iPod Syncing to iPod Shuffle

[Matthew.H]

I've just bought a iPod Shuffle purely for using at the gym.(Rather not use my 6S for this with heavy weights about.) My current music library in iTunes is in Apple Lossless format so obviously isn't ideal for a 2gb Shuffle. I don't really want to have to have 2 copies of my music stored on my rMBP as it's only the 128gb model.

Is there any way I can sync lower bit rate versions to my new shuffle but keep the music on itunes at lossless? I know there's the tickbox on the itunes device sync screen to convert the music to a lower bit rate but I wasn't sure if this would lower the bit rate of the original files.

 

[Slix]

That checkbox when you sync an iPod/iOS device only applies it to that device. What it does is when you sync it, it copies a lower bitrate version to the device, while leaving the originals intact on iTunes.

You don't have anything to worry about by doing that. I have about 400 songs with the 128 kbps bitrate on my 2 GB iPod shuffle. Enjoy!