How to Manually Update an iPod?

If you choose the manual option, you must manually move songs and playlists onto the iPod. To do this, use the following steps:

1. Connect your iPod to your computer.
2. Select the iPod you want to update. If it isn’t expanded already, click the Expansion triangle next to the iPod on the Source List. In the iTunes Content pane, you will see all the songs in the iPod’s music library. Under the iPod’s icon on the Source List, you will see the playlists it contains
3. To add a playlist to the iPod, drag it onto the Source List and drop it on the iPod icon. When you are over the iPod, the plus sign will appear next to the pointer to show you that you can release the mouse button. When you do so, the playlist and the songs it contains will be moved onto the iPod.
4. To remove a playlist from the iPod, select it by clicking it in the list of playlists under the iPod and pressing the Delete key. You will see a prompt asking you to confirm that you want to delete the playlist.
5. Click OK. The playlist will be deleted from the iPod.
6. To add songs to the iPod, select the source containing those songs, such as the Library. The contents of that source will be shown in the Content pane. Drag the songs you want to add from the Content pane and drop them on the iPod’s icon. The songs you selected will be copied into the iPod’s music library.
7. To remove songs from the iPod, select them in the Content pane and press the Delete key. These songs will be deleted from the iPod. They will also be deleted from any playlists on the iPod containing them.
8. When you are done updating the iPod, unmount it by selecting its icon and clicking the Eject button. After the iPod has been successfully unmounted, it will disappear from the Source List and you will see the “OK to disconnect” message on its screen.

You must eject an iPod that you manually update before disconnecting it because iTunes doesn’t know when it should shut down any processes it is using that are related to the iPod. Because it is, in effect, a hard disk, the iPod must not be in use when you disconnect it; otherwise, its data can be damaged. When the update process is handled by iTunes automatically, it “ejects” the iPod for you. When you do the update manually, you need to tell iTunes that you are done so that it can prepare the iPod to be disconnected safely.

Updating Specific Songs and Playlists Automatically

If you chose the Automatically update selected playlists only option, the playlists you selected are updated on your iPod each time you connect it to your computer. To change the contents of your iPod’s music library, change the contents of the playlists that you have selected to update. When you connect the iPod to your computer, those playlists will be updated. For example, for playlists, you can add songs, remove songs, and so on. The next time you connect your iPod to your computer, the changes you made will be reflected on the iPod’s version of that playlist.

Every time you connect your iPod to your computer, the update will be performed. You will see the update information in the Information area of the iTunes window, and the iPod icon will flash red. When the process is complete, you will see the “iPod update is complete” message in the Information area, and the “OK to disconnect” message will be displayed on the iPod’s screen. Then, it is safe to disconnect your iPod from your computer.

How to Configure iTunes So You Manually Manage Songs and Playlists?

When you choose this option, you manually place songs and playlists on your iPod. To choose this option, do the following steps:

1. Connect your iPod to your computer. It will appear on the Source List and an update determined by the current update option (such as fully automatic) will be performed.
2. Select the iPod for which you want to set an update option and click the iPod Options button. The iPod Preferences dialog box will appear.
3. Click the Manually manage songs and playlists radio button. You will see a prompt explaining that with this option, you must manually unmount the iPod before disconnecting it; read the information and click OK to close the prompt. (I’ll explain what this means in a later section.)
4. Click OK. The dialog box will close. An expansion triangle will appear next to the iPod on the Source List, and all the playlists stored on it will be shown under its icon. You can then manually add or remove songs or playlists (the steps to do this appear in a later section).

How to Configure iTunes to Automatically Update All Songs and Playlists?

Choosing the “fully automatic” method is automatic in itself in that this is the default option. However, should you ever need to choose this option, you can do so with the following steps:

1. Connect your iPod to your compute. iTunes will open automatically and the iPod will appear on the Source List.
2. Select the iPod on the Source List and click the iPod Options button. You’ll see the iPod Preferences dialog box.
3. Click the Automatically update all songs and playlists radio button.
4. Click OK. The dialog box will close, and the automatic update will be performed. The next time you connect your iPod to your computer, iTunes will attempt to update its library automatically. As long as there is enough space on your iPod, you won’t need to do anything else.

Every time you connect your iPod to your computer, the update will be performed. You will see the update information in the Information area of the iTunes window, and the iPod icon will flash red. When the process is complete, you will see the “iPod update is complete” message in the Information area, and the “OK to disconnect” message will be displayed on the iPod’s screen. Then, it is safe to disconnect your iPod from your computer.

If you use the “fully automatic” method when your iPod doesn’t have enough space to store all your iTunes Library, iTunes creates a special playlist called nameofyouripod
Selection, where nameofyouripod is the name you gave your iPod when you configured it.

This playlist contains a selection of music from your iTunes Library that will fit on your iPod. If you don’t change the update option, iTunes will update this playlist (and only this playlist) each time you connect your iPod to your computer. (It actually changes the update mode to “Automatically update selected playlists only” and chooses the nameofyouripod Selection playlist on the playlists list in the iPod Preferences dialog box.) You can use this playlist just like the others in your iTunes Source List, such as adding songs to it, removing songs from it, changing their order, and so on.

Understanding How iTunes Updates Playlists on the iPod

When iTunes updates a playlist on your iPod, it takes a “snapshot” of that playlist and places it on the iPod. If you change the playlist in some way, the next time you update your iPod, the previous “snapshot” is replaced by the new playlist.
For example, suppose you have a smart playlist that is dynamic and plays the 50 songs you have played most. As you listen to songs in iTunes, the contents of that playlist change to reflect the songs you have listened to. When that playlist is moved to the iPod, it contains the songs as they were in the playlist when you performed the update. The playlist on the iPod will remain unchanged until you perform the next update. At that time, if the contents of the playlist have changed, the revised playlist will replace the one currently stored on the iPod.
The same principle applies when you make changes to a playlist manually, too. For example, if you sort a playlist to change the order in which songs play, that order will be reflected in the playlist when you update it onto your iPod. If you change the order of the songs in the playlist again in iTunes, the next time you update the iPod, the songs will play in the new order on the iPod.
When iTunes moves a playlist from its Library onto an iPod, it moves only the songs in that playlist onto the iPod. This can sometimes be confusing. For example, if you purchase an album by a specific artist and then include only some of the songs on that album in a playlist that gets moved to an iPod, only those songs by that artist in the playlist get moved onto the iPod. As an example, this can be confusing the first time you browse your iPod by artist and can’t figure out why a song you know you have by that artist is not on your iPod.

Understanding Your Synchronization Options

Three basic options are available for managing the library of music on your iPod:

• Automatically Update All Songs and Playlists—When you use this method, the entire process is automatic; iTunes makes sure your iPod’s music library is an exact copy of your iTunes Library each time you connect your iPod to your computer.
• Automatically Update Selected Playlists Only—When you use this method, iTunes still manages the update process for you, but it updates only the specific playlists you select.
• Manually Manage Songs and Playlists—When you use this method, you manually move songs and playlists onto your iPod.

When you first connected your iPod to your computer, an automatic method was used to move songs onto your iPod. However, if there were more songs in your iTunes Library than could be stored on your iPod, some slight of hand was done by iTunes so that you wouldn’t have to get into the details of this process before listening to music on your iPod. In that case, iTunes created a playlist containing a selection of your music that would fit on your iPod, and iTunes moved that music to your iPod so you can listen to it.
After the first time, you need to choose the synchronization method you want to use. Finding the right method for you is a matter of preference, but I can provide some general guidelines for you.
If all the music in your iTunes Library will fit onto your iPod (the space required for your iTunes Library is less than your iPod’s disk capacity), I recommend you use the option Automatically Update All Songs and Playlists. This option is the easiest because it requires literally no work on your part. Each time you connect your iPod to your computer, the update process is performed automatically, and you will have your complete music collection available on your iPod.
If the size of your iTunes Library is larger than the disk capacity of your iPod, managing the music library on your iPod is slightly more difficult.
If you take full advantage of iTunes playlists to create collections of music to which you listen, using the option Automatically Update Selected Playlists Only is a good choice. After you choose the playlists you want to be updated, iTunes handles the process of keeping them up to date for you so you don’t have to think about it each time you connect your iPod to your computer. Of course, you need to make sure you create and can select playlists that contain the music you
want to be able to listen to on your iPod. This can require some effort, but because playlists are so useful, you will likely do that work anyway so you can listen to them on your computer.
Finally, if you don’t use a lot of playlists or you simply want to choose the specific music you want to place on your iPod, you can use the manual method to do so.
After you have determined how you want to manage your iPod’s music library, you need to configure iTunes to implement your decision.

How to Determine Free Space You Have on an iPod

You have two ways to determine how large the disk is in your iPod.
One is to refer to the documentation that came with your iPod, or perhaps you can simply remember the size of iPod you purchased. At press time, the possibilities were about 4GB for an iPod mini and 15GB, 20GB, or 40GB for an iPod. This method is easy and provides a pretty good estimate of the room on your iPod’s disk.

If you can’t remember or want to determine the iPod’s available disk space more accurately, you can get this information directly from the iPod itself. To do this, choose Main menu, Settings, About. On the resulting About menu, you’ll see the capacity of your iPod’s disk The capacity shown on the About menu is the amount of storage space available for your music. Some space is required to store the files needed for the iPod to function. This is the reason that the capacity you see will always be slightly less than the rated size of the iPod’s disk.

How to Determine the Size of Your iTunes Library?

You can determine how much storage space you need in order to move your entire music collection in just a few steps. Open iTunes. Choose Library in the Source List. With the Browser open, select All in the Genre or Artist column. The iTunes window will show all the music you have placed in your Library. Look at the Source Information area at the bottom of the iTunes windo. Here, you will see the number of songs, the total playing time, and the disk space required to store all the music in your Library. The number you should be most interested in is the disk space required because that is what you use to determine if all your music can fit onto your iPod’s disk.

Building an iTunes Music Library

You can get music for your iTunes Library from three main sources: your audio CDs, the iTunes Music Store, and the Internet. Although the specific steps you use to add music from these various sources to your Library are a bit different, the end result is the same. Your iTunes Library will contain all the music in your collection. The iTunes Library and the playlists you create within iTunes are the sources of music that you listen to with an iPod. The two general steps to creating these music sources are to build your iTunes Library and to create iTunes playlists.

Adding and Using Apple’s iPod Remote

Some iPod models include Apple’s iPod Remote. This clever gadget is a control that you plug into the iPod’s Headphones port and Remote port and then plug your headphones or speakers into it. When you do this, you can use the controls on the remote to control your iPod. This is particularly useful when you are carrying your iPod in a belt case or in another way such that its controls aren’t easily accessible. Because the remote is on a wire, you can place it in an accessible location using its clip, such as on your clothing.

The controls on the remote work just like those on the iPod itself. One exception to this is that you can use the Volume control on the remote to change the volume regardless of what screen is currently being displayed. The other is that you don’t have a Scroll pad or Click Wheel on the remote, so you will choose your music using the iPod’s controls and then control its playback using the remote.

Monitoring an iPod’s Battery

Even though the iPod’s battery lasts a long time, it will eventually run out of juice and your music can come to a crashing halt. To prevent this, keep an eye on your iPod’s Battery icon. As your battery drains, the shaded part of the battery will decrease to indicate how much power you have left. When ¼ or less is shaded, you should think about recharging your iPod.

Creating and Using an iPod On-The-Go Playlist

Working with playlists that you create in iTunes is very useful, but you can also create a single playlist on the iPod and listen to that playlist as much as you’d like. This enables you to create a playlist when you are away from your computer in order to listen to a specific collection of music. To add a song to your On-The-Go playlist, view a list, such as the list of songs on an album, on which the song is listed. Highlight the song you want to add and hold the Select button down until the highlighting on the song flashes. Continue adding songs using the same process until you have selected a group of songs.

To see the contents of your On-The-Go playlist, choose Main menu, Playlists, On-The-Go. You will see the contents of the On-The-Go playlist that you have created. You can play this playlist just like any other playlist on your iPod.

If you want to clear the On-The-Go playlist, choose Main menu, Playlists, On-The-Go, Clear Playlist, Clear Playlist (no, that isn’t a mistake, you choose this command twice, but each is on a different screen). All the songs that were in the playlist will be removed, and it will become empty again. (The songs that were in that playlist are not removed from your iPod; the playlist is just cleared of those songs.)

Playing the iPod Way

The basics of listening to music are cool. Now let’s take a look at some of the cool iPod playback features that aren’t so obvious.
You can move around menus while music is playing just like you can when it isn’t. As you choose other menus, the music will continue to play until you pause it or choose different music and play that instead.

At the top of the screen, you see information about the number of the current song out of the total you selected. For example, if you are playing the first song in a playlist containing 50 songs, this will be 1 of 50. This information helps you know where you are in the selected source.

In the center of the screen, you will see information about the song currently selected, including song title, artist, and album. If any of this information is too long to be shown on one line, it will begin scrolling across the screen a second or two after a song starts playing.

At the bottom of the screen, you will see the Timeline bar. In the normal mode, this gives you a visual indication of the song’s length and how much of the song you have played so far (represented by the shaded part of the bar). Under the left edge of the bar, you will see the amount of time the current song has been playing. At the right end of the bar, you will see the time remaining to play (this is a negative number and counts down to zero as the song plays). If you click the Select button one time, the Timeline bar changes to indicate that you can now rewind or fast-forward using the Scroll pad or Click Wheel. When the Timeline bar is in this mode, you can drag the Scroll pad or Click Wheel clockwise to fast-forward or counterclockwise to rewind the music. As you drag, the Current Location marker moves to its new location and the time information is updated. When you release the Scroll pad or Click Wheel, the Timeline bar will return to its normal mode in a second or so.

If you click the Select button twice, the Timeline bar is replaced by the Rating display. If the song currently playing has been rated, you will see the number of stars for that song. If the song hasn’t been rated, you see five dots instead. You can rate the current song by dragging the Scroll pad or Click Wheel clockwise to give the song more stars or counterclockwise to reduce the number of stars. A second or so after you stop touching the Scroll pad or Click Wheel, the Timeline bar will return to its normal mode.
The neat thing about this is that the next time you connect your iPod to your computer, the rating information you set on the iPod is carried over to that music in your iTunes Library. So, you need to rate a song in only one place.

Playing the Basic Way

Here are the basic controls you can use:

• Play/Pause button—When music is paused, pressing this button causes it to play again. When music is playing, pressing this button causes the music to pause.
• Previous/Rewind button—If you press this button once quickly, you will jump back to the start of the song. If you press this button twice quickly, you will jump back to the start of the previous song. If you press and hold this button down, the music will rewind; release the button when you get to the point at which you want it to start playing again.
• Next/Fast-forward button—Press this button once and you will jump to the start of the next song. Press this button down and hold it, and you will fast-forward the song; release the button when you get to the point in the song where you want to be.
• Scroll pad/Click Wheel—When the Now Playing screen is shown, drag a digit clockwise to increase the volume or counterclockwise to decrease the volume.

When you touch the Scroll pad or Click Wheel, the Volume bar will appear on the screen to visually indicate the current volume level; the shaded part of the bar represents the current volume level. As you change the volume, the shaded area will expand or contract, depending on whether you increased or decreased the volume. When you release the pad or Wheel, the Volume bar will disappear.

You can only change the volume using the Scroll pad or Click Wheel when the Now Playing screen is shown. That is why the Now Playing option is listed on the Main menu. You can quickly jump to this screen to change the volume when you need to.

How to Browse Your iPod’s Music?

Choosing music with playlists is great, and you might often find that method to be the one you end up using most because it gets you to specific music quickly. However, some music stored on your iPod might not be in a playlist, you might want to listen to all the music by a specific artist, and so on. In these cases, you can browse the music stored on your iPod to choose the music to which you want to listen.

You can browse your music by the following categories:
■ Artists
■ Albums
■ Songs
■ Genres
■ Composers
To browse your iPod’s music, do the following steps:

1. Choose Main menu, Browse. You’ll see the Browse menu, which contains the categories listed previously.
2. Highlight the category by which you want to browse your music, such as Artists to browse by artist, and press the Select button. You will see the menu that shows you all the music that is associated with the category you selected in step 1. For example, if you choose Artists, you will see all the artists whose music is stored on your iPod
3. Browse the resulting list of music that appears until you find a category in which you are interested; then press the Select button. You will see the list of contents of the category you selected. For example, when I was browsing by artist and chose B.B. King, the list of my B.B. King music was displayed.
4. To move down to the next level of detail, select an item on the current list and click the Select button. The resulting screen will show you the contents of what you selected. For example, I selected the B.B. King album called “Spotlight on Lucille” and saw that album’s contents.
5. To play everything shown on the screen, starting at the top, press the Play/Pause button. To start with a specific song, select it and press the Play/Pause button. The Now Playing screen will appear, and the first song or the song you selected will start to play.Although the previous steps used the Artists category as an example, you can browse and select music in any of the other categories in just the same way.

Selecting Music with Playlists

When you transfer music from your iTunes Library to an iPod, the playlists you have created and that are shown in the iTunes Source List come over, too. You can select music to listen to by choosing a playlist using the following steps:

1. Choose Main menu, Playlists. You’ll move to the Playlists menu. In order to play music on an iPod, you must have some stored on it. You do this by loading music into your iTunes Library and then transferring that music to the iPod. For help with the first part.
2. Highlight the playlist you want to listen to and press the Select button. The songs in that playlist will be shown.
3. If you want to play the entire playlist, press the Play/Pause button. If you want to start with a specific song, highlight it and press the Select button. The Now Playing screen will appear, and the first song in the playlist or the one you highlighted will begin playing .

How to Put an iPod on Hold?

The Hold switch disables all the controls on an iPod so that you don’t inadvertently press a button, such as if you carry your iPod in your pocket.

To disable the iPod’s controls, slide the Hold switch to the right on an iPod or to the left on an iPod mini (these directions assume you are looking at the iPod’s face with its top pointing up). When you do so, the area underneath the switch that was exposed when you slid it will be orange to indicate that the iPod is in the Hold mode. You’ll also see the Lock icon on the iPod’s screen.

To reenable the iPod’s controls, slide the Hold switch to the left on an iPod or to the right on an iPod mini (these directions assume you are looking at the iPod’s face with its top pointing up). The orange area of the Hold switch and the Lock icon on the iPod screen will disappear and you can again control your iPod.

How to Use the iPod’s Backlight?

The Backlight lights up the iPod’s or iPod mini’s screen so you can see it in dark conditions. (The iPod’s Backlight also causes its buttons to glow.) You can turn the Backlight on or off manually and you can configure it to turn off automatically after a specific period of time.

Turning the Backlight On
To turn the Backlight on, move to the Main menu, select Backlight, and click the Select button. The Backlight will come on and your iPod’s world will be a lot brighter.
After the current backlight time passes, the Backlight will turn off automatically.

Configuring the Backlight
If you don’t want to have to manually turn the Backlight on, you can set the iPod to turn it on briefly each time you press a button. This is very useful because you can always see what you are doing no matter what lighting conditions you are in. You can also have the backlight on at all times, but I don’t recommend that option because of the drain on the iPod’s battery.
You can configure your iPod’s Backlight settings by performing the following steps:

1. Choose Main menu, Settings. You’ll see the Settings screen.
2. Choose Backlight Timer. You’ll see the Backlight Timer screen. To enable me to write and you to read fewer words, I’ve used some shorthand to indicate iPod menu selections. For example, when you see “choose Main menu, Settings,” this means to move to the iPod’s Main menu and then to the Settings menu by highlighting the Settings command and pressing the Select button. When you see “Choose Backlight Timer,” that means to highlight the Backlight Timer command and click the Select button.
3. you want the backlight to come on each time you press a control, choose the amount of time you want it to remain on. Your options are 2, 5, 10, and 20 seconds.
4. If you want the backlight to come on only when you choose the Backlight command on the Main menu, choose Off.
   
5. If you want the backlight on all of the time, choose Always On.
6. Press Menu twice to move back to the Main menu.

Understanding iPod's main menu

The iPod’s Main menu provides the major (dare I say main?) commands available to you.

The Main menu commands are the following:
■ Playlists
■ Browse
■ Extras
■ Settings
■ Backlight
■ Now Playing
All these commands take you to their respective menus, except for the Backlight and Now Playing commands. The Backlight command turns the iPod’s Backlight on (more on this later). The Now Playing command, which appears only when you have selected and are playing music, takes you to the Now Playing screen (more on this later, too).

When a menu choice leads to another menu, a right-facing arrow will appear along the right edge of the screen for that choice. If you don’t see an arrow for a command, that command will cause an action to happen instead.
When there are more options on a menu than can be listed on the screen, you will see the Scroll bar; the dark part of the bar represents how much of the menu you are seeing on the screen out of the total menu, which is represented by the full bar. (Remember that to scroll up and down a menu, you use the Scroll Pad or Click Wheel.)

The Playlists Menu and Screens
The Playlists command takes you to the Playlists menu, which lists the playlists that are stored on your iPod. On the Playlists menu, you will see each playlist you have created in iTunes. Because each playlist represents a “menu” of the songs in that playlist, when you select it, you will see the songs menu that lists each song in the playlist.

The Browse Menu and Screens
The Browse command takes you to the Browse menu. This menu enables you to browse the music stored on your iPod by Artists, Albums, Songs, Genres, or Composers. When you select one of these options, you will move to a menu that lists each category within the category you selected. For example, when you browse by Artists, you’ll see a list of all the artists with which music on your iPod is associated.

The Extras Menu and Screens
The Extras command takes you to the Extras menu. On this menu, you will find various options that are related only because they are on the same menu. These commands enable you to access the iPod’s non-music features, such as the Clock, Calendar, and so on.

The Settings Menu and Screens
The Settings command is like the Preferences command in most computer programs. It enables you to configure various aspects of your iPod, such as the contrast of the screen, the Clicker settings, and so on. You’ll use this command to configure the Backlight.

The Backlight Command
This option turns the iPod’s Backlight on if it is off or off if it is on. See the section titled “Using the iPod’s Backlight” below to learn more about the iPod’s Backlight.

The Now Playing Menu
The Now Playing command appears on the Main menu only when you have selected and played music. When you choose this command, you move to the Now Playing screen, which shows you the song that is currently playing . This is an important screen because you can control various aspects of how music is playing from this screen, such as the volume level.

Looking at the iPod’s Menus and Screens

Now that you have an idea of how to move around your iPod, let’s get a good understanding of its menus and screens.
Although the controls you use to move around menus and screens are slightly different on the two models, the steps you use to move around are the same. Here they are:

1. Slide your finger or thumb clockwise on the Scroll pad (iPod) or Click Wheel (iPod mini) to move down a menu or counterclockwise to move up a menu. As you move your digit, different menu options will be highlighted on the screen to show that they are selected.
2. When you want to use a menu command, highlight it and press the Select button. That command will be active and the screen will change to reflect what you have done. For example, if you selected another menu, that menu will appear on the screen. If you select a song, the Now Playing screen will appear and that song will start to play.
3. To move back to a previous screen, press the Menu button. You’ll move back to the screen you were on before the current one. Each time you press the Menu button, you’ll move back one screen until you get back to the Main menu.

How to make selections on an iPod?

The previous information about selecting a language gives you the general idea of how you control an iPod. Now, let’s give you a very specific idea of how you move around your iPod to make it follow your commands. The iPod is based on menus on which you make choices. To make a choice on a menu, you slide a finger or thumb clockwise on the Scroll pad to move down the current menu or counterclockwise to move up on the current menu. As you move up or down, a different command on the menu will be highlighted. When the command you want to use is highlighted, press the Select button to choose it. If the command is for another menu, that menu will appear. You can then move up and down that menu to choose another command. If the menu provides a list of songs, albums, or other categories, you can use the same process to select and play an item, such as a song.

To move back to a previous menu, you press the Menu button. You’ll learn the specific menus and screens you will use later in this chapter. For now, just understand how to move up and down the iPod’s menu structure.