Tony Bove

Step by Step / Updated 01-26-2022

iTunes comes preinstalled on every new Mac that's been sold since 2003. But if you have an older Mac, installing iTunes is easy. To manually install iTunes on to a Mac or manually upgrade the version you have, start at the Apple website.

Step by Step / Updated 03-01-2017

iTunes lets you add podcast episodes to your playlists, or you can even create a playlist consisting entirely of podcast episodes. However, podcasts are a slightly different animal than albums or songs. You can drag individual podcast episodes to a playlist. However, if you drag a podcast by its name, iTunes adds to the playlist only the most recent episodes you listened to (even if only for one second). To add episodes that you haven’t heard, you have to select the episodes and then drag them to the playlist.

Article / Updated 10-20-2016

You probably won’t be too surprised to discover that, on the off chance your iPod gets confused or refuses to turn on, you can fix it by resetting it and restarting the system — just like computers and other iPods. Resetting does not restore the iPod touch to its original factory condition, nor does it erase anything — your content and settings remain intact. To reset the iPod touch, touch and hold the sleep/wake button and the Home button at the same time for at least 15 seconds, ignoring the red Slide to Power Off slider, until the Apple logo appears. After you reset the iPod touch, everything should be back to normal, including your music and data files. Resetting your iPod touch settings You can reset all or part of your iPod touch settings while leaving your content and personal information intact. To see your resetting options, choose Settings→General→Reset from the Home screen (Reset is at the very bottom of the General settings screen). The Reset screen appears with the following options: Reset All Settings: To return your iPod touch to its original condition with no preferences or settings while still keeping your content or your personal information (including contacts, calendars, and e-mail accounts) intact, tap Reset All Settings. Erase All Content and Settings: To erase everything, first connect the iPod touch to your computer or a power adapter, and then tap Erase All Content and Settings. This operation can take a while, and you can’t use the iPod touch until it finishes. Reset Network Settings: You can reset your network settings so that your previously used networks are removed from the Wi-Fi list. This type of reset is useful if you can’t find any other way to stop a Wi-Fi network from connecting automatically to your iPod touch — just tap Reset Network Settings, and you’re automatically disconnected from any Wi-Fi network. (Wi-Fi is turned off and then back on.) Reset Keyboard Dictionary: To reset the keyboard dictionary, tap Reset Keyboard Dictionary. This erases all words that have been added to the dictionary. (Words are added when you reject words suggested by the onscreen keyboard and type the word.) Reset Home Screen Layout: If you rearranged the icons on your Home screen, you may want to set them back to their original positions. To reset your Home screen to the default arrangement, tap Reset Home Screen Layout. Reset Location & Privacy: You can reset your location and privacy settings by tapping Reset Location & Privacy. Resetting an iPod nano and iPod classic To reset an iPod nano, press the sleep/wake button and the Home button for six seconds, until the Apple logo appears. To reset the iPod classic, follow these steps: Toggle the hold switch. Slide the hold switch to the right, exposing the orange layer, to lock the buttons, and then slide it back to unlock. Press the Menu and select buttons simultaneously and hold for at least 6 seconds or until the Apple logo appears; then release the buttons when you see the Apple logo. The appearance of the Apple logo signals that your iPod is resetting itself, so you no longer have to hold down the buttons. Release the Menu and select buttons as soon as you see the Apple logo. If you continue to press the buttons after the logo appears, the iPod displays the low battery icon, and you must connect it to a power source before using it again. To reset iPod nano or iPod classic settings, choose Settings→Reset Settings from the iPod nano Home screen or iPod classic main menu, and then select Reset (or Cancel to cancel). This resets all the items on the Settings menu to their default settings. Resetting an iPod shuffle To reset the iPod shuffle, first disconnect it from your computer (if you haven’t already done so) and then slide the three-position switch to the Off position. The green stripe under the switch should not be visible. Wait 5 seconds and then switch the slider back to the Shuffle Songs or Play in Order position. After resetting, everything should be back to normal, including your music and data files.

Step by Step / Updated 03-27-2016

Although it's designed by Apple, iTunes runs just fine on a Windows PC. To install iTunes on a PC, start at the download page for the free iTunes for Windows software at the Apple Web site.

Step by Step / Updated 03-27-2016

iTunes makes buying music and videos easy. But before you can purchase your first song or video, you need to set up an iTunes Store account. Follow these steps to get your Store Account situated:

Step by Step / Updated 03-27-2016

You need to create a playlist to burn a CD in iTunes, but playlists can also make it easier to play items you like without browsing the entire iTunes library looking for them. You can create playlists of individual songs or entire albums.

Step by Step / Updated 03-27-2016

You can sync your entire iTunes library with your iPod, if you have enough space. Follow these five easy steps to sync all the content and apps in your iTunes library to an iPod:

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

You can always add music files to iTunes. After you save or copy an MP3, AIFF, or WAV file on your hard drive, you can simply drag it into the iTunes window to bring it into your library. If you drag a folder or disk icon, all the audio files that it contains are added to your iTunes library. You can also choose File→Add to Library on a Mac, or File→Add File to Library and File→Add Folder to Library on a Windows PC, as an alternative to dragging. When you add a song to your iTunes library, a copy is placed inside the iTunes Music folder; that is, as long as you have your iTunes preferences set for Copy Files to iTunes Music Folder When Adding to Library. (This is the default setting, which you can find in the Advanced tab of the iTunes Preferences dialog.) When you bring a song file into iTunes, the song is copied into a new file in the iTunes library without changing or deleting the original file. You can then convert the song to another format. For example, you can convert an AIFF file to an MP3 file while leaving the original intact. If you have files in another folder or on another hard drive that you want to add to the iTunes library without copying into the iTunes Media folder, you can copy a link to the original files instead: Choose iTunes→Preferences (Mac) or Edit→Preferences (Windows). Click the Advanced tab in the iTunes Preferences dialog box. Turn off the Copy Files to iTunes Media Folder When Adding to Library setting. You can check out the contents of your iTunes Media folder by using the Finder on a Mac or Windows Explorer on a Windows PC. MP3 CDs are easy to add because they’re essentially data CDs. Simply insert them into your CD-ROM drive, open the CD in the Finder, and drag and drop the MP3 song files into the iTunes window. Downloaded song files are even easier — just drag and drop the files into iTunes. If you drag a folder or CD icon, all the audio files it contains are added to your iTunes library.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

Deleting songs from iTunes might seem counterproductive when you’re trying to build your iTunes library, but sometimes you'll find a good reason to delete a song or two. For example, you may want to delete Versions of songs: You might have ripped a CD twice — say, once in AIFF format to burn the songs onto another CD and once in AAC format for your library and iPod. You can delete the AIFF versions in your library after burning your CD. Songs from playlists: You can delete songs from playlists yet keep the songs in your library. When you delete a song from a playlist, the song is simply deleted from the list — not from the library. You can delete entire playlists, as well, without harming the songs in the library. Any podcast, video, audio book, or movie that you've listened to or watched and no longer want to keep: You can select any content item and remove it from your iTunes library. You then have a choice of keeping the item’s file on your hard drive in the same folder, or transferring it to the Trash (on a Mac) or Recycle Bin (on a Windows PC) to delete it entirely. Actually deleting something from your iTunes library is a snap: Select the media type. You can select Music, Movies, TV Shows, Podcasts, iTunes U, Audiobooks, Applications, Ringtones, or Radio. Select the item. Or you can select an artist for the artist’s entire oeuvre, or an album to select the entire album. Press Delete/Backspace (or choose Edit→Delete) to delete. You can select a single TV show episode and then choose Edit→Delete All to delete all episodes. Also, you can select a single episode of a podcast and then choose Edit→Delete All to delete all episodes but keep the podcast itself so that you are still subscribed to the podcast.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

You can use the Messages app on your iPod touch to send and receive instant text messages with other iOS devices (such as iPhones, iPads, and other iPod touches) and Macs running Mountain Lion or newer operating systems. Messages uses the iMessage protocol. Unlike cellphone texting (SMS and MMS), iMessage is completely free and works over Wi-Fi. You can even send photos, videos, locations, and contacts with your messages. It’s easy to conduct conversations with people because you can see when each person is typing a message (and there’s no shouting, although you’re welcome to use ALL CAPS). To send a message to a contact who uses an iPod touch, iPad, iPhone, or Mac, you can select the e-mail address for that contact, as long as that person has designated that e-mail address as one that can receive messages. (You can also send a message to an iPhone’s phone number, but this may incur charges for the iPhone user.) When you first set up your iPod touch, the Messaging screen appears as part of the setup screens showing your e-mail addresses. You can select any or all of your e-mail addresses that others can use to send messages to you. You can also do this at any time by choosing Settings→Messages→Send & Receive, and selecting your e-mail accounts. You can also select which e-mail account to use as the From account for new messages. When your iPod touch receives a message, it can automatically display an alert on your lock screen (unless you turn this option off — choose Settings→Messages to turn the View in Lock Screen option on or off). Slide the slider to go right into the Messages app, where you can reply to the message, if you want. You can view and send messages by tapping the Messages app. The Messages screen appears with a list of conversations. A blue dot appears next to any conversation that has one or more unread messages. Tap a conversation to see its messages, which are organized into conversations. Outgoing messages appear in colored balloons, and incoming messages appear in white balloons. You can tap the message entry field at the bottom of the screen to bring up the onscreen keyboard and add a reply to the conversation. The reply is sent to all who received the conversation. Scroll the conversation screen to the top (or tap the status bar to get there quickly) to see the rest of the messages in the conversation. If there are many messages, the Load Earlier Messages button appears; tap it to see earlier messages. To return to the Messages screen, tap Messages in the upper-left corner. To send a new message, follow these steps: Tap the create message icon in the upper-right corner of the Messages screen. The New Message screen appears with the onscreen keyboard and the To: field. Tap the plus (+) icon to add a contact to the To: field. Your contacts appear. Tap a contact, and then tap an e-mail address or iPhone phone number. The contact is added to the To: field. If a red exclamation point appears next to the contact in the To: field, the contact has not designated the e-mail address or phone number for receiving messages. You can repeat Steps 2–3 to continue to add more contacts for a group conversation. Enter the message and tap Send. Use the onscreen keyboard to enter the message. To send a photo or video with your message or with a reply, tap the camera icon on the left side of the message entry field. You can then tap Take Photo or Video to use the iPod touch camera, or tap Choose Existing to choose an existing picture from your iPod touch photo albums or Camera Roll. To send your location from the Maps app in a message, tap the location icon in Maps to find your location, tap the pin for your location to show the Location screen, tap Share Location, and then tap Message. You can delete part of a conversation or an entire conversation from the Messages app without disturbing the other conversations. Tap Edit in the top-right corner of the conversation screen to see the editing screen. Tap to select each part of the conversation that you want to delete, and then tap Delete at the bottom of the editing screen. To clear an entire conversation, tap Clear All in the upper-left corner of the editing screen. You can also forward an entire conversation to someone else. Tap Edit in the top-right corner of the conversation screen, select each part of the conversation that you want to forward, and then tap Forward at the bottom of the editing screen. Want to let the others in a conversation know that you read their messages? Choose Settings→Messages and turn on the Send Read Receipts option. You can use Emoji characters in your messages by activating the Emoji keyboard, and then tapping the globe symbol on the keyboard to show the Emoji characters.