Putting photos on an iPod Touch (or iPhone 3G)

Apple products easy and intuitive? Hah!
It took me far too long to figure out how to load photos onto my 2nd generation iPod Touch from my Windows XP notebook, and now friends who are new iPod owners are asking me how it's done. It's sufficiently nonintuitive that I'm having to walk though it each time, so this note is as much more myself as for anyone else.

Open iTunes without the iPod or iPhone attached, and you won't see a Photos tab. With the iPod attached and highlighted in iTunes in the left column, you'll have access to a Photos tab at the top of the iTunes main window. Click it, and the setup should be pretty easy to figure out. What you have to keep in mind, however, is that iTunes doesn't just load pictures onto your device, it insists on synchronization. So what you'll first want to do is set up a special directory just for images to be loaded onto your iPod, with the images grouped in subdirectories to keep things decently organized. Short subdirectory names are a good idea, otherwise you won't be able to see what they are when scrolling around the iPod's small screen. Once this is all set up and the directory selected in iTunes under the aforementioned Photos tab, the photos should get loaded onto the iPod on the next sync. Remember, though, that if you remove, rename, or move any of the picture files on your computer, the same will be done to your iPod images on the next sync as well.

Posted by David on March 28, 2009 11:27 AM