Battery replacement IPod

Question

I always thought that I could return my Ipod to Apple to have the battery replaced.  Now I'm reading that if you send it to Apple, they will send you a replacement IPod and not transfer any of your songs.  Is that true?  I just want a new battery!  Cindy

Answer 1

That doesn't make sense. Once you import a song into iTunes, the iTunes progamme should keep the information about the song and therefore there should be no problem "recognising" the song, why would that change? If it is changing, then perhaps Windows Media Player or a similar programme is changing the file information.
Or is that not what you meant by recognise? I'm also not sure what you mean by "showing the source". Do you mean that the songs get an exclamation mark next to them and if you try playing them you see a message about not being able to find the file?
If so, then either the song's filenames are being changed, the files are being moved after you have imported them into iTunes, or the drive they're stored on isn't ready when you open iTunes.
You can import a song into iTunes and then change the song name etc. in iTunes, but if you rename the "filename" then iTunes will lose the song. If another programme changes the filename, then of course, iTunes will no longer know what it's called.
If you move the file after importing, then once again, iTunes loses track of the song.
If the iTunes Library is stored on a drive external to the computer, then that drive must be on and ready before iTunes is started. Otherwise, when iTunes looks for its Library, it will not find it. Then it will start a new empty Library on the C:\drive.
Whatever the issue, you should not have to re-import songs on a continual basis, nor should there be any need to delete them, unless you don't want them any more.
For instance, I import an album, make any changes necessary to the album's titles etc. and then use Sync with the iPod. If I want to then change any more information, I do it in the Library, then connect the iPod to iTunes for a Sync which will then make the changes on the iPod, and at the same time play counts are transferred from the iPod into iTunes (if you like play counts - many do). That way, I manage my iTunes Library, but let iTunes Sync changes between the Library and iTunes.
I do not try to make Library changes on the iPod itself while it's connected to iTunes. What I do set - once only - when the iPod is connected to iTunes, are the options for the Photos folder that will be used, that All Ticked Songs and Vidoes are Synced, and All Ticked Podcasts are put on the iPod.
That way, when my iPod goes to "another place", my new iPod simply has to be connected to iTunes and everything that was on the old iPod would now be on the new one. In fact, I had to do just that, when my 30GB iPod needed a new battery (yes, I got it from Apple), then when my music library became too big for the 30GB iPod, I bought the 160GB Classic.
Acutally, the is one other time when this becomes important. If ever your iPod requires a Restore, be aware that the Restore procedure erases all the content from the iPod. I don't recall ever having to perform a restore myself, but there are times when it does happen. For such events, iTunes has the Restore feature, which you may notice on the Device/Summary pane (tab) that shows up when the iPod is connected to iTunes.