Quick iTunes Question

Kazaanova

I had a pretty good libary going on iTunes but I just had to reinstall Windows, didnt delete anything on my harddrive, anyway, my iTunes library is gone but everythings still on my iPod so I'm wondering if I connect my iPod up to iTunes will I lose all the playlists and ratings I have on my iPod?

Creamy Goodness

if you connect it and that stupid option is enabled in itunes to automatically update your ipod with your itunes library it will start to delete all songs off the ipod.

(most stupid option ever, i can see it would be handy if you actually have songs in your library but an empty library why the hell would you want to put that on your ipod)??

i suggest you get something like ephod (i think that's the right spelling) that allows you to get your songs off your ipod with the proper names in tact unlike going through the hidden folders on the ipod's hard drive and extracting all the weirdly named files (eg. 9d0s0ad.mp3) that was your properly named file (01 - the song.mp3)

spartacus93

i find podutil good for copying files off iPods

Mimikyu

This post has been deleted.

Inspector Gadget

As the owner of both an Iriver iHP-120 and an iPod (long story...), where (for reference) the iRiver mounts like a drive and you drag the files on and it figures out the rest (in direct contrast with the iPod), I'd like to drop the following into the pot:

1. Because the iPod has a database that's been prepared for it by a more powerful computer (i.e. your PC/Mac), it does a lot less disk churning than the iRiver, as would otherwise have to scan each file for the ID3 tag (remember, a v2 ID3 tag can be *anywhere* in the file). Less disk activity == longer battery life, it's that simple.
2. The iPod's format is well known, understood, and there are a bunch of utilities that can read and write files to and from the device without a problem (I've had reasonable success with SharePod). There's a disturbing trend amongst other audio player makers away from a USB Mass Storage interface (like my old iRiver) and towards Microsoft's Media Transfer Protocol for compatibility with Media Player 10, its DRM schemes, and all of the online shops that support that (i.e. virtually all of them, other than iTunes). In other words, you're back to square one, only with Microsoft calling the tune instead of Apple (and Apple's attitude to DRM appears to be a lot fairer than MS...)
3. If you dislike it that much, change it. Rockbox is your friend - I've seen it on a 5G Video iPod, and it works fine...

Just my 2c...
Gadget

Creamy Goodness

hmmm that doesn't explain why my H120 has a longer battery life than my ipod before it.

Inspector Gadget

Cremo wrote:

hmmm that doesn't explain why my H120 has a longer battery life than my ipod before it.

It's not about actual battery life, it's about efficiency.

For comparison, the 4G iPod gets 12 rated hours from a 630mAh battery, whereas the iRiver iHP-120 (which were both on the market at the same time, if I remember) only manages 16 rated hours out of a battery with just over twice the capacity (1300mAh)... - in other words, a 4G iPod could squeeze about 24-3/4 hours out of the iRiver's battery, or vice versa the iRiver would drain the iPod's battery in about 7-3/4 hours.

Does this help?
Gadget
(Yes, I do realise you were joking, but it's relevant nonetheless to why the designers went that route)

TommyGun

This came from another thread.

(How) Can I copy music to my computer from my iPOD?

A:
The iPod (Like many MP3 players) was designed to be the destination of a one-way trip for your music. This design was intentional supposedly to prevent people “stealing” music. The truth is that not everyone who wants to upload songs from the iPod to a computer is stealing music. It’s perfectly acceptable use to copy songs that you own back off the iPod. Right, with justification aside…

The music is stored (Rather chaotically) on the iPod in a hidden folder called iPod_Control.

The free, and awkward way:
In Windows, you simply have to open explorer.exe and open the iPod-drive.
Ensure that Hidden Folders are visible (Tools -> Folder Options -> View-> Hidden Files and Folders should be set to Show Hidden Files and Folders).
Open iPod_Control, and the sub-directory that is Music (Although: I’ve found it better/easier to Search as opposed to exploring the folders.)
As you’ll see-it’s a mess with numerous folders, and tracks from the same album spread over these folders. Also, it seems that later iPod firmware revisions have obfuscated file(name)s further.

So it’s advisable to use programs to save you pulling out your hair…

Mac-specific:
Senuti – “everything in reverse” – it offers a built-in search facility, and displays playlists. It’s essentially iTunes in reverse (Hence the name!)
OmniWeb – it’s a (Commercial) web browser. Just drag the iPod folder over and you get a nice list of folders…

Windows-specific:
EphPod (Free, and excellent. It has been around a good while…)
XPlay - http://www.mediafour.com/products/xplay/ - (Commercial – I’ve never used it TBH)
PodUtil - http://www.kennettnet.co.uk/software/podutil.php - (Freeware)
Anapod Explorer - http://www.redchairsoftware.com/anapod/ - Anapod Explorer lets you access your iPod's contents from any Web browser and play its music via any MP3 program of your choice. You can edit song tags directly on the iPod. It also has an embedded database engine (Anapod-SQL); so you can search the iPod using almost any criteria and generate reports in HTML or XML. (A free trial is available)
CopyPod - www.copypod.net - useful for retrieving your music, ratings, playlists, playcounts to your PC (14 day free trial available for download)

art

Inspector Gadget wrote:

As the owner of both an Iriver iHP-120 and an iPod (long story...), where (for reference) the iRiver mounts like a drive and you drag the files on and it figures out the rest (in direct contrast with the iPod), I'd like to drop the following into the pot:

1. Because the iPod has a database that's been prepared for it by a more powerful computer (i.e. your PC/Mac), it does a lot less disk churning than the iRiver, as would otherwise have to scan each file for the ID3 tag (remember, a v2 ID3 tag can be *anywhere* in the file). Less disk activity == longer battery life, it's that simple.
2. The iPod's format is well known, understood, and there are a bunch of utilities that can read and write files to and from the device without a problem (I've had reasonable success with SharePod). There's a disturbing trend amongst other audio player makers away from a USB Mass Storage interface (like my old iRiver) and towards Microsoft's Media Transfer Protocol for compatibility with Media Player 10, its DRM schemes, and all of the online shops that support that (i.e. virtually all of them, other than iTunes). In other words, you're back to square one, only with Microsoft calling the tune instead of Apple (and Apple's attitude to DRM appears to be a lot fairer than MS...)
3. If you dislike it that much, change it. Rockbox is your friend - I've seen it on a 5G Video iPod, and it works fine...

Just my 2c...
Gadget

Them's very interesting points. I find the iPods song management very annoying and had considered getting something new to replace it but I guess there's just no getting away from the new wave of heavy-handed DRM hell, no matter what manufacturer you go for

At least iTunes/iPod does work very efficiently and reliably (and hadn't known it had such relatively small capacity battery).

lucernarian

Get a Cowon mp3 player if you want to avoid itunes and DRM. They use UMS so you can simply plug it into a computer and it works.

Kazaanova

Thanks guys, I've used ephPod and PodUtil but I still can't find a program that can import songs from my iPod with its rating and playcount etc. anyone know about this?

Gandalf23

Kazaanova wrote:

Thanks guys, I've used ephPod and PodUtil but I still can't find a program that can import songs from my iPod with its rating and playcount etc. anyone know about this?

I have tried all of the above mentioned programs with limited success.

The ONLY thing that worked successfully was "iPodAgent".

Look here and here for more info and a free try...