2010 iPod + iPhone Buyers' Guide

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Ask iLounge 8-21-09

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By Jesse David Hollington

Contributing Editor
Published: Friday, August 21, 2009
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:

My computer recently crashed. I have backups of all music, BUT don’t have backups of my calendar and contacts. How do I get calendar and contacts from my iPod touch back onto my PC when I don’t have “Enable Disk Access” set up on the iPod? I’m really desperate so any help would be appreciated.

- Mike

A:

Actually, this process is easier than you might think, assuming that you’re looking to simply get your contact and calendar information back into an iTunes-supported application such as Microsoft Outlook so that you can sync them with your iPod.

Unlike music and other media content, iTunes actually does support syncing your contact information from your iPod touch (or iPhone) back to your iTunes library. When syncing your iPod touch with a new iTunes library, the “Erase and Sync” option will affect only the media content on your iPod, such as your music and videos. Other information such as applications, photos and your calendar and contact info remains untouched, and you’ll notice that the sync options for each of these categories remains disabled in iTunes, even after you’ve synced your music and video content back onto your device.

The first time you attempt to enable Contact and/or Calendar synchronization, iTunes will notify you that you have contact and calendar information that has been synced with another user account (in this case, your old computer), and ask you if you want to merge the info on your iPod touch with the information already in your computer, or replace the info on the iPod touch with the information on your computer.

Since your iPod touch is the only source of your contact and calendar information at this point, you should. choose the “Merge info” information to copy the contact and calendar information from your iPod touch and insert it into your contact and calendar application on your computer. Once this initial merge process has been completed, your contact and calendar information will sync normally with your computer on subsequent sync operations.

Q:

I am wondering how do you make it so when you first connect an iPod touch it does not automatically sync with the computer?

- Yousuf

A:

There are a couple of ways that you can accomplish this. Firstly, if you want to disable syncing globally for any iPod connected to your computer, you can go into your iTunes preferences, select the “Devices” tab, and check the option to Disable automatic syncing for iPhones and iPods.

Alternatively, if you’re looking for only disable automatic syncing only for a specific iPod device, you can simply UNcheck the option to Open iTunes when this iPod is attached from the device’s Summary screen in iTunes.

Lastly, you can override the automatic sync when connecting an iPod to your computer manually simply by holding down the SHIFT+CTRL keys (Windows) or the CMD+OPT keys (Mac) when connecting your iPod to your computer. Keep holding these keys down until the iPod appears in the Devices list in iTunes—the iPod will remain connected but no automatic sync will occur.

Q:

  I had an iPod nano and recently upgraded to the iPod classic. I transfer music manually from my library using both iPods interchangeably. I recently noticed that the “clear playlist/songs” option when I click On-The-Go playlist (on my nano) is no longer there, so I can’t clear the songs using my iPod. I have to use my computer to do so. The option was there on my nano before I started using my classic. I can’t remember if it was on my classic to begin with. How do I fix this? Do I need to re-install the software? Everything is up to date.

- Marby

A:

There is no setting in iTunes that affects the On-the-Go playlist feature on the iPod itself, nor should introducing an iPod classic to your iTunes library have any affect on this. It’s possible that what you’re seeing is not the actual On-The-Go playlist, but rather a static playlist that was automatically created from the On-The-Go playlist by iTunes.

If you have added even a single track to the On-The-Go playlist on your iPod and are automatically synchronizing with iTunes, the content of your On-The-Go playlist gets transferred to a new, static playlist the next time you sync with your computer. These playlists are named “On-The-Go” followed by a sequential number to keep them in order (ie, “On-The-Go 1”). During this process, the content of the dynamic On-The-Go playlist on your iPod is also cleared.

These static playlists will synchronize back to your iPod automatically as well, and may be confused for the dynamic On-The-Go playlist queue. However, as with any other standard playlist in iTunes, you cannot modify these on the device itself. The actual On-The-Go dynamic playlist queue is still there, but you may have to scroll all the way down to the bottom of your playlists to actually see it, ignoring any other playlists named “On-The-Go” in the process.

Since the On-The-Go play queue is cleared each time you sync with iTunes, you’ll also be starting from scratch. However, you can easily add the content of the last-synced “On-The-Go” playlist back to your On-The-Go play queue in the same way as you would for any other playlist - just highlight the playlist and hold down the center select button.

Within iTunes itself, you can of course rename, delete, or modify the numbered On-The-Go playlists which are synced back to iTunes, in the same way you would any other playlist. You may find it less confusing to either remove these automatically-created On-The-Go playlists if you’re no longer using them, or just give them another name.

Q:

I have an original iPhone (non-3G). I am looking for a wireless headset to listen to my music and answer calls. i bought the Motorola S9 and it wont play music from my iPhone. Without buying an adapter, is there a headset out there that is wireless/Bluetooth that i can use for these two functions? Do i have to pony up the cash for a 3G or can you help me?

- Jess

A:

Unfortunately, the original iPhone does not provide any support for stereo Bluetooth audio, also known as A2DP, even with the iPhone OS 3.0 update. Only the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS as well as the second-generation iPod touch provide this capability. Since this is a limitation of the iPhone hardware itself and not the Bluetooth headset, you will not be able to find any stereo Bluetooth headsets that can be used with the original iPhone without the aid of a Dock Connector based accessory.

You can find more information on the varying levels of Bluetooth accessory support between different iPhone and iPod touch models in Apple’s knowledgebase article, iPhone and iPod touch: Supported Bluetooth profiles.

Q:

I am trying to share my music library between two users on the same computer. I have followed your instructions from your 04-24 article, as well as your ‘Transferring your iTunes Library’ iPod 201 article. The end result is always the same. The library (after being moved) remains visible on the login on which I made the move, however, I cannot see it from the other user’s login. I’ve tried to consolidate the library etc. but the only way I can access the files is to import them again under the second login. This doesn’t result in duplicate files, but it seems to add them to the iTunes library. This is fine, but I have to do this every time I get new music. I must be doing something wrong, but what?

- Christopher

A:

It sounds like the step that you’re missing here is actually copying the iTunes library database either to the new user’s profile, or to a common location that both users can access.

How you should handle the iTunes database depends largely on whether you want to share all iTunes-related information, such as ratings, play counts and play lists, or whether you’re only looking to share the music content itself and keep your other metadata separate.

If you want to share your entire library between both users, including all of your metadata, then you need to move your main “iTunes” folder, located under your user profile’s “My Music” folder to a common location, such as C:\iTunes. Since your media content is also stored under this folder, you’ll also need to update the location of the “iTunes Music” folder in your Advanced preferences within iTunes itself.

Once you’ve moved this folder to the new location, you need to point iTunes itself to this new folder within each user account. To do this, hold down the SHIFT key (Windows) or OPT key (Mac) while starting iTunes and you will be presented with a dialog box that provides you with the option to either choose or create a library.

Select “Choose Library” and browse to the new location of your main iTunes folder (ie, C:\iTunes). This will open the iTunes library database and related support files from the new location. Note that you will need to take this step in both user accounts to point them to your new iTunes folder, since iTunes will want to create a new library under “My Music” by default. Once you have redirected iTunes to use the new path in each account, however, it will continue to do use that location unless you change it again by following the above steps and choosing a new location.

Note that if you’re sharing the same iTunes library database, you need to be careful about using features such as Fast User Switching and having iTunes open in both accounts. iTunes is not designed for multi-user access, and having two copies of the iTunes application actively running against the same database could result in database corruption. If you’re using Fast User Switching on your computer, always ensure that you shut down iTunes in one user account before opening it in the other one.

If you want to maintain separate ratings, play lists, and play counts for each user, then your best option is to simply create a new library database under the second user account and import the music and other media content manually. You can, however, start with a copy of the initial iTunes library database simply by copying your “iTunes” folder from your primary user account over to the “My Music” folder of the secondary user account.

Q:

How do I turn off the shuffle mode on my fourth-generation iPod nano? I have it mounted to my Harley-Davidson and when I hit a hard bump in the road it sometimes enters shuffle mode. I would like to turn off this feature.

- Chad

A:

This mode is called “Shake-to-Shuffle” and uses the motion sensor in the fourth-generation iPod nano to engage shuffle when shaking movement is detected. You can easily turn this option off by going into your iPod nano’s “Settings” menu and selecting the “Playback” option. Within this section should be a setting labelled Shake. Simply select this and tap the center select button on your iPod to toggle this setting from “Shuffle” to “Off.”

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Ask iLounge Archives:

11-20-09: Sharing iTunes libraries between two user accounts, Enlarging text on iPhone 3GS, Transferring an iPod to a new user, iPhone shuffles when walking, New 8GB iPod touch models, Transferring purchases from a remote iTunes library

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

See the rest of the Archives...

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