**The Official iPod and iTunes Thread**

[Jason Harris 31]

It's possible you have it set to a variable bit rate. When it's a constant bit rate, the size of the file will correspond to the length of the song, but when it's a variable bit rate, the encoder can compress certain sounds to a smaller file.

[juiced 0]

It's possible you have it set to a variable bit rate. When it's a constant bit rate, the size of the file will correspond to the length of the song, but when it's a variable bit rate, the encoder can compress certain sounds to a smaller file.

that sounds plausible but i just checked it and the "variable bit rate" option isn't checked.

[Gongshow11 1]

question. Have a 3rd gen ipod nano and used it fine on a windows XP. now i have vista on a new comp and the computer recognizes that i have an ipod but says it wants to scan it and fix it. Also, the bigger problem is that itunes won't recognize the ipod, rhapsody does and i can play music, but itunes wont and says that i have to reconnect ipod but that never works. Sometimes itunes won't even start up what should i do.

[DarkStar50 679]

I just won an ipod Touch. I do not have wifi at home to access itunes to the ipod. My buddy is copying a lot of music for me onto my external hard drive. I think we might be wasting our time since I do not have wifi and the Touch doesn't access itunes without wifi. I know next to nothing about this.

Simple question: am I screwed without wifi to transfer the music from the external hard drive?

[team50 20]

No need for wifi in this case. Just download iTunes software on your computer, set it up, and plug in the iPod using the cable they give you to sync. Voilà.

[lampliter87 8]

question. Have a 3rd gen ipod nano and used it fine on a windows XP. now i have vista on a new comp and the computer recognizes that i have an ipod but says it wants to scan it and fix it. Also, the bigger problem is that itunes won't recognize the ipod, rhapsody does and i can play music, but itunes wont and says that i have to reconnect ipod but that never works. Sometimes itunes won't even start up what should i do.

Vista always asks to scan and fix mine, as well as any flash drive... basically anything that is plugged in through USB. I just always click no...

[DarkStar50 679]

Another stupid question from the ipod touch challenged old guy:

On the summary page at itunes, should I have my ipod synced to itunes every time I open itunes? I have checked as yes. It seems like my small entire library keeps getting re-entered every time I open itunes. If I uncheck the playlist, my ipod removes all music and then I have to re-sync my playlist again to the ipod. I have re-synced my playlist to the ipod about 4 times already this week. My friend is getting tired of me asking him for help.

Any beginner's advice is greatly appreciated.

[Jason Harris 31]

If it's set up properly -- which is essentially "Sync to iTunes" -- then it should only make changes iTunes > iPod. In other words, if you've added added songs to your library or created new playlists (and told iTunes to include all playlists), then those would be added to your iPod. Conversely, if you've deleted songs from iTunes, they will be deleted from your iPod.

[kosydar 0]

I've got a Mac question so I guess it can go here. How do I restore the Recent Documents on my dock? I accidentally deleted it and I want it back.

[mack 44]

Go into Terminal and paste this there: defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-others -array-add '{ "tile-data" = { "list-type" = 1; }; "tile-type" = "recents-tile"; }'

Restart Dock with command: killall Dock

You should have two apps on your dock, control click one and change it to recent documents.

[adam14 182]

i plugged my ipod into a buddys itunes, and dragged some of his music onto my ipod, is there any way i can get the music off my ipod onto my itunes?

[lurkndestroy 1]

i plugged my ipod into a buddys itunes, and dragged some of his music onto my ipod, is there any way i can get the music off my ipod onto my itunes?

for macs..... ipodrip.com

[adam14 182]

how about for a dell? :P

[fedorov#91 0]

Figured id ask this, anyone got a broken/faulty 5th gen video ipod that they would be wiling to sell? sprcifically looking for a logic board

thanks

[lampliter87 8]

how about for a dell? :P

iDump... a program of download.com. Build 27 I think is the latest one.

[juiced 0]

iDump...

nice, what a great program name :P

[Chadd 916]

saw this on Fark, thought I would share.

http://www.theonion.com/content/video/appl...s_revolutionary

[Jason Harris 31]

Classic, Chadd.

"Everything is just a few hundred clicks away."

[pwrfwd26 0]

WTF! No keyboard what will they think of next?

[Chadd 916]

Classic, Chadd.

"Everything is just a few hundred clicks away."

And it was just a throw-away line too.

[RadioGaGa 162]

Classic, Chadd.

"Everything is just a few hundred clicks away."

And it was just a throw-away line too.

"we're giving customers features they didn't even realize they want..."

[Jason Harris 31]

I have a few questions about iTunes' library. I hadn't originally set up my database that way, but I came to the realization recently that I need to take advantage of its structure: folder for artist, subfolders for albums, songs within more subfolders. I imported my songs into the library and, lickety-split, they were moved around on my hard drive. A couple of problems, however.

1) How do I get iTunes to NOT place the song number in front of the name in my hard drive? I want the song to be listed as "Getting Better," not "04 Getting Better" under the Sgt. Peppers' folder.

2) If I fix mistakes in naming, how do I get that to funnel down to the folders on my hard drive? Would I have to delete from iTunes' library, then reimport?

3) How do I get iTunes to recognize duets or guest artists still belong in one album's subfolder? For instance, Santana's Supernatural album had five or six songs with other artists. Many people make note of this in their artist bucket: Santana & Rob Thomas, Santana with Rob Thomas, Santana featuring Rob Thomas. I usually use the ampersand method, but iTunes is treating that like an entirely different artist and putting into its own subfolder with one album containing one song. My preference, of course, is they all end up under Santana's Supernatural subfolder. Any suggestions? I realize I could put it into the comments, but I'd like to acknowledge the collaboration in the song title.

4) Does anyone rip with Max on Mac? If so, how do you get it to rip it to the iTunes library structure up front?

I'll probably come up with a few more questions in a short while.

[Rustpot 1]

1) How do I get iTunes to NOT place the song number in front of the name in my hard drive? I want the song to be listed as "Getting Better," not "04 Getting Better" under the Sgt. Peppers' folder.

2) If I fix mistakes in naming, how do I get that to funnel down to the folders on my hard drive? Would I have to delete from iTunes' library, then reimport?

3) How do I get iTunes to recognize duets or guest artists still belong in one album's subfolder?

Editing info will probably help you out, I'm just not sure if it will stay organized properly on your hard drive.

Click on a song, or a block of songs, right click- edit info. For individual songs, take the track # away from the title and put it in the track # box. iTunes didn't properly import information like that if the embedded info was weak or incorrect on your songs. For duets there is another spot that is "album artist"- if you change that to Santana I think it would file it under the same Supernatural disc with the rest of them.

I think there's an option to have changes made in iTunes change the files on your hard drive, but I simply unchecked all of those and my hard drive is semi-disorganized. But then again, how often am I searching for junk on my HDD instead of in iTunes? Well, I don't really listen to much music anyway.

If you tried these already then I can't help.

[Jason Harris 31]

Thanks, Rustpot.

I must have stared at the Album Artist one hundred times before, but never noticed it! That fixed the sorting on my hard drive, but it will probably be a minor project to change that on all my songs.

Regarding the numbers in front of songs, I discovered that I have to remove it from the Number box. After reading iTune's help, it appears that users are able to change the playback order of an album by changing the numbers in the Number box. Concurrently, that places the number in front of the song on the hard drive.

I actually do most of my searching for songs via Spotlight on my hard drive, since I've been concerned about adding all my songs to the library. As a former mobile DJ -- and someone who has augmented with the treasures of my local library -- I really have a lot of music, and I was concerned it would slow my computer tremendously if it had to keep all my songs in the library.

Does anyone know if that is a legitimate concern?

[cptjeff 0]

Thanks, Rustpot.

I must have stared at the Album Artist one hundred times before, but never noticed it! That fixed the sorting on my hard drive, but it will probably be a minor project to change that on all my songs.

Regarding the numbers in front of songs, I discovered that I have to remove it from the Number box. After reading iTune's help, it appears that users are able to change the playback order of an album by changing the numbers in the Number box. Concurrently, that places the number in front of the song on the hard drive.

I actually do most of my searching for songs via Spotlight on my hard drive, since I've been concerned about adding all my songs to the library. As a former mobile DJ -- and someone who has augmented with the treasures of my local library -- I really have a lot of music, and I was concerned it would slow my computer tremendously if it had to keep all my songs in the library.

Does anyone know if that is a legitimate concern?

It's not, especially if you keep your files organized with itunes. All itunes does is call the file from where it is on your computer, it doesn't copy the song and store it. It will move the song if you let it, and keep everything very neat and organized in the itunes folder. That way it doesn't even have to thing about where the song is.

I highly recommend itunes as an organizational tool and a music player.

Also, if you let it organize your music for you it makes it really easy to find stuff you want. It does folder levels of music, artist, album, songs automatically. There is really no reason not too, unless you like not being able to find things.