UPDATED: Simple Guide for iTunes

[honeybee1236]

You would need to back up these two files to get the playlist back:
http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/art...-itunes-music/

You will need to download iTunes and point it to your iTunes music folder on the external HD. Then go to File>Add folder to library and wait until it finishes. The music will sync to iTunes & your iPod if itunes is pointing toward the library.

If you didn't save the files stated in the above link then you will have to recreate your playlists. If you have to do this you can also use this method to make it easy to recreate playlists:
http://forums.ilounge.com/showthread.php?t=159937

If you ever need to recreate them in the future this will make it easy. It's just another option you can use but it works as long as you have the songs & takes less time.

[Vic500]

Hi there. I've looked at your tips at the start of the thread, but I still need some help.

I've lost all my songs on my itunes and don't want to re-connect my ipod to my comp cos I don't want to lose them all. I cant seem to stop the automatic synchronization which I believe will stop it. When I go Edit>preferences>ipod nothing else comes up cos it says Ipod is not connected. But obviously I don't want to connect the ipod cos then I'll lose everything. I'm in a vicious cycle at the moment. Can anyone help!

[NPA]

Brilliant note - can you help me please? I have downloaded V7 & cannot play music now. It almost looks like the track is frozen at the start. I have rang Apple & been told to either reformat itunes (and then follow note 60983) or downgrade to V6.0.5 - what do I do? How do I downgrade (tried but says later version on computer). Is this all necessary? Is it worth waiting for a fix?

At the moment I rue the day I was prompted to upgrade!

[NPA]

Also, where can I find the source pane? What does it look like?

[honeybee1236]

By now you should have noticed a separate thread for iTunes 7 known issues sticky and post on that thread any problems your having with using it.

To reinstall a previous version of iTunes you first must uninstall the current version.

The source list is in iTunes and says 'source' listing the library, playlists, iPod when attached. It's the column on the left hand side on iTunes.

[NPA]

Thanks- have now upgraded & have no probs (hopefully!)

[honeybee1236]

That's good. I've noticed after upgrading that my problems with the previous iTunes has been resolved so I'm happy.

[silvery]

I am planning to restore my windows computer (not via system restore, but using the recovery discs) back to factory, so wiping everything, my main question is about iTunes purchases, especially the games and movies.
I have done the following:

1. I backed up my iTunes purchases as described in Apple's How to back up your media in iTunes (http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=302392) using 1 DVD (for 1 game, 1 movie, 3 tv shows, 1 song ).

2. I backed up the iTunes Folder as described in iLounge's The Complete Guide to Backing Up iPod & iTunes Music to save my library and playlists.

3. My music is already backed up to external drives.

4. I backed up playlists as described in Apple'sHow to backup and restore playlists (http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93763)

5. I am about to de-authorize the computer as described in Apple's About iTunes Store authorization and deauthorization (http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93014) - is this necessary as well?

Do I need to do anything else? After I restore and install iTunes again, I only need to insert the iTMS "recovery disc" to add my games, movies, and tv shows back? What about podcasts and what about podcast subscriptions - is that linked to my Apple ID?

Thanks!


update: 10-10, in case anyone was wondering, I recovered the comp, re-installed iTunes, used the recovery disc created in step 1 above, authorized the computer, and things seem to be fine EXCEPT my game is not there, did some googling found that a mac user had a similar experience and contacted Apple and they just let him get it again, with no word as to how to back it up. So I did that, and hopefully they can help. The game does seem to be on the disc however, in a folder called iPod Games at around 14 MB, why it doesn't get restored when you insert the recovery disc and it asks if you want to restore, I do not know. I tried pasting the folder into the iTunes folder in My Music but that didn't help.

[coffeebrown83]

can someone better explain to me exactly what it means to sync or manage music? My library is starting to take up TOO much room on my hard drive, however whenever i delete a song off my hard drive it is removed from my ipod, i am not real clear on how to have music on my ipod without having it take up space on my PC, any help is appreciated :-)

[honeybee1236]

Originally Posted by coffeebrown83

can someone better explain to me exactly what it means to sync or manage music? My library is starting to take up TOO much room on my hard drive, however whenever i delete a song off my hard drive it is removed from my ipod, i am not real clear on how to have music on my ipod without having it take up space on my PC, any help is appreciated :-)

Welcome to iLounge. You have your iPod set to auto sync instead of manual. What you need to do is connect the iPod to iTunes and on the summary tab check the 'manually manage music' box. This will allow you to remove the songs from the computer hard drive but they will stay on the iPod. Just make sure you have your library backed up before you delete the songs. If you should ever have problems with your iPod and can't remove the music from it then you will lose it.

It is advisable to burn your library to data DVD's or CD's if you don't have a DVD burner on your computer. You can set iTunes under preferences to burn a data disk. This will preserve your songs tags.

[laxman509]

For the programs that copy songs from the ipod onto a pc, will the songs still have their ratings when you import them onto itunes?

[laxman509]

anyone at all???

[S2_Mac]

Sure, no prob. You kinda need three hands to do this: Fire up iTunes; press and hold Shift-Control (PC) or Command-Option (Mac); while still holding the keys down, connect the iPod; while still holding the keys down, wait for a dialog to appear asking if you want to sync; click "no"; IIRC, keep holding down the keys until the iPod appears in the Source column.

Now you can set the iPod prefs to disable auto-syncing until you get things sorted out. (Select iPod in the Source column on left side of iTunes window; click the Summary tab; check the "Manually manage music and videos" box; click the Apply button(!).)

[honeybee1236]

Originally Posted by laxman509

For the programs that copy songs from the ipod onto a pc, will the songs still have their ratings when you import them onto itunes?

Sharepod. This information is listed on the first post and the link to check the website for additional information just in case the software has been updated to include added on features.

[Germansuplex]

I've noticed a small but handy update in the most recent version in iTunes:

I am meticulous about my tags. I noticed that before, when changing caps in an album name, everything would update except for coverflow mode. For instance, changing "I can't stop" to "I Can't Stop" would result in the iPod and such being changed to reflect it, but coverflow mode would still have "I can't stop" underneath the art. The only workaround I knew of was to remove the song/s from iTunes and readd it, which is highly inconvient, or the other method of renaming it to something different and then re-naming it. However, now, simply changing the caps results in an immediate update for coverflow.

It seems superficial, but every little convenient fix helps.