Unable to sync iPod

It's not a matter of what the capacity of your iPod is, it's what iTunes is trying to add to your iPod.

• what is the precise wording of the message that you see?
• how much music is in your iTunes Library? You can check this by looking at a view that includes all the music in your library and then looking at the Status Bar, which is at the bottom edge of your iTunes window. If the Status Bar is not displayed, use iTunes' top bar menu to select View/Show Status Bar. It will show the number of items (songs), the time it will take to play them all and crucially, the size of the library in GB. What is the GB figure?

• the final thing to check is what is currently on the iPod. If there is a lot of space taken up by something labelled as Other, that can be an issue. Connect your iPod to iTunes and tap the device icon that appears at the top of the iTunes window:

• this will display the Device/Settings/Summary pane. Look at the bottom for the Capacity Bar:

• you may need to hover your mouse over the yellow section, which is the Other. How much Other is reported?

LadyLoriMac wrote:

Oh...there's nothing on my iPod - it was just music - but I cleared it trying to fix this.

I'm not sure I understand what that means. If there was music on it (& the capacity bar says there is - in the form of Audio), then there wasn't "nothing" and what exactly did you "clear"? If it was the music that was on it, then the Audio section of the capacity bar at the bottom would be empty.

Anyway, moving on:

• • although it's not clear how much Other is on your iPod, judging by the size shown in the screenshot, I don't think that is the current issue
  • the Capacity Bar indicates that before the Sync, there was some music on your iPod. It would appear that you have selected additional playlists, containing music that was not already on the iPod, and that has caused the total amount of music that you want to add to your iPod to be more than the space available. A rough estimate is that you have selected an additional 17.92GB of music to be added, which means that it is 1.30GB more than the space available, hence the message. I will accept that Apple's message is not the clearest it could be. For example, the message tells you that you need "additional space", implying that one needs to add space, but since that isn't possible, the message is effectively meaningless. I'm sure that in Apple's mind, what they meant was "you need to free up space, by removing other content, even though we don't mention what that content might be". Plus, if the only media on your iPod is music (Audio)*, then there is nothing to remove except some of the music

* Note that Audio includes both Music and Podcasts. If you have audio Podcasts on your device, they are taking up space, which will be listed in the capacity bar as Audio.

Your choice to manage your iPod by using Sync selected playlists, artists, albums and genres suggests to me that this is because your Library has more music in it than you can get on your iPod (it's not usually anyone's first choice). That's why I asked how large your Library is. Check in your main library to find this out (use the screenshot below as your guide):

• look in your main Library (1.), not at the iPod
• sub-select Songs (2.) because this will show all the music in your library. If your iTunes is not displaying the columns that mine is, don't worry, that makes it easier. If it is showing them, make sure that your selection includes all genres, all artists and all albums at the top of the respective column
• what is the GB figure on the Status Bar (3.)? If the Status Bar is not displayed, use iTunes' top bar menu to select View/Show Status Bar

If there is more music in your library than you can fit on your iPod, I can suggest another method of managing that. We can discuss that later if you would like.

LadyLoriMac wrote:

But, this is all over my head.

Do you have a friend or family member who could help you with this?

My screen doesn't look the same as your. The screen prints I showed you are all from my laptop.

The screenshots I added are from iTunes on my desktop, which for the sake of this discussion, will be the same as your laptop, so I'm not sure why you have included a photograph of your iPod.

I have asked twice already, so this will be the last time: what is the size of your iTunes Library (shown in GB)? To find this out, please follow the steps (on your laptop), that I've outlined, using either of the screenshots below as your guide. No, it will not look exactly the same as your library, not least because I don't have many of the artists that I can see listed in your screenshots.

Here's an alternative screenshot, also showing the Songs view (2.) of my Library (1.), (not yours). Do not concern yourself with the columns, the songs or which columns are shown. All we're interested in is the bottom of the iTunes Window - the Status Bar (3.).

If your Status Bar (3.) is not displayed, go up to the top bar of iTunes and click on View/Show Status Bar:

Once you have the Status Bar displayed (and here's my original screenshot, with the same orange numbering, but a very slightly different view of the songs), look for the number next to the letters GB (exact steps detailed below the screenshot):

• • turn your iPod off and put it aside. Do not connect it to your iTunes Library and do not look at it during the following steps
  • in your iTunes library (on your laptop) look under the heading labelled Library (1.)
  • under the word Library (1.), choose from the list either Artists, Albums or preferably Songs (2.). If you choose songs, but it does not show the columns that you can see in my screenshot, it does not matter. (If it is showing the columns with any of the headings Genres, Artists and Albums, make sure that your selection includes all genres, all artists and all albums at the top of the respective column)
  • what is the GB figure on the Status Bar (3.)? (In my screenshots, the GB figure (3.) is 179.32 GB)

LadyLoriMac wrote:

I am NOT tech smart.

I've done what I can to make my explanations clear rather than technical, although where it has still required the occasional use of technical terms, I've done my best to provide step-by-step instructions intended to guide you.

I can see from your latest screenshot that your Library has 21.5GB of music in it and that your iPod has a maximum capacity of 32GB. In theory then, you should be able to put all of your music onto your iPod. So perhaps the message we see is due to putting all your music onto the iPod plus something like, photos from your computer.

I think your best course of action now is to find a friend with either some technical ability, or who is familiar enough with iPods, who can review this discussion and hopefully find out why you get the message.