Quick and maybe silly question. Is it best to unmount a device in iTunes or is it just as safe to pull the connection?

It depends on the device.

My original iPod Touch (and I suspect all subsequent iPods and iPhones) can be disconnected without dismounting.

But my new-(refurbished)-via-warranty iPod Nano 6th-generation requires dismounting before disconnection.

IMHO, RTM. :)

M

It's really best to unmount the device first rather than just pull it out. They're all just big USB flash drives, and we all know what will eventually happen to USB flash drives if you just rip them out all the time ...

If you quit iTunes, however, you have done the same thing as properly dismounting them.

For iOS devices it doesn't matter. These use a completely different, non-disc-based synchronization protocol, and of course with Wi-FI sync there's now little to no difference between a USB connection or simply syncing over Wi-Fi. Consider what happens when your iPhone rings while you're in the middle of a sync :) Essentially, iTunes and iOS are communicating as two intelligent devices and iOS is capable of dealing even with an aborted sync operation without any problems, as it can clean up any open database files and partially-written media files or apps by itself.

However, traditional iPod models -- the iPod nano, iPod classic and iPod shuffle -- still mount as if they're external flash drives and sync via iTunes by direct file system access. This even includes the sixth-generation touchscreen nano, despite it's iOS-esque user interface. These devices should always be ejected prior to disconnecting in the same way as any other flash drive, especially if you've just finished syncing. These devices don't actually participate in the sync process -- they're "dumb" devices in that sense with iTunes doing all of the work and processing of writing files to the external device and opening and updating the database directly. Yanking them out during a sync will basically leave half-written files and inconsistent databases.

For iOS devices it doesn't matter.

I suppose, if there's an eject button there in iTunes, we might as well use it. But good explanation, jhollington. At least, when I'm in a rush and just give 'er a yank, I can rest assured that there's no possibility of corruption.

I always just pull the plug. The message says OK to disconnect when it's done working and doesn't come back with an error message like what happens when you unplug a USB drive without ejecting it first so just disconnecting is probably what Apple expects people to do.

Actually, I should also have pointed out that traditional iPods gets ejected by iTunes automatically once the automatic sync has completed. The non-iOS iPods normally only remain connected if you have set them to manual mode or disk mode. In some cases they may also remain connected if you have some other third-party application that keeps files open on the device.

Regardless, if you don't see the device listed in Finder (or Windows Explorer), it's already been ejected despite what iTunes shows.