Hi Scott, Jacob, Julie, and Others, Jane Jordan posted an Automator Workflow in December that lets you copy selections to an iPod Shuffle with syncing turned off.
I'm pasting in her text, but you should read the linked post from the archives that has Darcy's comments on how to turn off some Automator settings that seem to be Leopard-spectific. (I don't want to try to summarize this since I can't check what he refers to in Tiger): Jane's Instructions: <begin excerpt> In automator: 1. Create a new work flow by hitting the choose button. 2. Go to the music library of actions. 3. Select "get selected itunes tracks" action. 4. Select the copy to playlist action. Then pick your iPod. Save it as an appplication, and there ya go. When in iTunes, select a track you want to copy the iPod and then open your application and it will copy it. Just be sure to have syncing turned off. <end excerpt> Jane's post with Darcy's comments on how to turn off the Automator starting point from the December list archives is: Automator Fix Re: Update on Transferring music to iPod Shuffle http://www.mail-archive.com/discuss%40macvisionaries.com/msg25348.html Scott, the reason that a simple copy and paste operation doesn't work to move the files over to the Shuffle is that you need to update the iPod's music library database files as well, so that you can use your playlist features, shuffle play, and keep track of other metadata like your playcounts, ratings, etc. These are triggered with a drag and drop operation or with a sync but not with a simple copy. So you can either follow Jacob or Julie's instructions and set your Shuffle to sync playlists, Jane's Automator action (with syncing turned off), or do a drag and drop (painful, but possible). You can also use your iPod (shuffle or other iPod) as a data storage device. In that mode your iPod will just show up in Finder as another device, like a USB memory key, and you can copy and paste files (including music files) to the section that is used for data storage. But these files will just be treated as data files. Incidentally, there are some othe mp3 players like a few of the Creative Zen players that will show up as recognized in iTunes. I think that you can use drag and drop to move tracks onto these players, but not the Automator action Jane used (which is iPod specific). Still, someone could give it a try (Shane?). Other Creative devices (not all) can use a Mac program called XNJB to transfer music. HTH Cheers, Esther On Thursday, June 26, 2008, at 03:02AM, RATTRAY J. wrote: >Hi, > >The way I do it is by creating playlists and then sinking the playlists >to my ipod - I will try to explain the steps below but if they are >unclear give me a yell as I am new to this whole adice thing: > >1. select your songs in the way you are doing it now >2. go to the file menu and select the option to create playlist from >selection - give it a name when prompted. >3. you can then add additional songs to the playlist by slecting them - >in the usual way >4. then use vo shift M to bring up the context menue for the selected >songs >5. cursor down until you come to - add to play list - then >6 use right arrow to bring up list of your playlists >7 press enter on the one you want. >8 once you have created the playlist you can then sinc it to the ipod >9. connect ipod to your computer >10 Navigate with the VO navigation commands until you find your ipod's >scroll area and interact with it > >You will find a summary of your ipod and some tabs that say things like >music summary etc. > >11. choose the music tab and then navigate to change the options to sinc >mannualy > >12. you can then select the playlists you want to sinc > >13 press sinc button > >It sounds a lot more complicated than it is > >Let me know how you get on and if I need to clarrify any of this > >Julie > > >-----Original Message----- >From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Scott Rutkowski >Sent: 26 June 2008 12:19 >To: [email protected] >Subject: Ipod help needed please > >Hi all. > >Can anyone who uses an ipod and iTunes please tell me once I select some >songs in iTunes, how do I copy them over to my ipod? >It seems you can't use copyh and paste. I'm sure i'm doing this wrong so >I would really appreciate some step by step instructions please. >Thanks all. > > >
