Selective copying from iTunes to iPod?

The music in my iTunes library exceeds the capacity (30GB) of my iPod. Is there a way that I can keep all the music in my iTunes library but copy only those songs I currently want on my iPod (and will fit)?
I'm hoping I don't have to go the the trouble of removing songs from iTunes that I may want to put back on my iPod at some later time.
Thanks

A selective method you can use to auto-sync your iPod with iTunes is "Sync Music - Selected playlists, artists and genres". Syncing selected playlists is just like syncing your whole library only on a smaller scale and more "selectively". This is particularly useful when your library is larger than the capacity of your iPod. When your iPod is is set to sync selected playlists it automatically picks up any changes you made to that playlist in iTunes since you last connected. Anything you added to the playlist will be added to the iPod, anything you deleted from it will be deleted from the iPod. In other words the iTunes playlist and the iPod are kept "in sync".
Open iTunes and create a playlist to update your iPod from, call it -My iPod for example (the dash will position it at the top of the playlists in Sources). Drag whatever content you want to have into the playlist. Now connect your iPod and when it appears in the Source list click on the iPod icon to bring up the preference tabs in the main pane. Go to the Music tab and choose Sync Music and the Selected playlists, artists and genres radio button. Choose the playlist you just made from the selection and click Apply. You can also sync from any existing playlists by choosing the same setting, you just need to make sure that the size of the playlists don't exceed the capacity of your iPod.

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Error message while copying from iTunes to iPod

My daughter's iPod shuffle (1st gen) was not charging so I updated it to the lastest software (1.1.5). While doing so, iTunes required an upgrade as well (7.5). Both are updated. But it is still not charging. That's my first problem.
I decided to see if it was a problem with my computer. So I tried using my other daughter's iPod. It was charging and playing music. While I was at it, she wanted to add new songs. For some reason I had difficulties so I updated her iPod software to 1.1.5 as well.
When I went to put songs on it from iTunes, I get an error message "<song name> was not copied to the iPod "<ipod name>" because it cannot be played on this iPod.
I now have an iPod that has no music on it. (Plus a second iPod that's not charging.) Both iPods are about 15 months old. They are shuffles (1st gen) and we have XP on our computer.
Can anyone help.

Some formats that play in iTunes are not compatible with the 1st generation iPod shuffle, Aiff and Apple Lossless for instance. Apple Lossless is not supported on the 2nd generation shuffle: iPod shuffle: Compatible audio formats
I don't use a shuffle but it has a function that other iPods don't have, on-the-fly conversion, the option to "Convert higher bit rate songs to 128 kbps AAC". You should check this out, this should save you converting your lossless files in iTunes. You can find details on pages 12 and 13 of the manual: iPod shuffle User Guide
Quote: "If this option is selected, songs encoded in AIFF or Apple Lossless format are
converted to 128 kbps when transferred to iPod shuffle (the song files in iTunes aren’t
affected). Otherwise, iPod shuffle doesn’t play songs encoded in those formats"

Songs not copying from iTunes to iPod

I am running iTunes for Windows, version 11.0.4. I have an 8GB iPod Nano generation 2, with software version 1.1.3 on it. I can play songs in my library through iTunes with no problem, and I can play any songs that are on my iPod with no problems when using headphones or plugged into an aux jack on my car stereo. Here are my issues:
When I attempt to transfer songs from iTunes to my iPod, the message "Copying 1 of #: <song name>" in the display (# being the number of sogs I'm trying to copy.) The problem is, nothing ever happens. No progress bar, no going onto song 2, nothing. It just sits there, and the eject button for the iPod shows the sync icon spinning. I cannot stop the transfer by clicking the X next to the message, it just continues on, doing nothing. To stop it, I need to click on the eject button, which does eject the iPod. When I look on the iPod, the one song it said was copying is there. I can play it and it works fine. When I plug the iPod back into my PC, I cannot see the songs on the iPod. They just don't show up. Turning the sidebar on, I see the iPod connected, but there is no "Music" option listed under it. In the new view, I can click on the iPod, select "On This iPod" and I see "Music" as a playlist, but there is nothing listed under it. When I click Autofill, all it does is sit there for a few minutes, saying that it is autofilling the iPod, but only one song shows up on the iPod.
To try and fix this issue, I have uninstalled and reinstalled iTunes, and also did a Restore iPod. Neither worked. I tried plugging my USB cable into a different port. The only thing I have not tried is a different USB cable, as I don't have one. Once I get one I can attempt that, but I doubt that's the issue, as iTunes has no problem seeing my iPod, just transfering songs to it.
Does anybody have any ideas why this may be happening? The worst part about this is since I did a restore, I now have NO songs on my iPod (except for the 2 that I did manage to copy onto it.) Thanks in advance for anybody that can help me out!

For some reason, hooking the iPod up to my wife's machine (which it worked fine on) seems to have done the trick. When I reattached it to my machine, it updates fine from iTunes.
Wish I had tried that first before restoring it.

Not Copying From iTunes to iPod, No Error Message

I am having a very annoyingly difficult time. I am trying to add music to my iPod like I have been for years now. For some reason, iTunes is simply not letting me. I try to drag and drop a playlist onto my iPod, and the playlist is created on the iPod, but no music gets transferred! If I do the "sync" option, it gives me all kinds of problems with "can't find" the songs. When I show iTunes where the music is again, it still won't copy the songs over!
It seems the ONLY songs it will transfer over for me are ones that I had to convert to AAC because they were WMA format.
I have reset my iPod back to factory defaults, I have done everything I can think of. Nothing works, and it's driving me absolutely nuts!
I would really appreciate if someone could help me find the way to fix this issue so I can keep using my iPod. Thanks!

For some reason, hooking the iPod up to my wife's machine (which it worked fine on) seems to have done the trick. When I reattached it to my machine, it updates fine from iTunes.
Wish I had tried that first before restoring it.

RealPlayer 16 video file conversion, copying from iTunes to iPod.

I recently upgraded to RealPlayer 16 and encountered some problems I had not experienced previously with copying converted files to my iPod. I found that by downloading them in RealPlayer format (.rv), and then selecting iTunes for PC as the output format, I was able to have RealPlayer copy them to my iTunes Library. When I chose iPod/iPhone as the format, the files contained only audio and a green or black screen. To copy them to the iPod, you do so my syncing and applying them to your device. I don't know if anyone else has experienced this particular situation, but if so, I hope this informaton will be helpful.

is there artwork for every song? like make sure they all have one, for EACH individual song, because mine didnt have all of them and it showed that it did, so i went through every song and made sure it had an artwork in the bottom left hand corner. it took a while, but im pretty sure thats the only way to do it. if this doesnt work, then i'm out of ideas...sorry

Tunes not copying from iTunes to iPod -- frustration

I have a new iPod, 5th generation 60 gig. I have about 20,000 tunes in my songlist. Four (4) of them will not load into the iPod from iTunes. I have AppleCare on my powerbook, so I called to see what could be done. I was told that I have to manually look through both lists to find which tunes aren't loading. We're talking about 20,000 songs. About 300 pages printed out, single-spaced. Hello? This is exactly the sort of thing computers are for. If there was a way to tell it to compare the lists I'd have my answer in less than a second. It might not be a big deal to the 200 or 300 song user, but I got the big iPod because I want to use it. Anyway, if anyone has any idea of a workaround, I'd surely appreciate it. Thanks a ton.
Powerbook G4, iMac G5 Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Again, there's 20,000 tunes and over 4000 artists, most of them doing several tunes. There has to be an easier way than looking through lists. Everything is up to date. The OS, iTunes, the most recent iPod updater, everything. Every file is AAC. If it couldn't find a file it would, I think, say so. The basic issue is that there seems to be nothing built into iTunes to deal with the possibility of this kind of problem and I cannot for a minute believe that I'm the only person who has had something like this happen. And by the way, every file is a legal copy, owned by me.

Some songs do not copy from iTunes to iPod

This is very frustrating. I have a 5th Generation 60gig iPod. There are about 20,300 songs in my library, none of them from the iTunes store. All legal, all owned by me and I have the CDs to prove it. When I update the iPod all but about 4 or 5 songs copy over. The frustrating thing is there's no way to find out which songs are not copying over to the iPod, so I can't tell if there's a problem with them or what. AppleCare tells me the only way to find out is to visually compare the list on the iPod with the list in iTunes. I have 20,000 songs here and allegedly one of the most powerful computers you can get and I have to compare two nearly identical lists visually?? Oh, by the way I'm running 10.4.6 and the latest version of iTunes and the latest iPod update. This never happened with my 4th Generation iPod. Any thoughts at all of what to do would certainly be appreciated.
Powerbook G4, iMac G5 Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Are you basing the few that don't get sent to your ipod on the file count? Could there be duplicates? I've noticed that there are some of my movies that don't get sent over but I usually get a warning that they aren't in a compatable format.
There is an option in either file or edit (can't remember exactly where, I'm at work) but you can filter to show all the duplicates. I've noticed that when I drag files over to be copied to my ipod and there are duplicates, it only does one.
After you find the culprits, another thing would be to export the file to your desktop. Delete it from iTunes then reimport it making sure of the file format.
just a thought

Audiobook will not copy from iTunes to iPod!

I've been using my iPod for some time now, and this is a new problem for me. I have copied an audiobook (mp3) from the cd to iTunes. All the chapters show up there, but when I try to drag them to my iPod, only chapters 1 through 5 show up - the others don't copy. Any ideas? This has always worked before - I don't know what has changed!

Are you basing the few that don't get sent to your ipod on the file count? Could there be duplicates? I've noticed that there are some of my movies that don't get sent over but I usually get a warning that they aren't in a compatable format.
There is an option in either file or edit (can't remember exactly where, I'm at work) but you can filter to show all the duplicates. I've noticed that when I drag files over to be copied to my ipod and there are duplicates, it only does one.
After you find the culprits, another thing would be to export the file to your desktop. Delete it from iTunes then reimport it making sure of the file format.
just a thought

Artwork not copying from iTunes to iPod

I've spent a TON of time copying artwork to some of the MP3's that aren't available in iTunes, and copied those songs over to my 30GB Video iPod. The thing is that the artwork isn't following the songs over. From my iPod I then have to manually find the cover on the internet, download it, and insert it into the individual albums, which takes a heckuva long time.
I've restored my iPod, but it still does the same thing.
Am I missing something or is anyone else having the same problem?

is there artwork for every song? like make sure they all have one, for EACH individual song, because mine didnt have all of them and it showed that it did, so i went through every song and made sure it had an artwork in the bottom left hand corner. it took a while, but im pretty sure thats the only way to do it. if this doesnt work, then i'm out of ideas...sorry

10 songs will not copy from iTunes to iPod.

I have been having a problem when syncing my iPod. At the end of the sync, a dialog box appears, saying 'some of the items in the iTunes library, including "song name", were not be copied to the iPod "iPod name" because they could not be found". In total there are 10 songs that I can not copy to my iPod, they were all purchases off Amazon Music, as I had a voucher for the site at that time. When I initially purchased the songs, they were copied to my iPod without a problem, it is only recently when syncing my iPod that this has occured. If anyone could explain to me how to fix this problem, I would be extremely grateful, thank you in advance!

Hi, zoed0775.
Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.
If an exclamation mark next to iTunes media in your library means that either the media is missing from the computer or iTunes is not directed to where the media is located. Here is an article that will help you locate the missing media. I have also included a list of icons in iTunes 11 as it will direct you to the best course of action.
iTunes: Finding lost media and downloads
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1408
iTunes 11 for Windows: Symbols used in iTunes
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH12306
If the media that is missing has been purchased from the iTunes Store, you can delete the problematic media and download it again free by following the steps below.
Downloading past purchases from the App Store, iBookstore, and iTunes Store
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2519
Cheers,
Jason H.

How do I download only selected audiobooks from iTunes to my iPod.? I don't want to download the whole library..i have an iPod classic and Mac laptop with the latest ios.

How do I download only selected audiobooks from iTunes to my iPod.? I don't want to download the whole library..i have an iPod classic and Mac laptop with the latest ios.

If you check songs, simply sync the entire library.
But I highly recommend (and it is far simpler) to create a playlist (or multiple playlists) and select only that playlist to sync.
Leave everything checked.
Then simply add/remove from these playlists and sync away.

Deleted items from Ipod Nano to make room for new. Emptied trash. Still getting error message when I try to copy items from ITunes to Ipod. What should I do now?

Deleted items from Ipod Nano to make room for new. Emptied trash. Still getting error message when I try to copy items from ITunes to Ipod. What should I do now?

If you delete songs (and other items) from the main iTunes library, yes, you need to empty the Trash because iTunes puts the song files into the Trash. When deleting items from an iPod, the items are not being deleted from the main iTunes library, so nothing should end up in the Trash.
Hopefully, you are not deleting items from your main iTunes library, just to sync those deletions from the iPod. If you are, there is a better way. You can post back if you want more info...

Recover deleted songs from iTunes using iPod

I will preface by saying, I am an idiot, so please phrase your answers like you're talking to a 10 year old. I have a new Mac (my first) and I had iTunes all set up and working correctly until somehow I deleted a folder with half my music in it. It is all on my iPod, however. How do I get it from my iPod back into iTunes? There is some SINCERE gratitude here for anyone who can help.
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If your iPod is set to update automatically you can use a keyboard command to prevent it auto-syncing with iTunes. While connecting the iPod to the computer on a Mac hold down the Option and Command (⌥ and ⌘ Apple) keys. This will stop the iPod from auto-syncing with iTunes and it 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.
Change your update setting to manual so that you can use your iPod without the risk of accidentally erasing it. Also when using a lot of the utilities your iPod needs to be enabled for disc use, changing to manual update will do this by default. Check the "manually manage music and videos" box in Summary then press the Apply button: Managing content manually on iPod
Once you are safely connected there are a few things you can do to restore your iTunes from the iPod. If you have any iTMS purchases the transfer of purchased content from the iPod to authorised computers has been introduced with iTunes 7. A paragraph on it has been added to this article:: Transfer iTunes Store purchases using iPod
The transfer of non iTMS content such as songs imported from CD is designed by default to be one way from iTunes to iPod. However there's a manual method of copying songs from your iPod to your Mac. The procedure is a bit involved but if you're interested it's available at this link: Two-way Street: Moving Music Off the iPod
If you prefer something more automated there are a number of third party utilities that you can use to retrieve music files and playlists from your iPod, this is just a selection. I use Senuti but have a look at the web pages and documentation for the others too, you'll find that they have varying degrees of functionality and some will transfer movies, videos, photos and games as well. You can also read reviews of some of them here: Wired News - Rescue Your Stranded Tunes
Senuti Mac Only
iPodRip Mac Only
PodWorks Mac Only
PodView Mac Only
iPodAccess Mac & Windows
YamiPod Mac & Windows
PodUtil Mac & Windows
iPodCopy Mac & Windows
Keep your iPod in manual mode until you have reloaded your iTunes and you are happy with your playlists etc then it will be safe to return it auto-sync. I would also advise that you get yourself an external hard drive and back your stuff up in case you have problems again. External drives are relatively inexpensive these days and you can get loads of storage for a reasonable outlay.

Problem transferring video from iTunes to iPod

I can't transfer video from iTunes to iPod. DVD movies converted to MP4 using Cucusoft software and a TV show purchased from iTunes Music Store won't transfer. The only video that has tranferred successfully is a video podcast called "Tiki Bar". It did ok.
60GB iPod with click wheel Windows XP Pro

Connect the iPod and go to edit-->preferenes. Click the iPod tab. Click the videos tab under that. Make sure automatically update all videos is selected.
Note: Your preferences may look slightly different.
Also, try playing the video you purchased from the iTunes Music Store for a few seconds on your computer.
btabz

Music wont upload from iTunes to iPod

When I try and upload songs from itunes to ipod all i get is a message saying "songs on the ipod "IPOD" cannot be updated because all of the playlists selected for updating no longer exist". Can somebody please offer some advise on what I should be doing to solve this.

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=121728&tstart=150

Selective copying from iTunes to iPod?

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