I am new to digital and I am slowly stumbling through learning about it. I have a 16GB iPod Touch. I recorded roughly half of my CD collection to my PC using iTunes and Apple Lossless format. All was well and I had about 3 GB remaining on the iPod until last night when I started to record another 30 or so CDs. The problem is that I can no longer sync the full iTunes collection to the iPod because I don't have enough room left. That is not a surprise to me as I know that the lossless files are huge. I thought that there was a way to sync to the iPod using a smaller file format for the transfer. I understand that I can limit the total file size by reducing the quantity of music transferred by using playlists. Since I mostly use the iPod in the car or for casual for listening I am OK with a reasonable amount of quality reduction as a trade-off for more music storage. If there is a thread about how to accomplish this I sure can't find it or where to change the setting to do so. I have looked through and have read a LOT of threads and posts here on AK (my head hurts again!) so if there is information already posted I missed it. If someone can point me in the right direction I sure will appreciate it.

I don't know of a way to sync your music to a lower compression than the original - without redoing the original first.

How about keeping a selection of your music in an "Ipod Sync" playlist, and select only that playlist to be synced? When you wish to change the music on the Ipod, just change the content of that playlist.

Not what you asked - I know. :no:

Thanks for the tip. That may actually be what I am attempting to accomplish. I really don't NEED to have 100% of the iTunes content in the iPod, I just thought that it would be easier to handle and keep track of if I did. That brings up another question then, can I have subfolder / playlists within the "Ipod Sync" playlist on the PC??

You can get around this by syncing only certain playlists. That's what I do with my 16 GB touch and 25 GB of files. You can use smart playlists to identify and collect songs/artists that meet certain criteria too and sync to those.
You also can import using a 320 MPEG4 format which is good tradeoff between size and quality, but that won't shrink your current files There may be a conversion process though in iTunes if you want to downgrade the size (and quality).

I'll poke around more tomorrow in my files and get back to you.

Thanks! This is all good! :thmbsp: I will have to learn about smart playlists.

I just answered my own question about subfolder / playlists within a seperate "Ipod Sync" folder, the answer is yes. That may work for now if a transfer method using a reduced file size is not possible.

OK, I peeked and I sync to "Selected Playlists" under the "Music" tab. I have "Top Rated", "Recently Added" and "Rock" as smart playlists, but there are other lists I could use or new ones to make.

Check into the Smart Playlist thing, it's your best bet for this and offers you an interactive way to keep current on your Touch.
The only trick is that you have to watch that the total of your selected palylists doesn't exceed your 16 Gb capacity.

Ultra-Hog, you can choose files in your library and then convert them to mp3- I find 192kbps to be a good compromise of filesize and sound quality. Keep your lossless files on your computer and stock your ipod with the smaller 192k mp3s. If you don't mind having dupes in your library.

I am sure that it may seem like a very basic question but I am still quite new to this, how do I do that? And no, I don't mind the dupes as long as I have a way to segregate them from the main itunes library and do the entire sync file at once.

oh yeah, here's how-

To create a lower bitrate copy of a song, go to Edit > Preferences > Advanced > Importing (Itunes > Preferences > Advanced > Importing on a Mac) and open the dropdown menu next to setting. Choose custom. (On a Mac, choose Import Using (MP3 encoder) and setting (Good, High or Higher, I use "Higher" or 192k). In Windows I don't quite remember what the choices look like, 192 ought to be among them. Back in the library, select the song you want to change, then go to the advanced menu and select "Convert Selection to mp3." That adds a copy to your library. Change the order of your library to "Date Added" and you'll see the new file right at the top.