Does all music (ripped from CD, HDD files) need to get copied over to Library first before it can get synced to the Ipod? Is there no way to bypass the Library and go directly from CD or HDD to Ipod?

Problem I am running into is that my Library keeps getting filled up more and more, but after I sync it with my Ipod, I would like to remove those files in my Library because otherwise the next time I try to add more songs, it gets throw in and mixed with all of the existing songs in my Library and then it's hard to sift through them and organize them to know the new additions (unless I sort by last date added). Can I create folders/playlists within the Library?

If I remove songs from the Library, do they get removed from my Ipod as well? Where are the songs in the Library physically stored?

I don't understand the use of the Library. I just want to be able to add songs from CDs to my Ipod, and flush out the Library so the next batch is easily seen.

6/20/2007 12:02:43 AM

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"Can I create folders/playlists within the Library?"

yes, and this is your best bet.

Quote :

"If I remove songs from the Library, do they get removed from my Ipod as well?"

not by default

Quote :

" Where are the songs in the Library physically stored?"

by default in your itunes folder, unless otherwise specified.

Quote :

"I don't understand the use of the Library. I just want to be able to add songs from CDs to my Ipod, and flush out the Library so the next batch is easily seen."

You're in the minority here... most people like to keep digital copies of their music as well, so they only have RIP once. Hell, when I buy a CD, I rip it to my Itunes library, and the CD goes into storage, only to be used as a backup. Hard drive storage is cheap...

6/20/2007 5:54:44 AM

yeah, i'm with bobby. The general idea behind itunes and ipods is that you store all your music in your iTunes library, because theoretically, your computer hard drive has more space and is less prone to error than your iPod. And should something happen to your iPod, then you can always just resync it with your library.

If you have a large ipod or not so much music or whatever, you can just tell iTunes to sync your entire library with your ipod. Each time you dock your ipod, itunes will automatically check if there have been any changes to your library, and if so, it will put them on your ipod for you. No need to manually tell itunes to put it on the ipod or to keep your itunes library pruned or whatever.


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ed. also, you itunes is very good at 1) filtering your music and 2) creating smart playlists. If you just added a certain CD, then just use the Browse Library feature (click the "eye" button) to quickly filter down to artist and CD, just like you do on your iPod.

Also, you can create Smart Playlists that are playlists that fill up with music according to a specified criteria, like, I believe, "latest added" and stuff. Go to File > New Smart Playlist and look at the options

[Edited on June 20, 2007 at 10:33 AM. Reason : .]

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ed 2: ok, looks like with Smart Playlist the closest you can come is to filtering by "Date Added". So you can set up a smart playlist that is something like "Date Added is on or after [today]"

[Edited on June 20, 2007 at 10:42 AM. Reason : .]

6/20/2007 10:26:59 AM

^^ If you remove a song from the library, and the iPod is set to autosync, it WILL remove it from the iPod.

^ If you right-click the column headings, you'll see the option for date-added.

6/20/2007 2:46:02 PM

Quote :

"ed 2: ok, looks like with Smart Playlist the closest you can come is to filtering by "Date Added". "

Aw hell na!

In iTunes, go to the View menu at the top, then to "View Option".

How many things you see in there? 3 6. You can create a smart list using any and all of those criteria!

Go to "File" ---> "New Smart Playlist". Now click on that button with a "+" on it. Click again. And again. You can click 36 times! And then for each criterion, you can choose from 6 operators (for eg., contains, is, is not, starts with, etc).

So just looking at the criteria and the operators, you have 36 x 6 = 216 ways to create playlists!

6/20/2007 10:50:21 PM

problem is my mom's nano is getting filled up quickly (4GB), but her laptops HDD space is limited...so i think the best alternative is not to autosync b/c i'm going to flush out the library soon but she spent all day naming her songs and got them transferered over to her nano

i can't find on itunes where to set it to not autosync and i'm afraid if i plug in the nano now, it'll autosync and remove all the songs from the nano

6/21/2007 5:08:03 PM

well the 4GB ipod Nano was not built in mind with laptop harddrives that are smaller than the ipod storage. so..... you can use some of the tricks suggested here (smart playlists, adding other columns to the view), but seriously..... just tell your mom to get a new fucking computer. If she has an iPod Nano already, it's time to upgrade her computer as well.

6/21/2007 7:51:36 PM

^^Don't feel too bad...I recently picked up an 80gig Video Ipod but my laptop hard drive is only 30 gigs gonna stop by this weekend and grab an external HD so that I can store all of my p2p music legally purchased Itunes music

6/21/2007 10:41:27 PM

Another easy way, is there is an option to only sync the songs that are checked. If the smart playlists are confusing to you (or your criteria are really abstract), you can just check and uncheck songs as you like.

6/25/2007 10:47:08 AM

Okay my laptop is filling up with files, it only has a 60gig hard drive, and my iPod is at 80gig. How can i delete songs and movies from my computer and not have them disappear from my iPod. Every time I've tried I've screwed up and deleted a lot of shit

6/25/2007 1:58:42 PM

get a new computer.
or an external hard drive

6/25/2007 2:14:16 PM

^is that seriously the only way? B/c I'm definitely not getting a new computer (this one's 1 yr old) anytime soon. Thats bullshit if thats the only way.

6/25/2007 6:03:21 PM

well, i suppose it's not the only way..... in iPod Preferences, I think you can set it to "manage music manually", so it won't automatically sync with your iTunes library.

but I honestly think that is a bad idea for a number of reasons
1) your iPod is much more likely to fail than your computer. If you delete stuff out of your library, then your iPod HDD fails, it's gone
2) 60GB is really very small for a modern laptop
3) how much media can you possibly have? that is, if you have a 60GB HDD and say 10GB are full of Windows, programs and other files, you're nearing 50GB of other media? If you have 80GB of media, enough to fill up the whole HDD, that only gives you 30GB extra that can't fit on your HDD, assuming it is completely full. And I guess if you're putting movies and stuff on there, then that space will run out pretty quickly.

6/25/2007 10:24:32 PM

^its a lot of movies. I got this laptop as a birthday gift last year. 60gig is what I was given.

I'll look into that preferences thing. But I'm still running into problems syncing movies, can't seem to be able to add a new movie once I delete an old one off the computer without deleting it off the iPod at the same time.

6/25/2007 11:44:42 PM