nagromme
New member
iTunes will automatically make a playlist that fits the Mini, but I propose a more advanced--but low-effort--method for providing access to a collection larger than the Mini's 4GB. The key is that in iTunes Preferences you can choose MUTLIPLE playlists to auto-synch, while excluding others. I don't yet have an iPod, just a lot of experience playing with Smart Playlists--so if anyone tries this, give me feedback (Scroll to my next post to see a quick-and-simple method for this.)
Make the following playlists for iTunes to auto-synch (and for each, you might wish to exclude songs by filetype as described in MacWorld):
1. A Smart Playlist of favorites--by rating ideally, or by most-played. Set a threshold that fills, say, about half the Mini. (If you already have one or more non-Smart lists, that would work too.) Goal: to make sure you'll have the songs you'll manually seek and most enjoy.
2. A Smart Playlist (of enough MB to nearly fill the rest) of LEAST-RECENTLY PLAYED songs. (Exclude lowest-rated if you wish.) Every time you auto-synch, songs that have been played--on your PC/Mac OR on your iPod(s)--will be dumped automatically and replaced with new--so that eventually ALL your music gets shuffled through. And as you random-play your library, you can only hear so many songs anyway before you next synch--so you won't even know the others aren't there. And eventually they will be! (This is a fun playlist even without an iPod--I'm hearing music I'd forgotten! And thanks to shuffle-play, you don't get STRICTLY the oldest song, then the next-oldest... you get a nice non-repeating mix of songs you haven't listened to in a while.)
That's the basic version... but you CAN do more (make the "least recent" list a bit smaller as needed):
3. Want your custom "mood" mixes or other playlists too? You can probably fit most of them just fine: they probably overlap a great deal with your "favorites" Smart Playlist. If they don't all fit, de-select some.
4. I'd personally want ALL my newest music, no matter what the rating--so I have a chance to change my mind on what I think of it! So I'd want a Smart Playlist of 50-100 "Newest Added." In time, those additions will either end up in your "favorites" list or else be shuffled through by date along with everything else.
(The resulting MB size of all this will vary a bit--so I wouldn't attempt to fill the whole iPod--maybe 90%? That leaves space for emergency file backups/transfers anyway.)
Now you have a Mini with all your favorites and custom mixes ALWAYS there, all your newest music, AND "everything else" available too--on a rotating basis--with no further effort ever required. (Unless you do your "favorites" list in a way that grows or shrinks over time--then you might occasionally want to re-size the "least-recently-played" list to compensate.)
This strategy is the reason I'm not afraid to choose a Mini despite the lower capacity. Lots of variations are possible.
Hope this is useful to someone!
Make the following playlists for iTunes to auto-synch (and for each, you might wish to exclude songs by filetype as described in MacWorld):
1. A Smart Playlist of favorites--by rating ideally, or by most-played. Set a threshold that fills, say, about half the Mini. (If you already have one or more non-Smart lists, that would work too.) Goal: to make sure you'll have the songs you'll manually seek and most enjoy.
2. A Smart Playlist (of enough MB to nearly fill the rest) of LEAST-RECENTLY PLAYED songs. (Exclude lowest-rated if you wish.) Every time you auto-synch, songs that have been played--on your PC/Mac OR on your iPod(s)--will be dumped automatically and replaced with new--so that eventually ALL your music gets shuffled through. And as you random-play your library, you can only hear so many songs anyway before you next synch--so you won't even know the others aren't there. And eventually they will be! (This is a fun playlist even without an iPod--I'm hearing music I'd forgotten! And thanks to shuffle-play, you don't get STRICTLY the oldest song, then the next-oldest... you get a nice non-repeating mix of songs you haven't listened to in a while.)
That's the basic version... but you CAN do more (make the "least recent" list a bit smaller as needed):
3. Want your custom "mood" mixes or other playlists too? You can probably fit most of them just fine: they probably overlap a great deal with your "favorites" Smart Playlist. If they don't all fit, de-select some.
4. I'd personally want ALL my newest music, no matter what the rating--so I have a chance to change my mind on what I think of it! So I'd want a Smart Playlist of 50-100 "Newest Added." In time, those additions will either end up in your "favorites" list or else be shuffled through by date along with everything else.
(The resulting MB size of all this will vary a bit--so I wouldn't attempt to fill the whole iPod--maybe 90%? That leaves space for emergency file backups/transfers anyway.)
Now you have a Mini with all your favorites and custom mixes ALWAYS there, all your newest music, AND "everything else" available too--on a rotating basis--with no further effort ever required. (Unless you do your "favorites" list in a way that grows or shrinks over time--then you might occasionally want to re-size the "least-recently-played" list to compensate.)
This strategy is the reason I'm not afraid to choose a Mini despite the lower capacity. Lots of variations are possible.
Hope this is useful to someone!
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