Article
Ask iLounge 11-21-08
By Jesse David Hollington
Contributing Editor
Published: Friday, November 21, 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.
How do I copy music from my iPod onto my computer?
Click here for the answer.
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, iPhone and Apple TV Video Conversion (Mac)
The Complete Guide to iPod, iPhone and Apple TV Video Conversion (Windows)
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!
Q:
I accidentally unplugged my iPod from my computer while the “Do Not Disconnect” screen was showing on my iPod. Now all it does is reset itself repeatedly—it basically just keeps on resetting itself, and the iPod screen never comes up. I see the Apple logo in the middle of the screen, than it shuts off and then 2 seconds later it shows the Apple logo again and then shuts off. I have no idea what to do. Any suggestions?
- Eddie
A:In this case it sounds like the iPod’s database is corrupted and it will need to be erased and restored via iTunes before you can use it again. Ordinarily, this would involve connecting your iPod to your computer and restoring it, but since it is caught in this reboot cycle, chances are that iTunes will not be able to recognize it.
Your best bet is to attempt to force the iPod into a hardware “Disk Mode” so that iTunes will be able to detect it and you can then restore it via iTunes.
To put your iPod into disk mode, simply hold down the center button and play/pause button together when the Apple logo appears and keep holding them until the Disk Mode screen appears.

Once the iPod is in Disk Mode, connect it to your computer and iTunes should be able to detect it. It may show up normally, or iTunes may show you an error message indicating that it has detected a corrupted iPod which you need to restore. Regardless, however, you can proceed from here to restore the iPod.
Note that restoring your iPod will erase everything on it. If you’re using a fully automatic sync configuration and all of your music and other media content is in iTunes, this is not going to be a problem as you can reload it from iTunes as soon as you have finished restoring it. However, if you have content that is only stored on your iPod, you should attempt to recover this content first. See our iPod 201 article, Copying Content from your iPod to your Computer for more information on how to do this.
Once you are ready to restore your iPod, simply select it from the iTunes Devices list on the left-hand side, and click the button labelled “Restore” shown on the main Summary screen. iTunes will reformat your iPod and reinstall the latest iPod operating software on it. Once this process has completed, you can re-sync your content back onto it from your iTunes library.
Is there an organizer application for iPhone/iPod touch applications so that I can organize the apps into categories rather than just dragging them between screens? Also, incidentally, is there a limit to the number of apps an iPhone will hold (space considerations being understood)?
- Anonymous
A:Unfortunately, at this time there are no official applications available through the iTunes App Store that can do this. The iPhone SDK does not permit applications to modify the layout of the main iPhone or iPod touch home screens, so you are pretty much stuck with what Apple gives you in this regard.
Note that if you are willing to “jailbreak” your iPhone or iPod touch, there are a number of unofficial third-party applications that may provide more options in this area. Note that these unofficial applications are not in any way supported, tested or certified by Apple and care should therefore be exercised before installing or using such applications.
As for the maximum number of applications that can be installed on the iPhone, you are basically limited only by the number of home screen panels available, which is 9. With 16 applications per home screen (including the built-in applications), plus the four apps in the dock, this provides a maximum of 148 applications which can be accessed from the device. You can install more applications than this on the iPhone or iPod touch, but any applications after the 148th icon (including the built-in apps) will not be visible on any of your home screens.
My daughter has an iPod touch and I’ve noticed that Toys-R-Us is selling a Memorex iFlip 8.4” screen. It looks like a laptop that you can set your iPod in, flip the bigger screen on and watch videos and movies. This would be nice for long trips, but I’m wondering if it is compatible with her iPod? I would like to purchase this, but it doesn’t say anything on the box.
- Christina
A:Unfortunately, the Memorex iFlip is not compatible with any of the iPod models released after September 2007, which includes the iPod classic, third and fourth-generation iPod nano, the iPod touch and the iPhone. Essentially, the iFlip was designed for the fifth-generation iPod, however with the 2007 iPod releases Apple changed the requirements for video accessories to require a special chip to enable video output from these newer devices (see our article Apple locks TV Out in new iPods, breaks video add-ons for more information on this).
Sadly, most of these older fifth-generation video accessories were not updated to provide compatibility with the newer iPod models, so even though they are still being sold in many retail stores, they will only work with the fifth-generation iPod. The only portable video display that we have yet encountered that is designed for the newer iPod models is the Philips DCP951 (iLounge rating: C+), which we found to provide less-than-stellar screen quality, at least in its initial release.
The only other option would be to get a portable DVD player type of device with video input capabilities, and then purchase a compatible set of iPod video cables such as Apple’s own Component AV Cables. This is a less convenient solution, as it involves using a wired connection between the iPod and the display, but has the advantage of allowing you to choose your own display unit.
I am considering buying an iPod for my daughter. Can I use any music download site or do I have to buy all of my music from iTunes?
- Pennie
A:You can most definitely purchase music from many sources other than the iTunes Store. The iTunes software application and the iPod itself support any music file in the MP3 or AAC format. The only restriction you will run into with the iPod is that you will not be able to purchase music from commercial services that use the protected Windows Media Audio (WMA) format, which is common among a few online stores and subscription services that are designed for other media players.
Keep in mind that the first and most common source of music for the iPod is your own CD collection—iTunes can easily import any CD you already own or purchase into an iPod-ready format, and even look up the CD information automatically so the tracks are correctly labelled on your iPod. Check out our Beginner’s Guide to Filling your iPod for more information.
For many years online music from major labels was sold online only in protected formats to meet the demands of the recording industry. In this case, if you were an iPod user and wanted to purchase music from a major label online you were pretty much limited to the iTunes Store, as all of the other online services sold their music in a digitally-protected format incompatible with the iPod. This led many users to simply buy CDs and transfer those onto their iPod instead.
The good news, however, is that the industry has finally been changing for the better, and a number of new online stores have been popping up which offer music for sale in a completely unprotected MP3 format which can be played on any device. In fact, if you are in the U.S. your best alternative to the iTunes Store is Amazon.com, which now offers a comparable catalog in MP3 format with even lower prices than iTunes in many cases.
There are also a number of sources where free, legal music can be obtained for your iPod. Our article Free Music for your iPod highlights some of the many available sites for this.
I can’t seem to move songs around within certain playlists. Is there a song limit for playlists? It seems that in a longer playlist I can’t rearrange songs but in shorter ones I can. Any suggestions?
- John
A:To be able to manually re-order songs in a playlist, you must not be sorting the playlist in any way and you must not have Shuffle mode enabled for that playlist. A sorted or shuffled playlist cannot be manually reordered since either of these settings specify a pre-determined order for the tracks in the playlist.
You can tell if you are sorting the playlist by another column simply by looking at the column headings—the current sort column will be highlighted in blue.

To return the playlist to its natural “unsorted” order, simply click on the left-most column heading, above the first number column. This column heading will turn blue and the playlist will return to its default order.

Further, the Shuffle option is set on a per-playlist basis rather than globally, so you should ensure that this is turned off as well. You can check this by looking at the buttons in the bottom-right corner of the iTunes window. If Shuffle mode is enabled for the current playlist, the Shuffle button will be highlighted in blue:

Simply click on the Shuffle button to disable Shuffle mode. As an aside, Shuffle mode also behaves a bit differently depending on whether you are sorting the playlist by another column or not. When the playlist is not sorted, enabling Shuffle will actually re-arrange the track listing into a random order, while disabling Shuffle will return the tracks to their original order. When sorting the playlist by another column, however, enabling or disabling Shuffle mode leaves the playlist displayed in its sorted order, however when Shuffle is on the tracks will actually play back in a random order.
Once you are sorting the playlist by its natural sort order, you can then reorganize the tracks as desired simply by selecting a track and dragging up or down in the playlist to change its position.
If you want to reorganize the tracks from a sorted or shuffled order you can copy the currently-displayed track order to the default play order simply by sorting the playlist how you would like, and then right-clicking on it in iTunes and choosing “Copy to Play Order” from the pop-up menu. You can then click on the left-most column heading to return to the default play order, and the tracks will remain in the same order as they were previously shuffled or sorted in.
Ask iLounge Archives:
10-30-09: Authorization problems with iPod touch, Changing Grid View background in iTunes, iTunes library and Music Folder are different sizes, Older iPods and firmware updates, Reconciling two different iTunes libraries, Syncing multiple devices to one iTunes library
10-23-09: Using a laptop with an iTunes library on an external hard drive, Transferring YouTube videos to iPod, iPod touch accessibility settings, Disabling Shake to Shuffle on iPod nano, Purchased songs fail to download from iTunes Store, Charging and powering off iPhone
10-16-09: Moving iTunes to a new computer, Transferring contacts from Blackberry to an iPhone, Disabling iPhone Backups, Using AV cables for audio only, Problems syncing photos to iPod touch, Memorex iFlip and iPhone compatibility
10-9-09: iPhone OS and external keyboards, Adjusting ratings in a remote iTunes library, Excluding tracks from Genius Mixes, Moving iTunes library out of My Documents, Playlist folders on iPod touch, Refreshing random Smart Playlists
9-25-09: iTunes 9 and Shopping Cart, Restoring iTunes to an external hard drive, Using an HTTP Proxy over 3G, Problems transferring movies from iTunes to IPhone, iPod touch shuffle mode, Using an iPhone without a SIM card
Next: iPhone Gems: Puzzle, Board + Mystery Games
Previous: Instant Expert: Secrets & Features of iPhone 2.2 (Updated)
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1
On the ipod touch..do you have to suscribe to a monthly account fee through apple to access the internet/email like you do on phones with limited minutes etc
Posted by William E. English on November 25, 2008 at 10:13 AM (PDT)
2
my ipod classic displays all the songs i have on it but not all the artists - any ideas how to fis
thx
Posted by tony diamond on November 27, 2008 at 8:18 AM (PDT)
3
I have an ipod nano 1st gen 4GB. I want to update to the new one and give my old ipod to my sister. Will she be able to keep the music that is downloaded on it or will it delete the music when she connects to itunes.
Posted by Terri on December 5, 2008 at 1:05 PM (PDT)
4
I just got a new ipod for christmas and i plugged it into my computer and everything and i was trying to sync songs to it ... it wasnt really working though and it was saying there was no device to synce to so i click the “Removable Disk” icon on the task bar, near the time, and i “formatted” it? i dont but now everytime i disconnect my ipod from any computer it resets completely
Posted by mimi on December 30, 2008 at 3:24 PM (PDT)
5
Ipod won’t sink. After being restored. the itunes does not recognize the ipod
Posted by Darryl Steinhauser on December 31, 2008 at 9:47 AM (PDT)