Nov

22

Monday Muse: How Do You Manage Your iTunes and iPod Libraries?

Posted on November 22nd, 2010 in Life and Family, Monday Muse by Fred McKinnon

I have a crisis.

I have over 4,000 tracks in my iTunes library.  Many of which are ripped sermon CDs, demos from songwriters, sample audio bits for sermon ideas, etc.  Bottom line – a HUGE portion of those tracks are junk tracks that aren’t really meant to be my every-day listening options.

I’ve just erased and restored my iPod.  My crisis?  How do I manage it from here on?

I thought I’d create a playlist of the songs I want on the iPod and “sync selected playlists”.  But that’s such a drag – wading through 4,000 tracks and dragging what I want.

Plus, I inevitably forget to move new tunes to the “Fred’s iPod” playlist.

I could just go back to “sync all” – but then it takes an eternity to select an artist or album.

One way is clear and efficient at playback time, but takes a lot of work to maintain.
The other way is no work to maintain, but the iPod is messy.

So … how to you manage your iTunes and iPod library?

Manual sync?
Sync selected playlists?
Sync all?


  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Todd-C-Barton/627371307 <fb:name linked="false" useyou="false" uid="627371307">Todd C. Barton</fb:name>

    http://www.salling.com/

    This media sync works pretty well

  • http://www.alastairvance.com Alastair

    I manage mine by using the check boxes. I use the option “only sync checked items”.

    On my ipod I sync everything to it (except junk I have unchecked in the library). I don’t use playlists all that much on my ipod. I play music by browsing to the album and playing all the songs. Call me old fashioned.

    On my iPhone I create a playlist that automatically includes the last 250 songs added to itunes. This is all I sync with the iphone.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Barry-Westman/1188517919 <fb:name linked="false" useyou="false" uid="1188517919">Barry Westman</fb:name>

    I have it set to sync all, and then just use the playlists I have, or search by album/song to find what I want. I have several playlists that I use often.

    I typically only use my iPod on rehearsal nights to preview the songs, or on Sunday morning for Prelude.

    I’m usually at my computer listening to iTunes.

    Barry Westman

  • http://mandythompson.com mandythompson

    For starters, get a smaller iPod, then you’ll never have to deal with juggling 4,000 tracks.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Fred-McKinnon/631515675 <fb:name linked="false" useyou="false" uid="631515675">Fred McKinnon</fb:name>

      crisis unresolved

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  • http://travispaulding.com tpaulding

    I manually sync my stuff. 6785 tracks in iTunes, can’t get near all of the 41GB in my 16GB iPhone or my old 30GB iPod. I create playlists of the artists/albums that I want to get to quickly on the old iPod but still load it with everything I might want. Navigation on the new touches is easy enough that no other sorting was needed.

  • http://www.journeyofworship.com Chris

    I do a combination of syncing playlists, some of which are built entirely on the genre tag. That way I can sync all praise and worship tunes, for example easily. The work comes in making sure each thing added has the right genre label applied based on my organization scheme.

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