Synchronise a PC with a portable music player

Adding music to a portable player is easy. If it’s an Apple product you can use iTunes. For most others, plugging them into a USB port on the computer will cause a window to pop up, into which you can drag and drop music.

You can also manage the way music is stored and shared between PC and player more effectively using a process called synchronisation.

The benefits of synchronisation include making the best use of the capacity of the player, getting album cover art if your player can display it, and more. To prevent synchronisation from becoming confusing, the Library and playlists stored on the PC are the master file.

That means changes need to be applied in the PC application. When the player is connected, it asks the PC what has changed – have any new songs, playlists or album cover artwork been added or deleted?

If the answer to any of those questions is yes, the player copies the new material, or deletes items stored on it that are no longer on the master list.

The first thing to do is make sure the player and computer can interface with each other. If you have not already connected them, follow the instructions that came with the player to connect it to the computer.

If you have connected the player before, plug it in. If the player’s own software launches, close it for now.

We are going to use Microsoft's Windows Media Player software included with all copies of Windows. If you use iTunes with an iPod or iPhone, the principle of what we are about to set out is similar in that application.

If it has not started already, open Music Player using its icon on the Start menu. The current version is Windows Media Player (WMP) 11. If you don’t have this version, go to www.windowsupdate.com and follow the instructions.

Your device should appear at the bottom of the list on the left-hand side of the WMP window. If it doesn't, open the WMP options by pressing Alt, then clicking Tools in the menu that appears, then Options.

Click the Devices tab and click Refresh. You can see the player by clicking the Sync tab at the top of the WMP window and selecting the player from the list on the left. Double-click the icons to see music stored on the player.

Make sure WMP has a full list of the music on the PC,­ right-click the down arrow below the Library tab and select Add to Library.

The dialogue box will show the folders that WMP knows about. If it doesn’t detect a folder that you know contains music, click the Advanced button and scroll through it to make sure it includes all the ones in which your music is kept.

If not, click Add, navigate to the folder and click OK. The computer will scan the folders to see if there is any music it doesn’t know about. When it is done you can see the tracks in your library by clicking the Library tab.

You can navigate the Library using the lists on the left (if you can’t see them click the ‘+’ sign next to the word Library in the pane on the left).

Make your own compilations
Playlists are a good way to keep music organised. To create one, right-click any song in the Library and select Add To from the menu that appears. You will then see a submenu with the names of existing playlists.

Select ‘Untitled Playlist’ and you will see it appear in a new pane on the right of the window. Go through your library and pick songs to add to the playlist by dragging and dropping them into the pane.

Once you have added all the tracks you can arrange them by clicking and dragging them up and down in the list. Click the Save Playlist button at the bottom of the pane, type a name and press Enter.

It will appear in the list of playlists in the left-hand pane. If you can not see this click the ‘+’ next to Playlists.