The Lights On Your Shuffle

The iPod shuffle has two subcutaneous LEDs on the front to help you figure out what it's doing in the absence of a display. There's a green light, which is mostly useful when you're listening, and an amber light that is primarily needed when your iPod is connected to your computer. The lights give you reassuring feedback that all is well, or help you figure out when something is wrong. Here are some of the most important iPod shuffle light shows:

*Usually, when you press any button, the green light will shine as long as you hold down the button.
*If you press a button and you see the orange light instead, and nothing else happens, your iPod is locked. Hold down play/pause for a few seconds to unlock it.
*If absolutely nothing happens when you press a button, not even a light, you probably need to charge your shuffle's battery.
*If you press a button and see both the green and amber lights blinking, one after another, that usually means there are no songs on the iPod, or some other error has occurred. Try resetting it by turning it off for 5 seconds, then back on. If you still get the psychedelic lights, you'll need to connect to a computer and load some music.

When your iPod shuffle is connected to a computer, you'll see the amber light. A blinking amber light means, "I'm busy. Please don't disconnect me." If you have disk mode turned on the light will blink whenever the iPod is plugged in. With disk mode off, the light blinks only when it's transferring music. Be sure you click the eject icon next to the iPod name in iTunes before unplugging a blinking iPod. If the amber light isn't blinking, feel free to unplug at will.

There's another set of LEDs on the back of the iPod shuffle. When you're playing tunes and you press the oval button on the back, these tiny lights tell you about your battery level: green for a good charge, amber for low, red for uh-oh, and no light for no charge. When the shuffle is connected, the battery light blinks if the orange light on the front is blinking, as an additional reminder not to disconnect if you happen to be staring at the wrong side of your shuffle.
iPod Preferences

When you connect your shuffle you will get access to a few iPod settings in iTunes preferences. Keep this iPod in the source list, also known as shadow mode, is a cool feature that lets you modify the shuffle playlist even when the shuffle isn't connected. You can add, delete, Autofill, and top off to your heart's content, just as if the iPod were there. When you connect it, your spiffy playlist is copied over to the iPod.

By turning on "Keep this iPod in the source list", you can edit your shuffle's playlist even when the iPod isn't there.

If you create a playlist you're particularly fond of, you can save it forever. Just select all the songs, then choose new playlist from selection from the File menu.

There is also a preferences setting for enable disk use, including a slider that lets you indicate how much space you plan to use for files vs. tunes. This slider simply tells iTunes how much space to leave for songs when you Autofill or add songs to your shuffle manually; it doesn't actually partition or reserve space in the shuffle's flash memory.

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