Ditching iTunes possible? iPhone - iPod - Windows Laptop

cormie

Hi there,
I'm trying to work out a solution to best manage an iPhone, iPod (Classic 160gb) and a Samsung laptop (Windows 7). I've never liked the idea of iTunes and prefer a drag and drop system. Does anyone know is it possible to be able to ditch itunes while still using these devices in favour of a drag and drop system both for music and photos?

The problem is on both the iPod and iPhone, there's both music and photos that aren't backed up anywhere else, so I'd have to get them off each device first of all, get them into mp3 format (I seem to remember the iPod uses some other format?) and Jpeg, and then put them back on via drag and drop somehow.

I'm thinking to try rockbox.org on the iPod, but it was never fully ported for the classic 160gb. I have it on another iPod Video and it makes it a whole new (better) device. I'm just not sure if the stage it's at on the Classic 160GB is far enough to use it without issues day to day.

So I know with both RockBox running on the iPod and if the iPhone happened to be an Android, this would be no problem at all. What are my options given the above?

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated

CinSoots

I'd recommend Google Music for music and Google Plus for photos. Both sync with everything and everything is stored in the cloud (20,000 songs and up to 15GB for photos free) so you can't lose them!!

Not sure if you have to convert everything to mp3 and jpeg though?

cormie

Thanks for the suggestion, I was thinking of the cloud alright, there's almost 11GB of photos though so that 15 could fill up pretty quick and I don't want to have to deal with payments and stuff just to keep a few photos

biketard

There are several software options for importing the media off your iPod and sticking it on your computer.

As for synching the music, etc., back onto your iPod, you might want to consider Floola:
http://www.floola.com/home/download/

uncle_sam_ie

+1 for Google play(music). All my music is in the cloud which leaves me with more storage space for my phone.

cormie

Thanks again for the suggestions folks, but with a 160gb classic to deal with, cloud won't really be an option for the music.

yoyo

Being honest you can't really. When I had an ipod things usually started to go wrong when trying third party utilities more often than with iTunes. ITunes has a restore feature when things go wrong, not ideal but a safety net other tools I tried didn't. I think Media Monkey did ok from memory but just used iTunes begrudgingly as when iTunes updated it caused problems with the third party tools. This may have changed now though.
I think you can drag and drop with iTunes. You need to expand the ipod and drag onto the music folder item under it. I did have problems with this later on so it may not be possible anymore

Nick

cormie

I don't supposed you ever tried putting rockbox on your ipod Nick? This would of course be of interest if you had a 160gb classic ipod, I have rockbox on my own ipod, but it was a stable and finished version, the 160gb classic version was never completely finished but I believe it's stable enough.

This would resolve the ipod issue, but then there's still the issue with the phone and of course needing itunes. Did you ever try that floola program?

yoyo

cormie wrote: »

I don't supposed you ever tried putting rockbox on your ipod Nick? This would of course be of interest if you had a 160gb classic ipod, I have rockbox on my own ipod, but it was a stable and finished version, the 160gb classic version was never completely finished but I believe it's stable enough.

This would resolve the ipod issue, but then there's still the issue with the phone and of course needing itunes. Did you ever try that floola program?

Rockbox does ring a bell, although couldn't say for certain if I flashed it. It's been a few years now since I had it. I had a 20 or 30 GB colour screen ipod. It was black but couldn't tell you the model number. The HDD crashed in it so I just binned it. I do have a mini ipod which was great and supported drag & drop I think. No idea where it is now though..
I never had a iPhone, so I only had one device connecting to iTunes, although I enabled syncing manually. The tools I used were: Winamp + plugin, Sharepod (it used to be free, good for getting stuff off the ipod) and Media Monkey from what I remember. Had to keep going back to iTunes for syncing though. No idea what Floola is, possibly wasn't even around back then .

Nick

cormie

Cool, will check floola out and see how I get on anyway

This is all for a friend, I stay well away from itunes and the likes to never end up in this mess

davo2001

Have you checked out iTools? Works great!

http://www.itools.cn/itoolsyingwenbanxiazai