iTunes/ipod question

Does anyone know of a way to automatically recheck the songs in iTunes from an iPod?

I got tired of having to delete songs from my iPod in order to add new songs. The more I add, the longer it takes to decide what to remove. So, I finally decided, "Screw it! I'll just click the box that converts to 128kbs and not have to deal with it. " Then I hastily made the decision to check everything then uncheck a few things I knew I didn't want on the iPod. Then I realized what a colossal mistake that was. There was waaaaay more songs I wanted unchecked than I thought.
It's going to take too long to go through everything with almost 40,000 tracks in iTunes.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

just a few thoughts:

Not sure what capacity ipod you have, but you don't want everything at 128kbps. better to be selective with what you add and keep a higher standard of quality.

About 98% of the problems I see people have with itunes are when they allow it to do anything automatically. If you set it to Manually Manage Music and Enable Disk Use from the start, it is much easier to control and do things your way.

 

One of the reasons I stopped bothering with an iPod is this root problem - once you have a larger library then can fit on your iPod, it suddenly turns on a dime from being very convenient to very frustrating.

That said, i seem to recall there's a "check all" when you have your library displayed in list view.

 

Whip yourself up a Smart Playlist where "CHECKED" is False - that'll show you everything in iTunes that's unchecked.

Select All - and recheck 'em.

 

The only constructive thing I can add, is to remind you that some of the columns in a song list (like Comments) can be used for personal coding. You can use your codes to drive your playlist selection. Eventually the check column becomes less important.

I think Rolltide is correct. there is a "check all" option somewhere. Keep looking.

 

Thanks for the suggestions so far but I think I need to clarify the situation.

I got tired of having to delete items from iPod to add new stuff.

Decided to I would have iTunes convert to 128kbs when loading which I haven't yet done.

I realized after 'checking all' with the intention of unchecking what I was thinking was a few things I didn't want on my iPod, mostly in their own playlists, that there's a lot I need to uncheck. And unfortunately, there's a ton of work involved in that.

So, I was hoping there might be a way to uncheck everything in the iTunes library then connect the iPod and have the songs on the iPod checked in iTunes. Then, I can just check what I want to add which would be far quicker than unchecking what I don't want.

Thanks, again.

 

First I don't view it as having to take something off to put something on necessarily, but then I don't pick songs or artist during the sync process, or when viewing what you want loaded on your phone via the phone view. I create a single smart playlist and I have my phone sync only to that single smart playlist.

But first let's deal with unchecking everything and starting fresh as you say. Ignore the what is on the phone for the moment, what you will ultimately end up with on your iTunes will then become your phone when you sync. So click on My Music on the top bar, go over to the right and choose song view. You should see a list of your songs you can drag the right scroll bar down and see. Single click on one song. Then go to edit>select all; your songs should be blue, hover over the blue section, right click, go to the very bottom of your options since you don't see them all at first and choose Uncheck Selection.

So as I said life is easier if you control what is on your phone with a single playlist. You focus on what you need on that list on the fly, hey this needs to be added for the next sync etc. Then when you sync what is on the list will be on the phone. The key is the rule of the smart list that drives what is added to it which your phone will then add by the nature of it syncing only to that list. As was said you can use comments to control what goes in that smart playlist if you are like me and have a wife that shares the computer and you don't like her music. I don't think that is your problem, so if it were me I would would create a smart playlist with just one rule: Go to Playlists view, File>New>Smart playlist, set it with one rule Media Kind = Music. Name it poidog's phone. Check live updating and match only checked items. Your list should show nothing since you have unchecked everything. Go back to your My Music, you can choose album view if that is easier. Right click an album and check the ones you want, all of its songs will be checked and will now show up on poidog's phone smart playlist because it = music and is checked.

Next time you put your phone on, click on your phone and in its Music section you will have an option to check what you want to sync to, it should only be poidog's phone smart playlist.

The other advantage of this is you can see on your smart playlist the size of what you have added to the list so you can manage fitting it on the phone. You can manage what you dump from your smart playlist, that can also be seen in album view. As was said you can make another smart playlist with the rule that is checked = false and use that to see what you might want to add, but frankly you usually know that first from your main music view, and then need to search on your smart playlist for what to dump to fit it on.

I am not sure how auto convert to 128k when syncing works as I don't use that. It may show you different capacity usages if you toggle that on or off; I would be interested if anyone knows this.

 

I do use a smart list for everything on my iPod. And the criteria is anything checked. The problem is I hastily checked everything thinking it would be quicker to uncheck what I didn't want than check what I wanted to add back. I quickly realized that was a huge mistake but couldn't undo it. I have yet to sync the iPod since. So, I was hoping to find a way to check only what is on the iPod when reconnected. I looked at all the smart playlist options but couldn't find one that would do that.
I'm thinking I'm going to have to go through iTunes manually while looking at the iPod and address the issues that way.

 

That is probably what I would do except I would go bonkers trying to go back and forth. I would probably just bite the bullet and start fresh by deleting what I want least on the playlist until I got to the right capacity. But yes I don't know how to get what is on your phone to override what is on your iTunes without it getting squirrely.

 

Do you find that you hear no difference between 128 and 256 as far as sound quality? Are you using your iPod such that the quality difference doesn't really matter? - or example playing music in a car with the windows down for summer.

 

I haven't done the 128 yet but I'm pretty sure I won't notice too big a difference.
I listen mostly in the car or while working. But by having it converted while it syncs it won't effect the tracks in iTunes so if I do hear a difference I can just resync.

 

Why not just select individual albums to sync?

 

There are many albums/compilations etc in which I imported the entire album but only wanted a few songs, and there's a lot of overlap between box sets and albums etc. I keep many songs and sound effects in my library for purposes other than listening on my iPod. Unfortunately, I didn't realize how much before it was too late.

Live and learn.

I guess.

 

Ah, I understand better now what you are striving for. Yeah, about the only thing I can think of that syncs back to the computer from the iPod is probably play counts.

Since Apple designed it so music and other things don't generally sync back to the computer database* , you can't say hook it up to a friend's computer and download tracks for them to have, nor can you have the metadata like checked/unchecked override what's in the computer database when you sync.

*unless maybe you have a Touch with wifi and can buy tracks from the store on the device

 

When I was using iTunes I found the check boxes to be more of a problem than they are worth. What I've done instead is use ratings to control what is loaded on my player (I use the same method with other players and other programs). Any song rated three stars or higher is loaded on my player. The advantage of this with my iPod and iTunes is that if I have a song on my iPod that I no longer want, all if have to do is change its rating on the iPod to less than three stars (sometimes I use two stars for items that I had on my iPod but no longer want there) and the next time I sync my iPod with iTunes the song will be removed from my iPod and the new rating will be reflected in iTunes.

As far as how to re-check items you unchecked, an option to use before doing such an action is to create a manual playlist and add the items you are going to uncheck to it. That way, you can easily recheck the items you unchecked if you choose.

I hope this helps.

 

I've never used the check/uncheck method more than a few days, as it had many problems and could easily lead to headache.

What I do is simply make a playlist that contains all the tracks I want on my iPhone. That playlist is the only thing that gets synced – I update it almost daily. Ever since iTunes introduced "hearts" ♥ as an additional way of tagging tracks I use those instead of "stars" to mark the tracks I like from an album, so I instantly know which tracks from individual albums I would add to my iPhone playlist.

But I guess in your situation the only way is to start over...

 

Thank you all for taking the time to help.
It's is greatly appreciated.

 

I usually sync entire artists playlists.
In iTunes put everything I have on a particular artist or group into a playlist.
For example I have one called EVERLY.
Then I sync that to my 160 GB classic.
Takes a lot less time than picking & choosing.

Darryl