. This worked until I got my 5G. Now my iPod is off with a friend...She's borrowing it to discover some new music.
 
I use a ridiculously complex system of smart playlists for my overflowing 10 GB.

One single playlist contains all the listings from two playlists:

One playlist (any of the following, limited to 9040 MB, selected by most recently played):
From any of the following playlists:
•Purchased Music
•Playlist for selecting shuffle songs (i.e. my more-likely-to-be-played/favorites
•Recently Added (w/in 3 months, though I guess this is redundant)
•Top 100 most played (overall)
•Top 100 most played (in last year)
•Radio songs
​
Is from a favorite genre
Is from a particular set of artists
Is from a particular set of albums
Is anything added in the last 12 months
Is anything with a playcount greater than 4
Is anything that's last played was screwed up by the shuffle (blasted lack of internal clock)
​

Another playlist containing 200 MB of the most recently added that has never been played (to give the new stuff a chance)

When I update my iPod, I uncheck everything in my library, then check everything in the main iPod playlist and allow auto-updating. Of course, the addition of videos (and my subsequent lacking of iPod that plays them) complicates this a bit more.
 
Smartplaylist of course. That's how I got around my 12gb collection and a 2gen 6gig mini.
 
Just uncheck all those albums that you know you're never going to listen to on the move: Tibetan throat singing, Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals, that kind of thing...
 
I create a new playlist, naturally called 20GB iPod, and throw as much music as will fit. Then I just turn on manual update. In conjunction with smart playlists, the music is always with me. Make sure to uncheck audiobooks, porno soundtracks, musicals, spoken word albums and bible study lessons.
 
Blue Velvet said:
Just uncheck all those albums that you know you're never going to listen to on the move: Tibetan throat singing, Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals, that kind of thing...
Click to expand...
Hee. Tibetan throat singing... don't think I've heard that... but have you heard the Bosnian highlands singing? Not my favorite genre, that's for sure. :p But no need to knock on the musicals (not a viable problem considering I'm too poor to buy those CDs)!
 
Blue Velvet said:
Just uncheck all those albums that you know you're never going to listen to on the move: Tibetan throat singing, Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals, that kind of thing...
Click to expand...

OMG is that what the check is for? Dear God! I think you just solved my problem. Cause i still wanted to keep my collection in my itunes. :D I'm stupid.
 
katie ta achoo said:
I converted all of my files to AAC. That saved me ~2 gigs.
I'm not a huge audiophile, so I can't really hear any difference.
Click to expand...

I did this recently. I started clearing out a whole load of junk from my hard drive too. I went from having 4GBs free to 27GBs.

I must admit though, I'm tempted to do the dual library thing like Blue Velvet. AAC for iPod and then a separate library all Lossless.

But it would take ages.
 
Do you save any space by cutting out all album artwork? May not make much of a difference by itself, but every little bit helps.

It'd be cool to have some kind of "random fill" option where every time you connect your iPod, iTunes will replace, say, 10-20% of the songs on your iPod at a time with different songs from your larger collection (assuming your aollection is too big to fit onto the iPod). Or you could set the percentage.
 
SamIchi said:
I'm about to go over 40GB on my iTunes, and I have a 40 GB iPod (i know it's really like 37.xxGB). So I was thinkin' how i'm goin to keep my iPod updated now. I'd like to keep all my music on the iPod but of course I can't. What do you guys do?

I was thinkin', maybe burn the albums, that I don't listen to that much, onto cds, and keep my iTunes library under 40GB. Or, just keep playlists updated? I don't really want to do either. Suggestions?
Click to expand...

You get another iPod with larger capacity...
 
Why would you need your complete library on your iPod? 37Gb will get you going for 26 days of non stop listening. Are saying that this doesn't do it for you? You need more space!?
It's amazing how everyday more and more people on this forum are concerned with irelevant issues rather then the joy of music. Free your spirit and listen to the music.
 
i just got rid off all the artists i have huge amounts of (ie i have like 600ish beatles tracks; i took all of it off the ipod, etc.) and once that wasn't enough i just said "screw it" and haven't added anything new.
 
katie ta achoo said:
I dunno.

Yes?
Click to expand...
not through itunes. itunes needs mp3 files to create an mp3 cd. i dont know if toast'll do it on mac, and i'm doing something cpu-intensive right now so i can't try it with nero on my pc.
 
iSaint said:
If I do this, can I still create MP3 CDs???
Click to expand...

You can, but in compressing them to AAC you'll lose quality, then you'll lose more converting them back to MP3.
 
aricher said:
I keep all of my music on an 250 GB external hard drive and have my iTunes advanced settings locate the "iTunes Music" folder there. As a safeguard I have everything backed up on a second hard drive as well as DVDs.

My iTunes: 29084 items, 113.5 days,, 194.51 GB
Click to expand...


all legal i suppose..... :D

i thought my collection was big with 45 days of music.
 
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