Mastering iTunes Sync

While most iTunes users may have a basic grasp of how Sync works - you just plug it in and let it sync everything, right? - few realize the level of control the application offers.

First and foremost, it's important to be aware of how much content you have in your iTunes library versus how much storage is offered by your device (be it iPod, iPad or iPhone). For instance, if you have a 16GB iPhone and 40GBs of movies and music then not everything will copy over. iTunes doesn't know your preferences off hand, so it will simply upload as much as it can.

If you are unfamiliar with syncing, you can watch this handy tutorial video produced by Apple. The video highlights the ability to select certain genres and playlists from your media library. This is one great way of utilizing your limited portable storage.

Playlists are a great way to organize your media and iTunes offers both regular and Smart Playlists. The latter allows for more defined parameters by which your music is selected. For instance, you can choose to exclude an entire genre of music or limit your list to a specific time period. The possibilities are endless and, because these Smart Playlists adapt to your ever-growing media library, your management of the Smart Playlist is minimal at best. For more info on playlists, Apple also has a tutorial video on how to utilize both regular and Smart playlists.

Finally, you can gain complete control of your device's media by choosing to Manually manage music and movies from the summary page of your device. With this option selected, syncing becomes irrelevant as you can then drag and drop media from your library directly onto your device.