Is there a way to selectively sync Apple TV?

Sorry, that is not how it works...your computer library is your main library.

Else you need to set it to STREAM only and not sync anything. Thus you can only stream music from your computer (thus always leaving iTunes open)...then things you buy on AppleTV will just stay there, while music is streamed from your computer.

just add an ext hd and put some of your lib on it and some on your computer
or put your whole lib on the exthd
even if it's not connected if the ref's are still in itunes it will not result
in it removing the media from the appletv

I'm one of those folks who DOES NOT want to transfer automatically content from my Apple TV back to my laptop. A) it eats up my hard drive space and B) it monopolizes the download time for an eternity when there is important content I want to transfer waiting in the queue.

I suppose the feedback I'm reading says Apple doesn't allow this kind of selectivity. But if an Apple person is listening, PLEASE do something about it. I'm considering leaving Apple TV behind because of this issue.

If someone has figured out a trick around this aside from deleting in Apple TV, I'd love to hear it!

🙂

Cody

Bear with me. I'm not sure this will work for TV Shows, BUT does work for movies purchased ON the Apple TV.

The below is something I wrote in another thread...
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1818807&tstart=50

I have a folder called Movies 2 on my external containing all the DVDs I ripped. I made an alias of it and put it in my home iTunes Music folder. Although I don't think I needed that step, I wanted to so I can go there in the Finder and see everything. Then in iTunes I can Add To Library and have those movies available to syncing OR streaming to the Apple TV. The trick here is do not have that folder be in you iTunes Music folder being names simply "Movies". The reason for this is that if you buy a movie from iTunes, it won't put it in an alias for some reason, so it just puts it in the root iTunes Music folder. No big deal really, BUT if you buy a movie instead through the Apple TV, it simply won't copy back to your computer without an original Music folder in there.

NOW, back to your issue. I'm curious if you get rid of your TV Shows folder in your iTunes Music folder, and replace it with an alias of some other folder but name the alias TV Shows, then perhaps the Apple TV will not copy TV shows to your computer, just like it won't with movies without an original Movies folder.

If you try it, let us know.

If someone has figured out a trick around this aside from deleting in Apple TV, I'd love to hear it!

See THIS

One workaround to avoid scenario B is to have a separate iTunes library for use with Apple TV. Hold down Alt when starting iTunes to select library.
This way I can open my "main" iTunes library (used for syncing with iPhone etc) without starting a time and bandwidth consuming sync with Apple TV.
I'm also planning on having my Apple TV iTunes Library on an exteral drive to avoid filling up my laptop hard drive.