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Guru's Guide to Uploading Music to iPod nano

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Written by Lydia Vaughn

Sunday, 01 June 2008

by LydiaVaughn

If you've been trying to figure out how to upload music to your new iPod nano, don't worry. We'll have you playing great songs on your iPod nano in no time. Of course, you might not be so interested in music. But maybe you bought your nanos to play videos or games. Well, good news! Once you're uploading music to your nano you'll know how to upload all the other goodies too.

1) Get the music onto your hard drive

Chances are you have some CDs sitting around your house that you'd like to add to your iPod. Copy the files from your CDs onto your computer's hard disk so it'll be available to your iPod manager.

2) Import the music into your iPod manager

An "iPod manager" handles moving files to and from the iPod. For most of us, Apple's free iTunes software fills the bill. But, there are other choices if you decide you don't like iTunes. If you're new to iPods I suggest you start with iTunes.

By the way, using iTunes to manage iPod files does NOT keep you from buying music from other companies -- I buy music downloads from three different vendors but use iTunes to move them back and for from my iPod.

Quick tip: If you want iTunes to put a copy of the file in the main iTunes library directory, choose Edit, Preferences, Advanced from the menu and click the "Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library." I like to do this to make it easy to find my music files. I know that music files anywhere else on my hard drive aren't part of the iTunes library and can safely be deleted.

Okay, you're ready to import the music to iTunes. There's several ways to import, but the most common is to click (from the top menu) File, Add Folder to Library, and find and select the directory that contains your music. Click the "OK" button to add the music to the library's music list. You can also use the Control + O keys and select single files to add.

3) Connect your PC and your nano

If your iPod isn't already connected, get your USB cable (came with your iPod) out and connect the computer and iPod. The left-hand menu should show your iPod when it's successfully connected.

Next you need to decide if you want to let iTunes handle synchronizing with your iPod or if you want to handle things manually. I like the "manually manage" approach -- it lets me decide which files to move to my nano. It also lets me synch up different computers to just one iPod.

4) Upload your music

If you decided to let iTunes manage the uploads you're ready to start. Just click your iPod's icon and select "Sync" in the lower right corner. You're done! Play with that a few times. Try making playlists to group your music, go to iStore to download a couple free podcasts, and go enjoy!

If you want to manage uploading manually, click your iPod's icon, select the "Manually manage music and videos" checkbox on the iTunes screen. (Don't worry, this is a one-time setup step -- you won't have to do it again.) Now all you have to do is select the music (or play lists) you want from your iTunes library and drag it onto the iPod icon.

5) Be sure to eject your iPod

Eject from iTunes by clicking the button at bottom right of the screen. THEN disconnect from your computer.

6) Find more cool stuff!

If you've followed these steps you know how to upload music to your nano. Time to download more games, videos, books, and music for your nano. See my web site for suggestions of where to find great downloads for reasonable prices.

About the Author:

To learn more, read Lydia Vaughn's review of where to go to get more downloads for your iPod nano at her website, Nanos Reviewed. You are welcome to reprint this article - but get your own unique content version here.

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