This is the order in which, according to Apple, one should go about attempting to solve a glitch in your iPod. If one fails, you move on to the next. So, a visual guide for number one (in Step Two you have to press both buttons at once and hold them down till you see the apple):

Number two just means: “Play it again Sam” (like plugging it into a different usb port in your computer)
Number three means: Restart the computer.
Number four means: Reinstall the software (preferably the latest iTunes version)
Number five deletes everything in your iPod so, so only do this if you really need to
http://www.apple.com/support/ipod/five_rs/index.html
…..Good Luck!

Album art is part of the fun of buying a CD. Would’nt it be great if you can have that same artwork in iTunes and your iPod? If you buy songs from the iTunes stores, they will come with the art, but if you download tracks from other sites, sharing it with friends etc., the album art might not be included. Let’s have a look how to add the album art to the tracks that don’t have it automatically.

…..Your Album Art area is visible in iTunes on the left corner (it is the small square area). If you can’t see it, press the right bottom of the four bottoms that are located on the bottom left.
…..Next, select a song that you’d like to add album art to. There are various ways to add the album art into iTunes.
If you have a scanned image as a file on your hard drive, drag it into the Album Art area from Windows Explorer (PC) or the Finder (Mac).

…..If you do not have the image on your computer, search for it on the internet. There are a few good websites where you can find good artwork. (http://www.amazon.com, http://www.walmart.com, http://www.allmusic.com) On Amazon, search for the album you’d like, and click on “see larger picture” for a suitable image file. If you found the desirable image, drag it into iTunes as you did with a scanned image, simply by dragging it from the website into the iTunes album art are (the square on the bottom left).

…..If you don’t like the drag-and-drop method, just use the following technique from a website:
Right-click (command-click on the Mac) on a track (or tracks) and select “Get Info.”
Open the “Artwork” tab. Click the “add…” button. Have fun designing your iTunes.

…..For a bigger view of your album art, double click on the album art area. You can do that either with the “selected song” or with the song that is “now playing. To switch in between them, click on the little arrow on the bar above the Album Art area in the bottom left corner of iTunes.

…..Some songs have multiple album art files, which can be stored on one track. To add another image file, simply drag it on top of the existing one. In the bar above the album art will appear arrows, which allow you to switch images.

Manually Managing Your Music

Manually Managing your music is an extremely useful and incredibly underutilized capability of your iPod and iTunes. First off, what does this function do? Setting your iPod/iTunes to Manually Manage Music will open up a whole new level of flexibility for you and your iPod. What it enables you to do is to drag and drop music from your iTunes library to your iPod, and to delete individual songs directly from your iPod, without having to deal with playlists. Also, of even more importance to most people is the ability to drag and drop music from iTunes on other computers. Without Manually Manage Music selected you cannot transfer music from another iTunes library without first erasing everything on your iPod and then reloading everything from the new computer. With manually manage music enabled you can add music from computer A, unplug your iPod, connected it to computers B and C, and add music from each of those libraries as well. This function is extremely useful for those with 80 or 160gig iPods and lots of friends or iTunes libraries spread out over several computers (home and office for example). To turn on this feature (which is turned off by default), follow these directions…

If you have iTunes 7 or later follow these instructions:

1. Connect iPod to your computer.
2. Open iTunes.
3. Select iPod in the source pane. If you don’t see iPod in the iTunes source pane, then click here if you use Windows or if you use Mac OS X click here.
4. On the Summary tab select “Manually manage music and videos” and click Apply.
5. Tip: Even though your Music, Movies, and TV Shows tabs show no checkmarks when you are in Manual mode, you can still sync content. Checking these boxes will place the iPod back into Automatic mode..

At this point you can drag and drop from multiple computers with impunity! Enjoy!

The new version of the iPhone’s firmware, version 1.1.1 was released this past week. It brought with it numerous bug fixes, access to the wireless iTunes store, and several new features. For those who have ATT’s service with the iPhone (those who do not have unlocked phones), and those who have not in any other way hacked their phones, software upgrades are always important. However if you have altered your iPhone in any way, whether it be using the program Installer.app or unlocking your iPhone to operate with a carrier other than ATT, you will make your iPhone inoperable if you attempt to update your iPhone to the latest version 1.1.1. (Your iPhone will only stop working if it has been unlocked, you will only lose your install.app and 3rd party apps if your iPhone is not unlocked) Currently there is no way to bring back your iPhone if it has been bricked as a result of updating it.

So, you got the dreaded folder or sad face icon on your iPod? Apple support, and various other iPod resources around the web tell you to first try to “restore” your iPod. The restore function is found within iTunes and is available from the iPod pane when your iPod is plugged in. But what exactly happens when this mysterious button is clicked? And more importantly, what can it, and can’t it do? (more…)

So, you woke up this morning to find your iPod with a sad face. “Poor little guy” you say, “what happened?” iPods who upon being turned on flash either the Sad iPod face, or the folder icon usually have suffered from either hard drive failure, or a bad motherboard (logic board). But how can you tell which? (more…)