If you want to take your music or other digital media with you, you can easily synchronize items in your library to your portable device. You can use the Sync feature in Windows Media Player to synchronize files in categories and playlists in your library to your portable device, Portable Media Center, or storage card.

To enable synchronization between the Player and your device, a special relationship must be established between the Player and the device. This relationship is called a partnership. When you establish a partnership, you can specify that synchronization of the content you select will occur automatically every time you connect the device to your computer. Or you can specify that you will synchronize content manually after you select it.

1. Start Windows Media Player and then connect your device to your computer.

   If you have not set up synchronization between your computer and this device, the Device Setup Wizard starts.

2. In the Device Setup Wizard, click Automatic.

   Automatic is already selected if your device's storage capacity is greater than 512 megabytes (MB). If your device has less capacity, Manual is selected. However you can still choose to set up automatic synchronization with a limited-storage device.

3. (Optional) Click Customize the playlists that will be synchronized to change the priority order of the categories and playlists to be synchronized.
4. Click Finish.

Automatic synchronization begins. If synchronization does not start, click the Start Sync button in the Items to Sync pane. If you selected playlists for synchronization that cannot be played or viewed on your device, the Player skips these files during synchronization and displays an error in the Items to Sync pane (the left side of Sync).

Notes

• You can switch between automatic and manual synchronization for a device by right-clicking the device in the Library feature and then clicking Change Sync Settings. The Synchronization Settings dialog box is displayed. Clear or select the Synchronize device automatically check box to select the mode that you want.
• You can stop synchronization at any time by clicking the Stop Sync button in the Items to Sync pane. This does not remove items already synchronized to the device, but does prevent additional items from being synchronized. Stopping synchronization does not affect synchronization settings for the partnership.
• If you set up automatic synchronization, but do not want synchronization to start when you connect the device to your computer or when you change synchronization settings, you can clear the Start sync when device connects check box in the device's Properties dialog box. When you turn off this option, you must click the Start Sync button in the Items to Sync pane to start automatic synchronization.
• The Sync feature is only available when you connect a device that supports Microsoft Multimedia Transport Protocol (MTP), or a mass storage class device, to your computer. In addition, the connected device's storage capacity must be at least 32 megabytes (MB) to support synchronization. To find portable devices that are compatible with the Player, see compatible devices.

Contact information for supported hardware manufacturers is listed below: