Sync

The Sync panel copies music, podcasts, audiobooks, and playlists from your library (or shadow library) to a device.

What it does

• Device — Select which device to sync.
• Sync type — Full (everything) or Custom (pick albums, artists, genres, playlists).
• Full sync options — Include/exclude music, podcasts, audiobooks, playlists. Orphan Policy (keep, remove, prompt). Skip album artwork.
• Custom sync — Select specific albums, artists, genres, podcasts, audiobooks, and playlists. Choose Include (sync only the ticked items) or Exclude (sync everything except the ticked items). The Audiobooks box includes Extra Audiobooks subscribed from LibriVox (see Extra Audiobooks).
• Start Sync — Runs the sync. Progress modal shows files copied, converted, and removed.
• Results — After sync, a summary card shows success, warnings, or errors.

How it works

• Source — Uses the primary library or the device's configured shadow library. If shadow, files are copied as-is (no transcoding during sync).
• Transcoding — When using the primary library and the device needs a different codec, FFmpeg converts on the fly. Metadata (tags, artwork) is preserved.
• Shadow library vs. sync-time transcoding — Both end up with the right codec on the device, but the work happens at different times:
  • Shadow library — Transcode the whole library once, up front, into a separate folder. Sync then just copies those pre-converted files to the device. Trade: uses extra disk space on your computer, but subsequent syncs are fast and can be reused across multiple devices that share the same codec.
  • Sync in another format — No pre-built mirror. The device profile specifies a target codec, and FFmpeg converts each missing track on the fly during the sync. Trade: no extra disk space, but every sync that adds tracks pays the conversion cost again.
• What sync does and does not propagate — Sync is a one-way file copy from computer to device. It only transfers audio files and album artwork; it does not write play counts, ratings, or any other library metadata to the device. This also applies to shadow libraries: they hold pre-transcoded audio files only — no play counts, ratings, or listening history. Play counts flow the other direction: iPodRocks ingests them by reading Rockbox's playback.log from the device into the library (see Devices → "Playback log").
• Orphan Policy (labeled "Extra Track Policy" in some earlier versions) — Controls what happens to files that exist on the device but are not in the library (orphans):
  • Remove — Delete them during sync so the device mirrors the library.
  • Keep — Leave them alone. Useful if you manually copy files to the device outside of iPodRocks.
  • Prompt — Ask you each time orphans are found.
• Codec mismatches — When a device has files in a codec that no longer matches its profile (e.g. old Musepack files after switching the profile to Opus) and you sync with Orphan Policy = "Remove", those old-codec files are removed and replaced by the new codec during sync.
• Album artwork — Copied by default (cover.jpg, folder.png, etc.). The Skip album artwork option is a per-device setting (Devices panel), not a per-sync toggle.
• Extra Audiobooks — LibriVox audiobooks are downloaded on demand during the sync (not pre-fetched). Each book's chapters and cover are copied to <device>/<Audiobooks folder>/<Author - Title>/. See Extra Audiobooks.
• Rockbox tagnavi (per-device option) — If the device profile has "Rockbox smart playlists (tagnavi)" enabled, smart playlists are written to <device>/.rockbox/tagnavi_custom.config instead of Playlists/<name>.m3u. See Devices and Smart Playlists.

How to work with it

1. Select the device and ensure it is mounted.
2. Full sync — Use for a complete mirror. Set Orphan Policy to "Remove" if you want the device to match the library exactly.
3. Custom sync — Use when you want only certain albums, artists, or playlists. Pick the Mode (Include or Exclude), tick items in the category boxes, and click Start Sync.
4. Check Device first (in Devices) to see synced vs to-sync vs orphans before syncing.

Custom Sync — Include vs. Exclude

Custom sync has two polarities controlled by the Mode radio at the top of the "Choose what to sync" card:

• Include (default) — Only the ticked items are synced. Tick "Pink Floyd" and "Bowie" under Artists and only those two artists land on the device. Ticked items highlight in green; items pulled in transitively via a selected playlist highlight in yellow.
• Exclude — Everything except the ticked items is synced. Tick "Christmas Carols" under Genres and the entire library minus that genre lands on the device. The natural fit for "sync the whole library minus a few albums" without having to manually tick everything else. Ticked items highlight in red (they are being excluded); items pulled in transitively via a selected playlist highlight in light orange.
• Empty Exclude = full sync — Switching to Exclude mode and ticking nothing is equivalent to a full sync of every content type. There is no hidden gotcha here; nothing matches an empty exclusion set so nothing gets filtered out.
• Cross-category combination — Selections across the six category boxes (Albums, Artists, Genres, Podcasts, Audiobooks, Playlists) combine with OR semantics in both modes. In Include mode a track is kept if it matches any selection; in Exclude mode a track is dropped if it matches any selection.
• Playlist propagation — Selecting a playlist pulls in (Include) or pushes out (Exclude) every track in that playlist, regardless of whether their albums/artists/genres are individually ticked. The albums, artists, and genres of those tracks light up in the "transitive" highlight color (yellow in Include, light orange in Exclude) so it's clear why they're affected.

Per-Device Sync Preferences

Selecting a device in the Sync panel automatically restores that device's last-used sync configuration: sync type, content toggles (music/podcasts/audiobooks/playlists), orphan policy, the custom-sync Include/Exclude mode, and any custom selections of albums, artists, genres, playlists, podcasts, and audiobooks.

The state is saved every time you click Sync for that device — even if the sync errors partway through, because the saved state captures your intent, not the outcome.

Devices that have never been synced through this panel fall back to the panel defaults: full sync, all content types enabled, keep-orphans policy, custom-sync mode = Include.

When you switch between devices, the panel live-swaps to that device's saved configuration. Removing a device from the Devices panel also clears its saved preferences.

Rocksy

Rocksy can run a sync for you from the chat:

• "Check what would sync to my iPod" → device_check (asks you to confirm first)
• "Sync my iPod" → device_sync (asks you to confirm first)

Both are destructive operations, so Rocksy pauses for a Confirm / Cancel prompt before running. See Devices → Rocksy.