Take control of your iPod’s music changes

How do I … change my iPod settings to stop auto synchronizing?

When you connect your iPod to a computer, iTunes opens and starts updating your content automatically. It transfers any new songs you bought and deletes podcasts or any songs you removed from your library.

And some people don’t want that to happen, for any number of reasons. For one, you may have far more music on your computer (in your library) than your iPod can hold. Or you just might want to have full control of what is loaded on your device.

Here’s how to stop it: connect the iPod to your PC or Mac, then click on the iPod icon in iTunes (in the left side frame).

The iPod Summary tab appears, and then choose Manually Manage Music and Videos (or choose Manually Manage Music if you don’t have a video iPod).

Look to the immediate left of your iPod in the iTunes Source list and you’ll see a gray triangle. Click on it to see all your playlists. You can update or change those lists by dragging a song from your iTunes music library (at the top of the Source list on the left) and drop it where you want it on one of the iPod’s playlists.