iPod Classic (5th gen) only syncing subset of Music library

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iPod Classic (5th gen) only syncing subset of Music library

Hi all,

I have an old 5th gen iPod 80 GB that I am trying to sync with my Apple Music library on my MacBook Pro (M1). I have a music library that's about 250 GB/~40K songs. When I connect the iPod I have no trouble seeing it in Music on the MBP, or getting to Sync Settings in Finder. However, in Sync Settings on the MBP I only see 5 bands and about 110 songs. The sync process seems to work without issue and I get no errors, but only those 110 songs get sync'd to the iPod.

I have done all the usual things like reboot, restore and factory reset the iPod, etc. but no matter what it only sees and syncs the same 110 songs from my Apple Music library. All software is latest version as well. I do remember old versions of iTunes having some sort of "reset iPod sync settings" but don't see anything like that now.

One factor that is at play is that I subscribe to iTunes Match, especially since the music that does sync to the iPod are some live concert MP3s that I have that are not syncing to the cloud. My hunch is that given my library is syncing to the cloud it's not allowing me to sync to this iPod other than those odd duck MP3s.

Anyone run into this scenario before? Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

iPod Classic

Posted on Aug 1, 2024 7:51 AM

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Answer 1

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turingtest2

Level 10

279,405 points

Aug 1, 2024 10:02 AM in response to stellapug

iPod classic can only sync with content that is stored locally on the computer. With an iTunes Match subscription some of your tracks may be streaming from the cloud. You can use the Songs view and enable the iCloud columns to see what is in the cloud, then selectively download content you want to be able to sync.

tt2

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Answer 2

stellapug Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 1, 2024 11:54 AM in response to turingtest2

Yup, that was the issue. It's a little frustrating because all of my music is already on my local drive, and in the right place too! But Music was looking at the cloud library, not my local library.

I downloaded a few and sure enough, I can sync those to the iPod now. Catch is I now have duplicates of those tracks sitting on my hard drive.

So now I need to figure out how to resync my cloud and local libraries to avoid the duplication.

Thanks!

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Answer 3

turingtest2

Level 10

279,405 points

Aug 1, 2024 12:09 PM in response to stellapug

Try adding some of your local files back to the library. Music should merge them with the cloud entries, preserving playlist membership, ratings, etc. If not then you'll need to remove the physical copies in Finder before downloading fresh ones from the cloud.

tt2

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iPod Classic (5th gen) only syncing subset of Music library

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