iLounge iPad 2 Buyers' Guide

Article

Ask iLounge 10-23-09

Author's pic

By Jesse Hollington

Applications Editor, iLounge
Published: Friday, October 23, 2009
Category: Ask iLounge

Ask iLounge offers readers the opportunity to get answers to their iPod-, iPhone-, iPad-, iTunes-, or Apple TV-related questions from a member of the iLounge editorial team. We'll answer several questions here each week, and of course, you can always get help with more immediate concerns from the iLounge Discussion Forums. Submit your questions for consideration using our Ask iLounge Submit Form. We reserve the right to edit questions for grammar, spelling, and length.

The most asked question at iLounge.com:

How do I copy content from my iPod/iPhone onto my computer?

Converting DVDs, web video, TV shows and more:

The Complete Guide to iPod, Apple TV and iPhone Video Formats

Converting DVDs, web video, TV shows and more:

The Complete Guide to iPod, iPhone and Apple TV Video Conversion (Mac)

Converting DVDs, web video, TV shows and more:

The Complete Guide to iPod, iPhone and Apple TV Video Conversion (Win)

Best Speakers?

Best Headphones?

Best Case?

Best In-Car Solution?

Best Battery Extender?

Find more answers in the latest publications in our Library. Free downloads developed by the editors of iLounge!

And now, for this week's Ask iLounge column:

Q:

I plan to switch from an iMac to a MacBook Pro. I have a very large iTunes library (300GB+) and plan to still acquire additional content. I understand I can store my iTunes library on an external hard drive, which is great. However when I travel, what should I do if I want to get a few TV show episodes and a couple of movies with me on the laptop (assuming my entire library is on the external hard drive and most of my Movies / TV shows are DRM protected from iTunes store)?

- Nicolo

A:

There’s actually a fairly simple workaround for this based on the fact that iTunes will always temporarily fall back to looking in tis default location for any media that it can’t find in the specified location.

The key is to keep the iTunes database stored on your MacBook Pro and only move your actual media content to your external hard drive. This way, when you start iTunes with the external hard drive disconnected, your database of content will still be available, even though the actual files are not. In this state, you will still be able to see a listing of your tracks, although of course you won’t be able to play any of them since they’re located on your disconnected external hard drive.

However, when trying to access a given media file, iTunes starts by looking in the specific location (the external hard drive in this case), and then if it can’t find the track there, it next looks in the normal default iTunes Media folder location, which would be on your MacBook Pro hard drive’s Music folder under the “iTunes” folder.

This means that if you want to take content with you when travelling, all you need to do is copy it manually from your external hard drive to the corresponding iTunes Media folder location your MacBook Pro. For instance, if you’ve stored your iTunes Media folder on your external hard drive in a folder named Media, this means that your TV shows would be stored in Media/TV Shows and any specific TV show would be stored as Media/TV Shows/(showname). If you wanted to watch specific episodes of that TV show while travelling, you’d simply copy those episodes to your Music/iTunesiTunes MediaTV Shows(showname) folder on your MacBook Pro hard drive. When the external hard drive is disconnected, iTunes would realize that it can’t find the shows on the external drive and would fall back to looking for them in the default iTunes Media folder, which is where you would have copied them to.

Further, you can even continue to sync your iPhone or iPod to your MacBook Pro even when the external hard drive is disconnected, as iTunes will never remove a track from your iPod as long as it remains listed in your iTunes library, regardless of whether the actual file is available or not. You’ll only be able to add new content that is actually on your computer, but if you happen to import or purchase new content while you’re travelling, this means you can still get it synced onto your iPod in much the same way as you normally would.

This is all explained in some additional detail in our article on Transferring your iTunes Library. Specifically check out the section at the end on Using an External Hard Drive and a Portable Computer. Also keep in mind that there may be some subtle differences in how your files are organized in iTunes 9 depending on whether you’ve upgraded to the new “iTunes Media organization” or not. This is also discussed in the above article.

Q:

I have been trying to find an EASY way of transferring YouTube videos to my iPod. I just can’t seem to find an easy way to do it. It doesn’t help that I am a complete computer novice! Can anyone point me in the right direction to find a simple step by step ‘idiot-proof’ guide as to how to do this?

- Mark

A:

In order to transfer YouTube videos to your iPod, you first need to download them from YouTube and then convert them to an iPod-ready format. Fortunately, there are several third-party tools that can do this for you in one step.

For a couple of options worth looking at, check out Tooble (http://tooble.tv) or TubeSock (http://stinkbot.com/Tubesock). Both of these are available for Mac and Windows and offer one-step conversion and importing of videos from YouTube directly into an iPod-ready format in your iTunes library. For Mac users, TubeTV (http://www.chimoosoft.com/products/tubetv) is also worth a look. Both Tooble and TubeTV are free while TubeSock sells for $15 with a limited trial available. Tooble also has a Tooble Pro version for $6 which offers additional options such as the ability to convert only the audio portion of a YouTube video and support for additional sites other than YouTube.

You can find some more information in the thread GUIDES TO: Converting Video for iPod - Mac & Window in the iLounge Discussion Forums.

Q:

I have an 8GB iPod touch and have recently updated my software on it. The new version is 3.1.1. I want to know how I can have themes installed on it. Even on the Apple site I see a new black theme which we can access by going to the Accessibility section under settings. However, I am not able to see any such option.

- Rajan

A:

In its standard configuration the iPod touch does not have any type of customizable theme support beyond reorganizing the icons on your home screens. The accessibility option provides a slightly different look intended to aid readability for the visually impaired, and is not a “theme” per se. That said, only the iPhone 3GS and the third-generation iPod touch models (32GB/64GB) presently support any of the accessibility features. The 8GB iPod touch currently being sold by Apple is last year’s second-generation iPod touch that has simply not been discontinued.

The only way to set up additional themes for the iPhone or iPod touch at this point is to jailbreak your device and install a third-party software replacement for the default “Springboard” home screen app. Several developers in the jailbreak community have written replacement applications that provide enhanced theme support, however by jailbreaking your device you are essentially using it outside of Apple’s normal terms and conditions and will be in an unsupported configuration. Applications for jailbroken devices are not tested or supported by Apple in any way, and many of the background applications that extend or replace Apple’s own built-in applications may have an impact on the stability or battery life of your device.

Q:

Is there a way I can disable “Shake To Shuffle” on the new iPod nano?

- Nikki

A:

Certainly. The option for this can be found under the iPod nano Settings menu from the main screen. Choose the Playback sub-menu and you should see an option labelled “Shake” which can be toggled between either “Shuffle” or “Off.” Simply set this option to “Off” and the Shake to Shuffle feature will be disabled.

Q:

As I was buying songs to transfer to my iPod from iTunes, the iTunes program froze, so I did a ctrl+alt+del and saw that it wasn’t responding. I closed iTunes and when I opened it up the next day, I saw that only 1 of the 12 songs had made it to the library; 7 remained in the download section and 4 were missing entirely. Yet I was charged for all 12. Is there a way i can get those 4 missing songs back?

- Matt

A:

The four missing tracks have probably not yet been fully downloaded from the iTunes Store and therefore may still be available in your download queue at the store itself. You can check this by going to the Store menu in iTunes and choosing the Check for Available Downloads… option. If there are any downloads remaining in your iTunes Store queue, they should begin downloading immediately.

If this does not work and these items still fail to appear, you will need to contact the iTunes Store Customer Service and explain your situation. They will generally simply re-add the entire purchase to your iTunes Store queue so that you can download them again.

Note also that the seven songs that are already in your Downloads folder can be imported directly into iTunes, but you may be missing the correct song information and album artwork, as this information is applied at the end of the download process. Therefore, it may be worthwhile to ask to re-download these tracks from the iTunes Store as well.

Q:

I have an iPhone 3GS and have 2 questions: First, when not in use does it harm the battery to keep the unit plugged in? Secondly, at night I turn it off completely; will this eventually damage the unit?

- John

A:

Under normal use, regularly keeping an iPod or iPhone plugged in to a power source will not do any harm. The charging circuit in these devices is designed to shut off when a full charge is reached, after which the device simply runs from the external power source.

The only issue here is that you should not always leave your iPod or iPhone connected to external power, since in this case, the battery is not getting used at all. Apple recommends that you run your device off battery power for a few hours at least once a month to ensure that the battery is actually getting used. For the majority of iPod and iPhone owners this is not going to be a problem at all.

You can find a much more in-depth explanation of iPod and iPhone battery life and charging questions in our May 9, 2008 Ask iLounge column.

To answer your second question, there is nothing wrong with shutting your iPhone off completely at night either and this will not harm your iPhone in any way. There’s no need to turn your iPhone completely off at night, but there’s also no harm in doing so.

Clip to Evernote

Ask iLounge Archives:

2-3-12: Deleting pictures from Photo Stream, Transferring Apps to a new iTunes library, Apple Universal Dock and iPhone 4S, Getting Track Names after CD Import, Video Playlists on the iPad

11-25-11: Removing music after activating iTunes Match, Smart Playlists and iTunes Match, Backing up data from an iPhone, Syncing MP3s to an iPod nano, Migrating Playlists to a new Computer

11-11-11: Configure Apple IDs on family iOS devices, Recovering lost audiobooks, Unable to disable passcode lock on iOS devices, Buying an iPod for audio-only use, Preventing deleted tracks from coming back from an iOS device

11-4-11: iPhone 4S storage capacity doesn't match, Transferring HD video from iPhone 4S to a computer, Recovering photos from iPod touch, Notification Center and iMessage in iOS 5

10-21-11: Using iCloud's Find My iPhone on older devices, Batch deleting photos in Camera Roll, Using iTunes Gift Cards internationally, Audiobooks and iCloud, Merging contacts from two devices into iCloud

See the rest of the Archives...

« Instant Expert: Secrets & Features of Apple TV 3.0

iPhone Gems: Copy Cat, Derek Jeter Baseball, I Am T-Pain, MotionX GPS Drive, Pang + Real Racing GTI »

Related Stories

Comments

1

I have a non-jailbroken iPhone 3G, and I use iTunes on an iMac, all running latest OS. If I were to say lose my iMac and my iPhone, and I have been dutifully doing regular syncs and backups, how do I restore all the Apps I have purchased? Thanks

Posted by george on October 25, 2009 at 11:59 PM (PDT)

2

Goodday,i have the old apple ipod model A1112,it has stopped playing the tracks on it when u press the play button it flashes a green and orange light..i have formatted it and still the problem persists i hve also tried using the ipod updater but it reads filmware update failure.Can anyone help or do i hve to pack it up

Posted by Eddy Steve on October 26, 2009 at 1:50 PM (PDT)

3

I purchased an iPod Touch 32 GB and upgraded from my IPod 3G.  Since ITunes supports my whole faumily, I had to clear the authorizations to use my new iPod Touch, which was no problem.

However, shortly after, I recived an iPod Touch 64GB as a gift and sold the 32GB.  I connected my new 64GB and sychronized it with my library. Now, many of the songs and audio books won’t play on the new iPod.  I suspect it is because I’ve exceeded my authorization limit.

I understand that I can only clear my authorizatins once a year.  How do I get my purchased songs and audio books to play on my new iPod?

Thanks in advance,

Ed

Posted by Ed_5907 on October 29, 2009 at 1:45 PM (PDT)

4

i recently accquired an iphone 3G S and i wanted to know if using different computers to download itunes music and apps and things like that would harm or damage the device. . . please help!!

Posted by gaby on February 27, 2010 at 10:01 PM (PDT)

If you have a comment, news tip, advertising inquiry, or coverage request, a question about iPods/iPhones/iPad or accessories, or if you sell or market iPod/iPhone/iPad products or services, read iLounge's Comments + Questions policies before posting, and fully identify yourself if you do. We will delete comments containing advertising, astroturfing, trolling, personal attacks, offensive language, or other objectionable content, then ban and/or publicly identify violators.




Email:

Recent News

Recent Reviews

Recent Articles

New Deals


Shop for Accessories: Cases, speakers, chargers, etc.