iPod Technical Question: What happens when...

[Soulstorm]

I have an iPod with 20GBytes space. I have used 12 so far. So, my question is what happens when my music at my iTunes library reaches.. lets say 25 gbytes? It will soon happen, that's why I am asking.

iTunes lets you decide which songs will remain outof the iPod and which not, or it does this automatically? Or even worse, it tells you that your songs do not fit into your iPod, forcing you to delete some?

 

[crap freakboy]

I think it warns you that theres not enough room to import all the songs in your library to your iPod. Then simply doesnt export the tracks at the bottom of your library. Import a few CD uncompressed into iTunes to try it out.

 

[Kushiro]

Actually...

...it explodes

 

[James Philp]

A number of things happen (personally this has happened to me twice).
It tells you it's too big and asks you if you want iTunes to pick randomly to fill the iPod.

OR, you can Manually Manage the songs on your iPod (dragging from your library) (This is what I do) BUT, things like play count, time last played etc. ARE NOT synced (also resume point for audiobooks). You effectively have 2 seperate iTunes Libraries. If you change any data on a track in your Library (like add artwork or changinh iD3 tags) this will not get changed on your iPod. You have to delete the tracks on your iPod and re-drag the changed ones from your Lirary. (annoying at times)

OR, You can create playlists to SYNC to your iPod (I did this for a while) and these playlists can just fill it. The best thing about this is any changes are synced, as well as play counts and audiobook "bookmarks". (I used to have playlistls called "iPod music" and so on - remember you can create smart playlists to pick the best music, certain genres etc etc). The only prooblem with this is you cannot create playlists on the iPod separate to the "synced" ones.

OR, you can use "only sync checked songs" - you know that little blue checkbox? uncheck the songs you don't want. BUT, say you put iTunes on shuffle, the unchecked songs will not be picked (the checks affect other things, I think like burning)

So, to sum up, If you don;t edit your tracks much or at all, manually manage. If you don't really care what's on your iPod, let iTunes select at random, If you want some control and syncing, choose to only sync certain playlists, if there are tracks you don't really care about, or don't listen to, choose the "only sync checked songs" option.

Of course having a 20 Gig iPod doesn't limit you to 20 Gigs of songs!

P.S. The "Manually Mangage" option is the only one that will work if you decide to free up HD space by deleting the Music off your HD. The iPod will still have the music on it - lots of people with older computers do this - But you don't have a backup of your music.

Hope this helped.

 

[joecool85]

I would say you need to sell your 20 gig iPod to me, and buy a larger one.