[GSixZero]

Ok, I know lots about iPods, but I have happened to run into a software issue that I'm not entirely clear about. Maybe someone in here knows?

I have my iPod set to manually manage songs, because I have a lot of music in my iTunes that I don't want on my iPod. While I was traveling, I started rating songs on my iPod, and I think I got a bunch rated, maybe six or seven hundred. I came home and plugged my iPod back in my computer. Nothing happens of course, because it's set to manually manage. So how do I get those ratings back into my iTunes library?

I tried setting the iPod back to automatically manage, but I'm pretty sure that'll just erase the iPod and then copy the library over to it, thus destroy all the ratings I've spent a long time working. I haven't done anything yet.

Any advice about how to sync the data over to the library?

Are the ratings stored in the ID3 tags or in the iTunes database?

Can I image the iPod's disk to another disk and then if I end up erasing or screwing up the iPod's database, will I be able to restore that image to the iPod to try again?

[icruise]

It's possible that there is a piece of software that could do what you want, but I don't know of a way to do it in iTunes. But I thought I would say that there is no need to use manual syncing just because you have things in your iTunes library that you don't want on your iPod. The better solution to have iTunes only sync certain playlists to your iPod. You can make a playlist with just the stuff you want on your iPod and have that synced. This will allow you to have your ratings and playcounts synced as well.

[Visnaut]

I use two Applescripts to achieve this effect.

First, I create a playlist on my iPod of all of the tracks whose info I want to sync back to my iTunes library.

Then using an Applescript called Mirror iPod Playlists in iTunes, I copy this playlist over to iTunes. It is important that you ensure that the resulting playlist in iTunes has the same amount of tracks, as the next step won't work unless both playlists are exactly the same, including play order.

(Handy Tip: if you want to make the play order of a playlist to be that of a column you have selected, just right-click on the playlist in the Source list, and choose "Copy to Play Order".)

Then I select all of the tracks on the iPod version of the playlist, and use Copy Tag Info Tracks to Tracks v1.4. This will copy the metadata that you select from a popup window from the tracks you chose, and then lets you apply it to whatever other tracks you wish. In this case, it's the duplicated playlist in iTunes.

It's a bit more tedious than simply having iTunes set to automatic, and it requires you to have all of the songs on your computer already, but it gets the job done. Make sure you read all of the documentation for those scripts carefully.