Endless Paradigm

So I've been tasked with a mission to put some MP3s on a CD onto an iPhone.

As there's no copy+paste method available with an iPhone (like I mean, that would be too simple of course!), I open up the iTunes installed on the computer.  After fobbing away about 3 "do you want to download some 700MB update and kill the internet bandwidth for the next 2 hours?" prompts I select Music on the left pane, then drag and drop the MP3 files into the right list.  Well, nothing appears to happen.  So I then go File » Add File to Library... and select the MP3s.  I hear the CD drive spin up for a bit, but nothing really seems to happen.
So I then decide to scroll through the list of music in the library to see if it's just added and not making that obvious.  I manage to find the tracks amongst the thousands of other things there.  Considering how quick it responded, it mustn't have copied the tracks to the HDD, and removing the CD confirms my suspicions.
Perhaps syncing to the iPhone would work at this point, but I decide to play it safe and try to get a local HDD copy first (since it's not like these guys may think about keeping the CD in the tray after all).  After about 4 minutes of digging through menus, I find there's a "consolidate" option in the right-click menu.  Okay, I'm stupid and it took me 4 minutes to figure out how to copy a CD to the HDD.  Gah, oh well.

So now I've finally got some stuff on the HDD and I need to get it onto the connected iPhone.  I presume I select the phone in the left listbox, and then Sync.
Well, this is what I get...



And when I click cancel, it says that encrypting backups is required.  But it looks like I've got the thing unticked.  Why it even provides the option if you're forced to enable it is beyond my comprehension, but I still cannot figure why it wants backups to be encrypted with a password in the first place.  Actually, I don't even know why backing up is required at all (no option to disable it I see).
For simplicity's sake, I do not want a password.
I've done some quick web searches but all seem to point to running special commands and whatnot.  Is syncing _really_ this difficult?

So, for you smarter guys out there, anyone have a clue on what I can do?  I'm feeling really stupid right now - something that's supposed to be easy for even relatively computer illiterates is totally baffling me...

Oh and if you're wondering why some of the text is cut off, it's probably because this machine has DPI set to 125%, and iTunes seems to be the only application which can't handle this properly.

actually you can copy paste it if the phone has USB drive enabled. you just had to rename the file into a random 4 letters

I do know that only one computer can sync songs at a time. It makes you erase the iPhone/iPod on the next computer if you want to transfer songs onto it (at least that's how it was when I used it a year ago).

what i do is tick the "manually manage music and ... ? "

(though it will erase the stuff in your iphone before it applies that setting)

then just drag and drop the mp3 stuff to the phone in itunes :)

You're FACE is too hard for me ZiNgA!

boogschd Wrote: [ -> ]what i do is tick the "manually manage music and ... ? "

(though it will erase the stuff in your iphone before it applies that setting)

then just drag and drop the mp3 stuff to the phone in itunes :)

Interesting.
Thanks for the tips guys.

Got someone who knows more and they just dragged the tracks from the list onto the iPhone thing on the left side.  Seemed to do something even after hitting Cancel, although it turns out everything on the iPhone got wiped somehow.  Lolwot.
Didn't really see where they went exactly, but some things were unticked, which they then ticked and synced again, and seems to have taken a few hours just to copy a few GBs of music.  Oh well, seems to work now.
I'm guessing it's what you said boogschd - thanks.

Still asks for a password each time though.

reasonswhyidespiseanythingbyapple.jpg

Sansa Clip +. Reliable, small, doesn't require Windows/Mac/iFuse. 40 bucks for an 8 GB model. Can add storage if required.

Also, iTunes is a real pain.

ZiNgA BuRgA Wrote: [ -> ]I'm guessing it's what you said boogschd - thanks.

Still asks for a password each time though.

no problem mr burger man

i don't get the part where it asks for a password though ..
probably asking for your appstore account ? (or whatever its called)

No, it's asking for a password to encrypt backups.  I believe they've already got an AppStore account set up.