Chapter 7

Updating Your iPod Using iTunes

iTunes is the all-knowing, all-powerful synchronizer, the software you use to put content and your iTunes Store account information on your iPod or iPhone.

Synchronizing your iPod or iPhone with iTunes means keeping it up to date with all or part of your iTunes library — matching it song for song, movie for movie, and so on. The sync operation also keeps an iPod touch or iPhone up to date with your iTunes Store account information so that you can download items from the iTunes Store or App Store directly to your iPod touch or iPhone.

If you make changes in iTunes after syncing the iPod or iPhone, those changes are automatically made in the iPod or iPhone when you sync again. Your iPod or iPhone mirrors all the content of your iTunes library, or as much of the content as will fit — and iTunes can make assumptions if the entire library won't fit, or give you options to be more selective, as I describe in this chapter.

When you first set up your iPod or iPhone, you can choose the option to sync your entire iTunes library automatically. From that point on, your iPod or iPhone synchronizes with your entire library automatically, right after you connect it to your computer. (See Chapter 2 for details on setting up your iPod or iPhone.)

The full, everything-but-the-kitchen-sync approach works well if your combined iTunes library and photo library are small enough to fit in their entirety on your iPod or iPhone. For example, if your iTunes and photo libraries combined are less than 29GB and you have a 32GB iPod touch, sync everything. (You can see the size of your iTunes library in GB, or gigabytes, at the bottom of the iTunes window in the center.) Syncing everything copies your entire library, and it's just as fast as copying individual items (if not faster) because you don't have to select the items to copy.

If your iTunes library has more content than your iPod or iPhone can hold, you can make decisions about which parts to sync. You can select options to synchronize music, TV shows, movies, and so on. For example, you can copy all your songs and audio books, but only some of your TV shows, none of your movies, and only the podcasts you haven't heard yet.

This chapter also describes how to copy songs, videos, podcasts, and audio books directly to your iPod or iPhone using the manual method. You can even combine automatic syncing with manual methods to build your iPod or iPhone library as you see fit.

Syncing with Your iTunes Store Account

You can sync your iPod touch or iPhone with your iTunes Store account information in advance, so that you don't have to manually sign in with your iPod touch or iPhone before downloading from the iTunes Store or App Store.

If you were signed in to your iTunes Store account when you initially set up and synced your iPod touch or iPhone, the store account information was also synchronized. If not, or if you want to resync your store information, visit the iTunes Store and sign in to your account first, before syncing your iPod or iPhone.

You don't have to buy anything; just signing in to the store provides all the info you need for syncing an iPod touch or iPhone with the iTunes Store account. (If you haven't set up your iTunes Store account yet, flip back to Chapter 2, do the deed, and then sign in by clicking the Sign In tab in the upper-right area of the iTunes window.)

After signing into your account, go ahead and follow the steps in the next sections to sync your iPod or iPhone — “Copying Everything,” “Choosing What to Sync,” or “Manually Managing Music and Videos.”

After syncing to your account, your iPod touch or iPhone will always sync any purchased content or apps you download directly to it with your iTunes library whenever you connect it to your computer — that way, you don't lose any content or apps if, heaven forbid, something happens to your iPod touch or iPhone.

Copying Everything

Follow these steps to sync all the content in your iTunes library to an iPod or iPhone:

1. Connect the iPod or iPhone and select its name when it appears in the Devices section of the Source pane.

   iTunes displays the sync options to the right of the Source pane, with the Summary page (under the Summary tab) open. The Summary page shows how much space on the device is occupied by content and how much is still free. (See Figure 7-1.)

2. If the iPod or iPhone isn't already synchronizing, click the Sync button in the lower-right corner to synchronize it.

   Most likely your iPod or iPhone is already set to automatically synchronize with iTunes after connecting it. After clicking the Sync button (or if iTunes is automatically syncing), the iTunes Status pane tells you that iTunes is syncing the iPod or iPhone.

   If you haven't made any sync selections, the default is to copy everything in your iTunes library to your iPod or iPhone. (Only the music, audio books, and audio podcasts in your library are copied to an iPod shuffle.)

   If your iPod or iPhone is not set to automatically synchronize, or even if synchronization is going on, you can select content to sync, as I describe later in this chapter, and click Apply to start resyncing again with the new settings.

3. Wait for the synchronization to finish and then click the Eject button next to the iPod or iPhone name in the Source pane.

   You should always wait until the iTunes Status pane (at the top) displays that the synchronization is complete.

4. Disconnect your iPod or iPhone from your computer.

   That's it. Your iPod or iPhone is now synchronized.

Figure 7-1: The Summary page for an iPod touch offers sync options.

If your iTunes library is too large to fit on your iPod or iPhone, iTunes decides which songs and albums to include by using the ratings that you set for each song. (To find out how to set ratings, see Chapter 5.) If your iPod or iPhone already has photos on it, iTunes asks whether you want to delete them to gain more space. After clicking the Yes or No button, iTunes tries its best to fit everything. If it has to cut something, though, it skips copying new photos and displays the message Some photos were not copied.

If you're still short of space even after skipping photos, iTunes displays a warning about the lack of free space, and it asks whether you want to disable podcast synchronization and let iTunes create a selection of songs in a playlist based on ratings and playback counts in iTunes. (See Chapter 6 for details on using playlists.)

From that point on, your iPod or iPhone synchronizes with your iTunes library automatically, right after you connect it to your computer. If you add or delete content in your iTunes library, that content is added or deleted in the iPod or iPhone when you sync again.

Choosing What to Sync

If you have a massive music library that doesn't fit on your iPod or iPhone, you can go the selective route, choosing which content to automatically sync with your iTunes library. By synchronizing selectively, you can still make your iPod or iPhone match at least a subset of your iTunes library. If you make changes to that subset in iTunes, those changes are automatically made in the device when you synchronize again.

Syncing everything but the kitchen

You can decide which items you don't want to synchronize and simply not include them by first deselecting them one by one in your iTunes library. (If you have a large iTunes library, this may take some time — you may find it easier to synchronize by playlists, artists, and genres, as I show in the next section.)

By default, all content items are selected — a check mark appears in the check box next to the item. To deselect an item in your iTunes library, click the check box next to the item so that the check mark disappears. To reselect an item, just click the check box again.

After you deselect the items you don't want to transfer, connect your iPod or iPhone to your computer and select its name when it appears in the Devices section of the Source pane (refer to Figure 7-1). Then select the Sync Only Checked Songs and Videos check box. The Sync button changes to Apply — click the Apply button.

iTunes restarts synchronization and deletes from the iPod or iPhone any items in the library that are deselected, to save space, before adding back in the items in the iTunes library that are selected. That means the items you deselected are now gone from your iPod or iPhone — replaced by whatever items were selected. Of course, the items are still in your iTunes library. Wait for the synchronization to finish and then click the Eject button next to the iPod or iPhone name in the Source pane.

Getting picky about playlists, artists, and genres

You can include just the items that are defined in playlists, including Genius playlists, and/or just specific artists. Syncing by playlists, artists, and genres is a great way of syncing vast amounts of music without syncing the entire library. (To find out how to create playlists, see Chapter 6.)

For example, you can create four playlists that contain all essential rock, folk, blues, and jazz albums, and then select all four, or just one, two, or three of these playlists to sync with your iPod or iPhone, along with everything by specific artists (such as Frank Zappa, who doesn't fit into these categories). You can even include audio books in your playlists, or create a playlist of just audio books, to sync with your iPod or iPhone.

After connecting your iPod or iPhone to your computer, select its name when it appears in the Devices section of the Source pane (refer to Figure 7-1). Then click the Music tab of the sync options. The Music sync options page appears, as shown in Figure 7-2.

By default, the Entire Music Library option is checked, unless you are manually managing music as I describe later in this chapter. To change your sync options, select the Sync Music check box.

If you were manually managing music, a message appears asking if you are sure that you want to sync music — all content already on your iPod or iPhone will be replaced. Click the Sync Music button (or Cancel to cancel) to return to the Music sync options page.

Figure 7-2: Synchronize only the selected playlist(s).

To choose playlists, artists, and genres to sync with the iPod or iPhone, click the Selected Playlists, Artists, and Genres option at the top of the Music sync options page (refer to Figure 7-2). You can then select each playlist from the Playlists list, each artist from the Artists list, and (if you scroll the Music sync options page) each genre from the Genres list. You can choose any number of playlists, artists, and genres. (In Figure 7-2, I selected the Music Videos and Recently Added smart playlists along with a few artists.) Finally, click the Apply button to apply changes, and click the Sync button if synchronization hasn't already started automatically.

iTunes copies only what you've selected in the Playlists, Artists, and Genres sections of the Music sync options page. If you also select the Include Music Videos check box (as I do in Figure 7-2), iTunes includes music videos listed in the playlists (except, of course, for an iPod shuffle, which doesn't play video). For an iPod touch or iPhone, you can also select the Include Voice Memos check box to sync your voice memos from the Voice Memo app with iTunes.

Manually Managing Music and Videos

If your entire library is too big for your iPod or iPhone, you may want to copy individual items directly. By setting your iPod or iPhone to manually manage music and videos, you can add content to your iPod or iPhone directly via iTunes, and you can delete content as well. You can even copy some songs or videos from another computer's iTunes library without deleting any content from your iPod or iPhone.

To set your iPod or iPhone to manually manage music and videos, first connect it to your computer. Then follow these steps:

1. Select the iPod or iPhone name in the Devices section of the iTunes Source pane.

   After selecting the name, the Summary page appears, displaying the iPod or iPhone sync options (refer to Figure 7-1).

2. Select the Manually Manage Music and Videos check box (on an iPod shuffle, select Manually Manage Music).

   iTunes displays a message for iPod nano and iPod classic models (and older models) warning you that manually managing music and videos also requires manually ejecting the iPod or iPhone before each disconnect.

3. Click the OK button for the warning, and click the Apply button to apply the change.

Copying items directly to your iPod or iPhone

After setting your iPod or iPhone to manually manage music and videos, you can select and drag music and videos — songs, albums, audio books, music videos, movies, and TV shows — to your iPod or iPhone name in the Source pane. (Similarly, after setting an iPod shuffle to manually manage music, you can select and drag music, audio books, and audio podcasts to the iPod shuffle.)

You can drag the media from its section in the iTunes library or from an existing playlist, or drag an entire playlist. To do so, follow these steps:

1. In the iTunes Source pane, select the source of your media.

   You might select Music in the Library section, for instance, or a playlist in the library.

   You can select music in your library using List, Grid, or Cover Flow view (see Chapter 4 for browsing details), or select songs in a playlist.

2. Drag items (such as one or more songs or an album) directly from your iTunes library or playlist over the iPod or iPhone name in the Devices section of the Source pane.

   You can drag individual songs or an entire album from Cover Flow view, List view, or Grid view (as I do in Figure 7-3). When you drag an album cover or album title, all the songs in the album are copied. If you drag a playlist name from the Source pane to the iPod or iPhone name, all the songs associated with the playlist copy along with the playlist itself.

3. Wait for the copying to finish and then click the Eject button next to the iPod or iPhone name in the Source pane to eject it.
4. Disconnect your iPod or iPhone from your computer.

Figure 7-3: Drag an album from the Artwork Column in the iTunes library to an iPod or iPhone to copy the entire album. (My iPod touch is called Mojo iTouch.)

Deleting items on your iPod or iPhone

When you manually manage music and videos on an iPod or iPhone (or manage music on an iPod shuffle), you can also delete content from the iPod or iPhone. Set the option to manually manage music and videos (if it isn't set that way already), and then follow these steps:

1. In the Source pane, click the triangle to the left of the iPod or iPhone name to expand its library.

   The iPod or iPhone library appears in the Source pane with Music, Movies, TV Shows, and other sections, followed by playlists. The library is indented underneath the iPod or iPhone name.

2. Click any content type in the iPod or iPhone library to see the items.

   The content items appear in the iTunes List pane to the right of the Source pane.

3. Select an item and press Delete/Backspace or choose EditDelete.

   iTunes displays a warning to make sure that you want to do this; click the OK button to go ahead or the Cancel button to stop. If you want to delete a playlist, select the playlist underneath the iPod or iPhone name in the Source pane and then press Delete/Backspace or choose EditDelete.

Autofill it up

You can also automatically fill your iPod or iPhone while managing music and videos manually. Autofill randomly picks songs from your entire iTunes library or from a playlist you select in the iTunes Source pane.

Autofill is especially useful for copying random songs to an iPod shuffle every time you connect it to your computer. Eventually, you can shuffle through everything in your library if you so wish by randomly autofilling your iPod shuffle every time you sync.

Set the option to manually manage music on the iPod shuffle or to manage music and videos on the iPod or iPhone (if it isn't set that way already). Then follow these steps:

1. In the Source pane, click the triangle to the left of the iPod or iPhone name to expand its library.

   The iPod or iPhone library appears in the Source pane.

2. Select Music under the iPod or iPhone name in the Devices section of the Source pane.

   The music on your iPod or iPhone appears in the List pane, along with the Autofill pane along the bottom, as shown in Figure 7-4.

3. Choose your source of music from the Autofill From pop-up menu.

   Choose either a playlist, as I did in Figure 7-4 (the Purchased smart playlist), the Genius option (which I describe in Chapter 6), or Music for the entire music library. If you choose a playlist or Genius, Autofill uses only the playlist or the Genius feature as the source to pick random songs. After choosing your source of music, iTunes creates a playlist and displays it in the List pane.

   

   Figure 7-4: Autofill your iPod or iPhone from an iTunes playlist.

4. (Optional) Click the Settings button to set options and then click the OK button.

   After clicking the Settings button, the Autofill Settings dialog appears. You can choose to replace all the items on the iPod or iPhone, to choose items randomly, or to choose higher rated items more often. If you don't select to replace all items, iTunes adds the items without replacing existing content. Click the OK button to close the Autofill Settings dialog.

5. Click the Autofill button to start copying songs.

   iTunes copies the contents of the Autofill playlist to your iPod or iPhone.

6. Wait for the copy operation to finish and then click the Eject button.

   Always wait until the iTunes Status pane (at the top) tells you that the copying is finished.