I’ve just bought a new Apple iPod Mini and am really excited about getting started loading my music onto it, but I can’t figure out how to do so! Windows Media Player can synchronize music with the iPod, but the iPod itself doesn’t then seem to know the music is there. HELP!
This is a surprisingly common question for new iPod owners who are using Microsoft Windows on their PC, and the basic answer is that you must use Apple iTunes to get music onto your iPod. Windows Media Player can see the iPod, but only as a hard disk, the section on the iPod where the music is stored is “hidden” and only iTunes knows how to get to it.
Let me take you through the steps of getting some music onto an Apple iPod with iTunes on a Windows XP system, then I’ll show you quickly why WMP can’t do the same thing.
The first time you plug your iPod into your PC via the included USB cable, you’ll probably see something like this:
What’s happened is that the underlying drivers for this class of device have been updated by Microsoft and the changes have been automatically applied – thankfully! – but you need to reboot. Do so, and then the next time you start up, your iPod will not generate any messages of this nature.
Now you really need to get a recent copy of iTunes onto your PC. There’s a CDROM that’s included with your iPod that has the iTunes program thereon, but if you don’t want to mess with that, you can simply go to apple.com/itunes to download the latest version.
The next step is to actually launch the iTunes program. If you don’t have the very latest version, you might well see this dialog window:
Generally, it’s a good idea to make sure you always have the latest version, so click “yes” and it’ll pop up your Web browser and take you directly to the download page, at which point you want to enter your email address, uncheck any boxes to skip certain types of email, and start the download:
I always uncheck these boxes, personally, as I already get too darn much email, but you might enjoy learning about free music available from the popular iTunes Music Store, etc., as indicated.
Either way, eventually you’ll be able to launch iTunes and have it start up, rather than ask you to do other stuff. At that point it will recognize the iPod that you’ve plugged in and step you through the registration process.
It’ll look like this:
You can stick with the default name for your device, but I always try to pick something more fun. For this 30GB iPod Video, I’m going to call it “MicroTV”, because, well, it’s a pretty tiny video screen. I also uncheck “automatically update music” because I like to control what happens to my iPod manually rather than have things magically occur and then not be what I want. You may find that having iTunes sync your iPod automatically works better for you, however.
When you’re done with this configuration step, click “Next” and you’ll see:
If you’re so inclined, register your iPod, or just click “Finish”.
Now, finally, you can see iTunes in all its glory:
All the colorful material in the middle is from the Apple iTunes Music Store. On the left side column, notice all the various categories of music and content, very similar to Microsoft Windows Media Player. Just below the Music Store, however, is what we seek. It says “MicroTV”, as that’s the name of my iPod.
Click on this entry, whatever name you’ve given your own iPod, and you’ll see your music list, which is completely blank:
Now click on the “Library” link also on the left column and you’ll see what albums or music you’ve ripped or otherwise copied into your iTunes library. If you haven’t ripped any CDs, put one into your computer and click on the “Import” button in iTunes that’ll show up.
On this particular computer, I’ve already ripped a few audio CDs, as you can see:
There’s a much nicer way to explore the music, however. Click on the “Browse” button on the top right (it looks like an all-seeing eye) and a new panel will show up that lists genre, artists and albums too:
I’m going to go ahead and copy my jazz album, by Jeff Lorber, onto my iPod. I do that by clicking on the “Jazz” genre, then dragging and dropping that onto the name of the iPod on the left side. Then I can see the music being copied onto the iPod itself:
Doesn’t take very long, and once it’s done, I can eject my iPod and start enjoying the tiny music player.
However, let’s have a quick peek at the basic iPod configuration while it’s still plugged in by clicking on the “iPod Preferences” button on the bottom of the window:
The preferences look like this:
You can probably leave them all as-is, but that’s how you get to them if you want to change anything about your iPod.
At this point we’re done. The easiest way to disconnect the iPod from your computer is to click on the little “eject” button, but before we do, let’s have a very quick look at how Windows Media Player sees the iPod and why it’s so darn hard to get music from WMP to an iPod.
WMP certainly doesn’t show a “MicroTV” option to make life easy. Click on the “Sync” button, however, and you’ll see that it can indeed see the iPod that’s plugged in:
This is deceptive, though, because the section of the iPod that holds the music that the iPod player itself can access isn’t what’s listed. The iPod can serve as a convenient and portable hard disk, and it’s that section of the device that WMP can access. Copy music and it’ll be accessible by another Windows system, but the iPod itself won’t see it. Not good!
To actually get music out of WMP and onto an iPod involves some conversion and fiddling around, as detailed here: Convert WMA into MP3 for use with iPods.
Let’s go back to iTunes, however, and eject the iPod. That’s done by clicking on the tiny upward triangle adjacent to the iPod name:
Now the device is disconnected and you can unplug it, plug in some headphones or earbuds and enjoy your music!
Working with the iPod Itself
The easiest way to do that? Push the play button once on your iPod to wake it up, and you’ll see this:
Now use the scrollwheel to highlight either “Playlists”, “Artists”, “Albums”, “Songs” or “Genres”, the push the button in the middle of the scrollwheel to select that choice:
I’ll select “songs”, and here’s what I see:
Now I can pick a specific song by again using the scrollwheel, then click “OK” (the button in the middle of the wheel) and the song starts playing:
And now, let’s relax with our own personal jam!
Hope that helps you get up to speed with the iPod. You’ll find it gets a lot easier to work with after a few minutes of fiddling around.
I cannot fix my iTunes store because it timed out that I cannot put everythings in my iPod.
When i connect the iPod to the pc, nothing happens..
(I’ve not yet downloaded the itunes)
i need help on puting pictures on my ipod touch with the internet
i have attacted the ipod with my pc but pc is not showing any message and no sign of attachment is shown
Natalie, the music library on the computer should be just fine. Worst case you might need to reauthorize the computer for purchases, but it would be very odd for anything to be wiped. But then again, you DO have a backup of some sort, right?
Ok, my niece had her Ipod Nano set to manually download. Someone plugged in their Ipod touch to her computer. She is afraid she has lost all her music. Is this true? She comes home in two days, can you let me know as soon as possible if we can retrieve her music…When they plugged in the ipod touch, it came up as …playlist.
Thanks!
Natalie
hi iv ust recently had windows 7 installed and everythings goin great but everytime i go to download my songs from youtube converter it wont do it! it says download onto computer but before it went straight to itunes, i need help,thanks:)
I have windows 7 though will it work on there, or is it still “hidden”
to load music on ipod without it deleteing your songs just click and drag songs into devices in itunes
Hi Mr.Taylor how can i convert some songs from youtube to my apple ipod 4 latest generation.Could you show me the very simple way please.
your Regards
farahnaz
Can we directly download songs and videos into iPod?
Here is a great place you can go to for free music downloads.
http://bizplusnews.blogspot.com/2011/04/free-unlimited-music-downloads.html
I bought an IPod Nano and my Windows Music Library will not read it. When I plug the Nano into my computer the message is get on the screen is asking me what I want to do “open files” or “use as a backup”. How can I add my music to my Nano? I bought the music from Wal-Mart and ITunes over the past 5 years or so. The guy at Best Buy said this would sync with the music I already have in my library. Can you help me as Apple Support or ITunes Support said they do not support this new Nano. I was told to go to apple.com/support and when the page came up to type in “not seeing ITunes” but there is no place to type the info in. I really need help. My old IPod died on me.
Thanks!
Not entirely sure what you’re asking about, Sarah. You have the music you want on the iPod in your ITunes library already, right? The problem is that when you plug in the iPod, it won’t let you copy the music across? If so — and I warn you, this will erase everything on the iPod — next time it’s plugged in click on the “Restore” button in iTunes and it’ll reformat the iPod and “pair” it with your own iTunes library. Then you can copy across whatever you’d like.
Hi
I wonder if you can help. A friend has given me her old ipod and I can’t seem to sync my music from itunes into my ipod libray and therefore onto my ipod. Any ideas?
Many thanks
Sarah
Hi Dave: My computer crashed but I had a backup of my itunes music. After it was fixed, I downloaded itunes version to my computer and did the add files to library. All songs were downloaded into the itunes but when I go to play them it says it can not find the folder. I try to locate it and find it but it still doesnt play. Any suggestions?
I also deleted itunes and tried downloading again but still the same. Please help
When I plug my Ipod shuffle into my computer it turns my internt off. when I unplug my Ipod shuffle the internt come back online Iam using Itunes. is there any one that can help me with this problem
thanks..
Hello Dave,
I have an Ipod Video 30G and recently bought a new Ipod Touch 32G. The computer that contained all my songs for the Ipod Video crashed sometime back and I lost everything having to do with that Ipod. However, I have 447 songs still on the Ipod. My new Itunes program will not download any of the songs that were not purchased from Apple from the older Ipod. Do you know of a way to transfer them to the new Ipod Touch? Thanks abunch for any help!
Oh btw I use macs so 🙂
-Julianna
Hello there,
ive been having a huge problem with my ipod.
the problem is when i connect it to my laptop or any computer it seems that theres no connection between them. Certainly the ipod gets charged but the computer cant seem to find the ipod. and When i try to sync it with itunes, itunes cant seem to find it. Thus i’ve tried everything but it just doesnt do a thing. I can’t put songs anymore and somehow my Ipod kinda “lost” its memory like b4 it had over 900 songs but now theres nothing?
Please can you help me I dont want my money to go to waste! Thank you 🙂
-Julianna
Hi Dave,
I have an 8gb ipod nano. For some reason my computer doesn’t recongnize it when I plug it into the usb port. The port is ok because I use it for my webcam and other things. I have tried several things like rebooting the ipod itself but nothing works. I also tried the ipod on different computers with the same results it’s not recogized by the computer. I have the latest itunes software also
Hi;;
How do i download music and pictures and videos to my Ipod ;;and why is it so complicated to download on the Ipod ;; this should be made easy for people to do;; if you want them to buy such expensive things as Ipods;;
David, um, I have no idea what they’re talking about. You can’t really use an iPod without iTunes…
If I buy an ipod from someone, and they claim that it does not support itunes, what does this mean, and can it be made to support itunes? Thank you
iTunes has changed since this was done.
Therefore; I’m so freakin’ lost.
Hi
How do I set up 2 separate ipods within Itunes? I have my own account and when I plugged my daughter’s new (second hand) ipod into my PC, it automatically synced the content to my ipod – but we want to be able to have different songs etc. How do we achieve separate ‘identities’ via iTunes? Some guidance would be much appreciated!
Thanks,
Frances
I have an ipod touch. How do I get it to play albums in succession. It will play one complete album and then instead of going to the next album it starts the same one over again.
why is it that if i put a CD into my computer to put onto itunes nothing comes up, it comes up with other CDs but not this one. is it the computer or itunes?
i am tryingt o put music that i have put on itunes onto my ipod. i have plugged my ipod in but nothing has come up. im geting EXTREMLY frustrated. please help me 🙂
i got an iPod touch a while bac and it had a lot of music on it. so i deleted some to put new ones and when i tried to drag the music to the iPod i am getting a “no entry ” sigh. help please. i am using xp os
Dear Dave,
I’m from Myitkyina, Kachin state, Burma. Thanks for helped me out. But I am not clear how to put folders in iPod. Please help me.
Thanks again.
THE IPOD WILL PUT THE SONGS AND ALBUMS WHERE IT WANTS TO AND NOT WHERE YOU WANT IT. if you want an album by a band in the order of the albums songs, you will not get it in order, they will be in the wrong order and all over the place in your ipod. ipods are not for albums in order, the iTunes and iPod will place things randomly wherever they want to. there will be no rhyme or reason why half your songs cannot be located, why albums are split apart, nothing plays the way it should or how YOU WANT IT.
but, if you LIKE random songs all over the place with no rhyme or reason to it, then you might like the ipod and iTunes.
if you like easy, simple, organized full length album the WAY THEY WERE MEANT TO BE HEARD IN THE FIRST PLACE, then you DEFINITELY SHOULD NOT BUY AN IPOD OF ANY TYPE.
Andrea, glad to be able to help out!
Nikayo, just go to http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/
how can i download the software?
Hi Mr Taylor,
just bought a nano ipod (my first one ever) and as a “mature” person I had no idea how to download song onto it. Thanks for this web site. My ipod is filling up with songs.
Hi Dave, I got an iPod Nano 5th Gen for my birthday and every time I try to download a song or album from iTunes, I get the following message “There was a problem downloading (insert song/album title. You do not have enough access privileges for this operation.” I am running Windows XP on my home computer. The song appears in my library with an (!) next to the song title I cannot access it or load it onto my Nano. Can you help?
Don’t give up hope, Diane! 🙂 Shuffles are pretty darn easy to work with: download iTunes, add music to it (as discussed above), then plug your iPod into your computer by using the included cable to plug it into the USB port on your computer. It’ll appear in iTunes after 30-45 seconds and will give you the option of “filling it with music”. Choose that and you should be able to go from there! 🙂
I am totally illiterate when it comes to mechanical things. My daughter gave me an ipod shuffle and I am clueless as to how it works and would like to know, if you would be so kind as to tell me what to do other than give it away or sell it?
Selena, I bet that your friends have ripped CDs that they’ve borrowed from friends, bought at the store for a discount, or even just had laying around. Yeah, if you fill an iPod will all new music, it’s crazy expensive!
Ok, I just gotthe new ipod touch 4 for christmas, its 8 g. I downlaoded iTunes and everything but the price is like,$ 2.00 for each song! I dont get it! My friends have like, thousands of song on their ipod touches. That means I would have to send two thousand $$$ If I want one thousand songs… whats all that about?? Please Help me!
Thanks, From: The girl who doesnt want ot spend thousands on songs…
Shahde, you’ll need to import those songs into your iTunes library before you proceed to get them onto your iPod. To do that, just drag and drop them into the top left area of the iTunes window, where it lists “Music” “Movies”, “TV Shows”, etc. Then you can copy it with a regular ole sync.
Teddy, you should see tabs along the top of the iTunes window labeled “Music” “Info”, “Movies” and so on, once you’ve clicked on your iPod to see the summary info. Click on them! 🙂
How could when I click my i Pod name,it don’t show the music list on my I Pod instead the information about my I Pod..? Please can You Help me
Hi(:
I was wondering if theres ANY way to put songs on my ipod that arent from iTunes?
Becuase I went and downloaded about 300 songs before i brought my first ipod
Please help!!
hey I just got a apple ipod classic which is like 160 GB…a lot of space??!!!! And I dont know how to use it or load music in it!!!!!
Initializing a new iPod unfortunately requires iTunes. But once the initial setup is completed, you can uninstall the monstrosity and all the excess baggage that it forces you to install. Then you can manage the iPod with small, simple freeware programs such as Sharepod and/or Copy Trans Manager.
ser i had ituns befor then y computer was not working and then a man ficks it but i was traing to downloud i tunes and when it gets to 99% it’s friz my computer…..HELP ME PLEAS!!!!!
just finished transphering songs from old cassatte tapes with a program called pinnacle but my apple ipod wont let me down load them is there away thanking you colin
Hi,
I was just interested in maybe getting an ipod of some sort and was wondering can you take music that you have either uploaded or downloaded to your computer and transfer it to itunes? I know that may sound like a daft question, but I have an extensive library and wouldn’t want to have to start over just because apple don’t like me not buying from their itunes store etc.
Thanks!
Hey, HOW DO YOU GET MUSIC FROM YOUR OLD i-POD ONTO THE iTUNES, AND THEN ONTO A NEW i-POD?
I recently put my daughters ipod on charge and when I took it off I didnt disconnect properly or eject properly and now when I go onto the play list of songs that should be on there at least 74 of the tunes are not on due to my hick up, is there anyway or fixing this as I really cant afford to buy them all again. these songs are still on the play list but I cannot sync them onto the ipod anymore. I feel so bad and ashamed that I have done this, please help me.
Sincerely thankful if u could