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[SweetLowdown]

Hello,

After pouring through all of the ipod support threads, I'm still a bit mystified by the behavior I'm witnessing and hope that a solution may be forthcoming.

I have a new 3rd generation ipod shuffle (laptop is running on Vista) and have been at pains to get the latest iteration of MC14 to recognize it and format it properly. When I plug it in new (set to the factory setting) MC displays the following message "There is no database on your ipod. To use the ipod it must first be initialized. This will erase any files on the ipod. Would you like to initialize your ipod now?" If you allow it to do this, the dialog box disappears, it appears to 'initialize' and then nothing, it still does not recognize the ipod at all under the device menu.

I restarted with itunes open and all of a sudden MC recognized the ipod as a "ipod shuffle 3G", downloaded the appropriate support software and I was able to transfer .ogg's (which it encoded on the fly to MP3's) to the ipod. Ecstatic I ejected the device when the transfer was done, only to turn it on and hear the itunes prompt tell me to "use itunes to sync the device." It wouldn't play a thing. I looked at the subfolders that it created (20 of them) in the music folder, and realized that the device is only supposed to have two folders (F01 and F02) I believe, so somehow MC14 formatted the device improperly, creating a database similar to the ipod libraries of larger devices . . . apparently this has been a problem for others, too. Yet I cannot manually move the files or delete the extraneous folders.

Could this be an issue from having itunes 8 installed (which I had to do to register and activate the ipod)? It sounds more like a formatting gaff of MC 14. What can I say? HALP! I just want my sexy little music box to work without ever having to touch itunes ever again-- the hatred I have for that program!

[JimH]

Try killing any background iTunes programs that are running, then plug the device in, then start MC and go to Options/Handhelds/ and choose redetect devices.

IF that works, uninstall iTunes.

If it doesn't, think about switching the iPod to Rockbox.

[SweetLowdown]

I tried this fix but it had no effect. I would try Rockbox but it is not yet compatible with itunes shuffle. It seems like whatever firmware is being installed by MC14 upon 'initializing' is creating too many folders for the device to be functional via the apple firmware. Is there a patch or a fix on the way for this?

Is anybody successfully syncing an ipod shuffle (3g) with MC 14? What are you using and how have you made it work?

[SweetLowdown]

I should mention as well that I returned it back to its factory settings (which only leaves 3 folders in the music folder (F00, F01 and F02). I plugged it back it and re-detected with MC only to get this new and exciting error message:

"Another program transferring files to your ipod is writing data in a newer format (Unknown) than the one currently supported by Media Center (itunes 9.0.1). Due to this, one or both of the programs may have trouble reading the data and may require restoring or re-synching content. If you experience problems, please try updating to the latest version of media center."

That sure seems to be what's happening, because itunes won't deal with the device after its been initialized by MC either. I do have the latest build of MC, so it cannot be fixed by that. I noticed in the build notes that MC14 was supposed to support the new shuffle. It does, except the database it creates is faulty so it cannot play. This may be an issue for the next round of fixes.

[JimH]

Is anything itunes-ish running if you start Task Manager?  If so, kill it.

[SweetLowdown]

No, it still goes the same way even if itunes is uninstalled.

-K

[SweetLowdown]

Any fixes? Still, nothing works. Even with itunes uninstalled.

This is a formatting error created by MC14. For the next round of debugging/build I suggest getting a hold of an ipod shuffle 3G and seeing how the directory is set up. It is different than other ipods. When MC14 tries to 'initialize' the device it creates too many folders (f00-f20) and the ipod isn't programmed to deal with this directory. Yet if you initialize it with itunes giving it the correct directory (f00-f02), Media Center refuses to recognize it, or it wants to re-initialize, thus creating another bad directory. It's maddening. I think the folder count is also different from the 2GB to the 4GB shuffle.

Truly I'm convinced that anybody trying to hook up an ipod 3G must be suffering the same issues. Has anyone been able to sync an ipod 3G with MC14?