Synching ipod incl playlists despite insufficient memory

Question

My iTunes library holds more songs than my ipod can. That was never a problem on my old computer, when I synched the iPod I simply got a selection of songs and all playlists synched as well. With my new computer this seems to be different though. I get an error message that my iPod does not have enough room and that I can either sync manually or let iTunes create the "iPod selection" playlist for me. That's fine, just that i'm missing my playlists. Is this a new thing, or do I need to un-select 6,000 songs in the library in order to have enough room for a playlist when I sync my iPod automatically?

Answer 1

It has nothing to do with having "enough room" for playlists. The playlist itself does not take any significant space.
On the Music tab in the iPod's pane in iTunes, you are either syncing +All songs and playlists+ or +Selected playlists+. If you let iTunes create a playlist for you with a subset of all your songs, that is just a regular playlist. Since that is now the only playlist selected to sync to on the Music tab, that is the only playlist that will appear on the iPod.
All you need to do is uncheck (in the Music tab) the special playlist iTunes created. You can even delete that playlist from the iTunes sidebar. Then, check all the playlists you want on the iPod (in the Music tab). Now sync it. Unless you have some really extensive playlists, the total number of unique songs on those playlists you created should be well below the capacity of the iPod. If you want to fill up the rest of the space with songs, make one more playlist called "More Songs" (or whatever you want to call it) and put other songs on it that are not on your other playlist, until you have used the remaining space on the iPod.