Manual sync v Auto Sync

Hello, first post. Probably wouldn't have had to if i didn't "upgrade" to 3.1.3 but such is life!
I've had a variety of ipods since 3rd gen and always used them in manual manage mode, mainly because I like being able to delete things straight from the ipod, make new playlists, change song names, genres etc.
Since I paid my £2.99 to upgrade a couple of weeks ago (I only did it to get a specific app and quite liked the look of the search function and the genius mixes) my pod has been all kinds of tempremental - problems with syncing, the dreaded error 6999 message, constantly having to restore etc. I gather there's problems with Windows 7 compatability but I seem to have ironed these out just by deciding to auto sync rather than manual.
Trouble is, i listen to most of my music on my work computer which obviously has no music on it's hard-drive. I now can't listen to anything because my ipods on auto sync and it appears you can't listen to songs as they've been greyed out when they appear in the library.
My question is, if I change to manual managing whilst I'm at work, will I be able to change back to auto syncing when I get back home without it deciding to wipe everything off and then re-sync everything again! Since I upgraded, it's taken me the best part of two weeks to get 5,000 songs back on my touch (I've still got about 3,000 to go!) and to have to do that everytime I switch between computers would be a nightmare. If I can't, are there any other media players that I can use to play music from my ipod, without changing the way it syncs?

Welcome to the discussions,
every time you change from manually managing music to autosync, all media content will be replaced with the content of that current library. See this article: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1535
The only thing to prevent this from happening would be not to switch back from "manually".

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Is there a way to auto sync playlists while manually managing your music?

I used to use WMP11 before I bought an iPod and used iTunes, and in that I was able to auto sync playlists to my Samsung dap, as well as being able to manually drag tracks/albums to it.
Since using iTunes, I have found it is not as accessible in this regard. Of course, you can opt to manually manage your music, but if you do this, it does not auto sync any info. This means that if I drag a playlist to my iPod and alter it at a later stage by adding more tracks, it won't alter it on the iPod unless I manually replace it with the amended one. It also means that any ratings that I set on my iPod do NOT get transfered to the tracks in iTunes when connected.
What I have done is set a playlist called 'iPod Tracks' in iTunes, and have dragged any extra albums to my iPod using that, as well as the smart playlist 'Top Tracks'. But the disadvantage of this is, if I drag a few songs from an album into my 'iPod Tracks' playlist, then later decide I want the whole album and drag that over, I end up with two of the same tracks in the playlist, which makes it look very untidy (although I am aware only one of each track will be on the iPod) so it is not ideal.
Surely there must be a way to auto sync playlists so that when you amend them in iTunes it does so on the iPod too, as well as manually drag over any extra tracks/albums you want without having a messy playlist work-around like I have done.
Any help/ideas?
Thanks in advance.

There is no way to sync content back to itunes. As you are aware there are a couple of unsupported ways to recover your content, you will need to decide if your content is valuable enough to go down this route.
If so and you are not comfortable with the procedures, I suggest taking the unit to a data recovery specialist with mac experience.

Hi at the moment my ipod is on manual sync mode. Is there any way of changing this to auto-sync without losing the music on my ipod or library? Possibly more importantly is there a way I can transfer the ratings from my ipod onto my i-tunes?

Hi at the moment my ipod is on manual sync mode. Is there any way of changing this to auto-sync without losing the music on my ipod or library? Possibly more importantly is there a way I can transfer the ratings from my ipod onto my i-tunes?
This is so I can delete music from my ipod knowing its rated on my i-tunes so I can then see later if I want to re-add it based on its rating
Thanks

Is there any way of changing this to auto-sync without losing the music on my ipod or library?
Unfortunately there is not.
Possibly more importantly is there a way I can transfer the ratings from my ipod onto my i-tunes?
Not without the help of third party software such as this one:
http://www.copytrans.net/copytrans.php
B-rock

I have an older IPOD that I'm having trouble getting new purchases on to my IPOD. I use to have a source list on the left hand side of screen where I dragged my purchases to and they downloaded. Can't find place to check manual vs. auto sync.

I have an older IPOD classic that I'm having trouble getting new purchases from library to IPOD. I use to have a IPOD icon in the source list on the left side of the screen. Now that is all gone. My purchases are coming up as recently purchased but can't figure out how to get them transferred to IPOD. I also can't find how to confirm setting is for manual not auto sync as the first computer I had blew up and am now using a different one. I haven't had any of these problems prior to the updates.

G'day Mate,
As an avid flight simmer I bought a new soundcard my previous was
an audigy 2 platinum ex with an external module I really liked but somehow all of a sudden I was getting a screech when using FS9 sor I opted to change to the present. Well stone the crows my soundcard was auto updated with new drivers and well you guessed it the soundcard did not show in the sound video controllers window No I have just joined this forum and it looks like3 you may have the answer for me . I am now going to do as you suggest and see what happens.
I shall return with the outcome of my dilemma.
Many thanks for your sound advice ( pardon the pun)
Pat
Ret'd Viet Vet

HT1535 Up til about 3 weeks ago songs from my Library would auto sync to my iphone 4 , now it no longer works? Have tried syncing manually etc

Up til about 3 weeks ago songs from my Library would auto sync to my iphone 4, now music I add to my library will not sync to my phone. I have tried this manually with no luck and even tried deleting Quicktime as suggested by another site but no luck. Please help?

Thank you for your reply,
I checked the songs, they work. The computer was authorized.
Here is another interesting thing, I went to my old computer, and everything syncs (but the library on that comp is old).
I just don't understand why the music won't transfer (because all the other info transfers just fine)
In the phone menu I have everything checked off properly such as (sync all music and playlists).
Hmm. Any other suggestions?

Auto sync is not working. How can I manually transfer music from my macbook pro iTunes to iphone 5?

Auto sync is not working. How can I manually transfer music from my macbook pro iTunes to iphone 5? My iMatch is turned on and I can direct downlad my music to the iPhone from the Cloud; however, I want to direct import All of my music from iTunes to my iPhone 5 via the connecting USB cable and it is not working. Yes, I have tried restarting both devices, and no autosync is not working nor is is it providing the avaialbile option to select music in iTunes on my Mac to then sync. Please help. Thanks

Please disregard. I figured it out. Answer for anyone else running into this problem: You have to turn off iTunes Match on both devices. Apparently, if you activate iTunes Match it deactivates your abiltiy to direct sync.

Auto sync iPod on one computer, manually manage on other?

I would like to be able to auto-sync my playlists to my iPod on one computer, but manually manage them on another.
I have my iPod set to auto-update with my music library at home, but when I use it on my G5 at work, all my songs are grayed out and I can't play them. I don't have any songs on the work computer itself; I just want to be able to use iTunes to play what's on my iPod.
It seems that the preference to auto vs manual update is for the iPod itself, not for iTunes on each computer.
Is there any way short of changing the preferences each time to do what I want to do? Am I missing something totally obvious?
Cheers!
Katy

It may be that both systems think they "own" your iPod. I don't know if this will help, but give this a try:
First, make sure that your home system is set to auto-sync and that it's synchronizing to your iPod correctly.
Then, on your work system:
1) locate the iTunes Library file (it normally will be in your users Home -> Music -> iTunes folder) and delete the folder.
2) While connecting the iPod to the computer, hold down the Command and Option keys. This should stop the iPod from auto synching with iTunes and the iPod will appear in the source list. Wait until you are sure the iPod has mounted, and that it will not auto sync and then you can let the keys go. This may take between 3 and 25 seconds depending on your computer.
3) Set the iPod preferences to manual synchronization. You should then, of course, be able to play tracks from your iPod.
Take the iPod home and connect it to your home system. If luck holds, it will then not switch it to manual.
Again, I don't know if this will help, but it's worth a try. Let us know if it works.
Good luck.

Auto-Sync Music, Manual-Sync Videos?

Is there any way to put Music playlists on auto-sync, but still have Videos on manual?
I really would like to be able to copy movies and TV shows to the iPod, and then back them up onto DVDs, so they don't take up precious space on my hard drive.
But sync-ing music playlists is convenient.
Podcasts can be managed separately; why not videoes? Or am I missing something?

Once you set your music to Auto-sync, you should have the option to either Auto-sync, or to manually sync the videos. The one confusing part of this is that if music is set to manual, videos are forced to be synced manually...
Let me know,
Matthew

Manually copying / Auto-sync.

Hi Everyone,
I just wanted to double-check on something. I want to manually copy music from iTunes to the iPod. I found the directions on how to do that, but I'm concerned about one thing. The directions start by telling me to connect the iPod to the laptop first. When I do this, won't it automatically begin to synchronize and delete stuff off the iPod first? Or will it prompt me before it does anything? Just trying to be extra-cautious. Thank you in advance for any assistance.
Regards,
--- Gary
HP Pavilion 9795c Windows XP

The directions assume that you are going to change to manual before making any changes to your iTunes or before connecting to a different computer. If you have deleted anything in the meantime and you have your iPod set to auto it will erase what you took off. If you are connecting to your own computer it will not give you a prompt as it recognises this as the home library.
However you can use a keyboard command to prevent your iPod auto-syncing with iTunes. While connecting the iPod to the computer on Windows hold down the Shift + Ctrl keys (on a Mac hold down the Option and Command (⌥ and ⌘) keys). This will stop the iPod from auto-syncing with iTunes and the iPod will appear in the source list. Wait until you are sure the iPod has mounted, and that it will not auto sync and then you can let the keys go. This may take between 20 to 30 seconds depending on your computer. Then go to Edit> Preferences>iPod and check the "Manually manage songs and playlists" box.
If you are changing to manual because you want to connect to a different computer it's a different story. If your iPod is set to update automatically take care when connecting to a different computer and iTunes. If it is set to automatically update you will get a message that your iPod is linked to a different library and asking if you want to link to this one and replace all your songs etc, press *No*. Pressing "Yes" will irretrievably remove all existing songs from your iPod. Your iPod should appear in the iTunes source list from where you can change the update setting to manual and use your iPod without the risk of accidentally erasing it: Using iPod with Multiple computers

Chnage from auto sync to manual ? help

a friend gave me an iphone 4 and set it up for auto sync. however i do not want to erase whats on my phone. ive followed the sync on the apple sit how to and when i click on this i phone and go down to options the auto synce is blanked out and so i click manuel manage. a box appears that says this phone is synced with another itunes libarary on tower do you want to erase. and i couldnt find an add to button. we have all had a go at working it out and have downloaded itunes a couple of times. my son also has an ipad andi get his games too. please can you help me out? non of my friends have anything apple and i have wasted weeks trying to sort this out and probably making it all worse.

You should always wipe the iPhone first if it's from a friend.
Read here on what your friend should do:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5661
Switching between manual and automatic, will always wipe the iPhone content first before a sync take place.

Manually Sync movies/tv shows and auto sync music

Is there a way to manually manage my movies and tv-shows but maintain auto-sync with my music? I have the box unchecked on movies and tv shows and it won't let me drag and drop any movies onto my ipod.

Yeah, I attempted that, too, because there are only some TV shows I want to watch, and it seems to avoid them regardless of what option I choose.
I tried to mix it up, but it just disabled the "manually manage", so I just use the "sync only checked" options and uncheck the things I don't want the iPod to sync.

Manually Sync TV Shows, but Auto Sync Music

Hey is there way to manually control what TV shows sync with your iphone, but have it so it autosyncs your music? Right now, I have my iphone set so that it auto-syncs certain playlists (including recently added, etc.) so that I don't have to really worry about music. But since there is obviously limited room for videos, is there any way to control what TV shows go on? Its really annoying how itunes auto sets it for you.
Thanks

Thanks for the response. If you read my title, I wanted to know how to make it so it automatically sycnes music, but so that I can manually put my TV shows on. Its annoying having to keep track of which music tracks I haven't updated yet on my iphone, I'd rather do it automatically for music. But for TV shows, since I can only put on 1 or episodes at most, I'd like control over which ones I can. Is this not feasible?

Auto Sync to Manual Sync

How do I change from Auto Sync to Manual Sync in iTunes?

Plug in iPod. In preferences there is a check box to turn on manually managing contents. Forget the exact wording.

How can I manually update videos while all else is on auto-sync?

Please forgive me for asking this again, but I need to free some much needed HD space on my MacBook Pro, so I want to get rid of the videos in iTunes without deleting them from my iPod, normally done via the manual update setting. But I do like the auto-sync of everything else (music, photos, etc.).
Can this be done?
Thanks for helping!

Bump!
No one?

Manually manage music but auto-sync one playlist?

Ok so basically, I'm trying to figure out if there is a way to manually manage my itunes library but automatcially sync one of my playlists. The reason being is that I have on artists that constantly changes (assorted singles) which is just a collection of different artists' singles. It would be nice to have itunes automatically sync that one playlist but allow me to maintain control of the rest of the library.
Otherwise, my only way to get around this is to create a folder that contains playlists for all the albums/artists I want to sync and have itunes autmotically sync everything that folder?????

It would be nice to have itunes automatically sync that one playlist but allow me to maintain control of the rest of the library.
Simple.
Uncheck Manually manage music and videos.
Select the Music tab.
Tick Sync music and Sync selected playlists.
Tick the playlist you want.
Drag the other music you want to the iDevice.

Manual sync v Auto Sync

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