Article
Ask iLounge 11-27-09
By Jesse Hollington
Applications Editor, iLounge
Published: Friday, November 27, 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.
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Q:
In iTunes, how can I identify which songs require authorization, which songs were purchased and/or which songs are DRM protected?
- Ross
A:The simplest way to do this is to create a Smart Playlist to group the tracks that meet your criteria. You can create a new Smart Playlist by choosing New Smart Playlist from the File menu in iTunes and then specifying the criteria you want to match. In iTunes 9, you can specify “Purchased is True” to search for all purchased tracks of any kind, and then filter this with “Media Kind is Music” to limit your Smart Playlist to only music tracks.

The resulting Smart Playlist will contain all music tracks purchased from the iTunes Store. This will include older standard DRM-protected iTunes tracks as well as newer “iTunes Plus” unprotected tracks. If you want to reduce the list to only show DRM-protected tracks, you can easily do this just by adding a criteria of “Kind contains Protected” to match only tracks with the word “Protected” in their kind field.

DRM-protected tracks from the iTunes Store normally have a “Kind” tag of “Protected AAC audio file” while iTunes Plus DRM-free tracks are labelled as “Purchased AAC audio file.” Note that tracks that need to be authorized are the same as DRM-protected tracks, and you only need to authorize your computer once for the iTunes Store account that was used to purchase these tracks. On the other hand, iTunes Plus “Purchased” tracks do not require any authorization for your computer or iPod/iPhone to play them, although your computer will need to be authorized for your iTunes Store account if you ever need to copy these purchased tracks back from an iPod using the “Transfer Purchases” option in iTunes.
Is it necessary to put my iPhone 3GS in Airplane Mode to use functions of JBL On Time 200ID such as the radio or playing back the iPhone?
- Jerome
A:Connecting your iPhone to an iPod-based accessory that is not specifically manufactured for the iPhone will normally pop-up a warning about needing to set the device into Airplane Mode, however this is simply a recommendation in order to reduce potential interference. The JBL On Time 200ID, for example, is not specifically shielded against interference in the speakers that may occur from the iPhone’s cellular radio, so Apple recommends that the device be set into Airplane Mode, which turns off the cellular phone portion of the iPhone, in order to reduce potential interference. Devices that are specifically labelled as Works-with-iPhone, on the other hand, are shielded against radio interference from the iPhone, and therefore do not present the Airplane Mode request screen.
The iPhone will play back audio in the same manner regardless of whether you choose to enable Airplane Mode or not when connecting to external speakers. If you choose not to enable Airplane Mode you may hear additional static noise from your speakers as a result of interference from the iPhone’s radio, but it won’t prevent the iPhone or the attached speakers from actually playing back your music or radio. On the other hand, with Airplane Mode enabled, you will avoid any potential interference but you will not be able to make or receive phone calls or use the Wi-Fi functions of your device, although audio playback and all non-Internet and phone functions will continue to operate normally.
I have a Smart Playlist setup to choose music that was not played in the last 30 days and is in my Party playlist. Now I want to add another playlist criteria to this Smart Playlist, but when I add “Playlist is Beach Music” it only shortens the list to show songs that in in both playlists. How can you select from multiple playlists to play in a Smart Playlist?
- Russ
A:Prior to iTunes 9 this required that you actually set up two Smart Playlists. The first would select your music from either Party OR Beach Music (match ANY condition) and the second would then select all music from the first Smart Playlist that hadn’t been played in the past 30 days (match ALL conditions). This was necessary as you could only specify that a Smart Playlist match ALL criteria or ANY criteria, but not a mixture of both.
Fortunately, iTunes 9 now provides more complex Smart Playlist options, and you can nest multiple layers of different conditions without having to resort to intermediate Smart Playlists. When creating a Smart Playlist in iTunes 9, you can add an additional criteria group simply by clicking on the ellipsis button which appears to the right of the minus button. You can then specify that the ANY or ALL of the rules in that sub-group must be matched, and then that matching condition combined with the next highest grouping. You can even nest these groupings several layers deep. A Smart Playlist like the following would likely meet your requirements:

This essentially says that the Smart Playlist will select all music that has not been played in the last 30 days AND is in either the Party playlist OR the Beach Music playlist.
My computer had a virus so I saved everything on an external hard drive, including all my iTunes music. I then had it wiped clean of everything including Vista. Now I have my computer back and Vista was reinstalled. Everything is running fine, but my problem is I have no idea how to put all my music back into iTunes. I still have my music saved on the external hardrive as well as on my 80 GB iPod classic but I want to change my playlists and add more music to my iPod now. How do I do this?
- Janelle
A:Assuming that you backed everything up onto the external hard drive with its original file and directory structure intact, then all you should need to do is simply find the “iTunes” folder from your “Music” folder on the external hard drive and copy this entire folder back to the corresponding “Music” folder on your C: drive. The iTunes folder under “Music” contains your iTunes library database and all of your actual media files, and your home folder’s “Music” folder is where iTunes itself will look for your iTunes library by default.
For more information check out our tutorial on Transferring your iTunes Library
I will be traveling to the U.S. soon for a holiday and the U.S. iTunes Store has so many TV shows that would be useful to own. I was looking at one that I just picked up a day or two ago and in the fine print it said that the gift card can only be used on the country it was purchased in. So I was wondering, can you buy U.S. iTunes Store gift cards and use them on the U.S. Store and be in another country?
- Alex
A:iTunes Store Gift Cards can only be used for the iTunes Store of the country in which they were purchased, so an iTunes Store Gift Card purchased in a retail store in the United States can only be used on the U.S. iTunes Store. The iTunes Store normally uses your billing address from your credit card to verify your country of residence and there are no technical restrictions on where you can access any given country’s iTunes Store from, so as long as you have a legitimate address in the United States you can technically use the U.S. iTunes Store from anywhere in the world that you happen to be.
That said, the terms of service for the U.S. iTunes Store state that “The Service is available to you only in the United States, its territories, and possessions. You agree not to use or attempt to use the Service from outside of the available territory, and that Apple may use technologies to verify your compliance.” Therefore, while there are no technical restrictions in place right now to restrict the use of the U.S. iTunes Store from outside of the U.S., doing so is definitely in violation of the Terms of Service for the iTunes Store.
For more information, please see our Complete Guide to Using the iTunes Store.
I’m looking for a speaker system for the fifth-generation iPod nano and am having a hard time as none of the ones I’m looking at mention that they are compatible with this model of iPod. Has nobody actually released any speakers for the new iPod nano yet?
- Gaylynn
A:Actually, any speaker system made for the fourth-generation iPod nano will technically work fine with the fifth-generation model, subject to the ability of the 5G nano to physically fit into the Dock Connector, since the position of the Dock Connector and headphone port have been reversed from the fourth-generation iPod nano. However, this should not be a problem with the majority of speakers available today, as most use the Universal Dock connector so you can simply use the insert that came with the 5G iPod nano, or connect the nano without any insert at all if required.
Generally you won’t find a lot of speakers specifically labelled as 5G iPod nano compatible at this point simply because the majority of the existing speakers for the 4G nano continue to work just fine and most manufacturers will not have updated their packaging yet simply to specify compatibility with the newer iPod models.
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
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1
Hello - if you have duplicates of songs that can’t be located in itunes that you want to erase - how can you erase them at the same time.
Thank you,
Ellen
Posted by ES on November 30, 2009 at 6:58 AM (PDT)
2
Hi - desperately trying to find a good, functional & affordable case for my 120 ipod classic. For my old 3G, I had the soft silicon that allowed for easy access to the controls and also flipped up at the bottom to allow for easy placement in docks. All that one says on the back is xlskn.com? I did a lot of research on it way back when, but now the brand name escapes me. Anyway, would love your insight and suggestion for a new one. Many thanks, Steve
Posted by Steve Schulmam on December 1, 2009 at 8:10 AM (PDT)
3
Is there a way to drop & drag photos from my computer
to my touch much in the same way as music and video
without having to do a complete sync?
Posted by J C on December 3, 2009 at 2:14 PM (PDT)