iPod touch 2nd gen is not showing apps or wifi

Let's concentrate on the music since as you have noticed, the apps are no longer usable. There is a lot of information in this post, but it's logical, not complicated. Take your time reading it, come back to it and refer to it whenever you need to.

Before that, an explanation about the lack of apps. Basically, app developers have updated the apps to a level where they require a more powerful iPod than yours. This will be for two reasons:

• • give the app more features, which in turn requires more memory and probably more processor power than your iPod has. It cannot be upgraded
  • security reasons: as the ne'er-do-wells have found ways to compromise an app and steal user's data, both Apple and the app developers have increased the security of their products to prevent such theft, but that in turn means that a more powerful computer is required (and make no mistake, your iPod is a computer)

Back to the music:

You have to use iTunes to add music to your 2nd generation iPod Touch. The steps (in basic terms) are:

1. add music (that's already on your computer) to your iTunes programme. This becomes your iTunes Library
2. copy the music from your iTunes Library to your iPod (very flexible). Note that one copies the music, one does not move it. I'll give you guidance on how to use Sync to manage the iPod (it will be much more fun than manually dragging music on and off the iPod)
3. play the music on your iPod

Synchronising the iPod with your iTunes Library will tell iTunes when you last played a song, whether you've changed the rating of a song (your "like" rating), etc. etc. which in turn can cause iTunes to adjust any sophisticated playlists that you create.

About iTunes:

iTunes (and the iPod) can handle many digital music formats. Apple's preferred option is their AAC (or m4a) format, but it can easily handle MP3s as well. The two formats to avoid are:

1. 1. 1. wav files - very large files and limited ability to add artwork to the song files. A wav file is basically the raw CD format, which is too large for practical use on an iPod
      2. flac files - iTunes can't play them and they cannot be added to your Library. If you have flac files, we can probably find a solution

First step - adding music to your iTunes Library (using the organisation that you've used to arrange the music files):

• • music already on your computer in digital form: use the iTunes' top bar menu File/Add Folder to Library and use the dialogue that opens to navigate to (but don't go into) the folder with the music in it. Highlight (select) the folder and click on Select Folder. Compatible songs in the selected folder (and sub-folders) should now be in your Library. We'll look for them in a minute. I suggest that you add one folder at a time for now, rather than a parent folder. If you add a folder and subsequently add a parent folder containing that one to your library, you will probably end up with duplicate entries for songs
  • to add an individual song, click on File/Add File to Library and this time, navigate and go into the folder with the song, select the song and click on Open. Again, compatible songs are added to your Library using this step

Music on CD:

• • If you have factory produced CDs, you can add them to your iTunes Library as well. Insert the CD into your computer's CD drive and once iTunes sees it, look for the CD icon at the top of your iTunes window. iTunes may or may not start importing the music automatically. If you get this far, try importing the music from the CD, it is intuitive, although not everyone gets it. If you prefer, we can discuss it in a further post. At that time, I can explain how iTunes organises the files it imports from a CD
  • Music files on a home burnt CD: there is a different method for adding these files to your iTunes Library. We can discuss this later

Once you have added files to your iTunes Library, do not delete, move or rename them. If you do, iTunes will lose track of them and not be able to play the songs

Working with your Library:

Digital music files (MP3, m4a etc.) contain "tags" which identify the song, by title, album title, artist, genre and quite a bit more besides. Providing your MP3s have been tagged fully or in part, they should be easy to find in your library:

• • files added to your library (as above) will be displayed in the Library section. There are several different views: Albums, Artists, Songs, Genres and Composers. You can make use of any or none of them, as you choose. If you have a look around your Library, you can decide which view or views you like and change between them easily
  • There are several things that you can do in the library before adding the songs to your iPod, but for now, try adding whatever is in your library to your iPod. We can discuss the other tasks later if you wish

Adding music from your Library to your iPod:

While I was writing this, I decided that this is the best time to stop. Once you've got the above sorted, we can move on to adding the music to your iPod.