Syncing Music from iTunes onto iPod

I import CD's into my iTunes library on my Mac and then I try to sync the newly uploaded albums onto my iPod but keep running into issues. Every time I go to sync, it says something like "copying 123 songs" and then it runs through 123 songs which includes the few from the one album that I wanted to sync. How could I stop this from happening and have it only upload the newly added songs from my iTunes?


I tried to select "selected playlists, artists, albums and genres" and then only clicked the newly added album and that did work but after three CD's I noticed that all my other songs/albums were deleted from my iPod. They were thankfully still on my iTunes so I am now syncing the entire library.


How can I resolve this? It is so time consuming to click sync and wait for the "123 songs". I would like to be able to keep my songs on my iPod and just add the new ones to it without removing the ones that were already on there.


Please let me know if any of this is unclear and will try to explain what I am trying to do/error I am seeing better. Thanks!

iPod, iOS 12

Posted on Jul 12, 2023 6:32 PM

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3 replies

Jul 12, 2023 7:07 PM in response to gthunter

gthunter wrote:

I import CD's into my iTunes library on my Mac and then I try to sync the newly uploaded albums onto my iPod but keep running into issues. Every time I go to sync, it says something like "copying 123 songs" and then it runs through 123 songs which includes the few from the one album that I wanted to sync. How could I stop this from happening and have it only upload the newly added songs from my iTunes?


It's going to check all of the songs on the iPod every time that you sync. But hopefully it only copies changes, because that would be a faster way of doing things than blindly copying all of the songs every time.


I tried to select "selected playlists, artists, albums and genres" and then only clicked the newly added album and that did work but after three CD's I noticed that all my other songs/albums were deleted from my iPod. They were thankfully still on my iTunes so I am now syncing the entire library.


Each synchronization conceptually replaces the entire contents of the iPod, with whatever you have selected to be synchronized. (Or more precisely, the entire contents of the iPod subject to this type of synchronization. On an iPod Touch, you might synchronize some things through Finder/iTunes and others through iCloud.)


So this behavior is expected.


How can I resolve this? It is so time consuming to click sync and wait for the "123 songs". I would like to be able to keep my songs on my iPod and just add the new ones to it without removing the ones that were already on there.


If the system insists on copying all of the files, not just checking for changes, I'm not sure what you can do.


Jul 13, 2023 3:24 PM in response to Servant of Cats

Hi! Thanks so much for your prompt reply.


So there isn't much that I can do to stop the iPod from copying however many songs each time? Do you have a recommended way to import the CD's on iTunes and then onto my iPod that could be better than how I am currently doing it? Do you think it will ever got a point where it stops copying other songs during the sync?


Thanks again!

Jul 13, 2023 5:16 PM in response to gthunter

I think the choice of "full backup" vs. "incremental backup" (so to speak) is hard-wired into iTunes or the Finder.


My impression has been that the system checks all songs, and only copies changed ones. The way it figures out which ones are changed ones would be by examining the contents of your iPod as it runs through all of the songs it potentially has to copy onto the device. The examination would also let it determine which songs on the iPod are not in the selection on the computer (and thus should be deleted from the iPod).


However, I don't sync my iPhone or iPods (to change the music selection) very often, and my impression of what iTunes is doing "under the hood" could be wrong.


Syncing Music from iTunes onto iPod

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