iTunes music sync clarification

Sync only checked songs and videos

When you open the list view, the leftmost column is of check marks. You can use these to tell iTunes what to sync/not sync on a per song basis.

Selected playlists, artists, albums and genres

When you open the summary for your iDevice, there is a Music tab. You can select what songs to sync on a per playlist/artist/album/genre basis.

Manually manage music and videos

This means that iTunes will not sync all songs indiscriminately. You have to manually drag songs to the device to sync them. You can also drag albums and playlists.

When you manually manage, you have to drag songs, selections and groups and playlists in to and out of the list of songs on an iPod/iOS device.

You can also sync entire playlists so manual management isn't exclusive.

If all of your songs are checked in iTunes (or the subset of songs that are to be syncronized are all checked) then the no change in behavior is to be expected.

This is all documented in the built in help as well as online:

• http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1386

Make sure you avoid this bizzare excuse for an article in your search for a tutorial and understanding. It's not clear if it's a stub that needs to be there since iTunes links to it or they are saving space until it gets re-written for iTunes 11 or some future release.