Topic: iPod playcount problem (Read 6568 times)

scub · « **on:** July 18, 2005, 09:15:27 am »

When I sync up my Ipod the fields "Number Plays" and "Last Played" are corrupted. I'm seeing values like -3423432 in last played and crazy numbers in number plays as well. I recently upgraded the ipod to version 1.4 for support of the podcasts and I think that is what did it. Will MediaCenter support Ipods runing 1.4?

Cerebro · « **Reply #1 on:** July 19, 2005, 01:04:33 pm »

Quote from: scub on July 18, 2005, 09:15:27 am

When I sync up my Ipod the fields "Number Plays" and "Last Played" are corrupted. I'm seeing values like -3423432 in last played and crazy numbers in number plays as well. I recently upgraded the ipod to version 1.4 for support of the podcasts and I think that is what did it. Will MediaCenter support Ipods runing 1.4?

same error. plus: there seems to be no rating tag updates in MC; therefore, ratings are not applied to MC and are set back to 'non-rated' on the ipod during sync.

SteveG · « **Reply #2 on:** July 19, 2005, 01:16:20 pm »

scub and cerebro,

Can you confirm that the date and time are set correctly on your iPods?

Steve

zxsix · « **Reply #3 on:** July 19, 2005, 08:35:06 pm »

Maybe this'll help, maybe not. I tested this today....

I downloaded some independent mp3's last night and imported them into MC I listened to the album last night after importing it.
I then sync'd the album to my ipod.
I listened to most of it again today on the ipod.
Tonight I looked at the album in MC. It showed 1 in each of the "Number Plays" fields.
I then sync'd the ipod with MC.
I then checked the album again and all the songs I heard today updated correctly to a "number plays" of 2.
Good so far.

Anyway, while the playcounts are updating correctly, I have invalid information in the "Last Played". I've pasted the results below.
Keep in mind that this cd didn't exist in my library until about 20 hours ago. Every song has been listened to within the last 19 hours.
Some of the songs were listened to this morning, and some of the songs were listened to about two hours ago.

Here's the results of my "last played", as showing currently, copy/pasted directly from my view scheme:
Number Plays   Last Played
1   5.3 years ago
1   5.3 years ago
1   5.3 years ago
1   2.8 days ago
1   2.8 days ago
2   2.4 days ago
1   2.4 days ago
1   42.8 hours ago
1   30.0 hours ago
2   28.5 hours ago
1   26.0 hours ago
1   26.0 hours ago
2   25.9 hours ago
1   25.3 hours ago
1   21:37:09 ago
1   11:37:24 ago

At this point, I checked on Jim's recommendation. Turns out the date on my ipod is set to 25 Mar 2000. Apparently reset one of the few times my battery has gone completely dead on the ipod.

So, at this point, I'm willing to believe the 5.3 years ago came from the ipod and the 11:37:24 and 21:37:09 came from songs I listened to via MC.

I have no idea how it got 2.4 and 2.8 days ago, since the song didn't exist in the library that long ago and the ipod was 5 years ago.....?

Finally, I set the ipod to the correct current date.
Played 2 of the songs again in their entirety.
Synced again with MC, and now the "last played" shows 7:23 ago.

I'd have to say you either have a date problem on the portable. If that is correct, then maybe the ipod update changed something.

jankm · « **Reply #4 on:** July 19, 2005, 09:56:35 pm »

Been looking for this thread for a while. Thought it was just me.

I'm also getting a number of songs with crazy play counts and last played just as the other posters reported. Ratings don't sync back to MC either.

I reinitialized my ipod in MC today and loaded all the songs back on. I cleared the play counts and last played, then syncd. Rated one song on the ipod and then reconnected. I disabled sync back to MC in case something else could get messed up. Just clicking on the ipod in the tree showed a number of songs with play counts at 100, 80, 60, and 40. Then another group had last played at -302863.

I'm not sure if this had anything to do with MC or the fact that I updated my ipod software to the 6-26-05 version when that came out.

scub · « **Reply #5 on:** July 19, 2005, 10:49:43 pm »

I checked the date and time on the ipod and they are set correctly. I have also reinitialized the ipod in MC, rebuilt the ipod database in MC, reset using the ipod updater (unfortunately can't seem to take back the flash update) and reinstalled Media Center.

I just tested with a sync and I have tracks with play counts such as:
176695156
7340147
7209090
7143474
6750321
And last played values of:
-302863:52:29 ago
-302863:53:11 ago
-302863:53:14 ago
-302863:52:36 ago
-302863:52:36 ago

Also if it helps I'm using the iPod Mini 4GB model.

tlongacre · « **Reply #6 on:** July 21, 2005, 08:50:48 pm »

I'm having the same problem. Using an iPod photo 60gb. Date is correct on the iPod. When I hook up the iPod and play from the iPod through MC, it adds the play # correctly, but I think it doesn't "stick".

SteveG · « **Reply #7 on:** July 22, 2005, 08:32:51 am »

tlongacre,

That is a slightly different issue. When playing tracks on the iPod through MC, the playcount data will not update on the iPod. It will update when you play the tracks when the iPod is disconnected.

Steve

tlongacre · « **Reply #8 on:** July 22, 2005, 11:56:29 am »

That's fine. I only did that as an experiment in case it meant something.

But I am definitely having the problem of playcounts not updating in MC from the iPod. In fact, I thought I was just getting the weird numbers mentioned by scub, but the truth is, I have those weird sorts of numbers on some tracks, but most tracks are not getting updated at all.

Yesterday, I listened to several podcasts that I had downloaded onto the iPod via MC. When I resynced, after it said it was syncing the info with MC, the Number of Plays on those tracks did not change at all.

This didn't really bother me before because I never really used that field to do anything, but now I'm trying to NOT sync podcasts that I've already listened to (Number of Plays <1) and it is not, of course, working 'cause they all keep showing up as if they've never been played.

p.s. it seems I remember that the Number of Plays field was, at some time, editable. But now it is not. So now I can't even mark things manually. . .

SteveG · « **Reply #9 on:** July 22, 2005, 12:09:15 pm »

tlongacre,

Quote

I'm not sure if this had anything to do with MC or the fact that I updated my ipod software to the 6-26-05 version when that came out.

Do you get the latest update from Apple?

tlongacre · « **Reply #10 on:** July 22, 2005, 12:12:58 pm »

Yes, I am using the latest update from Apple.

SteveG · « **Reply #11 on:** July 22, 2005, 12:36:14 pm »

That appears to be a common issue. I will check it out.

tlongacre · « **Reply #12 on:** July 22, 2005, 12:45:21 pm »

Yeah

We love common issues. Potentially so much easier to figure out than quirky unique ones.

Thanks.

zxsix · « **Reply #13 on:** July 22, 2005, 01:06:47 pm »

I have no plans to upgrade firmware on my ipod, so feel free to use me as a tester to confirm that any changes you make are still working with the older ipod firmware.

SteveG · « **Reply #14 on:** July 25, 2005, 08:01:37 am »

zxsix,

I wish I didn't have plans to either (as I apparantly can't go backwards) but am on a date with destiny to go forward

Steve

tlongacre · « **Reply #15 on:** August 09, 2005, 01:28:58 pm »

Steve,

Just wondering when this playcounts issue is going to be resolved. Do you have a timeline? Since I really need it to make my podcast transfers work, it's bugging me (I have to remember which podcasts I've listened to and then manually delete them -- I can't keep them 'cause they don't show any indication of having been listened to. . .)

Thanks.

Cerebro · « **Reply #16 on:** August 10, 2005, 12:10:29 am »

Same here. It's been almost 2 months now, and I would really like to use my rating-based smartlists again. So please give us a rough idea when it's gonna be fixed.

Thanks!

ForsakenArdor · « **Reply #17 on:** August 21, 2005, 01:38:45 pm »

When this issue finally gets resolved, the best way to get normal play counts again is to just delete everything from the library then import it again. My library counts are messed up all over, so I don't mind starting over with zeros again. This doesn't affect smartlists, but static playlists will be emptied out.

Cerebro · « **Reply #18 on:** August 22, 2005, 11:40:12 am »

Yes, WHEN is a good question ? I'm almost tempted to use another software (even go back to Itunes) if it isn't gonna be fixed soon. Please, tell us about any progress concerning this issue.

Or does anybody know a way to go back to Ipodmini Version 1.3? 1.4 caused the trouble in the first place. I'm going to think twice in the future before updating...

SteveG · « **Reply #19 on:** August 22, 2005, 12:26:14 pm »

This issue is resolved and waiting for a future release.

bd6675 · « **Reply #20 on:** September 15, 2005, 09:36:27 am »

I am still having the last played issue on my 60g iPod and I am using 11.0.314. I know that the last post on this thread said it was fixed for future releases. Was that release 11.0.314?

Thanks,

BD6675

SteveG · « **Reply #21 on:** September 16, 2005, 12:57:57 pm »

No. The fix is not released yet.

Steve

dynamic · « **Reply #22 on:** September 24, 2005, 11:52:18 am »

its been several months, come on.

Seviien · « **Reply #23 on:** September 24, 2005, 06:01:32 pm »

I'm sure there's a reason for why they haven't released the fix yet. Seems odd to be sitting on it, but I'm sure there's a reason. Hopefully that reason isn't to release it as part of a paid upgrade to 11.1 ... but even if that's the case it's really not that big a deal.

After using MC for years, I had been using itunes to synch my music since around January. I just reconverted a week or so ago, so I'm not sure what version of ipod firmware created the issue. Judging by the date this thread started, my guess is the 2005-3-23 firmware should work correctly. For those of us who don't use podcasts and don't have a Nano... that seems to be the most reasonable solution. The only problem, however, is that apple only has the most recent firmware on their site, and like 99% of the web just links to the apple download. Does anyone have this version of the ipod updater?

Seviien · « **Reply #24 on:** September 25, 2005, 12:08:01 am »

Thanks to some help from Camper, I now have a "vintage" ipod updater -- the Feb 22 version to be more specific. I just tested it out with the latest build of MC, and both playcounts and time last played worked perfectly.
For those of us who want these features to work, I think that this is the best answer right now: just use older versions of the ipod firmware.

bd6675 · « **Reply #25 on:** September 28, 2005, 08:45:58 am »

Anyone know if this problem has been fixed in 11.1?

Thanks,

Bd6675

SteveG · « **Reply #26 on:** September 28, 2005, 09:44:07 am »

11.1 will resolve this when it is available.

bd6675 · « **Reply #27 on:** September 28, 2005, 11:21:41 am »

So Media Center 11.1 ALPHA (11.1.28) does not contain this fix?

JimH · « **Reply #28 on:** September 28, 2005, 11:25:29 am »

It should.

bd6675 · « **Reply #29 on:** September 28, 2005, 11:34:18 am »

JimH, thanks for the quick reply. I will test it out when I get home and report back.

Thanks again

bd6675 · « **Reply #30 on:** October 06, 2005, 11:17:29 am »

Hey JimH,

Does 11.1.31 fix the playcount issue?

Thanks,

BD6675

JimH · « **Reply #31 on:** October 06, 2005, 12:13:14 pm »

Probably, since 11.1 uses our newer handheld sub-system, but use it with caution.

SteveG · « **Reply #32 on:** October 07, 2005, 11:11:46 am »

11.1 should fix the playcount issue. 11.1.31 has issues in regards to Portables apart from iPod due to some restructuring of the Device code. Please look for a build next week that should resolve those and then expose the fix to playcounts.

Steve

Galley · « **Reply #33 on:** October 22, 2005, 09:26:12 am »

How to revert to older iPod firmware:
Source: http://forums.ilounge.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=104558&perpage=15&highlight=revert%20firmware&pagenumber=1

Quote

Not for those who know the tricks to good iPod management! Best of all you can revert back to you old iPodOS (barring that you archived it or that you still have the original CD),. Here's how you can do it!

1) Just Restore your iPod back to an Older Copy of the iPodOS NOTE: THIS WILL FORMAT THE IPOD. Thuss BAD, BAD, BAD... But, it will get the Job done. If you manage to backup all your Music Folders on your iPod (Fxx ~Fxx) located ipod_Control\Devices\Music IIRC!

2) A much more robust way of peddling back to an Older iPodOS Ver. Gain access to you iPod though Windows Explorer (you might have to tick the 'Use Disk mode' Box in iTunes so that your iPod does not self-eject after iTunes does it's thing. (BTW: You need to do that much for the above too).

In any case open Windows Explorer (Win+E) and go to Options and make sure to disable ANY AND ALL 'Hide File and Folders'! or you will not be able to view the contents of your iPod!!

Ok now back to the Hack? ok..

You need to access your iPod at x:\<iPodNAME>\iPod_Control\Devices
You should see Two Files here 'Preferences' and 'SysInfo'. It's the 'SysInfo' File we interested in! So Open it up with 'you favorite text editor' (to get the best layout!).

Find the part of your Sysinfo that looks like this!

buildID: 0x02308000 (2.3)
visibleBuildID: 0x02308000 (2.3)

NOTE:I own a 3G so you Numbers can and will vary!

Edit those lines like this...

buildID: 0x02108000 (2.1)
visibleBuildID: 0x02108000 (2.1)

Note I turned the 3's back into 1's. THATS IT! Save As and exit. Just do not let you iPod reboot itself or you will have to redo this step!

Ok now the hard part finding that older version iPodOS (assuming you have it you should be able to run the Update Function as opposed to the Restore (i.e. Reformat), on your iPod.

Bam! welcome back to your prior iPodOS and your Smart Playlists.

Pretty simple when you know how!!!

INTERACT FORUM

Author Topic: iPod playcount problem (Read 6568 times)