iPod touch Transfer Music to Kids iPod Touch

[tardman91]

I have an iPod touch that my daughter uses, and I'm trying to transfer music to it, but not my entire iTunes library. It doesn't come up in my sidebar or in the Music app, even though I've "trusted" my computer. Any ideas the easiest way to do this? I was hoping there's some click and drag, or just selecting certain folders or something. Google was not terribly helpful and mostly suggested these transfer apps that you have to pay for.

 

[tardman91]

Well, after restarting everything it now at least recognizes the device. I have to see how I want to transfer the music now. I have it in folders on my desktop, but it looks like I'll have to add it to my library before I can sync it, which I didn't really want to have to do. 😑

 

[arw]

Some thoughts:
- In iTunes/Music you have to select the iPod and activate "Manually manage music and videos" and confirm it.
- You should now be able to drag compatible audio files from your desktop directly onto the iPod in the Music.app sidebar.
(The same probably works via Finder depending in your version of macOS)

Option 2
(or if you want to manage the music before transferring it onto the iPod):
- If you start iTunes/Music with the Option key (⌥) pressed, you can select/create a new library. By default iTunes/Music will always open the last library selected that way.
- To avoid the music from your desktop being copied again to your iTunes/Music folder, make sure to unselect "Copy files to iTunes Media folder…" in the iTunes/Music settings before adding music to it.
- Then you can manage the music and create playlists etc specific for the iPod.
- You can now either sync your library to your iPod (or parts of it) or select "Manually manage music and videos" to drag and drop individual albums/songs from your library onto the iPod.

Use multiple libraries in Music on Mac

On your Mac, use multiple libraries and switch between them.

support.apple.com