Six Quick Steps for Uploading Music to Your iPod Nano

Congratulations on your new iPod nano! In a few minutes we’ll have you uploading music to your iPod nano and ready to roll. More interested in playing videos, games or audiobooks? No worries. Once you’re uploading music to your nano you’ll know how to upload all the other goodies too.

1) Get the music onto your hard drive

Chances are you have some CDs sitting around your house that you’d like to add to your iPod. Copy the files from your CDs onto your computer’s hard disk so it’ll be available to your iPod manager.

2) Bring the music files into your iPod manager software

You’ll use an “iPod manager” application to handle moving files to and from the iPod. Apple’s free iTunes software is the iPod manager most of us use. You’re welcome to look at the other options — Wikipedia has a pretty good list. If you’re new to iPods I suggest you start with iTunes. Once you know what you do and don’t like about iTunes you’ll be in a better position to decide whether you want to look for a different iPod manager.

By the way, using iTunes to manage iPod files does NOT keep you from buying music from other companies — I buy music downloads from three different vendors but use iTunes to move them back and for from my iPod.

Quick tip: If you want iTunes to put a copy of the file in the main iTunes library directory, choose Edit, Preferences, Advanced from the menu and click the “Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library.” I like to do this to make it easy to find my music files. I know that music files anywhere else on my hard drive aren’t part of the iTunes library and can safely be deleted.

Wherever you got your music from, once it’s on your computer you can import it into iTunes. You have a couple options. One way is to select (from the top menu) File, Add Folder to Library, and find the folder holding your music. Click “OK” and iTunes will now show the music in the Library music list. Another way is to use the Control & O keys. Navigate to the files’ location and click on the files you want to add.

3) Connect your PC and your nano

If your iPod isn’t already connected, get your USB cable (came with your iPod) out and connect the computer and iPod. The left-hand menu should show your iPod when it’s successfully connected.

Now, decide if you want to let iTunes handle synchronizing with your iPod or if you want to handle things manually. I like the “manually manage” approach — it lets me decide which files to move to my nano. It also lets me synch up different computers to just one iPod.

4) Upload your music

If you decide to let iTunes manage the uploads, click your iPod’s icon and select “Sync” in the lower right corner.

If you want to manage uploading manually, click your iPod’s icon, select the “Manually manage music and videos” checkbox on the iTunes screen. (Don’t worry, this is a one-time setup step — you won’t have to do it again.) Now all you have to do is select the music (or play lists) you want from your iTunes library and drag it onto the iPod icon.

5) Last step: Eject your iPod before disconnecting

Never disconnect your iPod nano without ejecting it first. Not taking that extra minute risks corrupting the files. Eject from iTunes by clicking the button at bottom right of the screen.

6) Find more cool stuff!

If you’ve followed these steps you know how to upload music to your nano. Time to download more games, videos, books, and music for your nano. See my web site for suggestions of where to find great downloads for reasonable prices.