Numpty queston - Ipod shuffle

jennyjelly

Hi, would you be able to help a 50-something technophobe please?

I bought a hardly used Ipod shuffle from someone at work. She had left some of her music on it and I wanted to delete it as it's not my sort of thing, so I opened it on the computer but the files wouldn't display so I had to leave them on (there are only 4 tracks so that's not important). I put some of my music on and tried to listen to it but all I can hear is her music that I couldn't delete and not mine, though mine appears in 'My Computer'.

I've never had one before and I'm only guessing at how to use it so it's probably my fault. Am I doing something completely wrong or should I ask her for my tenner back?

Thanks all.

geordieracer

Do you have itunes? If not download it and then plug in your ipod and it will show them there sdo you can delete them

dogmaryxx

http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/ipodshuffleuserguide.pdf

googler

Download iTunes

Load your music into iTunes

Connect the iPod and Sync it to your iTunes library.

Dave_C_2

Unlike better media players (Creative/Sony/Sandisk) you can't just drag and drop onto an ipod. You have to download and use an application, itunes being the obvious one.

However the good news is that other applications without the bloat are available.

Dave

jennyjelly

Ah it's all clear now, I assumed it was drag & drop as most media storage thingies are. The manual will be very useful too, she'd lost the original so I was having to guess. I shall investigate itunes and the other alternatives tomorrow. Too tired now, just need my bed.

Thanks for the help, I'm so glad it's not a faulty one.

jennyjelly

Dave_C wrote: »

Unlike better media players (Creative/Sony/Sandisk) you can't just drag and drop onto an ipod. You have to download and use an application, itunes being the obvious one.

However the good news is that other applications without the bloat are available.

Dave

What does this mean? I understand the rest of it but what is bloat?

spud17

jennyjelly wrote: »

What does this mean? I understand the rest of it but what is bloat?

Bloat is the associated rubbish that a manufacturer *thinks* you should have, but the product will work fine without it.

It clogs your PC with e.g. unnecessary updaters etc,

You seem familiar with drag/drop so I'd investigate the other suggestions before itunes.

itunes will probably re-arrange your music to how it thinks you should have it.

Some people like to have everything done for them, others prefer to sort things to their way of thinking, depends which camp you fall into.

jennyjelly

I'm definitely in the organise it myself camp so I think iTunes would annoy me if it tries to do it for me. Also I hate things that give you load of rubbish you don't want or need when all you want is the basic product so yes, I can well do without the 'bloat'.

Is there any particular one you would recommend or are they all much of a muchness? TBH I've never heard of any of the ones on Dave C's list of alternatives, iTunes clearly dominates the market until you look into it a bit deeper.

suicidebob

I'm really confused on how people organise their music.

I mean, Itunes organises it into artist and album folders, and renames the files based on the track number and song title. You can set it to copy all your files to the same directory, or you can leave them scattered all over your drive.

Is it better to have mp3s in 30 different places, all named using different conventions? If so, Itunes allows this.

Is it easier to drag and drop these files onto your mp3 player, rather than letting Itunes do it in 1 click?

Anyway, you can't use Windows, and claim apps are clogging your PC. There's way more clog in Windows than there is in Itunes!

poppy10_2

suicidebob wrote: »

Is it easier to drag and drop these files onto your mp3 player, rather than letting Itunes do it in 1 click?

Hmm... let's see. How do I add new music that I have just downloaded/ripped from CD on to my mp3 player? I own both, so I can compare:

With my Sansa MP3 player:
Step 1: Drag music from the music folder on my computer to the music folder on the mp3 player.
Step 2: Done.

With my iPod:
Step 1: Open iTunes
Step 2: Make a cup of tea while the bloated piece of crud loads up
Step 3: Drag music files from my computer into iTunes to add it to the library
Step 4: Drag music files from my iTunes library to my iTunes iPod playlist
Step 5: Sync iPod with Itunes. Make another cup of tea while you wait again.
Step 5: done.

I'm not Apple bashing, but to suggest iTunes is "one-click" or in any way easier to use that dragging and dropping in Windows Explorer is bunkum.

Fans of iTunes tend to be Mac users, where iTunes is essentially deeply integrated as part of the OS and therefore quick to load and responsive. Try using it on Windows, it is a slow bloated dog, makes using my iPod and iPhone such a chore.