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The Free iPod + iPhone Book4

Ask iLounge 6-9-05

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By Kirk McElhearn

Contributing Editor
Published: Thursday, June 9, 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 just acquired an external hard drive to house my ever-growing music library. Is there any way to keep play counts and ratings attached to a song when I move it from my computer’s hard drive to the external or vice versa? Or is the file copied blankly every time?

- Andrew

A: Individual music files don’t contain that play count and rating information; the iTunes Library files do, along with some other information (such as last played date, date added, etc). So if you tell iTunes to remove a song from your library, this information will be lost. However, if you simply move the song file without deleting it from the iTunes Library, iTunes will show a ! indicating that it can’t find the song, but will retain the information you want. Many people find it annoying to have lots of songs with ! before their names, but this might be a solution for you. When you return the songs to their appropriate locations (and you’ll have to make sure to do so), the ! will go away.


Q: Can I use my 40 GB iPod to transfer files between my Macs at home and at the office? The office Mac is running Mac OS 9.2.2 and the home PowerBook is running Mac OS X 10.3.9.

The office Mac has a copy of iTunes 2.0.4 on it that I never use, and the home one is up-to-date (iTunes 4.8). I’ve read about enabling FireWire drive usage, but I wonder about the compatibility of the different versions of iTunes under different OSs.

- Susan

A: If you only want to transfer files, then you’ll have no problem. Open the iPod preferences for your iPod and check Enable Disk Use. You should uncheck “Open iTunes when this iPod is Attached,” to prevent the Mac OS 9 version of iTunes from opening and overwriting your music. But you’ll be able to copy files to and from the iPod easily like this.


Q: I have a 20 GB iPod, and I recently bought my wife a 6 GB iPod mini. We’re considering getting our son a mini, and I’ve got a iPod shuffle on my wish list. We have one computer and use iTunes with Windows XP, and we each have our own user account on Windows.  At this point, my wife and I have separate iTunes libraries although both are drawing from the same song files, most of which I copied from my CD collection.

Am I going to hit some sort of limit on how many iPod devices I can copy the same songs to?

- Kelly

A: There is no limit to the number of iPods you can use with a given computer. As long as you’re simply using music ripped from your own CDs, there is no limit to how many iPods can copy this music either.

The only limit is on the number of computers you can authorize to use music purchased from the iTunes Music Store. This is currently limited to five computers, but these are physical devices, not simply user accounts, so even there you’ll have no problem.


Q: If my iPod is formatted for Windows and then I switch to a Mac, can I use the old music files themselves if I transfer them to the Mac and the iPod itself has been reformatted, or do I have to re-rip that music again on the Mac?

- Jim

A: You’ll be able to use your music files; they don’t care what kind of iPod they’re on. You can copy the files from your Windows PC to your Mac, then add them to the Mac’s iTunes library, and sync your music to your iPod.

Note that only 3G iPods or later can work on both Macs and PCs; if you have an older iPod, you won’t be able to use it on the Mac without hassles. If you have a 3G iPod or later, simply connect it to your Mac, then run the iPod Software Updater to reformat the iPod and install the appropriate software so it can run on your Mac. (This works in the other direction as well.)


Q: I recently got a 60 GB iPod photo and I would like to transfer all of my music and playlists from my old 20 GB iPod to the new iPod. Is this possible? I would really hate having to create new playlists for my 20 GB of music.

- Chad

A: It’s not clear from your question whether you have your music on your computer. If you do, this is no problem at all; simply connect the new iPod, and iTunes will sync the music to it. However, if you have deleted your music and playlist information from your iTunes library, you’ll need to use a separate application such as iPodRip or SharePod.


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.






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Ask iLounge Archives:

8-15-08: Transferring play counts back to iTunes, Playing iPod while charging, Customizing iPhone alerts, Syncing movies to iPod nano, iTunes not recognizing new CDs, Sudoku reviews

8-8-08: iPhone and SIM card contacts, Syncing iPhone contacts, Hiding SMS previews on iPhone, Playing iPod touch on secondary computer, Syncing photos to iPod, Resuming interrupted iTunes WiFI Store downloads

8-8-08: iLounge Editor-in-Chief Jeremy Horwitz responds to reader questions on all things iLounge, including technical issues related to iPhone 3G, and behind-the-scenes editorial issues

8-1-08: iPhone Edition: Switching between apps, Car charging accessories, Activating older iPhone models, Sending MMS, App Store in wrong language, Excel and A2DP support

7-25-08: MobileMe on iPhone for Calendars only, Buying iPods for International use, Voice recorders for 4G iPods, Free Music for iPod, Problems transferring purchased content to iPod, Playing AAC files in Windows Media Player

See the rest of the Archives...

Shop in the loungeStore for iPod + iPhone Accessories.

Next: Apple's iPod Battery Settlement, Explained

Previous: First Looks: Musak, iBlue, HandSkin, AirPlay shuffle

Comments

1

I just installed the ipod software onto my computer.. and updated Itunes. When I plug in my ipod my computer refuses to recognize/acknowledge it. it shows me a message in toolbar saying ipod not readable.. ive had the ipod for 3yrs. my friend loaded it with songs 2 yrs ago and i havent touched it since. i wanted to update my music.. when i plug the ipod in my pc, it tells me i have to update, i know if i do that, all my music will be erased. i already downloaded podutil, but cannot use it because my comp wont recognize my ipod..! frusrating! can some please help me or have any ideas???  Thanks so much.

Posted by MarySmith on June 9, 2005 at 10:25 AM (PDT)

2

for the first question:

If he wants to physically change the location of his library without losing all the stats/fun data - he should use iTunes to move the music. then there’s no (!) in front of the songs, and no need to transfer the files back and forth everytime he wants to sync his ipod.

It’s been a while since I did this, but I believe it was 1. change the location of the itunes library in the ‘Preferences>Advanced’ dialog and then choose ‘consolidate library’ from the advanced menu.

but i don’t 100% remember if that’s right.

Posted by Puck in washington dc on June 9, 2005 at 11:26 AM (PDT)

3

From the first question, it seems that he doesn’t want to move his entire library, but only individual songs or albums from time to time. In that case, your tip about changing the location of the library doesn’t help. That’s only useful if you want to move the entire folder.

Posted by Kirk McElhearn on June 10, 2005 at 6:07 AM (PDT)

4

I guess I understood that he was looking to relocate it permanently with the phrase ”to house my ever-growing music library”

But, now that i reread it, with the phrase “when I move it from my computer’s hard drive to the external or vice versa” it does sound like he might want to move it back and forth…

No diss intended, i look forward to this colomn eachweek… the question’s just a little murky.

Puck

Posted by Puck in washington dc on June 10, 2005 at 6:33 AM (PDT)

5

I have a 4th generation Ipod, and one day while running my poor Ipod froze.  I tried to re start it by pressing the select and the menu keys, but still no luck of resisitation (the poor thing). What should i do!

_courtnie-

Posted by Courtnie on June 10, 2005 at 10:35 AM (PDT)

6

i just bought A new 20 gig harddrive for my 2 gen ipod and it will not format help

Posted by dnitzh on June 11, 2005 at 11:46 AM (PDT)

7

I have a G5running osx with the two user option, I have i-tunes information in both sides, I need to know how to add to my ipod from one side without deleting the information that I have on it already from the other....

Vespuci

Posted by vespuci on June 11, 2005 at 4:34 PM (PDT)

8

my g3 ipod froze. after that incident, it will not completetly turn on. it only shows the apple logo and the low battery sign at times. any advice or help.

Posted by weca on June 11, 2005 at 4:48 PM (PDT)

9

when i plug my ipod into the computer, itunes wont recognise that its plugged in, and the computer says the USB is malfunctioned and unreadable, basically i cant download anything

Posted by Emelia on June 12, 2005 at 1:45 AM (PDT)

10

Help.
I have/had many files I use for work (I am a music teacher) and I just transferred many more from an outside source to my iTunes music folder.  The original library was on another drive, which I deleted, thinking it was the obsolete one.  It wasn’t.
I then had to add the folder to iTunes library, 9000 songs in all.
When I try to update the iPod, it does a hundred or so, then stops.  The programme also crashed once.  Can you hepl me please.  I need this by Tuesday for work and am very annoyed.
Thanks
Len

Posted by julen on June 12, 2005 at 7:47 AM (PDT)

11

I have loaded several entire disks into a playlist and want to shuffle randomly around through them.  When I choose shuffle, it shuffles the disks and not the songs.  How do I make it go randomly from disk to disk, song to song.

Posted by flyboywebb on June 12, 2005 at 5:36 PM (PDT)

12

Using a second ipod
We have two ipods, after updationg itunes with songs, I can transfer songs to one ipod easily (say ipod A), the other (ipod B) stalls itunes, freezes my computer and loads only after several ipod updates and reset attempts. The next time, the machine that was last updated (ipod B), accepts the added songs from itunes, and then the other ipod (ipod A) just does the same to my computer; freezing up everything etc. This seems to be in contradiction to other statements in here, saying, using two ipods should not be a problem. Are there any special steps required, am I missing something, or have others had similar experiences, and dealt with them successfuly? If so, kindly share your solutions.

Posted by Yaqa on June 12, 2005 at 7:47 PM (PDT)

13

I am currently using a PC.  I will be getting an Imac in a few days.  How can I transfer my music in iTunes from my PC to my iMac?

Thanks.

Posted by DanielTseytlin on June 12, 2005 at 10:57 PM (PDT)

14

How can I convert my Ituns files to work on my Tivo.  My Tivo needs mp3 files not AAS files.  I can convert the my CD’s, but I can not convert the Itunes that I bought on line.  Please e-mail me at .

Thank you for all the help

Posted by scott.wolfe on June 13, 2005 at 11:06 AM (PDT)

15

As soon as I connect an ipod to a computer, an update will be performed on the ipod automatically.  When this update is performed, the files on ipod will be deleted as part of the update process if the copy of those files are not found on the computer, right?
Is there any way I can stop the updating process before it deletes some files from the ipod?
Thanks,

Posted by Kapolei on June 14, 2005 at 9:12 AM (PDT)

16

I recently upgraded to Tiger. Doc’d my iPod and before I knew what was happining, all my music was gone. Is there a way to extract these songs from my iPOD without it being too costly. I had approx. 900 songs.

Posted by rustica on June 15, 2005 at 4:02 PM (PDT)

17

I have been moving all my CD’s into itunes and creating a Playlist for each album. Seeing how I have hundreds of CD’s I want to be able to mange them in and out of the ipod quickly and easily. In manuel mode I have not been able to delete individual playlists from the ipod without affecting my itunes playlist. How do i delete individual playlists and replace them with new ones after my ipod is already full??

Posted by michaelp on June 15, 2005 at 8:09 PM (PDT)

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