Bizarre iPod behavior

[dreamshark]

I listen to lots of podcasts on my iPod shuffle. Every now and again, after I listen to a podcast it DISAPPEARS. Not just from the iPod itself, but from iTunes (after I sync the shuffle to the computer of course). This isn't a big problem, because I usually delete podcasts after I listen to them. Eventually. And it's hard to be sure when one disappears that I didn't actually delete it. But ... I think that sometimes they are deleting themselves.

Even worse, this occasionally seems to happen with music. I wouldn't mind if the songs just disappeared from the iPod, but I don't like it one bit when they also disappear from my iTunes library! Could I have gotten confused and deleted them from the library when I thought I was just removing them from the iPod? I need to pay more attention....

Comments

[ckd]

Check the iTunes podcasts preference tab. It might be set to keep 'all unplayed episodes'.

If you've set the iPod to automatically sync your whole library, then removing them from the iPod is only doable by removing them from iTunes (or unchecking them, if you have 'sync only checked items' set).

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

You seem to be advising me on behavior exactly opposite to what I'm seeing. I'm not having TROUBLE deleting the items. They are disappearing on their own, and I want them to stop doing that.

I would never have my iPod set to automatically sync anything, much less my whole library (I'm talking about a 1G iPod shuffle here!). However, I'm not sure about the "sync only checked items" checkbox. It's set to whatever the default setting is; I've never changed it because I never understood what it meant if I'm not doing automatic syncing. However, the podcasts that disappear may be doing so after I uncheck them (I often uncheck a podcast to remind myself that I have listened to it).

[ckd]

I phrased that badly; I was thinking that you might have been hitting some confusion about whether you were looking at your iPod or your main iTunes library. I also missed where you said it was a shuffle, which does behave somewhat differently than the "regular" iPod as far as syncing.

Normally iTunes will ask you if you want to delete the file or just the library entry when you delete a track; if you're not seeing that warning then you may still have the files around with iTunes not knowing about them.

[laurel]

Weird. I'd guess the podcast thing might have something to do with your podcast settings (whether you should keep every episode or just the most recent one) but it still seems odd.

I can't think of any reason songs would disappear.

One thing you can do, if you think a song is missing from your iTunes library, is to do a search on your computer to see if the actual music file is still on your computer-- if it is, you can then "Add to Library" to add it back into your iTunes library.

(The "library" in iTunes is really just a database that points to your song files wherever they are on your computer. Some folks keep them all in one Music folder, some folks leave their music in different locations on their computer. I have iTunes set to copy all songs I add to my Library into the iTunes music folder.)

So if you search your computer by filename for the name of the artist or song or album, you might be able to find the actual mp3 or whatever on your harddrive even if it seem to be missing from iTunes.