2010 iPod + iPhone Buyers' Guide

Article

Ask iLounge 6-16-05

Author's pic

By Kirk McElhearn

Contributing Editor
Published: Thursday, June 16, 2005
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 have iTunes set to copy music to my library when importing, and to keep my music organized. When I imported the new John Cena album, iTunes displays his name as the artist but created an artist folder called Compilations. Is there anyway to get iTunes to create a John Cena folder instead?

- Josh

A: iTunes gets album information from the Gracenote CDDB (CD Database), and this database has many albums that are incorrectly tagged as compilations. To change this, select all the tracks on the album, then select File > Get Info. Near the bottom of the Info window, you’ll see Part of a Compilation, and a popup menu below it; select No from this menu. Click OK, and iTunes will change the tags, and put the music files into the correct folder.
Q:

I have a 40 GB iPod with Click Wheel, and the copyright on the back is 2003. Is this a 3rd generation or 4th generation iPod? I’m planning to sell it, and the buyer wants to know which generation it is.

- Aswin

A: Apple has a web page here that tells you how to identify which iPod model you have. It tells you how to figure this out by checking the type of controls, the size of its hard drive, and the type of connector the iPod has. If your iPod has a Click Wheel, is white in color and doesn’t have a color screen, you have a fourth-generation iPod.
Q:

Is there a way to have a song in a playlist but not in the library?

- TJenkevff

A: No, each playlist is a subset of your library; every song must be in the library, but no songs have to be in any playlists. With this in mind, remember that playlists are merely pointers to songs, so a song can be in several playlists, yet only be in the library once.
Q:

When I control-click (or right click for the Windows folks) my iPod in iTunes 4.8, there is an option called “Reset Warnings.” What does this mean?

- Chris

A:

If iTunes cannot find one or more of your songs when updating your iPod, it displays a message:

Some of the songs in the iTunes music library, including the song “Song Name”, were not copied to the iPod “iPod Name”, because they could not be found.

This dialog has a “Do not warn me again” option that you can check to turn it off. If you select Reset Warnings from the contextual menu, iTunes nullifies this choice; it’s as though you unchecked the “Do not warn me again” checkbox. iTunes will then tell you if it cannot find any of your songs.

Q:

I have several books on CD that are not showing up in my audiobook playlist on the iPod. How do I take a book on CD and get it into this playlist?

- Jesse

A:

The audiobook playlist on the iPod, unfortunately, does not look for the genre of your audio files, but looks for the file type. Files must be what is called “bookmarkable” in order to show up in that playlist. (Audiobooks purchased from the iTunes Music Store or Audible.com are automatically in this format.) Only AAC files can be bookmarkable; you can find out how to make the change in our recent article The Complete Guide to iPod Audiobooks.

If your audiobooks are in MP3 format, you can convert them all to AAC, then make them bookmarkable, though this may be a lot of work. (However, bookmarkable files are much better, since they hold your place when you stop listening to them.)

Another solution is to create your own Audiobook playlist to which you manually add all your audiobook files. Or, if your audiobooks are tagged by genre as Audiobook, then you can access them by selecting Music > Genres > Audiobooks; it’s one level below the built-in Audiobook playlist, but it will save you from converting your files.

picKirk McElhearn is the author of several books including iPod & iTunes Garage. His blog Kirkville features articles about the iPod, iTunes, Mac OS X and much more.






Share Share This Article & Win an iTunes Gift Card. Click Here to Enter.

Submit A News Tip



Ask iLounge Archives:

11-13-09: Syncing different contact info with two iPhones on the same computer, iPod shows no content, Syncing music and videos in playlists, Exclamation marks next to tracks in iTunes, Playing podcasts on 3G iPod shuffle.

11-6-09: Storing iPod software updates, Playing an iPod continuously, Transferring play counts to a new iTunes library, iPhone backups, Klipsch S4i earphones

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

See the rest of the Archives...

Next: The Next iPod: Our Top Ten Requests (and Yours!)

Previous: First Looks Special: Altec Lansing inMotion iM7

Comments

1

i am about to get an ipod for my birthday but i am not shure to get the 4 gig ipod mini or the 1 gig shuffle or to just wait till the end of the month to see if apple releases the new 4 gig shuffle. what should i do.

Posted by cibola on June 16, 2005 at 8:27 PM (PDT)

2

Hey,

I recently upgraded my hard-drive - in the process my itunes music library was lost. I recovered it eventually, but I no longer have my playlists!

My playlists are still all on my ipod, though. Surely there is a way to recover my playlists?

Could someone please shed some light on this?

Thanks
Razza

Posted by razza on June 17, 2005 at 5:18 AM (PDT)

3

Um.. yea I have a question.. Does this thing cost anything and can I use this thing to download music onto my ipod?.. and if so will that cost anything? please respond asap

Posted by Vanna_N_Ricky on June 17, 2005 at 8:35 AM (PDT)

4

Hi,

I have two questions;

I just bought a new 6Gb mini pod a few weeks ago and have so far been happy, well that was till I bought “Coldplay’s” new album and “Gorilla’a” new ablbum, both with copy protection.

What can I do to get these two purchased albums onto my ipod?

Second questions my ipod seems for no reason to go into “pause” mode, at first I thought I had knocked the button, but later realised that it was not the case.

I can not work out if it is the head phone jack that has something to do with it or if it is the hold button or both, any ideas what it could be.

Any help appreciated.

Sincerely yours

Alex Chelleri

P.S. Our family owns a ipod shuffle, 6Gb mini pod and a 60Gb Ipod photo.

Posted by alexchelleri on June 18, 2005 at 6:43 PM (PDT)

5

Hi,

I asked the forum about my playlist issue - people have checked it out but no-one’s responded, so i figure it’s a tricky one.

After upgrading my hard drive, I lost my itunes library, then recovered it - minus my playlists.

I still have my playlists on my ipod, so is there a way to restore my playlists in itunes using my ipod or using some other way?

Cheers,
Razza

Posted by razza on June 18, 2005 at 9:29 PM (PDT)

6

How Come… Whenever I import songs into iTunes and no matter what EQ Setting I put in iTunes my song’s vocals alway sound really quiet?

Cheers,

iGaz

(If you wish to respond to this query please email iGaz: “ghjcrazy@gmail.com”)

Posted by iGaz ---> 10GB 3rd Gen iPod on June 19, 2005 at 3:23 AM (PDT)

7

help! ok so i tried to import my songs and what not, pretty much everything mentioned here, and i can not get all of my music from my ipod into my library, what should i do, i need a free way to do this

Posted by stephylew on June 19, 2005 at 3:28 PM (PDT)

8

hey: my ipod wont come up in itunes in the sorces list what did i do wrong and how do i fix it???

Posted by nikkayi on June 20, 2005 at 6:20 AM (PDT)

9

Is there a way to create a nice printable list of the songs, artist and albums of my itunes library? How?

Posted by kahunav on June 20, 2005 at 8:37 PM (PDT)

10

New ipod mini owner…my husband & and both bought mini’s.  How do I get both “registered” on my PC?  We registered loaded mine first… When we try to run the software for installing his, it tries to uninstall the software and I get a message that his mini won’t “unlock”. Any help is appreciated.

Posted by Amy In Wonderland on June 21, 2005 at 6:43 PM (PDT)

11

I’m not really a “computer guy”, so i jut bought a new powerbook G4 and I was wondering if there was any simple explanation of how to transfer my excisting itunes library on my PC desktop to my new laptop. Any help would be greatly appreciated

Posted by Pmutt on June 22, 2005 at 2:03 PM (PDT)

12

“Is there a way to create a nice printable list of the songs, artist and albums of my itunes library? How?


By kahunav on 06.20.05 at 07:37 PM”

Easy peasy…

(1) Load iTunes
(2) Open Your Library…
(3) ...And click print from the “file” drop-down menu
(4) The print menu will come up: click “song listing”
(5) And iTunes should begin printing after you click print an the print setup screen!

Posted by ghjcrazy in Belgium on June 23, 2005 at 4:37 AM (PDT)

If you have a comment, news tip, advertising inquiry, or coverage request, a question about iPods or accessories, or if you sell or market iPod 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.





What's new at iLounge? Subscribe to iPodweek!
Each week we giveaway three (3) iTunes Gift cards.

Recent News

Recent Reviews

Recent Articles


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