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[dengle]

My 60GB iPod iPhoto has worked for a long time with Media Center.  I am on MC 13.0.172 at present.  Today, I tried to copy files from my Media Center library to my iPod using drag and drop.  The download worked (i.e. I was remote), but the status changed to Error before the upload step.  I assume that this is due to the iTunes 8 problems since I just checked my Laptop and find that iTunes 8 is installed.

I don't copy files to my iPod all that often and I only do it with a computer that pretty much is used for media access when I travel.  As a result, I don't remember when I did it, but it appears that I've upgraded to iTunes 8 before I knew it was bad to do so (i.e. I learned that about 15 min. ago.)  The version of iTunes that I have on this machine is 8.1.1.10.  Since I haven't been attending to this for some time, I have no idea when I downloaded it... it probably popped up and I absentmindedly said Ok.

Is there anything that I can do now to fix my iPod so it will work with Media Center?  I've looked around the forum with the search utility and didn't find anything about what to do if you've already done the bad deed before you knew it was bad.  I hate iTunes and wish I didn't even have to have it loaded.

If you could give me a recipe (or point me to the thread that has one) as to what to do to restore my iPod functionality I would appreciate it.

Thanks,

Dale
Tampa

[dengle]

I tried reinstalling iTunes 7, which I was able to do as I had an install image still on my hard drive.  I reset the iPod back to its factory settings.  This appeared to work, but it must not have set it all the way back because it (the iPod) still won't work with Media Center.  I did transfer some files to it with iTunes 7.1.1.6 so the old version of iTunes will still work even though the firmware is changed.  Whatever they did, it is backward compatible to old iTunes, which I find interesting and makes me wonder if it is related to iTunes 8.

Is there any chance that whatever is wrong here is not related to iTunes 8?

I agree with all of the JRiver positions in the thread "Is this the only support?" as I don't want to pay higher prices so you can pay for someone in India to abuse me over the phone.  There is one area in which I disagree... that is that if no one knows the answer all you get is silence.  If this forum is being used as a technical support vehicle, then someone from JRiver should feel an obligation to help even if the problem is difficult and/or unknown before.

Won't someone speak to me about this problem and at least confirm that it is iTunes 8?

Dale

[JimH]

Silence often means that nobody knows.

When you get a new version of iTunes, it often updates the firmware of the device.

Resetting to factory probably doesn't change the firmware.  It's still the latest.

You could try MC14.  It may work.

Rockbox is an alternate open source firmware.  We hear good things about it.

Thanks for your patience.

[dengle]

Jim,

Thanks for the reply.  I can't use Rockbox as it doesn't support Audible.  I am interested in helping to figure this out if it is possible to figure it out.  So, I downloaded and installed Rockbox.  I ejected and reset the iPod, although it looked like Rockbox was already on it.  I tried to copy an MP3 (i.e. not audible) to the iPod with the Rockbox firmware in place and I got exactly the same error.  The file downloads, but the status changes to "Error" before the upload to the iPod begins.

I ejected the iPod and disconnected it to go into the Music Database.  It said that it wasn't initialized and asked if I wanted to initialize.  I said yes and it has been initializing since.  It says Initializing Database... 444 found.  It is taking a long time to do that.  Does anyone know how long it should take?

Anyway, I can't say for sure that that it didn't fix the problem due to the database having not been initialized when I previously tried to copy the file.  I'll update you on my progress.  If it works, we'll know it was a firmware update.  If it doesn't, we can assume it isn't a firmware update issue?  I don't know where that puts us, but hopefully we'lll know something from the exercise.

Either way in order to support Audible, I'll need to uninstall Rockbox and try MC14.

[dengle]

I finally got around to upgrading to Media Center 14.  It did indeed fix the problem with my iPod.  Therefore, this was apparently not a problem with Apple changing the firmware on my iPod, but must have been some sort of bug in version 13.  Or it was just unlucky (i.e. it was version 13 after all).

So, let's talk a bit more about technical support before I go.  I have no issues with using this forum as a technical support vehicle as I've said before in this thread.  However, I do feel that the level of diagnostic activity is severely limited on this "technical support vehicle".  It would've been nice if there were actual diagnostic activity (i.e. reviewing logs, etc.) that would've correctly identified that my problem was due to Apple "breaking" my firmware and not something else that could've been (and was, apparently) corrected in version 14.  In fact, the diagnostic activity may well have been able to tell what in version 14 would've been corrected to fix the problem by actually identifying the problem through the review of objective material rather than supposition.  If I had had information that indicated that version 14 would probably fix the problem, I would've hastened the upgrade a bit.  As it was, I had no reason to think that the upgrade was going to fix my problem, and I just did it when I got around to it.

Don't get me wrong.  I really like this product and I've pretty much bought every version since 9 I think.  But your technical support really needs to be a little more systematic and include diagnostic activities when a problem is encountered that is out of the ordinary.  I wonder how many other "supported iPod" problems have been incorrectly lumped into the "Apple firmware" problem and declared "unsupported" as a result without a shred of objective evidence (i.e. log information, etc.) to support it?

This is, however, the second time that I've had a problem that was never diagnosed.  The previous instance (i.e. running MC on Windows 2000 Server when I was told Windows Server is not supported because it is so different, which it is not that different, of course) I just worked around by moving the software to a Windows XP workstation and using mapped drives so I could use the disk space of the server, which was the goal.  Two bugs with no resolution in close to 10 years of use is not all that bad and is a testament to the quality code development, quality control procedures, and release management that your company puts into this product.  However, your technical support processes cry out for better diagnostic activities.  

Please take this comment as it is intended... a helpful suggestion for improvement.  Nobody's perfect you know.

Dale Engle
Tampa, FL