iPod giving me an iHeadache

Q: I just purchased an Apple iPod Shuffle (2nd generation), and when I try to load music on it from the iTunes Store it shows that it copied, but the iPod device doesn’t recognize any music stored. There were bare minimal instructions that came with the iPod, and I’m going crazy wrestling with this thing and my computer just to get even an audio CD loaded on it. HELP!

A: One of the drawbacks with the iPod Shuffle is that it doesn’t have any display screen. This can sometimes make it difficult to know whether your music was copied correctly.

Since I am not sure whether by copying music you mean downloading the song from the iTunes Store or synchronizing your iTunes library with your iPod I am going to start with the basics of how to put music on your iPod.

The first step is to get your music to appear in your iTunes library using the iTunes software. It sounds like you already did this by purchasing a song from the iTunes Store.

You can also insert an audio CD into your CD drive on your computer and the iTunes software should ask you if you would like to import the music from the CD to your iTunes library.

Once you have music in your iTunes library, you will need to connect your iPod to your computer using the USB cable that was packaged with your iPod. Assuming you have auto-synchronization enabled, which it is by default, the rest should be iPod magic. The iTunes software should synchronize the music in your iTunes library with the iPod connected to your computer.

I can think of a couple reasons why things may not be going as smoothly for you as I just described. One may be that you are trying to copy songs straight from your computer to the iPod without going through the iTunes software. If this is the case, you are using your iPod as a portable storage device, much like a USB flash drive, instead of as an MP3 player.

It may also be that you have more music in your iTunes library than your iPod Shuffle can hold. Or that the songs in your iTunes library are not marked for synchronization. If the latter is true, just make sure the little checkbox next to the song in your library is checked which tells the iTunes software to copy that song over to your iPod during the next synchronization.

If you are still experiencing issues after following the advice I have just given you, please call Noobie and we will be happy to look into the issue further with you.

This post was originally broadcast Friday, February 23, 2007 on “Tech Talk with Noobie”, a weekly radio show on WCBK 102.3 FM in Martinsville, Indiana. Tech Talk with Noobie airs every Friday at 11:30 a.m. If you have a question you would like Noobie to answer on the air, simply e-mail your question to .