The *official* Ipod help thread

[JennyMominRI]

Because we don't need 20 different threads


Some questions
What does *Sync* mean in relation to my Ipod
Why has *music* dissapeared off of my Ipod menu and if I ply it with chocolate,will it come back?
All I have Is ,Pictures, Video, Shuffle etc..No music
Why does my playlist now show up only on my IPod but not on Itunes...I did not delete it.

 

[JennyMominRI]

Because we don't need 20 different threads


Some questions
What does *Sync* mean in relation to my Ipod
Why has *music* dissapeared off of my Ipod menu and if I ply it with chocolate,will it come back?
All I have Is ,Pictures, Video, Shuffle etc..No music
Why does my playlist now show up only on my IPod but not on Itunes...I did not delete it.

Help

 

[toddp3]

What does *Sync* mean in relation to my Ipod

Sync = Synchronization. In terms of an iPod it is the act of making sure that the contents of your iPod match the contents of your iTunes library within the bounds of the options you've chosen. These options are decided upon when you have iTunes running and your iPod is connected. You select your iPod under DEVICES in the tree and then you see a number of tabs above a picture of your iPod. These are your "Synchronization Options".

You can have "Automatic" or "Manual" synchronization. Automatic is the default, but only occurs when you connect your iPod to your computer and then start iTunes (by default iTunes will automagically start with you connect your iPod, but you can change that in Preferences if you don't like that behavior).

Choosing Sync from either the File menu in iTunes or from the right-click-mouse-context menu on your iPod under DEVICES in the tree is a "Manual Sync".

If your music library exceeds the size of your iPod you should consider designing playlists and syncing only the playlists you currently want, since you can't sync your whole library. What I mean is this... lets say you have a 4GB Nano (most popular iPod right now), but you have 20GB of music in iTunes. You can't put all that music on your iPod at once then since it can only hold 4GB of music. So you pick and choose using playlists.

Why has *music* dissapeared off of my Ipod menu and if I ply it with chocolate,will it come back?

iPods do not like chocolate. They told me so.

On your iPod's menu (meaning eject it from your computer first, see below), you likely mucked with settings. All you need to do is this:

1) Press and hold the MENU button (top) for about 2-3 seconds. This will bring you to the main menu on your iPod.

2) Scroll to and choose "Settings"

3) Under "Settings" scroll to and choose "Main Menu"

4) Under "Main Menu" scroll to the very bottom and choose "Reset Main Menu"

5) Scroll to and choose "Reset"

All I have Is ,Pictures, Video, Shuffle etc..No music

Your main menu should be restored to it's original look and feel. To verify this, follow only steps 1 through 3 above, and then scroll to the very top under "Main Menu". "Music" should read "On" and not "Off". If it reads "Off" then you didn't follow the steps properly above

Why does my playlist now show up only on my IPod but not on Itunes...I did not delete it.

On this one, not as sure. Unless you're using the "favorites" playlist on the iPod (done by pressing the center of the dial when a song you like is playing), or using alternative software from iTunes, you can't have a playlist that's on your iPod and not in iTunes.

Let me ask this, without your iPod connected to your computer, start iTunes: Are there any playlists listed? Can you list them here?

On your iPod do the following:

1) Press and hold Menu for 2-3 seconds to get to the Main Menu

2) Scroll to and choose "Music"

3) Scroll to and choose "Playlists"

Can you list all your playlists that are shown on the iPod?

Make sure I know which list is which, thanks!

 

[briar_rose_59]

Ahh, toddp3, beat me to it! And with what I must say is a far better response

"Sync" simply means that you are "syncing up" your iPod list on iTunes with your iPod. That is, the music that is on the iPod list on iTunes, will be the music that will be on your iPod. Not sure why there would no longer be a music menu though. Could you have scrolled down too far and just need to scroll back up all the way?

 

[Amity 3]

here's a good starting point:

http://www.apple.com/ilife/tutorials/itunes/index.html

 

[Cool-Beans]

Why does my playlist now show up only on my IPod but not on Itunes...I did not delete it.

This same thing happens to me. I spend time loading songs in off of CDs and they just disappear. Very frustrating. The kids say that it is my fault, I must keep doing something wrong. Honestly, I can't imagine WHAT. Even when the kids load the songs in, they eventually disappear...and always in one swoop. (The songs I purchase from itunes stay put, but the ones I transfer just go bye-bye.)

Pisses me off so much that I've given up on keeping the songs on the Itunes site. So long as they're in the Ipod, fine.

Think it is possible that we're just too old for this crap? I dunno.

 

[toddp3]

One very important thing that I forgot is this:

DO NOT simply unplug your iPod from your computer when you're done. It must be unmounted. On a Windows machine this is done by using Eject (either in Windows Explorer if you're enabled as a disk or in iTunes). On a Mac, I believe it works the same (though I'm not a mac owner).

The reason is this: this is a piece of hardware. It is effectively the same as a USB hard drive, or a flash/thumb drive, or a card from your camera. Typically the worst thing you can do to these sorts of devices is simply disconnect when you're done. You need to unmount first to guarantee a safe removal, otherwise corruption can occur.

And that corruption can occur on the iPod, in your iTunes database, or both. Corruption can manifest as missing music, playlists, album art, skipping during playback, etc.

This is not just a limitation of iPods, but really any mountable device which covers ALL MP3 players.

Another thing to check is this: In Preferences is the option "Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library" checked off. Very often, if you don't have this option checked off, the music may not be actually in iTunes for more than your current session. So what happens is you'll copy something in, sync it to your iPod. It then lives on your iPod, but you close and the music was not actually part of your library so it goes away.

Just something to check.

 

[Fitswimmer]

I bought a Nano for my niece for Christmas and we've got a question. She has her own computer at school in Ohio, but she's back here in NJ for Christmas. Can she upload CD's from her Dad's computer here in NJ or can the iPod only be sync'd to one computer?


I have an iPod, but I've never tried to sync it to another computer.

 

[Amity 3]

I bought a Nano for my niece for Christmas and we've got a question. She has her own computer at school in Ohio, but she's back here in NJ for Christmas. Can she upload CD's from her Dad's computer here in NJ or can the iPod only be sync'd to one computer?


I have an iPod, but I've never tried to sync it to another computer.

just plug it in, you can migrate files to her nano from any computer with iTunes.

 

[Amity 3]

This same thing happens to me. I spend time loading songs in off of CDs and they just disappear. Very frustrating. The kids say that it is my fault, I must keep doing something wrong. Honestly, I can't imagine WHAT. Even when the kids load the songs in, they eventually disappear...and always in one swoop. (The songs I purchase from itunes stay put, but the ones I transfer just go bye-bye.)

Pisses me off so much that I've given up on keeping the songs on the Itunes site. So long as they're in the Ipod, fine.

Think it is possible that we're just too old for this crap? I dunno.

the files must stay in the same place on your HDD, or iTunes will ask you to find them.

it's a piracy prevention.

 

[Cool-Beans]

the files must stay in the same place on your HDD, or iTunes will ask you to find them.

it's a piracy prevention.

What's an HDD? It isn't that speaker /dock thing where the ipod sits to play music in the house, is it?

I didn't pirate anything. Paid for itunes songs ($.99/ea) and the CDs I loaded in were all regular ones (like Toby), bought from stores like amazon, etc.

It takes FOREVER to load them in (unlike Media Player, which was FAST)...they are there for a while, then - boom! - they are gone. ETA: except the itunes songs. Those, for some reason, seem to stay put.

So frustrating.

 

[Florida_Mom]

Okay, here's my question:

I've downloaded a couple of episodes of the Daily Show, and several episodes of Studio 60 for my video iPod.

All of these are still on iTunes, but only the most recent episode of Studio 60 is on my iPod, and no episodes of the Daily Show. Why?

I'm not having this problem with music, just with TV shows. I have plenty of space left on my iPod, too.

 

[WDW Poly Princess]

Okay, I've got a very silly one!

How the heck do I fast forward?

And why don't they include any kind of a manual with it?

 

[cherylp3]

its the right button with 2 little arrows. It will look like this: >>

 

[WDW Poly Princess]

Ok, I feel really stupid now! It never occurred to me to *hold it down*.

 

[toddp3]

You can also do a "Jump Forward" (or Back) while playing not just "Fast Forward". The technical term for this is "Jog".

To do this you need a Nano or a Video (since it requires a screen, Shuffles can't do this): while playing something press the middle button once. This will place a blue diamond on the grey progress bar. From there simply rotate your finger clockwise to go forward (same thing you do to make the volume louder), and then stop. The audio will jump forward to the new point. Go counterclockwise and you can jump back.

Once you're done, wait a few seconds and it'll drop back to the normal progression bar.

 

[toddp3]

I bought a Nano for my niece for Christmas and we've got a question. She has her own computer at school in Ohio, but she's back here in NJ for Christmas. Can she upload CD's from her Dad's computer here in NJ or can the iPod only be sync'd to one computer?

I have an iPod, but I've never tried to sync it to another computer.

You can sync to multiple computers, but there are some caveats.

See here's the issue, if she puts 10 CDs on Dad's computer and then syncs those to her iPod they're on her iPod to play. However if she then goes on her own computer, those 10CDs are not there, and syncing will remove the music from her iPod.

However, when she hooks her iPod to the 2nd computer it'll recognize that the 2nd computer is not the 1st computer and realize that the iPod is synced to another computer. It'll then prompt her about this and ask her does if she wants to sync to the 2nd computer or place her iPod into manual mode. If she chooses to sync, her music on the iPod goes away. If she chooses manual mode, it will not.

However, she will be stuck in manual mode, which can be a lot more work to deal with as she should never sync as long as she wants to keep the music from the 1st computer (Dad's).

Then, should she ever return to the 1st computer it'll go "Hey I'm your 'home base', but you're in manual mode, do you want to auto-sync instead?" (or something like that). And if you do this, then everything from the 2nd computer will go away.

The thing is that a iPod can only have one "home base" computer that it syncs to. Everything else is manual and transitory.

That is, only if you use iTunes.

One thing she could do is get a program like SharePod to help her out with this.

What she can do is put the music on from Dad's machine. Then when she goes back to school, hook up her iPod to her computer and use SharePod to pull that music off.

Then she can add that music to the iTunes database on her computer, and auto-sync from there now, and not risk loosing anything.

 

[toddp3]

What's an HDD? It isn't that speaker /dock thing where the ipod sits to play music in the house, is it?

I didn't pirate anything. Paid for itunes songs ($.99/ea) and the CDs I loaded in were all regular ones (like Toby), bought from stores like amazon, etc.

It takes FOREVER to load them in (unlike Media Player, which was FAST)...they are there for a while, then - boom! - they are gone. ETA: except the itunes songs. Those, for some reason, seem to stay put.

So frustrating.

HDD = Hard Disk Drive

This seems very odd. Can you write down all steps you take from the time you rip a CD into iTunes until the time a song disappears. There's got to be something in there that is causing this.

Note that Amity 3 is 100% correct, and he's not saying you're a pirate. His point is that Apple, Microsoft, and the entire recording industry assume you're a pirate until proven otherwise and they take steps based on this assumption. What he was trying to tell you is that if you rip music off a CD and then outside of iTunes move it somewhere else, iTunes will cease knowing about it and it will "disappear" from iTunes even though you made it disappear.

 

[toddp3]

Okay, here's my question:

I've downloaded a couple of episodes of the Daily Show, and several episodes of Studio 60 for my video iPod.

All of these are still on iTunes, but only the most recent episode of Studio 60 is on my iPod, and no episodes of the Daily Show. Why?

I'm not having this problem with music, just with TV shows. I have plenty of space left on my iPod, too.

Follow these steps:

1) Connect your iPod to your computer

2) Start iTunes (#1 may have done this automagically)

3) Choose your iPod under DEVICES

4) On the options tabs on the main screen choose "TV Shows"

5) Change the "Sync" pulldown to read "all". Right now it probably reads "1 most recent" or "1 most recent unwatched".

 

[toddp3]

And why don't they include any kind of a manual with it?

As the internet becomes more of a resource, heavily internet based companies move away from paper manuals. In fact, the iPod Nano is considered to be one of the most green devices currently shipping due to its packaging, and low weight.

As a result, Apple puts their manuals online. You can find them here.