MediaMonkey forum

Hi folks,

I'm using MM3.2.5. and I think a 4th generation Ipod.

I have some playlists on the ipod I created a couple of years ago, and can't seem to edit them at all. I can 'remove' them from the device, but I can't add anything to them.

I only want to update one playlist, so as a work around, I've deleted the old one and created a new one in MM. Now, all the tracks on this new playlist "playlist 2" are already on the device, so as I understand it, importing the playlist shouldn't mean that the tracks all come over as well - but that's what's happening.

If I try to 'drag and drop' "playlist 2" into the device, it won't work I get the 'Option unavailable' symbol - or whatever it's called.

If I right click, and choose "send to > device (synchronise)" then it tries to take the tracks over too, and there isn't enough room on the device. As I say though, the tracks are already there.

I don't synch at all often - I don't add that much music to the library these days - and when I do I do it manually, as in my experience anything 'auto' usually just b*ggers things up because I missed a critical check box somewhere and it then takes me hours to get back to where I started. So this is just a really basic attempt to get a playlist onto an ipod - but it doesn't seem that straightforward. I'm sure there's something obvious I'm missing, but I've searched the forum and can't find anything myself.

Any help very gratefully received.

Cheers

Donald

Hi again,

so - just after I posted the message above, I came up with another 'work around' - but it's excessively 'clunky' and not something I'd want to do again.

As it seems space on the ipod was the problem with the method I was using (with the playlist duplicating all its track entries) I just deleted all the tracks on the ipod to make space, did a 'playlist sync' as outlined above, and the tracks all copied across to the ipod.

But, when you're scrolling down through 13000 tracks to add them all to the playlist, it's a bit of a pain in the behind, so as the saying goes, I must be doing something wrong.

Can anyone offer any helpful advice here?

Many thanks

Donald

MM isn't designed to edit playlists and tracks directly on an iPod. The way it's meant to be done (with MM) is to manage the music and playlists on the PC, and then sync the PC with the iPod using the auto-synchronize option. When you use the auto-sync option, you can specify which playlists, collections, artists, albums, etc. should stay in sync with your iPod, and when you sync only the changes will be made (tracks and playlists already on the iPod will not have to be recopied).

But when you do a manual sync like you are doing (right-click > sync playlist, etc.) MM does not know which tracks and playlists are already on the device, so it will all be recopied again.

Hi nohitter,

Thanks for the reply. I got it to work...kind-of..

I got the playlist to synch 'OK' and I've since gone back and added new stuff to the playlist on MM and it's auto-synched fine - so far so good.

But, when it went to synch for the first time there wasn't room for all the tracks on the device, so I was asked if I wanted to delete 'old tracks'. I'm probably terminally stupid, because I figured it would only delete just enough of the oldest tracks to allow the new playlist to synch over, but no such luck. It's not a 'biggy' to be honest, because the music on the device probably needed a refresh anyway.

But how would you keep a fairly constant list of music on the device? I guess one option is to create a large 'generic' playlist - let's call it "ipod 1" - and then make changes to that. That way both could be set to auto-synch?

Is there any other way to just set the options to auto-synch that playlist, but to keep the rest of the music intact?

Thanks for your help so far

Cheers

D

donmacn wrote: But, when it went to synch for the first time there wasn't room for all the tracks on the device, so I was asked if I wanted to delete 'old tracks'.

That isn't how that works. MM will warn you if there is not enough space to copy everything from your auto-sync list, but that has nothing to do with what old items will be deleted. Those deleted items would have been deleted regardless of how much space is available on the device, because they were not in the list of items in the auto-sync list.

But how would you keep a fairly constant list of music on the device? I guess one option is to create a large 'generic' playlist - let's call it "ipod 1" - and then make changes to that. That way both could be set to auto-synch?

That is probably the best way. I find it easiest to just manage several playlists and decide which ones I want on my device based on how much I can fit due to space constraints.

Is there any other way to just set the options to auto-synch that playlist, but to keep the rest of the music intact?

I don't follow you. If you only want to sync a certain subset of tracks, but to totally ignore whatever else is on the device (eg. don't delete what is already there) then just use the manual "send to" option. However, doing that means possible duplicates and a total lack of rating/playcount updates.

hi nohitter,

Just a quick reply to say thanks for your help. I'll go with the 'big playlist' option and keep things simple.

Cheers

D

nohitter has got it right. I would suggest not one big playlist, but many; experiment with lists by year, genre, group, rating or any combination of these. You can even use Magic Nodes to create random playlists and see what you get! You have more options.