I bought a used fairly recent 80Gb iPod Classic for the sole purpose of listening to several hours of Buddhist dharma talks. The talks are on two CDs but the file naming is all over the map, highly inconsistent; most file names have dates, again using various conventions.

Before I did anything I renamed the files consistently and put a sequencial number at the beginning of each file. Then I selected the iPod in iTunes and restored the factory settings, thus removing the iPod vendor's music. Then I dragged the renamed dharma talks onto the iPod. Immediately iTunes started filling up empty space on the iPod with music in my copy of iTunes. (As background, I have a large collection of music in iTunes but have never owned an iPod before.)

With no apparent commands to halt the syncing, I wait, eject the iPod and see what I have. The dharma talks are there with all their unmodified original file names in no particular order.

I look for information on how to bypass iTunes (it's getting in my way) and discover a command to manually manage the iPod. Issue the command. With a blank iPod I go the Finder, select the iPod and find four empty folders — Calendars, Contacts, Notes and Recordings. I drag my desired dharma talks into the Recordings folder. Eject the iPod and see what I've got.

In the Finder I see the dharma talks, but on the iPod's screen there's no trace of my files. What it does show is empty directories for Music, Videos, Photos, Podcasts, Extras, Settings, Shuffle Songs and an iTunes music icon with the words "no music" right under it. I explore thoroughly. No sign of my dharma talks anywhere.

I mount the iPod back to my Mac. But this time the iPod does NOT mount in iTunes. Thus I now have no access to my files and no access to the controls in iTunes.

Is there a way to reboot the iPod so it will mount again in iTunes? Any other recommendations to achieve my objective? On this Mac I'm running Lion, 10.7.4.

Greatly appreciated.

Morley

Do you have these files in iTunes?
Make a playlist. Drag the files into the playlist, you can put them in any oder you want, or in as many playlists as you want. They will play in the order you put them in.
You need to go through the tabs for your iPod device in iTunes and select/deselect what you want synced. You can choose to only sync specific playlists, specific cd's, etc. Is isn't that complex.
The default settings probably fills empty space with music. You can select/deselect this option.

I bought a used fairly recent 80Gb iPod Classic for the sole purpose of listening to several hours of Buddhist dharma talks. The talks are on two CDs but the file naming is all over the map, highly inconsistent; most file names have dates, again using various conventions.

Before I did anything I renamed the files consistently and put a sequencial number at the beginning of each file. Then I selected the iPod in iTunes and restored the factory settings, thus removing the iPod vendor's music. Then I dragged the renamed dharma talks onto the iPod. Immediately iTunes started filling up empty space on the iPod with music in my copy of iTunes. (As background, I have a large collection of music in iTunes but have never owned an iPod before.)

With no apparent commands to halt the syncing, I wait, eject the iPod and see what I have. The dharma talks are there with all their unmodified original file names in no particular order.

I look for information on how to bypass iTunes (it's getting in my way) and discover a command to manually manage the iPod. Issue the command. With a blank iPod I go the Finder, select the iPod and find four empty folders — Calendars, Contacts, Notes and Recordings. I drag my desired dharma talks into the Recordings folder. Eject the iPod and see what I've got.

In the Finder I see the dharma talks, but on the iPod's screen there's no trace of my files. What it does show is empty directories for Music, Videos, Photos, Podcasts, Extras, Settings, Shuffle Songs and an iTunes music icon with the words "no music" right under it. I explore thoroughly. No sign of my dharma talks anywhere.

I mount the iPod back to my Mac. But this time the iPod does NOT mount in iTunes. Thus I now have no access to my files and no access to the controls in iTunes.

Is there a way to reboot the iPod so it will mount again in iTunes? Any other recommendations to achieve my objective? On this Mac I'm running Lion, 10.7.4.

Greatly appreciated.

Morley

That command turned your iPod into litte more than a file storage device like a hard disk.

You need to turn it back into an iPod - - Apple - Support - iPod - iPod classic Troubleshooting Assistant (http://www.apple.com/support/ipod/five_rs/classic/)

Then follow what fellfromatree said

Don't start any more new threads on the topic asit makes it harder to track what has been suggested or done. ;)

Do you have these files in iTunes?
Make a playlist. Drag the files into the playlist, you can put them in any oder you want, or in as many playlists as you want. They will play in the order you put them in.
You need to go through the tabs for your iPod device in iTunes and select/deselect what you want synced. You can choose to only sync specific playlists, specific cd's, etc. Is isn't that complex.
The default settings probably fills empty space with music. You can select/deselect this option.

That command turned your iPod into litte more than a file storage device like a hard disk.

You need to turn it back into an iPod - - Apple - Support - iPod - iPod classic Troubleshooting Assistant (http://www.apple.com/support/ipod/five_rs/classic/)

Then follow what fellfromatree said

Don't start any more new threads on the topic asit makes it harder to track what has been suggested or done. ;)

My heartfelt thanks to both fellfromtree and rgray for their help above. iTunes does indeed have all the tools I need. Went through Apple's iPod tutorial as rgray recommended and restored the iPod to have a relationship to iTunes. Then followed fellfromtree's recommendations on building playlists and then syncing my new playlists to the iPod. It works!

Just one oddity. I was successful in moving one talk from last to first in the playlist. However on the iPod the change of position reverted to the bottom. Not major for now. At least I have my confidence back, tools not so opaque and several hours of listening ahead.

Much thanks, guys.