Music from external hard drive to iPod (this one should be easy)

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Level 1

8 points

Music from external hard drive to iPod (this one should be easy)

I have an external hard drive that I've been downloading and saving my music to, because my laptop is pretty old and only has 10gb or space, the drive has like 80 and about 15gb of music on it right now.

I finally got an iPod and I'm kind of confused about how to go with this. Right now iTunes is on my desktop, but if I want to copy all those song files onto my iPod, they have to be copied into itunes first, and there's not nearly enough space on my desktop for that. So should I put iTunes on that external drive? If so, do I still have to copy all those songs?

What my goal was, I don't know if its possible, just copy all that music on my external drive to my iPod, then just keep it on the iPod and not have to use that external drive. I'm getting a new laptop in a couple months but I want that music now. Then I'd have iTunes on my desktop and just download CDs and music from the net onto that and put it on the iPod, but I heard that the old songs will be deleted?

windows, Windows ME

Posted on Jun 21, 2006 11:31 AM

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Answer 1

varjak paw

Level 10

182,662 points

Jun 21, 2006 11:42 AM in response to kaiser197

if I want to copy all those song files onto my iPod, they have to be copied into itunes first, and there's not nearly enough space on my desktop for that.

No, you don't have to copy the tracks to your internal hard drive. Just turn off the "copy music to iTunes Music Folder when adding" option in the iTunes Advanced preferences. Then use the "Add To Library" menu command and select the appropriate folder(s) on your external drive. iTunes will add the tracks to the Library but not move them to the internal drive.

Once that's done, use iTunes to transfer the music to the iPod. You can then, if iTunes is set for manual synchronization, remove the tracks from the Library if you want to remove the reference to the external drive.

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Answer 2

kaiser197 Author

Level 1

8 points

Jun 21, 2006 1:59 PM in response to varjak paw

wow thanks, so how can i makie sure iTunes is set for manual synchronization? And the next time I plug in my iPod, and it sees that the library doesn't have all the songs that I put on it from the external drive before, will the songs be deleted or am i wrong about that?

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Answer 3

varjak paw

Level 10

182,662 points

Jun 21, 2006 3:15 PM in response to kaiser197

Connect your iPod - do this before you remove any tracks from iTunes that you wish to keep on your iPod - and click the iPod Options button at the bottom of iTunes. Click the Music button and select "Manually manage songs and playlists." It will then not automatically remove the tracks from the iPod if you delete them from iTunes. You'll have to drag songs from your library or playlist to iPod in the Source list to add new tracks.

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