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podkit

Syncing

Syncing is the core of podkit — it gets your media from your collections onto your iPod. This section covers how syncing works and the types of media you can sync.

How Sync Works

When you run podkit sync, podkit:

  1. Scans your collections — Reads metadata from all audio and video files
  2. Reads your iPod — Checks what’s already on the device
  3. Compares — Identifies new, changed, and removed tracks
  4. Plans — Determines what needs transcoding vs direct copy
  5. Executes — Transcodes, copies, and updates the iPod database

Basic Usage

Terminal window
# Sync everything (music + video)
podkit sync


# Sync only music
podkit sync music


# Sync only video
podkit sync video


# Sync a specific collection
podkit sync music -c main


# Sync to a specific device (by name or mount path)
podkit sync --device nano
podkit sync --device /Volumes/NANO

Preview with Dry Run

Always preview before syncing to see what podkit will do:

Terminal window
podkit sync --dry-run

This shows track counts, what needs transcoding, estimated size, and available space — without writing anything to your iPod.

Incremental Syncs

After your first sync, future syncs are fast. podkit matches tracks by artist, album, and title — only new or changed tracks are processed. Re-syncing a large library takes seconds, not hours.

Removing Deleted Tracks

By default, podkit only adds tracks. To also remove tracks from your iPod that are no longer in your collections:

Terminal window
podkit sync --delete --dry-run   # Preview first
podkit sync --delete             # Then do it

Auto-Eject

Combine sync and eject in one step:

Terminal window
podkit sync --eject

What Can You Sync?

podkit supports two categories of media, each with their own supported content types:

CategorySupportedNot Yet Supported
MusicMusic tracks (MP3, FLAC, AAC, etc.)Podcasts, audiobooks, music videos
VideoMovies, TV showsMusic videos, video podcasts

See the detailed guides for each:

  • Music Syncing — Supported audio formats, metadata, and how music lands on your iPod
  • Video Syncing — Supported video formats, content type detection, and folder organization

See Also