| The beauty of the iTunes/iPod system is that whatever music you add to your Mac or PC gets added to the iPod automatically, effortlessly, quickly. You've always got your entire music collection with you. Just plugging in the iPod inspires iTunes (or MusicMatch) to open up and begin syncing. It's conceivable, however, that you won't always want complete and automatic syncing to take place whenever you connect the 'Pod. Maybe you use the iPod primarily as an external hard drive (Chapter 11), so you don't especially care to have iTunes jumping up like a West Highland terrier every time you plug in the iPod. Maybe you want to synchronize only some of your music, not all of it. Fortunately, you're in complete control of the situation. 2.6.1 Stop Auto-Opening iTunes (or MusicMatch) If you like, you can command your jukebox software to open only when you want it to, rather than every time the iPod is plugged in. -
iTunes . When the iPod plugged in, click its icon in the Source list. Then click the iPod-shaped icon in the bottom right part of the iTunes window (identified in Figure 2-9). The iPod's Preferences box appears, where you can turn off the "Open iTunes when attached" checkbox. -
MusicMatch . Look for your iPod in the Portables Plus box, right-click it, and choose Options from the shortcut menu. Click the iPod tab in the box, and turn off "Automatically launch MusicMatch Jukebox on device connection." Click OK. NOTE With MusicMatch Jukebox and 2003-and-later iPods, you can also turn off the auto-launch in the iPod Manager box, which appears when you click the iPod icon in the Windows system tray. Turn off "Automatically launch application on iPod plug in." 2.6.2 Transfer Only Some Songs The auto-sync option pretty much removes any thought process required to move music to the iPod. But if you'd rather take control of the process, or you just want to transfer some songs or playlists, you can change the synchronization settings. To control how this syncing goes, proceed like this: -
iTunes (Mac and Windows) . With the main iTunes window open, click the name of your iPod in the Source list on the left side of the window. Look at the bottom of the iPod window for the four small buttons along the right side (Figure 2-9). Click the first button, which has a small graphic of an iPod on it, to open the iPod Preferences dialog box. -
MusicMatch Jukebox . When MusicMatch Jukebox opens after you plug the iPod in, the Portables Plus box also opens (Figure 2-10). The iPod's name appears in the list on the left side of the window. Figure 2-10. Scenes from MusicMatch. Top: When the iPod is connected and the Portables Plus window is before you, there are two ways to open the Options dialog box. One way is to click the Options button in the lower-right corner. The other is to right-click the iPod icon at the left, and choose Options from the shortcut menu, as shown here. Bottom: The Synchronization tab lets you change the way your iPod syncs its library to the PC. Turning off "Automatically synchronize on device connections'' stops the computer from trying to download the entire music library to the iPod. You can also sync up only the selected playlists. The "Ignore all content deletions" option stops MusicMatch from erasing iPod songs that aren't in its own library. There are two ways to open the Options box that lets you change your syncing preferences, as shown in Figure 2-10. Once the Options dialog box is open, click the third tab, labeled Synchronization. Whether you're using Mac or Windows, the dialog box before you lets you control how the autosyncing of your music library goes: 2.6.2.1 Complete automatic synchronization The wording is a little different ”"Automatically update all songs and playlists" (iTunes) or "Complete library synchronization" (MusicMatch Jukebox) ”but the effect is the same. Your computer's music collection and your iPod's are kept identical, no matter what songs you add or remove from the computer. If you have a PalmPilot or PocketPC, you may be thinking to yourself: " Ah, sweet synchronization! I won't have to worry about losing any data, because everything is updated all the time no matter where I input them! " There is a difference, however: Unlike a palmtop, the iPod's synchronization with the computer is a one-way street. If a song isn't in iTunes or MusicMatch, it won't be on your iPod. Delete a song from iTunes or MusicMatch Jukebox, and it disappears from the iPod the next time you sync up. NOTE One exception to that last remark: MusicMatch Jukebox offers an autosync option that never whacks tracks on the iPod, even if you've deleted them from the PC. It's the Ignore Content Deletions checkbox shown in Figure 2-10. This, of course, is the iPod's system for preventing music piracy. If song copying were a two-way street, people could wander around with their iPods, collecting songs from any computers they came across, and then copy the whole mass back up to their home computers. On the bright side, the autosync system means that you never worry about which songs are where. With the autosync option, what is in the computer's music library is on the iPod, and that's that. 2.6.2.2 Sync up selected playlists only Choosing to only sync up only certain playlists can save you some time, because you avoid copying the entire music library each time. This tactic is helpful when, say, you have a workout playlist that you fuss with and freshen up each week. You can choose to update only that playlist instead of waiting around for the whole iPod to sync. (This feature is also handy if you're a multi-iPod household. Each iPodder can maintain a separate playlist.) Once you turn on "Automatically update selected playlists only" (iTunes) or "Selected playlist synchronization" (MusicMatch Jukebox), you're shown a list of the playlists you've created (see Chapters 4 and 5). Turn on the ones you want synced. 2.6.2.3 Manually manage songs and playlists There may be times when you don't want any automatic synchronization at all. Maybe, for example, you've deleted some audio files from your hard drive that you still want to keep on your iPod. If you leave automatic syncing turned on, iTunes or MusicMatch will erase any songs from the iPod that it doesn't have itself. -
Manual control in iTunes . In iTunes for Mac or PC, turning on "Manually manage songs and playlists" means that no music will be auto- copied to the iPod. You'll have to do all the copying yourself. NOTE When you turn on this option, iTunes says, "Disabling automatic update requires manually unmounting the iPod before each disconnect." It's telling you that from now on, when you're finished working with the iPod, you'll have to click the Eject button in the lower-right corner of the iTunes window. This action safely releases the iPod from the computer connection. From now on, you'll have to drag songs onto the iPod manually (Figure 2-11). After you close the iPod Preferences box, click the small triangle next to your iPod in the Source list. It reveals all the songs and playlists on the iPod, which work just like any other iTunes playlists (see Chapter 4). Figure 2-11. You can add songs to the iPod playlists by dragging them out of your main iTunes Library list, delete them by clicking their names and then pressing the Delete key, click the New Playlist button (the + icon) to create a fresh playlist, drag playlists onto playlists to merge them, and so on. To delete songs off the iPod, click its icon in your iTunes Source list. Then, in the main song-list window, click the songs you don't want anymore, and then press Delete. The songs will vanish , both from the iPod's list in iTunes and from the iPod itself. NOTE The Only Update Checked Songs option in the iPod Preferences box (Figure 2-9) can be useful in this situation. It ensures that iTunes will update the iPod only with songs whose title checkmarks you've turned on. If you have songs that aren't part of your iTunes music library, make sure they're unchecked ”and therefore unerased ”during an automatic synchronization. -
Manual control in MusicMatch Jukebox . To turn off autosync in Windows, connect your iPod. When MusicMatch Jukebox brings up the Portables Plus window, open the Options dialog box (see Figure 2-10 for instructions). Click the Synchronization tab and turn off "Automatically synchronize device upon connection." Once you've deactivated automatic synchronization, what's on the iPod is up to you. You can add songs to it by dragging them from the My Library window onto the iPod's track list in the Portables Plus window. Or right-click the iPod icon and choose Add Track(s) to iPod from the shortcut menu. Or click Add at the bottom of the Portables Plus window. In any case, when you're ready to perform the synchronization that you've lined up like this, click the Sync button in the right corner. TROUBLESHOOTING MOMENT "Do Not Disconnect" The universal symbol for NO!, pictured as a circle with a slash through it ( ), is a common sight when the iPod is connected to the Macintosh or PC. It appears whenever the two drives are busy exchanging music and data (and probably a little hard-disk humor on the side). If you're using the iPod as an external hard disk, or you've turned off the iPod's automatic synchronization feature, you'll see a lot of this Dr. . Breaking the connection while all this is going on can result in lost files and possibly a scrambled song. So if you need to unplug the iPod and get going for work, be sure to unmount it properly (remove its icon from the screen) first. Macintosh : You can disconnect the iPod by clicking the Eject button in the iTunes window; by dragging the desktop icon of the iPod into the Mac's Trash; or by Control-clicking the iPod icon on your screen and choosing Eject from the contextual menu. Windows : With the iPod selected in the iTunes Source list, click the Eject button in the lower right corner of the window to safely unmount the iPod. In MusicMatch Jukebox, click Eject in the lower-left corner of the Portables Plus window (Figure 2-9). When you've ejected the iPod correctly, its screen flashes a large happy check mark (older iPods) or pulls up the standard main menu, ready for action (2003 and later models). | NOTE You can send a freshly created playlist and its accompanying songs right to the iPod by clicking Send in the MusicMatch Jukebox Plus Playlist window. To delete songs or playlists from the iPod, right-click the item and choose Remove from the shortcut menu, or click the unwanted material and then click Remove in the Portables Plus window. (Deleting a playlist doesn't remove its songs from your iPod.) NOTE You can change your iPod's name to something more exotic or memorable than just "iPod" or "[Your name]'s iPod" in a couple of different places. In iTunes, click its icon in the Source list once to highlight it, pause, and click again to open the renaming box. Type away. In MusicMatch Jukebox, in the iPod Options box (Figure 2-10), click the iPod tab and type in a new handle in the box marked Device Name. |