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Ask iLounge 7-20-06

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By Jerrod H.

Contributing Editor, iLounge
Published: Thursday, July 20, 2006
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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Find more answers in the latest publications in our Library. Free downloads developed by the editors of iLounge!

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

Q:

When listening to a song on my 5G iPod, a speaker symbol appears next to the song title within the list of songs in the Album’s folder. However, if I enter the list of songs for the same artist through the “All Songs” menu shortcut, the speaker symbol does not appear next to the song that is still playing. Why is that? Is this a problem with my specific iPod’s hardware or is it a general hardware issue?

- Peter

A:

Your iPod is working as designed - you needn’t worry. In fact, you’ll notice that iTunes behaves the same way: when a song is playing from within a playlist, the speaker icon only appears next to it in that specific playlist… not in the Library or any other playlist.

The reason for this? It’s a visual cue for not only what song is playing, but also where. This way, you have a better idea of what’s coming next, or at least what pool of songs you’re shuffling from.

Q:

My iPod has lost sound in one of the headphones. It’s not the headphones themselves, since I have tested several sets.  Is this a fixable problem, and if so, how?

- Bob

A:

We’ve seen this quite a few instances of this question in our queue lately. Unfortunately, we expect that it’s a hardware defect that’s not fixable by anything you can do. As always, we can recommend restoring your iPod to factory condition using the latest iPod Software Updater from Apple to absolutely rule out software problems, but we suspect this problem will require a trip to the Apple Store for an in-warranty repair or replacement.

Q:

I arrange my music by artist-specific smart playlists. There are, however, songs that fall through the gaps as I only have playlists for artists with many songs. Is there a way I can construct a playlist of all those songs that do not have a playlist? I have tried with a smart list using “Playlist is not ....” but I can’t seem to add enough options to include all of my playlists. Any ideas?

- Alex

A:

You’re right - manually excluding each playlist you have isn’t the best solution to your problem, even if you could set it up; you’d have to keep tweaking it each time you add another playlist. Luckily, there’s at least two better ways:

The first, if you’re on a Mac, is to use the “Not in Any Playlist to Playlist” script available from Doug’s Applescripts for iTunes. As its title suggests, this script compiles all songs not in any current playlist into a new playlist. We haven’t seen any similar VBScripts or Javascripts for iTunes on the PC yet - if you have, let us know in the comments!

A second method is a slight twist on the idea you started with. We’re going to use the fact that playlist folders inherit all songs contained in the playlists beneath them. First, create a Playlist Folder in iTunes by selecting “New Folder” from the “File” menu. Call it “All Playlists,” and then proceed to place all of your existing playlists inside it.

Then, create a new smart playlist with a single rule “Playlist” “is not” “All Playlists.”

This works well, doesn’t require scripts, and is easier to create and maintain than calling out each playlist in the smart playlist logic. Enjoy!

Q:

My iPod mini no longer shuffles songs. It now will only play complete albums. The music is fine, and works in iTunes, but the iPod doesn’t randomly choose songs - it stays with the same artist for at least a full album side.

I’m sure I have it set on shuffle, but it has a mind of it’s own. Do you know how I can fix this ?

- Ricky

A:

The most likely explanation is that your iPod mini is simply set to the wrong kind of shuffle mode. In your iPod’s “Settings” menu, you’ll notice that if you repeatedly press the center button while “Shuffle” is highlighted, the status indicator shifts from “Songs” to “Albums” to “Off” and around again.

The behavior you’re describing sounds like your iPod is set to shuffle albums, not songs. Change this setting, and everything should work as expected.

Q:

I’ve previously synchronized Contacts and Calendar to my iPod. However, I now wish to remove them. Can you tell me how that’s done?

- Eric

A:

Absolutely, and it’s easy: regardless of which method you were using to synchronize the data, and regardless of whether you’re on a Mac or a PC, you can clear all contacts and calendars directly by manipulating the iPod’s contents in Windows Explorer or the Finder.

First, ensure that iTunes’ iPod Preferences have “Enable disk use” checked so you can access the iPod. Then, browse to the iPod’s hard drive in Windows Explorer or the Finder (Mac), and simply erase the contents of the iPod’s “Contacts” and “Calendar” folders.

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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

See the rest of the Archives...

« Editorial: Ex-Microsofties, Time to Join the Pod

Ask iLounge 7-13-06 »

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Comments

1

The Outlook synchronizes fine the contacts to my iPod nano, and in the beginning I also had no problems synching my calendar entries. However, accidentally, I deleted the sync-file from the Calendar folder on the iPod, and since then the calendars won’t sync.

I tried to reinstall iTunes completely, and also Outlook (Version 2002) but it did not solve the issue.

Can you help me on this one? All answers are welcome!

Posted by bubihusi on July 21, 2006 at 12:56 AM (PDT)

2

My i-pods sick and I don’t know how to fix it! Its an i-pod mini, and whenever I select a song to play, it plays it for about 8 seconds, then skips to a totally different song! And when I turn it off it decides to play again, doing the same thing, but nothing comes up on the screen.Its just over a year old, so Im pretty distraught over the whole things, its practically still a baby!Any help would be appreciated!

Posted by lollipop_les on July 21, 2006 at 2:53 PM (PDT)

3

I forgot to add to my above comment that when it plays the songs, there’s a symbol on the upper right hand side, underneatn the battery, that looks like, what I really can only describe as a pair of scissors? with a plus sign on the “handles” if thats any help!

Posted by lollipop_les on July 21, 2006 at 2:59 PM (PDT)

4

I just got a 4G nano, and tried to upload my contacts and calendar from outlook.

The contacts loaded fine, but the calendar will not…any thoughts.

Posted by swmmo on July 22, 2006 at 4:37 AM (PDT)

5

Myself and my wife bought an ipod each in the UK so that we could put all our music on for when we moved to the US. When we tried to set up I-tunes on a new computer it advises that the ipods are linked to another account and if we link to the new one, we will lose all our music. We have asked in an apple store and they advised that you cannot swap computers as it would promote file sharing.

Can you advise me on anything we can do to move the music from our ipods onto the new itunes so that we can save all our music but also put on new stuff?

Posted by Matt Hawley on July 22, 2006 at 10:05 AM (PDT)

6

Hello folks, nice site & I’m glad you’re here. I recently bought a Ipod mp3/mp4 60g video setup and am interested in a car setup that will support this player so I can watch movies, & listen to my tunes in the car. any help would be wonderful.
Thanks in advance, Eddy

Posted by eddysemail on July 23, 2006 at 11:01 PM (PDT)

7

Folks, it’s unlikely that your questions will get noticed here. Head into the appropriate place in the Forums, and you’re more likely to get the help you need.

Posted by Aceon6 in New England, USA on July 24, 2006 at 10:32 AM (PDT)

8

Is there an easy way to copy my dvd’s onto my i pod 60 Gb Video,it all seems unecessarily complicated

Posted by callian on July 25, 2006 at 4:54 AM (PDT)

9

how do i delete the explicit(red) symbol that is next to a explicit song?

Posted by trevor on October 12, 2008 at 5:49 PM (PDT)

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