Stopping video from syncing with iTunes

Question

A frequently asked question is: How do I stop video content from being synced from my Apple TV to my iTunes? As soon as someone asks that, some frequent posters respond: Why in the world would you want to do that? Your video won’t be backed up, etc. etc. (And by the way, you can't stop it from syncing.) Here’s why we want to do that:
A large number of Apple TV users download their video content directly to the Apple TV from the iTunes Store – Jobs announced that feature last winter, and Apple prominently markets it. Many of us don’t want to keep that video permanently, since it’s either rented movies or TV episodes we’ll never watch again. So we have no need to backup that content to our iTunes.
But if we also have music and photos to watch on the Apple TV, there aren’t any good options:
* Stream music and photos to the Apple TV: Photos are slow to stream, and often I have my laptop with iTunes out of the house when my wife wants to watch or listen. (We have a wireless g network with typical average transfer speeds of 8 – 10 Mbs, so streaming a 5 MB high-resolution photo from a 12 MP camera takes 3 – 5 seconds seconds, which is an eternity when you’re looking at family snapshots.)
* Sync video, music, and photos with iTunes: The videos hog space on the laptop’s hard drive, and more importantly, syncing hogs network bandwidth for 10 – 30 minutes for each TV episode (longer for movies). The video can be stored on an external drive, but that’s extra money and an annoying hassle to keep iTunes video on the external drive and music and photos on the internal drive (so they can travel with the laptop).
So here’s what I end up doing: When I start iTunes, if it starts syncing video with the Apple TV, I immediately cancel it. Usually, we’ll watch and delete that video from the Apple TV soon enough. But occasionally there’s a movie or TV episode on the Apple TV we haven’t watched yet, and I want to sync new photos or music with the Apple TV immediately. So I’m forced to wait for the video to sync with my iTunes before it will sync the photos (despite selecting the option “Sync photos before other media”). At that point, I have to remember to delete the video from my iTunes, but only after we watch it (Apple TV won’t let you delete a synced video). (Yes, I know I can go into Windows Explorer and delete the actual file and delete the dangling link from iTunes later, but that’s even more annoyance.)
This is all pretty clumsy for a consumer product. It would be trivial for Apple to add an option to iTunes that would prevent video from being synced to iTunes, and it would better support a very common use-case.

Answer 1

While holding down the Command + Option keys and connect your iPod. Wait until the iPod appears in iTunes before you let go of the keys. This will stop the iPod from doing an auto sync.
Once in iTunes you will have to restore your iPod by clicking on the Restore button. Once restored you will then have to sync your content back onto the iPod.