Sync parts of iTunes libraries from many Macs to an iPod

Oct 17, '06 07:30:00AM

Contributed by: Anonymous

This isn't really a hint so much as it is an undocumented but terribly useful feature for my lifestyle.

I have an iMac at home with a 250GB hard drive that stores my iTunes library and syncs the music to my 60GB iPod. But I spend most of my time using my MacBook Pro on the road, and tend to download lots of podcasts. I would like to keep my iPod's podcasts up to date from the MBP, but not store all my music on its smallish hard drive.

It turns out that with the latest version of iTunes, I can sync parts of my MBP library to my iPod (i.e., just the podcasts) without overwriting the music on the iPod from the iMac's library. So now I sync my podcasts and contacts from my MBP's library, and music, movies and TV shows from my iMac's library just by selecting the sync checkboxes on the relevant tabs in iTunes under DEVICES.

[robg adds: My friend and occasional hints editor Kirk notes that you'll want to hold down Command and Option when you first connect the iPod to mount it in manual mode. Change the settings and then set it back to automatic sync.]

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Mac OS X Hints
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20061010151001671