Friday, April 13, 2007

(step 3) other thoughts

The problem is fixed. The ipod now has the videos where they are supposed to be in the video submenue of the ipod, the videos are displaying.
What created the problem in the first place I still dont know. The senerio that was given to me that it was plugged into another itunes (I will assume older than7) and from that point on this problem existed. I have my doubt that this would be the problem especialy that the ipod had 'manage music manually' selected on it.
Interesting observations:
1- when itunes tells you that the ipod is synced with another itunes library and when we actually ask it to erase and sync it with the new library (this was in step 2 #20) this only erases and syncs the 'ipod control' folder.. it does not effect any of the other folders such as photos, or any folder that has been placed manually on the ipod. I know many of you dont think this is important, but I have been working with ipods for a while and the biggest problem I run into is making sure I have enough space on my hard drive to backup an ipod and all the folders in it. Now i know is all I have to backup is one folder which is the ipod control, and hence gaining much space and time that would be waisted otherwise.
2- after we do all of this all the music and videos are saved in the folder c:/igadget not in the MY Music/itunes/itunes music folder. I did this becasue as explained above, but if you prefer having it in the default folder of itunes music (MY Music/itunes/itunes) then all you have to do is open itunes then advance-->consolidate library and itunes will start copying all the files to the default location.
3- you can enable 'manually manage music' for an ipod even from an itunes that does not have your library in it (i.e. a friend's itunes). but be aware that you cannot disable it without having to resync with an itunes library (a waring will show up.. the famous one :D)
4- step 2 of this process is one I use alot and it is very helpful in many situations like backing up your itunes library, and like updating your itunes library after you have uploaded songs from another computer of yours to your ipod.
5- From all i know and I am not sure about the exact information for the compititor to the ipod the creative, it seems that both work the same way as long as you have 'manually manage music' chacked on your ipod prefrences (can only be done as far as i know from an itunes). the only difference might be that with ipod you have to use an itunes whereas with creative I think you still have to use some kind of a program.
6- there are alternatives and addons to itunes that would make things maybe easier, I think I will talk about that in another post
7- I used igadget in step 2 of the process because it is the least problematic application I have found that does this job. there are others like ipodrip which is supposed to be very good, yet I had problems making it run such as other many people who seem to have encountered this problem. but if you can make it run it is pretty good, but it costs the same as igadget and i never had a problem with igadget. there is also Senuti but that is only for Mac and it is free.
8- in step 2 i did not talk about moving your ratings but you can do that using igadget also, just look at the buttons you can use on it and you will find that option.

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Explanation of some folders in the ipod

after mounting the ipod and going to MY COMPUTER and opening the ipod many files might me be there some are more important than others here is what I figured out:


ipod_control : is the main folder that has all the music and videos (i think). it is a hidden folder.

Photos: is where all the photos and there information is saved. U can backup this folder and return it after you reformat your ipod or so and you will get the photos back to your ipod. this is especially helpful since most programs out there will not help with that.

calender, contact and notes folders: I have never used there options in the ipod so I never see anything in them but my guess is they would have the calender and contact info.

All the rest that you see on the pic are folders that were moved to the ipod and not part of the ipod system.

(step2) USING iGadget to transfer music from ipod to itunes

this is an interesting problem, now I have an ipod that is just like the problem ed ipod yet if I connect this ipod to my PC, itunes will display the message if I want to delete this ipod and sync it with my itunes library, and that will just erase everything on the ipod and sync with whatever is in iTunes, or make it empty if iTunes is empty.



So what I have to do now is find away to get all the music and videos on the ipod to my iTunes.
In my years of trying programs to do this my absolute favorite is igadged it is not free but it is worth the $10 that you pay. so here is the procedure to make my itunes library be the same as the ipod.
1- Backing up the old itunes library: If I dont want to loose my own itunes library that I use with my ipod, I need to backup this library before I start to do this:
a- close iTunes
b- go to My Music folder and find a folder called 'iTunes' move the whole folder to some other location let us say my desktop.
c- restart iTunes and it will automatically create a new iTunes folder in My Music and will show an empty library for itunes
2- Install igadget: you can download igadget from purple ghost software http://www.purpleghost.com/index.php?q=get_igadget
once you download it an install it then we can get it working :D
3- Run igadget, it will show a little black window that shows you it is loading and then you will have a popup like the one below:

check the box (just like i did in the picture) to disable itunes ability to detect ipods and then press ok
4- you will see in the black box that igadget is trying to stop that ability at the same time itunes will open if it were not open yet.


5- Even though rare sometimes igadget is unable to turn itunes ability to detect ipods off, if this happen a window will popup but it might be hidden in the back. this is not really important unless your ipod is already synced with this itunes which in this example it is not. so if i gadget does not turn itunes ability off itunes will give you the famous warning of ipod being synced with another library.
6- igadget will popup another window like below just press on the close button.

7- igadget program should open now.

8- plug your ipod to the pc
9- if itunes pops up a window saying ipod is synced with another library and if you want to erase and sync it with this one just press 'cancel'













10- igadget should show the ipod

11- if it does not then you have to go to file-->check for ipods and it should load plugins and find it.
12- Now here is what you have to do first click on Transfer Songs from ipod , it should show you all the songs you have on the ipod.
13- press on select all, a check mark will be next to each and every song and video on your ipod
14- click the transfer songs button on the top left corner (right underneath file)
15- a popup will come like the one below

transfer folder: C:\igadget
Check transfer songs into itunes
press transfer and watch igadget put all the songs into itunes
the reason i use c:\igadget is for a very important reason. if this ipod to be synced on another computer the only drive i always know is going to be the same is 'C', I cannot put it in my documents because this would include the user name of this computer, and 'D' might not be in existence on the other computer as well
16- after igadget is done with that click on playlist tranfer and select all and then click on the transfer songs button just like 14 and igadget will start transferring your playlists to itunes
17- eject your ipod by clicking the ejyct button on igadget
18- unplug your ipod
look at the itunes now it should have all the stuff that your ipod has all the playlists all the music and all the videos.

19- close itunes, close igadget
20- plug your ipod to the pc again. When itunes asks you if you want to erase and sync with this library click on 'erase and sync' button and watch i tunes update your ipod.













21- when itunes is done unplug your ipod and check that everything is working.

(step1) BACKING UP the ipod

mirrorring a problem ipod to myipod

A very interesting discovery, I have looked to check if this would work but it seems no one really cares enough to check it, well I tried and I must say it works
Procedure:
very very simple, all you have to do is
1- attach the problem ipod to the computer.
2- when itunes (or if) opens and says 'ipod can only be synced to one library...' you press cancel
3- you open MY COMPUTER and look for the mounted ipod
4- Make sure you can see all hidden files and folders (tools-->folder options X-->View tab-->check 'view hidden files and folders'











5- copy all the folders to a newly created folder call it 'problem ipod' on your PC (make sure your pc has enough space)

6- eject ipod by right clicking on the mounted ipod in MY COMPUTER and choosing eject.
7- attach my ipod, open the mounted ipod and delete all files and folders in it.
8- copy the files and folders from 'problem ipod' folder to the mounted ipod.
9- eject
10- I checked my ipod and I have the exact things that are on the problem ipod including playlist etc.
I am done creating a mirror of the problem ipod to my ipod and now it is time to continue fixing my problem.

iPod Problem, videos not showing on ipod

Intro: I was givven an ipod with the following problem: the video playlists are showing as music playlists in the ipod. When you play any of the videos in such playlists on your ipod you end up with only the sound and not the video.

Facts: when using itunes to add videos, and you create a playlist using only videos, eventhough this list might show up as a playlist in your itunes, when you sync your ipod that list should not show in the music playlists but in the video playlist of your ipod.
I have no idea how this problem actually came into exsistence, but this is the second time I hear about it, and if anyone has an idea of the problem itself and an easier way of fixing it that what I am going to be doing please let us all know.

Procedure:
Here is what I am going to be doing:
1- BACKING UP the ipod: I am going to try to move all the info of the problem ipod to my ipod and do the test from there since I don't want the problem ipod to loose any info.
2- USING iGadget to transfer music from ipod to itunes: I need to enable syncing to my itunes after I mirror the problem ipod to mine.
3- CHECKING: I need to see if re syncing will solve the problem.

Intro

I started couple of blogs before which I have no idea where they are any more. I am hopping this one is better and will help me as well as others. It will help myself in remembering things that I keep on forgetting all the time. How-to s that I keep on forgetting about this annoying ipod and itunes. Annoying yet i keep on using them. I get I like the look and I am not sure if any other player is actually better. but your comments (if any does find this blog in the woods of blogs) would be helpful in figuring out myths and actualities of many things. Enough of the intro's intro this blog is about ipod and itunes, how to transfer music from ipod to itunes, how to add songs from other ipods into your itunes and still be able to sync with your itunes. Now what is the legality of all of this, I have no idea really, you tell me, my thought is cant I give a CD to friend that I bought, indeed and it is legal so why not with the ipod. It is everyones responsibility to figure out if the songs they are getting are obtained legally or not. And if anyone wants to make me aware of actual legal issues I am, and I am sure everyone else is happy in knowing where does this gray area lies.