iPOD help needed - can't get music on it

shane86

Right, its 4am and I am ****ing pissed off. Ive been trying to load my iPod all night now, and after all this time Ive managed two albums, trying so many different methods I dont even know how.

Basically the story is this. Like most downloaded albums my files are mostly in Winrar. Now, logically you would think to export these I would go to the Winrar, click "extract to" and proceed. Doesnt work. Neither does drag and drop. How the **** do I get out of this mess, I just want to plain and simple drag/send my winrar music files to the iPod menu and then put it on my iPod (none of the online guides seem to properly cover this section)

Another question, is it impossible to have an iPod associated with two computers? When I plugged mine into my mothers PC it recognised Id previously used the iPod on my cousins laptop, and didnt seem to allow me to proceed without deleting the files downloaded from her system. If this is the case its nonsense, Ill intending to use both my mams PC and my (soon to be bought) laptop. tbh I am getting ****ing sick of iPods, the last one broke and Im having hell even loading this one. Id a creative years back, it was so easy to use compared to all this hassle :mad: I have to be honest, i used to think this thing on message boards of hating iPods was basically hating whats popular. The same type of people who hate McDonalds due to its popularity. Now im starting to realise after one broken device and severe hassle using this one that they are a load of poorly built hard to use ****e.

mathias

To use itunes on multiple computers ,

1: Make sure that they all have the same version of itunes installed.

2: Never , and I mean never , Let itunes manage the music for you , set each version so that you manage the music.

3: Use the library functions , by this I mean hold down shift when starting itunes , and create a library for yourself on each computer. Otherwise you just sync to the standard single library and if your using someone elses computer that means messing up your own ipod.

4: Extract your zipped files ( rar ) to a separate folder , and then copy them to your own library by using file / add folder function in itunes.

5: Always check the contents of the library before you Sync.

6: Then Sync to your ( and you'll need to have created your library for this ) own library. Hold Down shift when starting itunes to choose which library loads.

Im using itunes on four different computers , and it hasnt messed up since I figured out all of the above.

So check the above items , and good luck.

shane86

This will sound retarded but is there a visual guide or anything online for all of the above, as tbh I havent a clue about computers, hate them with a passion. Part 2 there, exactly how do I set it that I manage the music. I remember when installing that it gave me the option and I went for the default, for i Tunes to do it. Where do I change it.

By now Im thinking of saying the iPod is constantly freezing and getting a refund, being held hostage to one PC and having this iTunes bollix try to force you to buy music from them is not on.

mathias

Start Itunes , go to , Edit/preferences , and click the advanced tab , make sure that " keep the itunes folder organized " box is unchecked. As long as its unchecked you are managing your own music ,

if you dont leave this unchecked Itunes does all kinds of weird and strange things to your music , like renaming and retagging files , it also splits up compilation albums which is seriously annoying. Anyway , make sure the box is unchecked and all will be OK.

For the second part , you were never hostage to one PC , Itunes could always be set up to at least 5 PC's and with the latest version ( 7.2 released just a couple of days ago ) most of the DRM has been lifted , so you can carry most of your tunes over to as many PC's as you like now.

The itunes store is just a default setting , go to view / hide ministore to turn it off , it wont come back until you tell it too.

The apple site has a very comprehensive users guide with screenshots ,

http://www.apple.com/support/itunes/

Itunes is fine once you get used to it.

Bard

shane86 wrote:

Basically the story is this. Like most downloaded albums my files are mostly in Winrar. Now, logically you would think to export these I would go to the Winrar, click "extract to" and proceed. Doesnt work. Neither does drag and drop. How the **** do I get out of this mess, I just want to plain and simple drag/send my winrar music files to the iPod menu and then put it on my iPod (none of the online guides seem to properly cover this section)

Err... WHAT?

WinRAR isn't for music. Full stop. There's no such thing as "winrar music files". WinRAR is a compression/archiving program (not the best one at that... try ALZip from www.altools.net ) which you can use for kludging a load of files (music files, for example) into one "zip" file.

Your MP3 files will need to be uncompressed (taken out of the "zip" file) before you go putting them onto your iPod. Usually, yes, that involves clicking "extract to" and putting them somewhere on your hard drive before transferring them to the iPod. This isn't a problem or a failing of your iPod, it's a failing of the filing system you seem to be using (keeping your music in archives instead of folders).

I'm presuming, by the way, that if you're downloading albums in rar or zip or another WinRAR format, then you're most likely downloading them illegally from a source such as Bittorrent. If you weren't doing so, you'd most likely be getting them down as uncompressed MP3 files and you may not then be having the problems you're having.