Making space on HD, slimming down itunes

Itunes is great but I don't need to store my entire music collection on my computer. Is there a way to not store my music in itunes but not have it all erased off my ipod every time I sync?? Does this make sense?

When you add music to your Itunes library, it doesnt make another version of that file, it just copies it, so you are not wasting space. Does that answer your question?

if not--i dont quite understand.

I understand that part. I don't want any copies of my music on my computer. Having them on the ipod is enough for me.

I want to have the music all on my ipod. Take it off my computer and not have all the music on the ipod disappear every time I try to sync new music onto my ipod.

Maybe that says it better.

I also find that annoying. Itunes doesnt cater for people with large libraries but with small ipods such as myself. I have to go through and tick each song that I want to go on my ipod, but then if I want to listen to my songs on my itunes in shuffle mode, it completly misses out the non ticked songs. very annoying.

Sorry, no can do. If you put music on your iPod, then erase the music from your computer, it will be deleted from your iPod the next time you sync (that's what sync means: make the same at both places).
You can store your music in an external drive if you want. Check this thread.

yup, external hard drive is the answer.

Uncheck: Sync only checked songs and videos
Check: Manually manage music and videos
Syncing becomes a thing of the past and you put on the ipod what you want and remove what you want.

imho - this is a very bad idea.
Drop your ipod and it breaks - all your music is gone
drop it in a puddle of water after a rain - all your music may be gone
ipod stolen - all your music is gone
ipod crashes - all your music is gone

And for AK47 - no you don't have to go through and tick each song you want on the ipod and mess up your random play on the computer. Try creating a Playlist(s) for what you want on the ipod and then use the Music tab to sync only that playlist.

I have all my stuff backed up on these crazy things called CD's !

domromer said:

I have all my stuff backed up on these crazy things called CD's !

Click to expand...

Yeah, and how many hours did it take you to get them all from those CD's and onto your iPod? But hey, it's your time. You can spend it as you please.

bobtomay said:

Uncheck: Sync only checked songs and videos
Check: Manually manage music and videos
Syncing becomes a thing of the past and you put on the ipod what you want and remove what you want.

imho - this is a very bad idea.
Drop your ipod and it breaks - all your music is gone
drop it in a puddle of water after a rain - all your music may be gone
ipod stolen - all your music is gone
ipod crashes - all your music is gone

And for AK47 - no you don't have to go through and tick each song you want on the ipod and mess up your random play on the computer. Try creating a Playlist(s) for what you want on the ipod and then use the Music tab to sync only that playlist.

Click to expand...

This is what I was going to say. I have never automatically synced my music for that exact reason. Didn't want to have things added or deleted that I didn't want. But completely getting rid of the music on your computer is not a great idea. There are no guarantees that something won't go wrong with your iPod and you won't have to reload all of your music. If you plan on taking it all off of your computer, back it up on an external drive. (Good advice all!)

...And no one has addressed downloaded music. E.g., iTunes allows you to download your purchased music once. If it's deleted from your iPod, you'd need to buy it again.

bobtomay is right: ". . . for AK47 . . . Try creating a Playlist(s) for what you want on the ipod and then use the Music tab to sync only that playlist."

Syncing is great. It only syncs one way - from your computer to your iPod. Your iPod cannot delete anything from your computer (or external HD, as the case may be). From what bobtomay said, you can have a huge iTunes library, but a playlist called "iPod" (for example) that you move music in and out of as you wish, syncing only that playlist to your iPod.

/\ /\ /\ That's why it's a good idea to make a CD/DVD copy of all of your purchased music.

iTunes purchases are all a bit too soft for me. You can't hold them, you need to be aware of what you've done with them to transfer them. Will you still be able to play your purchased downloads 20 years from now? Will you be able to keep track of them? And besides that, the quality sucks. CD is disappearing, I predict it has maybe another 5 years before the industry declares it completely obsolete. Imagine buying a 20 year old Apple, that's what you get with CD.

I still can play all of my college purchases from 30 years ago without any problem with a fidelity that no digital source can match.

This is progress?

(sorry for the rant)

I have a CD case with all my mp3's backed up.. I have over $200 worth of downloaded music from iTunes...... and my iPod was stolen...... and at one point I had some error that made me wipe my drive and I lost everything....... but because I burned my mp3's onto CD I was able to get them all back.

Back up any way you can ... External and/or CD's... I didn't have an external drive at the time either... I do now tho.. but will still continue to burn CD's. Never know when either Internal or External HD will crap out.

I use a program called Ephpod go get music off of my ipod to my computer, but it also has a feature that i believe is just what you are looking for. Give it a shot and let us know if it helps.