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Ask iLounge 10-31-08

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By Jesse David Hollington

Contributing Editor
Published: Friday, October 31, 2008
Category: Ask iLounge

Ask iLounge offers readers the opportunity to get answers to their iPod-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 music from my iPod onto my computer?

Click here for the answer.

The second most asked question at iLounge.com:

How do I put DVDs on my iPod?


For converting DVDs, web video, TV shows and home movies to your iPod, iPhone or Apple TV, we have a three-part series outlining the best formats, settings, and various tools to use for converting all types of video content for use on these devices.

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

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

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

Top five questions most recently asked by iLounge readers:

Q: What are the best speakers to use with my iPod? (15, 76-79, and 90-92)

Q: What are the best headphones to use with my iPod? (10, 72-75, and 90-92)

Q: I really want to get a nice case for my iPod. Do you have any suggestions? (36-37, 54-67, and 90-92)

Q: How can I connect my iPod to my car stereo? (14, 32-35, 68-71, and 90-92)

Q: Are there any batteries that I can use to extend my iPod's battery life? (82-83 and 90-92)

A: Answers to these and many other questions can be found in two places. Our Free iPod Book 3.3 provides a complete report card to all of the iPod accessories we've reviewed as of summer 2007, as well as over 125 iTunes and iPod tips & tricks. Further, our new 2008 iPod & iPhone Buyers' Guide has accessory tutorials at the page numbers listed in parentheses above. These and other publications in our Library are free downloads, developed by the editors of iLounge!

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

Q:

I own both an older 4th generation 20 GB iPod that came with a battery charger, and just recently purchased a new 160GB iPod classic, which did not come with a battery charger. I’ve heard that the new iPods won’t work with any of the older chargers. Will the charger from the 4G iPod work with the iPod classic?

- Boaz

A:

While it is true that some older charging accessories will not work with the 2008 iPod models, this restriction only affects charging accessories that used FireWire-based charging and only affects the new fourth-generation iPod nano, second-generation iPod touch and the iPhone 3G. The 2008 120 GB iPod classic is not affected by this problem, nor are previous iPod classic models.

Most of the fourth-generation iPod models shipped with FireWire-based chargers, with the exception of the final set of 4G iPod color models, which was when Apple began packing in USB chargers instead. However, even though it’s likely that your 4G iPod charger is in fact FireWire-based, the iPod classic still supports FireWire charging, so you can use your 4G charger with your iPod classic.

Note that if you plan to buy a 4G iPod nano or 2G iPod touch at some point in the future and want an AC charger, you will need to buy a new one (although all of these iPod models will still charge from your computer’s powered USB port).

Q:

Is it possible to create a new album with songs we already have? Let’s say I already have all the songs of Mariah Carey, and I want to make an album with tracklist exactly the same as in her Greatest Hits album. I don’t want to buy that Greatest Hits album again since I have all the songs already. I just want that album to appear in my library as if I bought it as a whole separately. Of course all the songs in it are songs that I bought before. Any ideas how I can do this?

- Lai

A:

Unfortunately, iTunes does not allow you to list a single track as belonging to multiple albums, so the only way you can do this would be to make extra copies of the tracks and then change the “album” tag on those second copies to “Greatest Hits.” Of course, this will mean that you actually have two copies of the tracks, which will therefore take up twice the amount of space.

As an alternative, you could always simply make a “Mariah Carey: Greatest Hits” playlist and put all of the related tracks into that playlist. Although this won’t show up when browsing by album’s, it will have the desired effect of grouping all of those tracks together without creating duplicates in your library. Further, if you’re using a recent-model traditional iPod, you can create playlist folders which will be reflected on the iPod itself, which may assist in grouping these playlists more effectively.

Q:

My 80GB iPod classic came with games pre-installed which I never use, specifically, Vortex and iQuiz. Is it possible to remove these games only so that the disk space freed up can be used?

- Tom

A:

No, the games that come pre-installed on the iPods cannot be removed, as they form part of the iPod firmware package. Note, however, that the amount of space occupied by these games is relatively small compared to the total capacity of your iPod, with all three of the pre-installed games taking up less than 100MB in total.

Q:

How can I download my contact list from my iPod touch to a second computer?

- Leslie

A:

Unless you have jailbroken your iPod touch, there is no way to get at the contact list on the iPod except through the normal iTunes or MobileMe synchronization process.

If you’re synchronizing your contacts via iTunes, however, and you have iTunes on the second computer, you can simply connect your iPod to that computer and configure the synchronization to your address book like you normally would. Although you cannot synchronize your music and video content to or from more than one computer, iTunes does allow you to synchronize your contact, calendar and bookmark information back from your iPod touch or iPhone to another iTunes library, provided you want to sync it with a compatible application such as Microsoft Outlook, Windows Address Book or the Mac OS X Address Book.

When you connect your iPod touch to iTunes on a new computer and configure address book synchronization, iTunes will notify you that you already have content on your iPod touch from another computer, and ask you whether you want to replace the information on your iPod with the information on that computer, or merge the info from both the computer and the iPod touch.

Choosing “Merge Info” will copy your contact information from the iPod touch into the address book application on the second computer, and any information in the address book on the second computer will also be added to the iPod touch.

 

Q:

I have recently purchased an iPod touch after trading in my old fifth-generation iPod video. I have a recorder and the radio remote. Will they work with my new iPod touch?

- Javed

A:

With the notable exception of video cables, most fifth-generation iPod accessories will work with the newer traditional iPod models such as the iPod classic and iPod nano. Unfortunately, however, these accessories are not compatible with the iPod touch.

The FM Radio Remote will not function at all, since the radio portion requires software on the device itself which is simply not present on the iPod touch, and the remote portion is disabled by the iPod touch as soon as it detects an incompatible accessory. The same applies to Dock Connector iPod voice recording accessories.

Note, however, that if you have purchased a second-generation iPod touch, you can connect a compatible mic-equipped headset to the normal headphone port to make use of recording functionality. Any of the mic-equipped headsets for the iPhone will also work with the 2G iPod touch. The touch itself does not include any built-in voice recording applications, but a number of options are available on the iTunes App Store for voice recording, including Griffin’s free iTalk voice recording application.

Q:

I just got a new computer. I put iTunes on, but when it finished installing, it automatically put all the songs I had on the computer in the library. after I removed them, I’m now afraid to plug in my nano for fear that it will erase all my songs and start over. How can i plug in my nano, and keep all my songs?

- Liz

A:

Depending on what you’re trying to accomplish, there are a couple of things to be aware of:

Firstly, iTunes keeps track of which iPods have been synchronized to which libraries, and therefore when you first connect your iPod to a new iTunes library, iTunes recognizes that your iPod is synchronized with a different iTunes library and notifies you of this, asking you what you want to do:

In this case, selecting “Cancel” will leave your iPod connected to your computer, but an automatic synchronization will not occur. You can then either set your iPod to “manual mode” so that you can manage the content on it manually and add new content via drag-and-drop, or you can recover the content from your iPod back to your computer as described in our iPod 201 article, Copying Content from your iPod to your Computer.

On the other hand, if you’ve already synchronized your iPod to the new computer and are concerned about losing the content that was added from this librarybecause you’ve now erased it from iTunes, then you will need to take some extra precautions. In this case, iTunes will diligently remove anything from your iPod that is no longer in the current library because you have already “associated” your iPod with the new computer, and it is now syncing with that computer. The simplest way to prevent an automatic sync from occurring when connecting your iPod to a library that it is already associated with is to disable automatic synchronization globally in iTunes. This is done by going into your iTunes preferences and selecting the “Devices” tab:

 

Simply check the box beside “Disable automatic syncing for iPhones and iPods” and then click the OK button. This will prevent iTunes from automatically syncing with any iPod (or iPhone) that you connect to this computer. Once you’ve sorted out your iTunes library, you can return to this screen and UN-check this box to re-enable automatic synchronization.

 

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Ask iLounge Archives:

6-26-09: Recovering a dead iPod touch after 3.0 update, Battery Percentage Display on iPhone 3.0, Options hidden after 3.0 update, iPhone locked after 3.0 update, Managing videos on iPhone, iPod classic accessory compatibility

6-12-09: Conserving power on iPhone, Syncing iPhone Notes, Syncing Apps on new iPod touch, Block pop-ups in Safari, Syncing new iPhone, Playing multiple albums

5-29-09: Sorting tracks in iTunes, iPhone Bluetooth Headset Dock, Recovering Mac-formatted iPod on Windows, Screen damage on 4G iPod nano, Syncing purchased tracks back to iTunes, Managing a class set of iPods

5-22-09: Syncing iTunes content between computers, Importing music into iTunes, Re-transferring apps from a new iTunes library, New iPods and charging accessories, Using multiple iTunes libraries

5-15-09: Starting out with an external hard drive, Syncing playlists manually, Recovering lost iPod serial number, Music count vs Playlist count, Multiple iTunes Store accounts on the same computer, Optimizing album artwork

See the rest of the Archives...

Next: iPhone Gems: Flying, Radio Tuners, and Miscellany

Previous: iPhone Gems: OmniFocus, eReader, Urbanspoon, Instapaper, Fring + Cocktails

Comments

1

My ipod was originally set up to another computer but lately, I’ve been using it on my work computer.. everything has been fine for the past few weeks and then all of a sudden, I noticed that all of my songs on my ipod and in my itunes were erased. I don’t know how or why it happened.. or why it would now rather than the first time I hooked it up. Is there anything I can do to get back all of the songs I had!?!

Posted by Nicole Campbell on November 3, 2008 at 12:24 PM (PDT)

2

Can’t log in.  Can’t send inquiry to find out why.  Used user name and password, tried using temporary password sent to me, tried re-registering.  Nothing works.  Please forward to whomever can help.  Thanks.

Posted by frank murano on November 5, 2008 at 12:26 PM (PDT)

3

What happend to me is my orig ipod was stolen with the the laptop that it was sync to.  i bout a new ipod nano and sycned ith with my my desktop.  well that hard drive bit the dust.  i have since gotton a new laptop, and tried to syci my ipod with it and the new music i bought and i get the “other itunes library”  i dont want to loose the music i already have on the ipod but want all the new music on the new library to sync.

Posted by mark on November 12, 2008 at 4:09 PM (PDT)

4

My Ipod has music loaded on it, however just the other day it would not allow me to play my music. The main screen shows the main menu and when I click and chose the music option my Ipod does not respond.

Posted by Alfred on November 18, 2008 at 1:20 PM (PDT)

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