Best way to selectively sync music to iPod without moving audio files?

Simply create a playlist in iTunes and add the content that you want to go onto the device to that playlist, then set up the sync options to sync just that playlist. No need to mess around with moving files, no need to worry about what to import and what to leave out. iTunes can't manage FLAC (or it may do with additional libraries but the iPod certainly can't).

Make sure to uncheck the option Copy to iTunes Media folder when adding to library and, potentially, Keep iTunes Media folder organised. Without knowing your reasons for not wanting to just let iTunes get on with it (actually incompatible media is one) it is hard to give firm advice, but it is worth knowing that, going forward, it is much easier if all your content is placed inside the iTunes Media folder before it is added to iTunes. Having your library in this standard structure (even if you mange the details yourself like I do) makes backing up and migrating the library from one system to another much easier.

tt2

You're welcome.

Some possibly informative links:

Grouping tracks into albums or "Why is all my neatly organised media a mess now that I've imported it into iTunes?"

Making a split library portable - if you build your library this way to start with then you won't run into problems later when your library is bigger and change hurts more.

iTunes & WMP or, to some extent, any other media player.

tt2

Yes but I would like to do it the other way around - just transfer a few voice memo files from the iPhone to my computer.

Sync it seems to me tries to load ALL the music on my computer (storage capacity 12 TB) to my iPhone (storage capacity 16G) - yes there is a selective Sync but it requires you to go through every track - a process that might take me a day or two.

All I want to do is to quickly transfer a couple of voice memo files from my iPhone to my computer so I can send them to people - if this was a USB flash drive it would take about 2 minutes.

Why do the banana brains at Apple a) make it so difficult b) require you to spend ages working out how to do any of these processes? The fact that I have to write here at all is already an Apple fail in my book!

Thoughts welcome!

If there is media on the iPhone that isn't on your computer see Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device.

You can tell iTunes to sync with selected playlists, artists, albums, & genres. If you select none then nothing will be copied on, and the voice memos will be copied off, however other media files will be removed.

I agree, it isn't as easy as it should be. iFunBox or MediaMonkey (links in the tip) might be able to get the individual files for you.

tt2