Ok
I'm going demonstrate my problem with links to screen shots indicating what I'm talking about.
Step 1: Format the iPod to the manufactured default
Here we have a screen shot of my iPod right after a reformat. iTunes is setup so it won't try to pop up if I connect my iPod, etc.
Side bar: Is there a way to format using MM?
Next we do the following:
1. Safely Disconnect the iPod
2. Exit iTunes
3. Open MM
4. Wait a seconds
5. Reconnect iPod
Below we have the MM summary screen after the iPod has been connected.
The description in the top right corner indicates that the device is empty but the memory bar below indicates that it's either full or will be full after next sync (not horribly clear but lets move on).
By default the auto-sync tab looks to want to auto-sync all of my music. This isnt what I want.
When we drill down to see what MM is looking at this is exactly what seems to be going on:
Instead I want one folder of music, in this case lets get all of the music in the Gospel folder:
I select the Gospel folder only and select apply but the memory bar below doesn't change. When I hover over the file MM indicates that there is only about 26 gigs of music in this folder, so why is the memory bar at the bottom still indicating it wants to fill up my iPod? To be fair, sometime the indicator at the bottom works correctly but you get my drift.
Now I'm going to highlight the playlist option and select only my music that was rate 5 stars via an autoplaylist I created. According to the memory list it's only 7 gigs of music in this playlist but the memory bar below indicates that there is 26 gigs of music it plans to upload (size of the Gospel folder):
Here's what's selected at the options tab when the auto-sync menu is highlighted:
These are the options that are selected via the device configuration menu under the option tab:
Now this is where it gets really flaky...
If I select away from the iPod device Menu (in this case the Now Playing Menu):
Then back to the Ipod Menu...
The memory settings appear to have change, with the memory bar below indicating that it's about to try to upload my entire music collection again:
When I reselect the auto-sync tab it appears that the file location has been changed back to default. I have been using the apply tab with every change (observed via screenshots)...
This is my hardware information via MM:
I really don't know what could be the issue here...