Article
Ask iLounge 9-21-06
By Jerrod H.
Contributing Editor, iLounge
Published: Thursday, September 21, 2006
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.
How do I copy music from my iPod onto my computer?
Click here for the answer.
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, iPhone and Apple TV Video Conversion (Mac)
The Complete Guide to iPod, iPhone and Apple TV Video Conversion (Windows)
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!
Q: Is there a way for me to make one song into two separate songs? For example, some songs at the end of a CD contain “hidden” tracks. I’d like to make those into their own, independent tracks so I don’t have to scroll to them to listen to them. Is there a way to do that, either in iTunes or elsewhere?
- Addison
A: Sure. First, make a duplicate copy of the song you’d like to split. You can do this easily: simply drag the song onto your desktop, creating a copy. Then rename the original copy in iTunes (for example, add a “- original” suffix to the song title, and then drag the song on your desktop back into iTunes.
You now have two copies of the same song. We’re going to turn one into the nominal track only, and one into the “hidden” track only. To do this, simply note the time where the regular track ends and the time where the hidden track begins. These are then used as inputs to the “Start Time” and “Stop Time” fields in the “Options” pane of the “Get Info...” window for each track.
For example, the final track of Alanis Morissette’s “Jagged Little Pill” has an additional track called “Your House” one minute after the first track. Here’s how we altered the real track 13:
Then, the hidden track begins one minute after:
Then, simply re-tag the track information of the hidden track, and you’re almost done. You’ll note although the two songs we have now properly start and stop where necessary, they both technically contain both tracks. This isn’t a huge problem, as both iTunes and the iPod properly obey the start and stop times, but if you want to make your modifications permanent, and save a little disc space, iTunes will let you finalize the trimming by selecting highlighting each track, and selecting “Convert Selection to...”. This will re-encode the track, but permanently trim off the audio we no longer need.
Q: On Apple’s iTunes “Jukebox” page, it claims the user can have “multiple libraries - even store[d] across more than one hard drive.” At first I thought this must just be referring to the segregation of Music, Movies, Audiobooks, etc., but the hard drive comment doesn’t make sense in this case. What are they talking about here?
- Tom
A: Indeed you can now have multiple libraries, just as iTunes’ product page mentions. However, they really don’t make it clear how. Luckily, it’s extremely simple: to activate and use the switching feature, simply hold down Option (Mac) or Shift (Windows) as you launch iTunes, and you’ll see this intuitive menu appear:
Upon switching libraries, the entirety of your content - including tracks, videos, playlists, ratings, and more - is exchanged for whatever’s in that library. Virtually nothing stays behind… it’s as if you’ve sat down at another computer.
In fact, to acheive this prior to iTunes 7, we’ve recommended either setting up a second account in your operating system, or use a third-party library switching utility like Libra. Now, neither of these solutions are necessary to get multiple libraries on one computer.
What’s the advantage here? As only one example, it’s great for laptop users who want to maintain a massive library of TV Shows, Videos, and a complete collection of their music, but need to do so on an external hard drive due to their laptop’s small hard drive. With this feature, they can still also maintain a smaller collection of music on their local machine for listening on the go.
Q: In the new iTunes Store, I’m not able to find what was my favorite feature prior to iTunes 7: free iPod-compatible movie trailers. What happened? All I see now is full, paid movies.
- Sarah
A: They’re still there, and the functionality has actually improved. To get there, however, you can’t link directly from the homepage of the iTunes Store. Rather, first navigate to the Movies section of the store, and observe the “More In Movies” box in the bottom left of the window. Click Theatrical Trailers to get to the trailer library.
Alternatively, of course, you can view Apple’s trailers in your web browser via their QuickTime Movie Trailers webpage, but the iPod integration offered by the iTunes Store is really handy.
Q: I downloaded the new iTunes and clicked on the “Get Artwork” feature you described last week. Most of my “artless” music selections were succesfully updated and now have the album artwork in iTunes, which is great. The problem, however, is that this artwork does not show up on my iPod, unlike artwork I’ve collected myself. Any ideas on how to get the artwork that iTunes assigned to my previously “artless” selections to show up on my iPod?
- Eric
A: In our experimenting, we’ve noticed the exact same thing, and we definitely suspect it to be another one of the many bugs expected to be fixed by an update to iTunes 7 that Apple is undoubtedly working feverishly on.
In the meantime, this particular bug appears easy to fix: users on our iLounge Discussion Forums are reporting that the album artwork downloaded from iTunes’ new feature can in fact be transferred to the iPod, but that the bug seems to be that simply downloading the artwork doesn’t “flag” the tracks to be updated on the iPod.
Thus, the problem is fixed if you choose to restore your iPod (forcing all tracks to be ‘flagged’ for transfer), or if you otherwise trick iTunes into thinking the songs need to be updated on the iPod (for example, if you make an edit to the songs’ Comments fields). In either case, after they’ve been instructed to transfer to the iPod, they’ll do so along with their associated artwork.
Again, we expect a bug this simple to be squashed very soon, but in the meantime, use this workaround.
Q: I really have been impressed with iTunes 7. Separating content by having distinct libraries was long overdue. However, I feel like they didn’t finish the job: iTunes still merges Music Videos and songs together. I don’t like Music Videos showing up on my iPod when going through my songs, and I especially don’t like them in the new Cover Art view in iTunes. I see them as separate entities, and wish there was a Music Videos library in iTunes. Am I missing something, or is there a way to do this?
- Niles
A: Unfortunately, there’s no way to elegantly give iTunes features like this, without Apple doing it for us. However, we can continue to do the workarounds we’ve recommended for similar questions at Ask iLounge: use Smart Playlists. This works especially well here since the new iTunes 7 sub-libraries (Music, Audiobooks, etc.) appear in smart playlist conditions the same way Playlists do.
First make a smart playlist that contains all your Music Videos using this logic:
Then, make another which uses the contents of your “Music” library (automatically weeding out Audiobooks, TV Shows, Podcasts, etc.), but explicitly removes those found in the new “Music Videos” playlist:
Name these appropriately, add a prefix so they stay together, and enjoy your new audio-only song list. We too wish that Apple had chosen to provide a new library for music video content - and perhaps Digital Booklets - rounding out the entire collection of possible iTunes media types, but this is an acceptable compromise until your feedback convinces Apple to make the change.
Ask iLounge Archives:
8-29-08: Disabling data on iPhone 3G, iTunes Plus and Apple Backup, Deleting photos from iPod, iPhone v2.0 and TV Out accessories, Consolidating multiple iTunes libraries, Restoring iPod touch from backup
8-22-08: Cleaning up applications in iTunes, Playing back all songs on iPod, Excluding podcasts from Smart Playlists, Bookmarking tracks, Playing tracks back at a consistent volume level
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
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1
I was purchasing music from iTunes and selected several albums one after another. Now mixed among one another when I sort my music “date added” (my most used view). Is there any way to get these albums ‘back together in that sort?
rwr-b
Posted by Richard R-B in Summerville, SC on September 22, 2006 at 1:17 PM (PDT)
2
I tried synching a photo folder to my ipod, i still have 9mb free space on the ipod. I created a new folder containing photos that has 3mb on it. I synchronized that folder into my ipod but still i receive a message “no photos were copied to the ipod because there is not enough free space on the ipod to hold your photos and albums. Is there any other way i can upload photos manually?
Posted by choppy_choppy on September 25, 2006 at 3:57 AM (PDT)
3
I noticed that album art problem on previous versions of iTunes. The way I usually get around it...without having to erase the ipod and start from scratch… is to simply uncheck the box that says to display album art....it will update the ipod NOT TO......then check it to show it again....it will take some time depending on how many you have....but its usually faster for me than to reformat.
My only question is am I the only one that notices that album art still spontaneously disspaears from mp3’s? Where they are imbedded in them at one point and then one day they are simply gone?
When I first installed itunes 7 they were all there....the next day half were gone.....but this also happened on previous versions.
Posted by Y.E. Coyote on September 25, 2006 at 9:49 AM (PDT)
4
This article explains how to split one song into two. I have the opposite question; how can I play two songs consecutively as if they are one? For example: Queen’s We Will Rock You/We are the Champions .
Posted by bruinfan on March 16, 2007 at 6:06 PM (PDT)