Automatic Sync Replaces Entire Library Every Time?

[Gadzooks]

When I first got my iPod I used the automatic sync but after a few times of waiting for the whole library to copy I started manually adding songs one at a time as I purchased them. Today I did a complete auto sync as the album art is missing from the manually copied songs, and I synced the whole library. I must have changed a setting after and clicked apply and it started auto syncing the entire library again! I stopped it, but most of the songs were now greyed out on the iPods music list, so I had to complete the sync.

Am I doing something wrong, or does the auto sync replace everything every time? It's going to take a long time to auto sync my CD collection once I get it all on there.

[Cold Irons]

This shouldn't be happening. Auto-sync should only copy/update songs that have changed (some sort of tag data change) or have been added to the Library since the last sync. If you haven't changed any of the iPods settings or the song data, you shouldn't have the whole library syncing every time.

Sorry, but I don't have any good ideas as to why this might be happening to you.

[Gadzooks]

Thanks for the reply. So what I'm doing is auto-syncing the whole library (using selected playlists) while converting to 128 Kbps (to save space for when I load my CD library), and then I'm switching to manual mode to copy a couple of self help CDs that have to be preserved as wav files ( they contain sub threshold harmonics), and I don't see any other way this can be done.

I had another go at syncing and it went well this time. It looks like I did something yesterday when I switched back from manual, it synced and I had to stop it because convert to 128 Kbps wasn't checked yet. I think I had unchecked the manual and clicked apply and it started auto-sync. Then I did something similar trying to set it up for manual for the self help CD wav files.

I think I almost got the hang of it, but can you tell me if it's supposed to auto-sync when I change manual off and click apply, and also does it also auto-sync when I switch from convert to 128 Kbps and click apply? Is that what I did wrong? Should I avoid clicking apply when I uncheck manual and go straight to the sync screen? I at least have to change convert to 128 and click apply. Maybe I should always change that setting first. My apologies if this is confusing! ( Note: I'm leaving iTunes in manual mode (with the compress to 128 off) until my next sync every time)

[tronZ]

Originally Posted by Gadzooks

It looks like I did something yesterday when I switched back from manual, it synced and I had to stop it because convert to 128 Kbps wasn't checked yet.

iTunes starts each sync by first editing the iPod database file and then adding/deleting needed track files and updating track info to your iPod.

It seems to me that iTunes did tamper with your iPod database file but did not have enough time to reinstate it due to the premature termination of the sync process. Therefore the db file somehow got and remained emptied or incomplete so that it would remain unreadable/non-detectible.

Without the database file entries, during the next sync, iTunes was unable to verify that your iPod contained tracks at all (although certainly you could play those on your iPod in the meantime, as they weren't physically tampered with). Once you synced again, iTunes thought of your iPod as an empty device and did a full sync.

IMHO

[Gadzooks]

Ok I'm getting the hang of it, thanks for all your help. I think I must have unchecked the convert to 128 Kbps and clicked apply before I had checked manually manage music, and it started to recopy my whole library at full bitrate.

Also I noticed that I can't delete songs on the iPod in iTunes unless it is set to manual. This helps when recopying a song after changing the art or tag info - it seems to not copy sometimes in automatic sync. I had changed an album art that wasn't so good and it wouldn't update it and I had to manually remove it and then auto-sync copied the new art with the AAC file.

I figured out also that I don't need to uncheck manually manage music - I can just go straight to the sync window and do it from there. But I have to check convert to 128 Kbps first and then click apply and then go to the sync window.

It's still a bit tricky - I have to make sure manually manage is selected to copy my wav files at the end every time, as the auto-sync at 128 Kbps removes my wav files from the iPod.

[Jesse Hollington]

Originally Posted by Gadzooks

Also I noticed that I can't delete songs on the iPod in iTunes unless it is set to manual. This helps when recopying a song after changing the art or tag info - it seems to not copy sometimes in automatic sync. I had changed an album art that wasn't so good and it wouldn't update it and I had to manually remove it and then auto-sync copied the new art with the AAC file.

This is correct, but there are a couple of ways around this without having to revert to manual mode...

One way is to simply remove the track from one of your selected playlists, re-sync to remove it from your iPod, then re-add it and re-sync to put it back.

Alternatively, you can enable the Sync only checked... option found on the Summary tab and then simply UNcheck any tracks you want to remove from your iPod on the next sync and then re-check those tracks to put them back on.

Note that list checkboxes are now off by default, so you may need to go into your iTunes Preferences and select the Show List Checkboxes option on the General tab in order to see them beside your tracks.