[iTunes] Manually Manage Music and Videos feature

[Kirk McElhearn]

On Oct 2, 2010, at 3:03 PM, Bernard Munter wrote:

> With the greatest of respect, I humbly submit that "Manually Manage" and
> "Sync" are mutually exclusive - at least in the way I understand iTunes.

Yes, more or less...
> 
> I stand to be corrected, but I believe that Sync Music, under the Music tab
> for the device, is the place where you must choose, in particular, playlists
> (including 'smart' playlists) to be sync'ed. Other granular items that can
> be chosen to sync are those in the artists, albums and genres categories -
> exactly what you are after, IMHO!
> 
> You can sync items from more than one category at once, eg, a(n
> hypothetical) "Favorite Tracks" playlist, anything from the "Bongos" genre,
> anything by Alicia Bridges and/or "The Very Best Of The Dixie Cups" album.
> 
> By granular, I mean that items may be synced down to the level of individual
> playlists, artists, albums or genres. Not individual songs. Individual songs
> to be sync'ed need to be put into a playlist of their own, eg a song from
> one album plus a song from another album, a couple from a third, etc. This
> is as fine-grained as it gets. Then, you choose the particular playlist
> created as described in the previous sentence by checking its check box
> under "Playlists."

It can actually get more fine-grained: you can choose to only sync checked items, and by checking and unchecking tracks in your library, you could, for example, choose those tracks on an album you want to sync, when you select that album as you describe above.
> 
> I've only ever used manual management with iPod Shuffles. In that scenario,
> the management (not sync'ing) is done by dragging items 'manually' onto the
> the device or the list of its contents in the main window area. There, they
> can be dragged up or down the list into the order desired - I believe. All
> in much the same way as you would manually create or manage a regular
> playlist - think of the Shuffle as an 'hardware' playlist, if you will.
> 
> 'Sync,' also, is a two-way process in which the playing position, status,
> rating and so on, are copied _back_ to iTunes the next time the device is
> sync'ed - which does not occur with 'manual management' AFAIK.

Those metadata do get synced when you use manual management. I've always used my shuffle that way, and when I sync it, the play counts and last played dates get updated.


Kirk

*Author of Take Control of iTunes 10: The FAQ*
http://www.mcelhearn.com/itunes
Twitter: @mcelhearn