iTunes, Don’t Sync My Music!

By Lindsay Moore

Published in the Fall 2009 issue of MyTekLife Magazine

By default, iTunes automatically syncs your entire music library whenever you connect an iPod or iPhone.  

This method will automatically add any new music or videos and remove any items no longer in your iTunes library. It works well, but there are times that you may want to manually choose what songs and videos you would like added to your device. This is especially true if you have a music library that is larger than the capacity of your iPod or iPhone. For example, if you have a 20GB library and connect an 8GB iPod nano, your entire library is not going to fit, and iTunes will only sync what it can. As a result, your desired content may not make it into your device. There is an easy way to manually sync your music and videos. Follow these simple instructions:

Connect the iPod or iPhone to your computer.

Open iTunes.

Select the iPod or iPhone in the Devices list.

Click the Summary tab and select “Manually manage music and videos.”

Click Apply.

When the manual management setting is enabled, you will still be able to sync some content automatically by enabling the “Sync only checked songs and video” option as well.

To begin manually adding content to your device, just drag individual songs or playlists from your music library directly to your iPod or iPhone in the Devices list on the left-hand side of the iTunes window. Your content will be copied and the progress will be shown until completed.