Tips on Using iTunes

iTunes is the center of my media universe and the software that manages content for all my iPods, iPhones, and iPads. I bring all my content into iTunes — from CDs, the iTunes Store, and other sources — and then sync it wirelessly to my iPod touch, iPhones, and iPads for playback. Even though I buy content and apps directly with my iPod touch, everything I obtain is automatically synchronized with my iTunes library on my computer, and just about all my music is synchronized with my iTunes Match library in iCloud.

iTunes was originally developed by Jeff Robbin and Bill Kincaid as an MP3 player called SoundJam MP, and released by Casady & Greene in 1999. It was purchased by Apple in 2000 and redesigned and released as iTunes. Since then, Apple has released numerous updates of iTunes to support new devices, fix bugs, and add new features to improve your content library and your iPod experience.

All the important features are covered in my book, iPod and iTunes For Dummies. iTunes is getting better all the time, and this book gets you started. I present here some tips that couldn’t fit into the printed book or e-book.

Managing Multiple Libraries

Consider setting up multiple libraries if you want to do any of the following:

  • Divide a large library into separate libraries on separate hard drives. You can then automatically synchronize different iPods with each library.
  • Create one or more smaller “sublibraries” of your main library on the same hard drive, sharing the same content folders and files as your main library. You can then automatically synchronize different iPods with each sublibrary.
  • Separate your video collection from your music collection in order to store the larger video files on a different hard drive.
  • Keep podcasts in a separate library that is updated more often than your “main” library.
  • Keep all new content separate from older content.

You can create one or more smaller sublibraries of your main iTunes library on the same hard drive. You might want to do this if your main library is too large to fit on a single iPod and you don’t want to resort to manual synchronization — you can set up automatic synchronization with a sublibrary that fits entirely on that iPod. Since iTunes can create the sublibrary without copying content files, you don’t waste hard drive space with multiple sublibraries — they share the same files as the main library.

To create a new library, hold down the Option key on a Mac or the Shift key on a PC when launching iTunes. Then choose Quit, Choose a Library, or Create a New Library.

Choose Create a New Library to set up a new empty library. By default, the hard drive location of the iTunes folder for the newly created library is the same as the previously opened library — the folder is named “iTunes 1” to distinguish it from the “iTunes” folder for the pre-existing library. As you add more separate libraries, the folders are named “iTunes 2”, “iTunes 3” and so on.

After you create multiple libraries, hold down the Option key (Mac) or the Shift key (Windows) while launching iTunes whenever you want to switch between them. Otherwise, iTunes opens with the library previously opened.

You can import playlists and drag content from your iTunes folder into your new library without copying the content files — because ‘the files are in the same folder on the same hard drive. This makes it easy to consider your main library to be a Master library that links to the entire contents of the iTunes folder, and to create sublibraries for each iPod that share the same content files as the Master library.

You can also create a new library that links to a different iTunes folder on a different hard drive, so that the content files are divided (not shared) between libraries. For example, you might want to put all video files on a separate hard drive in a separate library.

First, create the new library as described in the previous section. Then follow these steps to change the location of the new library’s content files:

  1. Choose iTunes>Preferences (Mac) or Edit>Preferences (Windows). The Preferences dialog appears with the tabs along the top.
  2. Click the Advanced tab and then click the General tab. The General tab appears.
  3. Click the Change button for the iTunes Music folder location. Your directory browser appears, enabling you to create and then select a folder to locate your iTunes content files. You can alternatively click the Reset button to reset the location back to the standard location in your user directory (the default setting when you first used iTunes).
  4. Create a folder for your content files and then select it. When starting a new library that links to another hard drive, create a folder somewhere on the other hard drive, call it “iTunes Music” or something similar, and then select it.
  5. Turn on the iTunes folder management options. Make sure the “Keep iTunes Music Folder Organized” option and the “Copy Files to iTunes Music Folder when Adding to Library” option are both selected.
  6. Click OK to close Preferences.

The new library links to the new folder location so that when you add new content to the library, the content is copied to the new folder. You can then copy all your videos from the first library’s content folder to the iTunes window, adding the content to the new library. iTunes copies the content files to the new folder.

Tweaking the Sound

 

Some of your songs may be too loud. I don’t mean too loud stylistically, as in thrash metal with screeching guitars; I mean too loud for your ears when you’re wearing headphones or so loud that the music sounds distorted in your speakers. And some songs are just too soft; you have to increase the volume to hear them and then lower the volume to listen to louder songs.

To remedy instances like these, you can set the volume in advance in iTunes so that it plays with the same volume on your iPod or iPhone. With songs, audio books, podcast episodes, and videos that you already know are too loud (or too soft), consider setting the volume for those items in advance so that they always play with the desired volume adjustment. You can even set the volume for entire albums or podcasts.

You may also want more bone-rattling bass, or treble highs that are as clear as a bell. Even if you’ve never mastered a stereo system beyond adjusting the bass, treble, and volume, you can quickly fine-tune the sound in iTunes with preset equalizer settings. You can then play the adjusted song, video, audio book, or podcast episode on your iPod or iPhone using the same settings.

Setting the Volume in Advance: To adjust the overall volume of a particular song, video, audio book, or podcast episode in advance, so that it always plays at that setting, perform the following steps in iTunes:

  1. Select one or more content items in your iTunes library. To set the volume in iTunes for multiple songs, you can select an entire album under the Albums tab or select multiple songs under the Songs tab. To set the volume for a whole podcast, select the podcast itself rather than an individual episode.
  2. Choose File>Get Info. The Info Summary page appears with tabs for other info pages.
  3. Click the Options tab to see the Info Options page.
  4. Drag the Volume Adjustment slider left or right to adjust the volume lower or higher. You can do this while playing the content. Once set, this volume adjustment is assigned to the song, video, audio book, or podcast episode and transferred to your iPhone.

Tip: To standardize the volume level of all the songs in your iTunes library, use the Sound Check option in iTunes (see the next section). This option has the added benefit of applying the same volume adjustment when you play the songs back on your iPad, iPod, or iPhone.

Peaking with Sound Check: Sound Check scans the audio files, finds each track’s peak volume level, and then uses this peak volume information to level the playing volume of tracks so that they have the same peak volume (this is called normalization in audio terms).

The sound quality isn’t affected, nor is the audio information changed: The volume is simply adjusted at the start of the track to be in line with other tracks. If you mix early ’60s music with today’s much louder music, like I do, all the songs play at relatively the same volume (so I don’t have to adjust the volume) without any loss in quality.

To enable Sound Check in iTunes, do the following:

  1. Drag the iTunes volume slider to set the overall volume for iTunes. The volume slider is located in the top-left corner of the iTunes window, to the right of the Play button. Do this first, before enabling Sound Check, to establish the overall volume for all songs.
  2. Choose iTunes>Preferences (Mac) or Edit>Preferences (Windows).
  3. In the iTunes Preferences dialog that appears, click the Playback tab. The Playback preferences appear.
  4. Click the check box to turn on the Sound Check option. iTunes sets the volume level for all songs according to the level of the iTunes volume slider.
  5. Click OK.

The Sound Check option sets a volume adjustment based on the volume slider on all the songs so that they play at approximately the same volume. The operation runs in the background while you do other things. If you quit iTunes and then restart it, the operation continues where it left off when you quit. You can switch Sound Check on or off at any time.

Enhancing the Sound: Some home or car stereos offer a sound enhancer button to improve the depth of the sound. iTunes offers a similar option — Sound Enhancer — that enhances high and low frequencies. Audiophiles and sound purists would most likely use the equalizer to boost frequencies, but you can use this brute-force method to enhance the sound when playing content back in iTunes.

To enable Sound Enhancer, follow these steps:

  1. Choose iTunes>Preferences (Mac) or Edit>Preferences (Windows).
  2. In the iTunes Preferences dialog that appears, click the Playback tab. The Playback preferences appear.
  3. Adjust the Sound Enhancer slider:
  • Increase the sound enhancement. Dragging the Sound Enhancer slider to the right (toward High) is similar to pressing the loudness button on a stereo or the equivalent of boosting the treble (high) and bass (low) frequencies in the equalizer.
  • Decrease the high and low frequencies. Drag the slider to the left toward Low.
  • The middle setting is neutral, adding no enhancement — the same as disabling Sound Enhancer by clearing its check box.

Using the Equalizer

The iTunes equalizer allows you to fine-tune sound spectrum frequencies in a precise way. To open the iTunes equalizer window, choose Window>Equalizer. You can use iTunes presets to fine-tune the sound and even save your own presets. To choose an equalizer preset, click the Equalizer’s pop-up menu, which by default is set to Manual:

iTunes equalizer
The iTunes equalizer

Adjusting the preamp volume: The Equalizer offers a Preamp slider on the far-left side. You can increase or decrease the volume in 3 decibel (dB) increments up to 12 dB. Decibels are units of measure for the intensity (or volume) of the frequencies. Decibels are a logarithmic scale, with each additional decibel measuring a logarithmic increase. You can adjust the volume while playing the music to hear the result right away.

If you want to make any adjustments to frequencies, you might need to adjust the Preamp slider first if needed, and then move on to the specific frequencies.

Adjusting frequencies: You can adjust frequencies by clicking and dragging sliders that look like mixing-board faders (see figure above).

The horizontal values across the equalizer represent the spectrum of human hearing. The deepest frequency (“Daddy sang bass”) is 32 hertz (Hz); the midrange frequencies are 250 Hz and 500 Hz; and the higher frequencies go from 1 kilohertz (kHz) to 16 kHz (treble).

The vertical values on each bar represent decibels. Increase or decrease the frequencies at 3 dB increments by clicking and dragging the sliders up and down. You can drag the sliders to adjust the frequencies while the music is playing so that you can hear the effect immediately.

Setting an EQ Preset: One reason why you go to the trouble of setting equalizer presets is to assign them to your iTunes content. The next time you play the item, iTunes uses the equalizer preset that you assigned.

When you transfer content to your iPad, iPod, or iPhone, the standard iTunes presets transfer with it; you can choose whether to use these assignments when playing the content on your iPod or iPhone. However, custom presets don’t transfer to the iPod or iPhone.

Assign an equalizer preset to a content item or set of items by following these steps:

  1. Select the item. It’s easy to select songs under the Songs tab.
  2. Choose File>Get Info and then click the Options tab. The options page for the item appears.
  3. Choose a preset from the Equalizer Preset pop-up menu. The standard presets appear in this menu.
  4. Click OK when finished.

After assigning a standard preset to a content item in iTunes, enable the equalizer in your iPad, iPod, or iPhone by choosing any equalizer setting (other than Off) so that the device uses the item’s equalizer preset for playback.

Make Your Own Presets: You don’t have to settle for the built-in equalizer presets — create your own! Follow these steps to save your own presets to the iTunes equalizer:

  1. Make the frequency changes that you want by dragging the individual sliders up and down. The Equalizer window’s pop-up menu automatically switches to Manual if it is not already set to it.
  2. Choose Make Preset from the Equalizer window pop-up menu. The Make Preset dialog appears.
  3. Enter a descriptive name for your preset in the New Preset Name text box and then click the OK button. The name appears in the pop-up menu from that point on — your very own preset.

You can rename or delete any preset, including those supplied with iTunes (which is useful if you want to recall a preset by another name). Choose the Edit List option from the pop-up menu. The Edit Presets dialog opens. Click Rename to rename a preset, click Delete to delete a preset, and then click Done when you finish editing the list.

Using Smart Playlists

Under the Playlists tab in the iTunes window (after selecting Music in the source pop-up menu), you can find smart playlists, which are indicated by a gear-in-a-document icon. iTunes comes with a few sample smart playlists, such as My Top Rated and Recently Added, and you can create your own. Smart playlists add items to themselves based on prearranged criteria, or rules. For example, when you rate your content items, My Top Rated changes to reflect your new ratings. You don’t have to set up anything because My Top Rated and Recently Added are already defined for you.

Of course, smart playlists are ignorant of your taste in music or video. You have to program them with rules by using the song information in iTunes. For example, you can create a smart playlist that uses the Year field to grab all the songs from 1966. This list, in no particular order, might include The Beatles (“Eleanor Rigby”), Frank Sinatra (“Strangers in the Night”), The Yardbirds (“Over Under Sideways Down”), and Ike and Tina Turner (“River Deep, Mountain High”) — a far-out playlist, no doubt, but not necessarily what you want. You can use other fields of information that you entered (such as ratings, artist name, or composer) to fine-tune your criteria. You can also use view options such as Plays (the number of times the item was played) or Date Added (the date the item was added to the library).

To create a new smart playlist, choose File>New Smart Playlist. The Smart Playlist dialog appears:

smart_playlist1

Smart playlist based on composer

The dialog offers the following choices for setting criteria:

Match the Following Rule: From the first pop-up menu, you can choose any of the categories used for information, such as Artist, Composer, or Last Played. From the second pop-up menu, you can choose an operator, such as the greater-than or less-than operator. The selections that you make in these two pop-up menus combine to create a rule, such as Year is greater than 1966 or, as in the above figure, Composer contains (the words) Woody Guthrie.

You can also add multiple conditions by clicking the + button (on the right). You then decide whether to match all or any of these conditions. The Match xx of the Following Rules option is enabled by default when you set one or more rules.

Limit To: You can limit the smart playlist to a specific duration, measured by the number of songs (items), time, or size in megabytes or gigabytes, as shown below. You can have items selected by various methods, such as random, most recently played, and so on.

smart_playlist2

Smart playlist based on date added.

Match Only Checked Items: This option selects only those songs or other items in the library that have a check mark beside them, along with the rest of the criteria. Selecting and deselecting items is an easy way to fine-tune your selection for a smart playlist.

Live Updating: This allows iTunes to continually update the playlist while you play items, add or remove items from the library, change their ratings, and so on.

After setting up the rules, click the OK button. iTunes creates the playlist, noted by a gear-in-a-document icon and the name untitled playlist (or whatever phrase you used for the first condition, such as the album or artist name). You can click in the playlist field and then type a new name for it.

Setting up rules gives you the opportunity to create playlists that are smarter than the ones supplied with iTunes. For example, I created a smart playlist with criteria (as shown in the figure above, “Smart playlist based on date added”) that does the following:

  • Includes any item added to the library in the past week that also has a rating greater than three stars.
  • Limits the playlist to 72 minutes to be sure that it fits on a 74-minute audio CD, even with gaps between the songs. It also refines the selection to the most recently added if the entire selection becomes greater than 72 minutes.
  • Matches only selected items.
  • Performs live updating.

To edit a smart playlist, select it from the Playlists section of the source pane and choose File>Edit Smart Playlist. The Smart Playlist window appears with the criteria for the smart playlist.

For example, to modify the smart playlist so that items with a higher rating are picked, simply add another star or two to the My Rating criteria.

 

 

 

 

 

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Tips on Using iTunes — 44 Comments

  1. Your book iPhone iTunes for Dummies refers to Tip #3 on your website for moving files from an iPad to iTunes with 3rd party S/W. I cannot find it.

  2. Hi Tony

    I have your book ipod & Dummies. very good.

    My problem is syncing, I have made 3 playlist, but itunes have moved

    the ipod button, on the latest version. I,m 65, perhaps a bit old.

    I love the computer and my ipod shuffle, just need perhaps a little

    vido on say good old utube.

    • The iPod button now appears in the upper right corner of the iTunes screen after you connect the iPod to your computer. The “sidebar” that used to hold the iPod link is no longer available, so you have to click this button in the upper right corner to see your sync settings. Even if you don’t click the button, iTunes still performs the syncing when you connect the iPod. The button also includes the eject icon — click that before disconnecting your iPod.

  3. Tony,

    I have several old (2009) podcasts that I would like to add to iTunes and then my iPod. I have tried two different methods of adding them to iTunes; copy computer files and “Add Files” from iTunes menu. The problem is that with the first method, the podcasts do not show up in iTunes. With the latter, the podcasts show up as Music and not Podcasts. How do I solve this in such a way that they will eventually get on my iPod?

    • You may be able to change the file’s Media Kind, which is set to “Music”, to the Media Kind “Podcast”. This works with files that are old podcasts. Select the music item in iTunes, choose File > Get Info, and click the Options tab. You can then set the Media Kind pop-up menu from Music to Podcast. You can find these instructions on page 167 of my book, iPod and iTunes For Dummies.

  4. Tony,

    Thanks for the tip about changing the media type. It gets me most of the way to where I want to be.
    On page 123 of your iPod 7 iTunes for Dummies (9th Edition), you mention downloading podcasts into iTunes from the internet (outside of iTunes) and direct the reader to your (this) website. I’ve searched (not all the archives) for this tip but have not found the information. Would you give me a pointer or link for this “how to”?

  5. Tony,

    Bummer about the loss of the feechur to download outside of iTunes.

    To go back to my earlier query about old podcasts and getting them loaded as podcasts and not music. Your tip/hint about changing the media type worked to a great extent. However, what I ended up with is the follow:

    – All podcasts/files are in the SAME folder (verified outside of iTunes)
    – However, iTunes shows two separate sets of podcasts even though the summary information clearly shows the file locations (folder) to be the same.

    How do I merge the two iTunes “files” under Podcasts?

    • I would open GarageBand (free with many Macs), drag one into a track, and then the other right after it in the same track, and export back to iTunes (without compression). You can then convert to AAC or MP3, set its type to be a podcast, etc.

  6. Hi, I recently purchased another ipod classic so i could have 1 at home, and 1 out and about. I added several cd songs I already had into itunes and made them into a playlist. I want to add that playlist to the 2nd ipod classic i purchased and it does not show up anywhere. Is there a way to do this? most of those songs are not purchased from itunes, they are old cd’s I had on hand. Thanks!

    • If the songs are in iTunes, you should have no problem synchronizing them to your new iPod — just connect the iPod, and make sure the playlist is selected for synchronizing (under the Music tab). Then click Sync to re-sync your new iPod.

  7. I am trying to put together an album by importing various music tracks I have digitized by using TASCAM CD burner from analog reel tape master and have tried to record peaks as close to 0 dB without overloading the digital cuts. I have imported them into iTunes on my Mac Mini in AIFF format and then burn a CD from the playlist. When I do this, about 11 of the 28 tracks have peak sound levels down around -8 dB and -6 dB while others are at around -1 dB or -2 dB. I had Sound Check enabled in both playback and record preferences but the 11 tracks are still down around -6 DB or -8 dB. I used the volume slider up to 100% increase and the CD track peak levels are not affected. How can I bring the CD tracks I burn from the Playlist a little closer together in amplitude? My iTunes silver knob volume slider is all the way to the right. I am trying to equalize the levels on the CD burned from playlist a little closer. On Get Info, the Summary tab Volume levels shown for these tracks are about same as what I read on Tascam VU indicator (i.e. -8.5 dB). How can I bring these levels closer to being equal in peak level? I am missing something. Thanks

    • iTunes is not programmed for this kind of specific amplitude control. The best you can do is use the iTunes Equalizer (choose Window > Equalizer) and adjust that. I still think that digitizing into AIFF is still the best way to get the closest in quality.

  8. I have an iTunes question which is: If I have a song in my iTunes music library, is there any way I can delete the “middle segment” of a song , and then retain this edited version in my iTunes music library while deleting the original?

    What prompts me to ask this question is that I have a number of songs in my iTunes music library that have an extended instrumental part in the middle (which seemingly goes on “as nauseum) that I would like to do away with.

    I am really hoping that this is possible, and that you can provide me with step-by-step guidance in terms of how to do this. I have made this inquiry to sales associates at my local Apple retail store here in Albany, New York, and they that that it should be possible, but that they do not know how to do it. Thank you in advance for your response.

  9. i am very disappointed with apple the best portable player is in my opinion the ipod wether it be the 1rst little 20 gb or the classic 80gb or 160gb why did they stop and as an avid user daily hourly use of an 8 year old ipod classic i am finally happy to thank someone who has really made the itunes and ipod combination more enjoyable and user friendly Thank You for your book and these articles I am still struggling to get all my song volumes the same if you have anymore ideas i even tried converting with itunes all songs to mp3 files ran them through mp3 gain a normalizer program and still am getting my ears blown out with some songs and not able to hear others it is a constant war with the click wheel raising and lowering volume all day long but am trying Sincerely Ken

  10. Tony, Your books on the iPod, etc., are fantastic!! I realize that you can’t be answering questions from thousands of us, but I have two question that I don’t find answered in the 10th Edition. If you can give brief answers or tell me where to look, I will be grateful:
    1. I now have an iPod Touch and also a Shuffle. Can I expect to pick & choose and download DIFFERENT groups of songs from a single master library of iTunes songs into these two machines? Or do I have to create two separate master libraries for each?
    2. I recently found a huge file of favorite music (ripped and bought) that I assembled with an earlier iPod I had. I think the folders are called Music and Index. Can I somehow copy these two folders into the new empty iTunes saving me having to re-rip them all from scratch, so that I can keep adding to them? Thanks a lot from Ohio! Bill Mahaffey

    • Thanks for your kind words. Here are my answers:
      1. You can always sync or copy music to different devices from one iTunes library. Those devices would then be linked to that library for future copying or syncing. My advice is to create playlists of songs/artists and sync the playlists to the devices, so you can control which playlists are synced to which device.
      2. You can just drag the folder into iTunes to add the music. However, do the following first:
      – Choose iTunes>Preferences (Mac) or Edit>Preferences (Windows).
      – Click the Advanced tab.
      – Be sure that this option is checked: Copy Files to iTunes Media Folder When Adding to Library.
      – This option should also be checked: Keep iTunes Media Folder Organized.
      You can then drag the folders into iTunes and the music files will be copied into the library, leaving the originals intact.

      Good luck!
      Tony Bove

  11. I have had this problem multiple times. the CDS I add to itunes somehow get corrupted or partially lost. when I click on them… IT says it cant find the file. The ones I purchased continue to show up. Its super frustratign because I spent hours adding all those CDS. Also I put the library on my iclod to transer to a second computer and nothing happens. I want the same library on 2 computers. Thanks

    • If your CD music is still on your computer’s hard drive, you can drag them back into iTunes. Follow these steps:
      – Choose iTunes>Preferences (Mac) or Edit>Preferences (Windows).
      – Click the Advanced tab.
      – Be sure that this option is checked: Copy Files to iTunes Media Folder When Adding to Library.
      – This option should also be checked: Keep iTunes Media Folder Organized.
      You can then drag the folders of music (or individual files) into iTunes and the music files will be copied into the library folder (iTunes Media Folder), leaving the originals intact.

      If you use iCloud, the music should be copied to the cloud as well. Apple’s iTunes Match service is now part of iCloud — iTunes Match matches your CD songs (as many as it can find) in the cloud using iTunes Store equivalent versions.

      You can also copy songs and folders of songs directly from computer to computer, which may be faster than waiting for everything to get uploaded to iCloud.

      Good luck,
      Tony

    • Hello again. The book is 5 years old, before iCloud! And there are no plans to do another edition. As for restoring files, that’s a Mac/Windows issue. Music files are just files, and backup/restore is a system topic. The book did cover iTunes Match and how to copy your music into iTunes. The extra chapters on my site also cover utilities to copy music off of iPods. See http://tonybove.com/blog/?page_id=470 and other pages in the Tony’s Tips section.

      Thanks,
      Tony

  12. Help! A few weeks ago I was able to download podcasts at will. Now I can’t download any podcasts. I click on get and nothing. What happened?

    Thank you for your advice.
    Cynthia

    • If you are using an iPhone, iPad, or iPod, the Music app no longer does podcasts. You need to use the new Podcasts app from Apple. If you are using iTunes, I don’t know what the problem is, as I have no problem accessing podcasts.

  13. None of the music in my iTunes account was purchased from Apple, so none of it exists in iCloud.
    In your response of March 9 you wrote “You can also copy songs and folders of songs directly from computer to computer, which may be faster than waiting for everything to get uploaded to iCloud.”
    How can I do that?
    Thanks,
    Amy

  14. I recently bought a used iPod Touch 32GB which worked well so so far, listening to synced classical music from my iTunes on a MacBook Pro. However, suddenly some of the music I listened to speeded up dramatically, but after a short while reverted back to normal speed. Could this be an intrinsic problem of the 32GB memory chip? Is it worth having it checked at an Apple shop if the iPod only cost me about $80?

    By the way, is there some detailed description somewhere on how to open the iPod and changing the battery oneself, since is no longer under warranty?

  15. Not sure why, but iTunes has “lost” an entire series of Podcasts. The podcast collection does not appear when I select Podcast however, the files (.mp3) are still on my computer. There does not seem to be a way for me to get iTunes to recognize and list these files. What can I do in order to recover/recreate the collection of podcasts in iTunes?

    • I don’t know why this happened — iTunes recognized mine. You can always change the mp3 files to music files. Drag them into iTunes, select them, choose Edit > Song Info, click the Options tab, and use the Media Kind popup menu to change the items to Music. They will then play as music files. Or you can try changing Media Kind to Podcast to see if iTunes will then list them in the Podcast section.

      • The files are “in” iTunes. iTunes Media -> Podcasts – >. When I open the properties of any single file, under the Details tab it shows the Genre as Podcast. I can play the files, but they just do not show up when I select Podcast rather than Music. It is as if an entire portion of my library has vanished from the “card catalog”.

  16. My classic iPod crashed so I bought the latest iPod touch. Then I was told I needed a new computer (mine was 8 years old) In making changes to songs (Artist or Album name) my computer, in iTouch and with the iPod connected, keeps freezing up for 30-60 seconds, perhaps while syncing or updating files. On page 90 of your 3rd edition of Dummies your Tip says there are 2 ways to “prevent an iPod touch from automatically synchronizing.” I was able to follow the steps on my Dell laptop and turn on the “prevent” button. But it still automatically syncs. The second option doesn’t seem to work: Ctrl-Alt (Windows) as soon as I connect my device. I can’t get to the iPod touch name screen.

    • After connecting the iPod to your computer, in iTunes on the Summary page for the device you can check the “Manually manage music and videos” option. You can then click Done to finish (and finish syncing). The next time you connect the iPod it should be OK to manage it manually, without syncing.

  17. Thanks. But I still have issues for which I can’t find an answer in your 10th edition for iPod & iTunes. As above, though the iPod does not start to sync when I plug it in while in iTunes, it automatically starts to sync as soon as I make any change to an iPod song (correct a title or delete a duplicate song, for example). At that time, I am shut out for 20-30 seconds from making any more changes. Secondly, I tried to delete some songs from a Playlist and the changes did not show up on the iPod. I even have 3 complete playlists (Christmas) I want to delete (rt click on list & hit delete) and they won’t go away! Even after the auto-syncing mentioned above, I have hit the Sync button when it is through to let it sync again, with no success. What am I doing wrong??

  18. I found I can easily delete whole playlists from the iPod even though I can’t from the computer. But I still can’t get it to stop syncing on its own when I am making changes to the iPod when attached to the computer.

  19. Hi Tony. I know it’s an old post. Hopefully you can answer my question. In the section “Setting the Volume in Advance: it says that the volume adjustments for each song can be synced to iPhone. I’ve tried that but nothing happens. I adjust the volumes, connect the phone to my laptop, open sync settings in Music (iTunes) and sync. I read that the music equalizer in iPhone has to be in FLAT in order for it to sync the adjustments. Also does it matter if SoundCheck in phone is on or does it have to be off? Can I sync it through WIFI? Last, when I play it back on the phone should I have the eq setting to FLAT, OFF, or what?
    Thanks.

  20. Hi Tony. About the “Setting the volume in advance” section. I’ve been doing that for quite some time but the songs on my iPhone 7 still sounds the same. I read somewhere that the phone’s equalizer should be set on FLAT in order for the syncing to happen. I’ve listened to it with the USB cable and bluetooth and nothing. I’ve been able to sync pre-equalizer settings but can’t sync volume adjustments. Are there any settings I should have on or off in my Music (iTunes) or Phone? By the way, I’m listening to the music in my car.

    • If you turn off Sound Check on your iPhone (Settings > Music > Sound Check) you should be able to hear the difference. Changing the volume basically changes the ID3 tag for the song’s volume, and Sound Check also does that, so Sound Check may be interfering.

      • Hey thanks for the response. Yeah I did that and did hear the difference. One more thing. The part where you said “To standardize the volume level of all the songs …….” should I have Soundcheck on in iTunes when syncing to phone as well or should I have it off?

        • If you enable Sound Check in iTunes, it standardizes sound playback in iTunes. It doesn’t change the audio itself, just the ID3 tag for volume control. You have to turn Sound Check on in your iPhone to standardize sound playback on the iPhone. It doesn’t matter whether the audio file already had its ID3 tag adjusted for iTunes; iPhone will standardize the volume.

          On the other hand, if you adjust the volume manually for a song, and turn off Sound Check on the iPhone, it should play with the manual volume adjustment.

  21. I have another question about volume adjustments in Music on desktop. When I sync my volume adjustments will I be able to hear them through bluetooth? I’m not hearing the adjustments unless it can’t. I know I can hear them using a USB cable.

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