Help me and my iPod adjust to a post-iTunes world

July 30, 2020 12:45 PM

Oops, I upgraded to Catalina and iTunes is gone! I was never a big iTunes fan, but boy do I miss it. My favorite thing is running with my iPod Nano and listening to podcasts. Is there a way to drag and drop episodes onto my Nano without iTunes? It seems like I'm meant to use Finder and sync. Finder, really? And how do you sync when you subscribe to a ton of podcasts and there's not enough room on the Nano? Gah!

My iTunes workflow involved deleting old podcast ep's and music to free up space on the Nano then dragging over the new podcast ep's I want to hear. Boom, done. How do adapt my workflow using Finder (ugh...)? Better yet, is there an iTunes-like app I can use instead?

(By the way, I looked into downgrading to Mojave and it's a real pain in the butt involving creating an external boot drive. Plus it's not like I can stay in Mojave forever, right? Killing iTunes without a good replacement for podcasts feels like a blatant move to get me to buy an ugly watch, and I refuse.)

posted by timnyc to Technology (7 answers total)

iTunes App definitely IS gone, but the Music app is what you're looking for. It does not force you to use the Apple Music service.
posted by uberchet at 1:12 PM on July 30, 2020 [1 favorite]

Music is in the Music app; podcasts should be in the Apple Podcasts app.
posted by Huffy Puffy at 1:22 PM on July 30, 2020

Response by poster: My iPod shows as a device up in Music, but not in Podcasts.
posted by timnyc at 1:53 PM on July 30, 2020

Does this Apple support link help? (Linked from this other support question)
posted by hanov3r at 2:03 PM on July 30, 2020

Response by poster: Thanks, yeah, I've read a number Apple support pages on using the Finder to sync. I'm hoping I don't have to sync since I subscribe to a ton of podcasts. I really like dragging and dropping. Plus Finder doesn't sound like fun. Maybe that's my only option? Or live in Mojave for ever and ever?
posted by timnyc at 2:19 PM on July 30, 2020

Best answer: Yeah, the Finder's your only option under Catalina as far as I can tell, which sucks. A good chunk of the syncing functionality that used to be in iTunes is now in a special Finder window that appears when you select your iPod (though there's some functionality, such as drag-and-drop and playlists, that seems to have just disappeared.)

And how do you sync when you subscribe to a ton of podcasts and there's not enough room on the Nano?

There are options within the special Finder window so that you can select the podcasts you want to sync, and how many of the episodes of each one you want to sync. You can select particular podcasts, or particular episodes of a podcast, via a list with a check box for each podcast/episode.
posted by Johnny Assay at 2:43 PM on July 30, 2020 [1 favorite]

Best answer: You could try https://www.copytrans.net/. I use it to transfer mp3 files from my computer to my iPod. It's super simple and free! Have not used it for podcasts, but I don't know why it wouldn't work for that too.
posted by pjsky at 2:56 PM on July 30, 2020 [3 favorites]