Topic: POST IPOD SUPPORT QUESTIONS HERE (Read 54549 times)

ashawley · « **Reply #50 on:** September 16, 2003, 07:36:40 pm »

Hey nekura! Good to see you're still among the living. Have you heard from Judith?

Yes, you're right regarding the "old days". And now that you've gone to the dark side I'm not sure I should even be talking to you.

Adam

Kurt Young · « **Reply #51 on:** September 16, 2003, 09:01:50 pm »

What's this!? Fraternizing with the enemy? Agent Shawley, you should be ashamed of yourself!

Nekura, my man... we've (mostly) arrived! Playcounts are soooo sweet! I was paging through my "recently played" smartlist for the first time tonight and was able to say "Oh wow... yeah... there's all the songs I played on my iPod on the way home... in reverse order, hehe!"

Steve, Media Server was on all day, happily streaming my music to my cubicle. I got home, dinna download the build that wasn't posted, docked, sent iPod info to MC (with Media Server still running, mind you). Flawless execution! Thanks again, man!

Now when's that "one-step sync" comin?

BlueGlow · « **Reply #52 on:** September 17, 2003, 10:04:57 am »

Hi Steve,
Things are getting pretty happy on my iPod now. I've got some great smartlists*, ratings seem to work, last played is really useful. You are a king salmon swimming upriver against the flow of disinformation! Have you reached the point where you would like to get input on the user interface for iPod interaction? I will hold my suggestions until you are through the muck on dealing with the iPod db formats.

Thanks,
BG

BlueGlow · « **Reply #53 on:** September 17, 2003, 10:15:58 am »

*Smartlists: I was very disappointed this month when my mp3's outgrew my 30 GB iPod. I started going through all my music to see what could go, then I realized that could take days. Smartlists saved me from tedium. I created a smartlist branch called "Ipod Smartlists". The first list I created on that branch was called "Ipod Music" which included only MP3's sorted by date created descending. I limited that list to 25 GB so I could have a little room for backup files and my iPod would never overflow.

I then created a bunch of smartlists on the same branch with "Ipod Music" as their first rule. I sync only the playlists on this branch. Now all my newest music is always on the iPod and I don't have to think about managing the size of my music collection to match my iPod size.

nekura · « **Reply #54 on:** September 17, 2003, 10:33:43 am »

Adam,
Sadly, I can't say I've heard from Judith. Perhaps she disappeared for the same reason that I did? T'is a shame, really... she was a real nice lady. Maybe we'll hear from her again. =D

By the way, I haven't gone to the dark side, I've left it.

Not that I'm a Windows hater mind you (I do joke around about it though); I'll always have a Windows box around, and Media Center will always be one of my favorite programs. On the other hand, Macs are a fresh and well-appreciated experience for me.

Kurt,
/me ducks.

Hold your fire! =D I agree, playcounts and ratings are definitely sweet. After a week of using a Mac-formatted iPod, I synchronized with my PowerBook and grinned when I noticed the update in iTunes. I'm sure you guys had the same reaction when Steve released the first working version of the playcounts/rating implementation for MC9; I know I would have been.

Bob007 · « **Reply #55 on:** September 17, 2003, 10:34:18 am »

What constitutes a "played" song on the iPod ?

What I mean is, does it work like MC9 where once a track has been played more than halfway through, it is considered "played" ?

Or is it simply that as soon as song begins, it is marked as "played" regardless of whether or not you skip forward to the next track ?

nekura · « **Reply #56 on:** September 17, 2003, 10:37:15 am »

Quote

What constitutes a "played" song on the iPod ?

What I mean is, does it work like MC9 where once a track has been played more than halfway through, it is considered "played" ?

Or is it simply that as soon as song begins, it is marked as "played" regardless of whether or not you skip forward to the next track ?

On the iPod, a song isn't considered played until it totally finishes.

Kurt Young · « **Reply #57 on:** September 17, 2003, 11:02:01 am »

Quote

On the iPod, a song isn't considered played until it totally finishes.

Aye, on the iPod, you can play through the entire song, but if that last second doesn't run off, causing the iPod to either go to the next song on the list, or stopping playback if it was the last song, the "play" will not be "counted".

And don't get me wrong, I'm still waiting for that anonymous benefactor out there to finally get around to shipping me a 12" PowerBook.

*singing* Some daaaay, my PowerBook will come...

SteveG · « **Reply #58 on:** September 17, 2003, 01:32:24 pm »

Everyone,

Tonight's build includes a fix for some problems with synching iPod info with PC. There would have been a problem before if you had files on iPod that were subsequently removed from your MC database. This may have caused issues before, but no more.

Also, there is now a change where the synch dialog will not always be on top and in the way.

One last fix was that in the last build if you Initialized you would then have seen some unwanted Rebuild prompts which have now also gone away.

Nekura,

Good to see you are still around even if on a Mac.

BlueGlow and others, I will implement the one step synching soon so if anyone wants to offer comments and debate what might work best, this would be a good time.

BlueGlow, thanks for posting your smartlist plan. Hopefully this is informative to others.

brgale · « **Reply #59 on:** September 17, 2003, 04:44:22 pm »

This latest build (253) still seems to have the problem of always asking me to rebuild my database on my ipod. Then, if I try to sync anything I get the window with only an H (my ipod drive letter) and the big red X. The last version that seemed to sync consistently for me is 250, so that's what I'm using. Is this the case for anybody else?

-Brian

ashawley · « **Reply #60 on:** September 17, 2003, 06:54:20 pm »

Steve:

I had serious badness tonight w/.253

I hooked up after a day of listening. Did my Sync iPod Info to PC and it was going through what appeared to be tag updates, then all of a sudden it started updating the tags in my entire library.

Uh oh, I thought. There go my ratings.

Sure enough they were gone in MC (or most of them). Couldn't see the pattern of what was still rated. Did notice that according to the iPod view everything was rated there fine. Sync iPod w/PC again. Same result.

Rebuilt iPod database, no ratings, no last played, no playcounts.

So, I had a back up of my library from a few days ago and used that, then I'll sync w/the iPod.

Moral of the story always backup before a new build

I've lost all my last played info since I've started using the iPod. Bummer for me.

I do think I know why this happened though. Today while my iPod was playing it just locked up. Froze that the end of a song (who said Macs don't crash). So, I had to do a Reset.

I guess this must do something to the Play Counts file, I'm guessing it reset it.

So, I think we need something to handle this situation.

Not sure what that will be...but....I leave it in your capable hands.

Adam

kadish · « **Reply #61 on:** September 18, 2003, 03:28:00 am »

Adam, I saw similar results last night. I started with Synch Info from iPod and after going through tagging all my music I showed the following:

No ratings at all in MC (.253 btw)

Playcounts were sequential starting at some very high number like 29k and going down when I sorted on that column (sorry I didn't write it down)

So I restored from backup and did an 'Initialize iPod'. Then I synched my iPod. I haven't tried re-synching yet but will let you know when I do.

Eugene

SteveG · « **Reply #62 on:** September 18, 2003, 07:08:54 am »

Adam and Eugene,

I found and fixed the bug that I think was causing your problem. My apologies. All should be better in tonight's build. If you can reinitialize and start clean, that might be best.

Brian,

Try a reinitialize with tonight's build and you should be OK.

Steve

udeups · « **Reply #63 on:** September 18, 2003, 07:34:51 am »

Over the past couple days, I've noticed that some songs are creeping onto the playlists on my ipod that don't belong there. I've checked both static playlists and smartlists to verify that these songs aren't in those lists on the PC. They aren't, yet, they show up on the iPod. Thinking that my itunes db got messed up, I restored 1.30 software, formatted the iPod in MC (253) and resynched. Same thing. The songs that make it into the playlists seem random. Is there anything else I should check or some other preference file that can be flushed to prevent this from happening?

Other than that, I've had great success with the playcounts and last played information being updated. Great work, Steve.

Paul

Bob007 · « **Reply #64 on:** September 18, 2003, 08:37:13 am »

Quote

SteveG :
I will implement the one step synching soon so if anyone wants to offer comments and debate what might work best, this would be a good time.

One thing I would like (and this is probably an obvious request) is the ability to turn-off the synchronisation of iPod data back to MC9.

I'm a little bit worried that I may not be able to do this with "one step synching".

mclaugh · « **Reply #65 on:** September 18, 2003, 08:38:26 am »

Quote

Adam and Eugene,

I found and fixed the bug that I think was causing your problem. My apologies. All should be better in tonight's build.

Steve

I had this problem last night, too- funny thing is, I should have been able to prevent it, as I saw that something was wrong.
Installed 253, plugged in Ipod (with a day's worth of playcounts), looked at Ipod's contents. Many of the songs had numbers like 296357 for number of plays, which is incorrect. I (mistakenly) figured that while the playcounts were off, the actual playcounts would transfer over ok. I was wrong.
Also, I haven't been backing up my library lately (laziness), so I had to clear out the playcounts on all those songs. It's no biggie- up until last week, we didn't have any capability for syncing, so I can't complain.
SteveG, after I play my Ipod all day today, can I load up 254 and then sync info? Or, will these counts today also be messed up on the Ipod?
(I'm going to check the counts myself before I sync, but I figured I would ask you, too).
Keep up the good work.

SteveG · « **Reply #66 on:** September 18, 2003, 09:20:59 am »

Everyone,

MC 9.1.254 is now available with the fixes that I mention above. Please check it out and let me know if everything is all set.

Mclaugh,

If you use 254 and your PlayCount, Rating and Last Played info is correct in MC, you should be ok.

Bob007,

Thanks for the comment.

Paul,

Please try again with 254 and try to notice some pattern to this behavior. I cannot duplicate it. Can others?

Steve

park · « **Reply #67 on:** September 18, 2003, 09:25:56 am »

Hi all,

build .253 is destroying my ratings on synch too.

I have a question about rebuild database. How is it different from just resynching with the same playlists? (it changes the ipods database, not your hard drive or MC's, right?)

Also, if I reduce a rating in media centre and while out and about increase a rating on a different song, if i synch ipod info to MC I'd lose the reduced rating in MC right? There is no way for media centre to make the most recently changed rating's stay, is there?

Here is how I deal with having more songs than ipod space:
create a tag called "Ipod" with 2 properties 'yes' and 'no'. generally I want to listen to whole albums so I use another tag ("custom 1") to set all my whole albums to "whole albums" and all the other songs to "loose songs".
Create a view scheme specifically for viewing what's on the ipod with the following panes: "ipod" "custom1" "genre" "album artist" "album"

Then I can look at all the albums not on the ipod by clicking on 'no' in the Ipod pane. I can also look at artsist, genres, albums etc and easily change them to 'yes' or 'no' and I can always check how much space my music will take up on the ipod by looking at the status bar when the Ipod pane is set to 'yes'

Finally I make a smart list playlist with the "Ipod" field set to 'yes' which I use for synching. And I make it random so that if I ever wanted to I could listen to 14 days of all my music all mixed up.
And I make a bunch of other playlists or smartlists which has the ipod field set to yes to make sure that they won't take up any more space on the ipod.

Regarding the one touch synch, I just want to be able to do everything using that no useless but cool looking handheld icon in the action window. Just put all the options that you have to right click on up in the tree into the handheld section of the AW.

Sorry. this is long isnt it.

SteveG · « **Reply #68 on:** September 18, 2003, 10:19:16 am »

Park,

Please get .254.

Rebuild database erases and recreates your iTunesDB from the files that are on iPod. Synching involves utilizing existing data in the iTunesDB. Rebuild does not affect the MC database.

Quote

Also, if I reduce a rating in media centre and while out and about increase a rating on a different song, if i synch ipod info to MC I'd lose the reduced rating in MC right? There is no way for media centre to make the most recently changed rating's stay, is there?

Yes. When you synch iPod data to MC the ratings in iPod will overwrite ratings in MC. There would be a way to implement what you are after. Maybe in the future.

Steve

ashawley · « **Reply #69 on:** September 18, 2003, 10:51:31 am »

I'm with Park on the AW enhancements. Seems that either right-clicking the icon in the action window, or clicking on the "tools" icon in the AW when in iPod view in the AW should have the standard right-click options show up (you know, the ones that now show up under th iPod tree item).

Steve:

Something else. I'm not to keen on the "Gathering Files" counter. It seems that it takes longer. Maybe it's just me, but I like it showing up in the pane at the bottom. The counter seems to take more time. Also, I noticed that sometimes it would go through the process twice. If you delete files on the iPod, when it finished the delte it would count up the files, then count them up again.

Adam

Kurt Young · « **Reply #70 on:** September 18, 2003, 11:11:40 am »

Hear hear, the handheld icon in the AW is pretty, but I don't ever use it. I'd take it a step further than my two associates above -- single-left-click on the iPod icon in the AW == launch the sync dialogue.

Even if you don't choose that button, I'd REALLY like a button, any button, anywhere, that brings up the sync dialogue (or, say, a command-line switch so I can build my own button, eh?). As Faye Dunaway would say, "No more right-clicking! Ever!"

My perfect world for iPod == click one (toolbar or action window) button to bring up sync dialogue, click OK to start sync. On hitting OK, the iPod->MC sync goes, then smartlists get updated, then regular file sync begins.

Make it a "two click sync" and I'll get started on that golden Steve idol.

JimH · « **Reply #71 on:** September 18, 2003, 11:40:36 am »

Quote

As Faye Dunaway would say, "No more right-clicking! Ever!"

Faye never said that.

Bob007 · « **Reply #72 on:** September 18, 2003, 12:47:25 pm »

Smartlist Question

Slightly off topic but a quick question about smartlists....

If I create a smartlist that is basically : "Media Type:audio ; Limit : 15 Gigabytes" against a 20Gb database, how does MC9 decide what tracks make the list ? Is it purely random ?

I'm on the latest build (with 'randomness' broke) and I'd prefer not to revert back to the previous version just to check out this behaviour.

Thanks, Bob.

_{Currently Playing :- Fear Of Drowning by British Sea Power}

cct1 · « **Reply #73 on:** September 18, 2003, 01:23:31 pm »

Quote

Hear hear, the handheld icon in the AW is pretty, but I don't ever use it. I'd take it a step further than my two associates above -- single-left-click on the iPod icon in the AW == launch the sync dialogue.

Even if you don't choose that button, I'd REALLY like a button, any button, anywhere, that brings up the sync dialogue (or, say, a command-line switch so I can build my own button, eh?). As Faye Dunaway would say, "No more right-clicking! Ever!"

My perfect world for iPod == click one (toolbar or action window) button to bring up sync dialogue, click OK to start sync. On hitting OK, the iPod->MC sync goes, then smartlists get updated, then regular file sync begins.

Make it a "two click sync" and I'll get started on that golden Steve idol.

yes, yeS, yES, YES!!! I've asked for this in the past too--it would be awesome. I don't think very many people are using that beautiful ipod icon for quick file transfer; most of us synch with the synch screen--I'd prefer just to click on that icon (or another one, if you want to keep that one the way it is) and have the Synch screen come up.

And Jim is right, Faye Dunaway never said that; what she actually said was, "If you right click too much you'll go blind."

Now, I'm not an opthamologist or anything, but if you guys don't fix this plethora of right clicking soon, I'm going to go buy some future stock options on Labrador retrievers, because they're going to be in short supply soon...

mclaugh · « **Reply #74 on:** September 18, 2003, 01:33:15 pm »

Quote

As Faye Dunaway would say, "254!"

Installed 254, connected Ipod (OS1.3, 10gb). Ipod displayed correct (non 200,000) song counts. Synced up Ipod info w/ PC, and IT ALL WORKED.
Thanks SteveG.

eappell · « **Reply #75 on:** September 18, 2003, 03:10:35 pm »

I thought everything was working fine... I had just started using MC, and I was impressed with the features for my iPod. Encountered a few problems, so when I saw that a new build had been released I decided to try it out... I downloaded it, uninstalled the last build (actually, it's supposed to be the last "stable" beta) and installed the new build. Now I get an error that says nothing when I click on the iPod drive. See image1:

Then, if I click on my library, I can see the screen again and the error goes away. If I go back and click on the iPod drive again, I can expand the tree, but I get no music, just the Notes, Contacts, etc. See image2:

So I uninstalled the new build, reinstalled the last stable beta, but I get the same thing. Tried removing and re-mounting the iPod, no dice... Anyone know how to get this to work?

Thanks!

Eddie

jgourd · « **Reply #76 on:** September 18, 2003, 03:29:49 pm »

I recently lost 300 gigs worth of MP3s due to a hardware failure. I am re-ripping my CD collection to OGG this time around. Since most of my music is now OGG, the "Force Conversion..." feature is really important to me.

I have discovered that there is a serious flaw if the algorithm used to determine if conversion should take place. When the source and destination file types are different, and the destination bitrate is higher than the source bit rate, it doesn't convert the file.

I expect that when the source is non MP3, and the destination is MP3, then a conversion should always take place no matter what the bitrate is. In other words, "I want my OGGs on my iPod, please make it work".

digitaltrapper · « **Reply #77 on:** September 18, 2003, 03:33:29 pm »

Steve,
I've been using an older MC build (pre-ratings and playcounts info) and I was wondering if I upgraded and synced with the ratings and playcount thing turned on, if this would mess up my ipod. I don't mind doing a rebuild of the database but I want to avoid a fresh install and intialization AT ALL COSTS right now. Should I just hold off and be happy without ratings right now or should I be ok.

ashawley · « **Reply #78 on:** September 18, 2003, 03:35:30 pm »

eappell:

They just posted a second new build for the day (.255). Make sure to get that one.

Then, start w/a fresh spanking clean iPod. Yes, this is a drag, but unfortunately it's the price we need to pay to be the early adoptors.

Adam

packyb · « **Reply #79 on:** September 18, 2003, 03:43:20 pm »

I have the latest beta build of MC9 and a 30GB iPod. For some reason when MC9 displays "Duration" of the tracks on my iPod, the lengths are all just several seconds long. (For example "0:05", etc.) When I remove my iPod and check/play songs, all of their respective lengths are correct. I have never noticed this issue before. Should I be expecting a crash? Is this a bug with the new beta version?

packyb · « **Reply #80 on:** September 18, 2003, 03:47:02 pm »

Quote

I have the latest beta build of MC9 and a 30GB iPod. For some reason when MC9 displays "Duration" of the tracks on my iPod, the lengths are all just several seconds long. (For example "0:05", etc.) When I remove my iPod and check/play songs, all of their respective lengths are correct. I have never noticed this issue before. Should I be expecting a crash? Is this a bug with the new beta version?

Weird. Just reconnected my iPod, and it re-read and correctly displayed the "Duration."

ashawley · « **Reply #81 on:** September 18, 2003, 04:01:14 pm »

Steve:

Not sure if this is related to the smartlist fixes or not, but I just loaded .255 and did a full restore and then reinitialize of the iPod.

Copying my tunes up is going fairly slow. Usually I'm at 6MB/sec, I'm running around 2-4. It seems to be "sticking". The only other programs running are my browser, never had an effect before.

Is anyone else noticing slower sync speeds?

Adam

bdjohns1 · « **Reply #82 on:** September 18, 2003, 05:20:25 pm »

Quote

Steve:

Not sure if this is related to the smartlist fixes or not, but I just loaded .255 and did a full restore and then reinitialize of the iPod.

Copying my tunes up is going fairly slow. Usually I'm at 6MB/sec, I'm running around 2-4. It seems to be "sticking". The only other programs running are my browser, never had an effect before.

Is anyone else noticing slower sync speeds?

Adam

Not I...if anything, I've picked up a little speed. I'm re-filling my iPod now, and zipping along at 7.85-7.99 MB/sec as I check on it. Usually, I'm running about 7.0.

Kurt Young · « **Reply #83 on:** September 18, 2003, 07:36:44 pm »

I missed the last two builds, so here on .255 now, installed over .252. And thank god for that, it seems. *pours out half of his fourty for his homies' tags*

Backed up library (thanks, Adam) and synched my (non-updated, non-initialized, just-as-i've-been-using-it-all-day) iPod->MC. Flawless execution. Performed file sync. Love the cleanups in the dialogues. Loving life.

Clicked iPod icon in Action Window. Was shown a big picture of an iPod. A Gen2 iPod, it seemed. I have a Gen3, but no big deal. Would love to see a "Synch Now!" button beside this picture of the Gen2 iPod.

Callin' on my posse to quote that last paragraph there as much as they like.

ashawley · « **Reply #84 on:** September 18, 2003, 09:39:47 pm »

Your posse's backin' you up Kurt. Something anything to do w/that beautiful iPod icon. Oh, and mine's a 3rd gener too. Not a huge deal. But it's smaller than the one in the picture.

Still am voting for matching the sync status dialog with all those other dialogs as well.

Adam

BlueGlow · « **Reply #85 on:** September 19, 2003, 08:00:47 am »

Steve,
The new dialogs are a nice improvement. My firewire is oddly slow (~2.5 MB) so all progress boxes and hourglass icons are appreciated. I especially like the info when the file data is loading.

Thanks!
BG

BlueGlow · « **Reply #86 on:** September 19, 2003, 08:27:28 am »

Here are my iPod UI suggestions. I tried to detail all the options necessary and stay as close to the current UI as possible.

>> Make the usual iPod sync as automatic as possible and reduce clutter on the main iPod sync dialog.
-- Automatically display the iPod sync dialog when the iPod is detected/docked.
-- Add a checkbox option to the iPod sync dialog to "Autostart Sync in ## Seconds."
-- Move all other checkbox options to the iPod options dialog which is accessed via the Options button.
-- Add a checkbox option to "Display iPod sync dialog when iPod is detected."
-- Add a checkbox option to "Always sync iPod info with MC.
-- Add a checkbox option to "Eject iPod after sync is completed."

-- Change dialog title to "Synchronize iPod".
-- Add label to top left of playlist window, "Select playlists to sync with iPod:"
-- Change Select All/None playlist buttons to action links and move them to the top right corner of playlist window.
-- Change "Available after sync:"[amount text box], to label at bottom left of playlist, "(amount) available on iPod after sync." or "(amount) free space on iPod after sync."
-- Change OK to Start to be consistent with Burn CD.

Here's a mockup:

When checked, the Autostart Sync countdown would begin counting down as soon as the iPod sync dialog opens. The iPod sync would start when the countdown completes.
Any iPod related dialog boxes would close when the sync completed.

The option to "Always sync iPod info with PC" would require this behavior:
-- Never clear ratings.
-- Only update last played to a more recent date/time.
-- Never reduce playcounts.

I hope you find my friendly suggestions helpful. I love this feature, thanks for everything so far!

BG

Kurt Young · « **Reply #87 on:** September 19, 2003, 09:01:53 am »

Excellent work, BG!

BlueGlow · « **Reply #88 on:** September 19, 2003, 11:13:12 am »

Thanks, Kurt. If I had these features and a 120 GB iPod in the same form factor everything would be just fine.

SteveG · « **Reply #89 on:** September 19, 2003, 01:55:23 pm »

Eddie,

Try naming the volume label on your iPod to "IPOD". That should resolve the Calendars,Contacts, Notes problem. Also, please use the latest version.

jGourd,

Your problem is resolved in today's build.

DigitalTrapper,

You will probably be OK, but if you want to avoid a fresh initialization at all costs, don't do it. I have not tested your specific situation and so cannot guarantee the result.

Everyone,

Thanks for the suggestions for the one click synch. I will implement something for this next week.

Have a good weekend.

Steve

LI-S4 · « **Reply #90 on:** September 19, 2003, 02:55:18 pm »

Steve, Adam...

This is day three of trying to get my new 3G 30gb iPod to be recognized...

My 2G worked fine with MC and I have every confidence in all of you that we can get this one to work.

I've tried to name the iPod by right clicking the drive letter selecting Properties and naming it iPod in the Label field and then clicking Apply. I get an error message that it is an Improper Name.

I booted in Safe Mode in hopes I could format the iPod but I get an error "Windows can not format this drive. Quit any utilities or programs using this drive and make sure no programis displaying the contents of this drive. Then try to format again."

Adam, my virus software doesn't load in Safe Mode, so that's not the issue.

The iPod is working properly according to the Hardware tab in the iPod Properties. There is no Policies tab to be found.

Is it possible to have the Apple store format it on a Win machine? Or am I returning this?

pufftissue · « **Reply #91 on:** September 19, 2003, 07:51:59 pm »

Hello,

I've got a 2nd generation ipod with 1.3 on it.
Got the latest media center .256

Reformatted ipod
Reinitialized ipod

My playcounts from MC are working fine on the PC

These don't get transferred in the sync over to the ipod--sometimes the playcounts all read zero, or they vary from 0 to 200,000+

My ratings for the music done on MC transfer fine to the ipod. Only the playcounts are consistently messed up.

I can not figure out what to do. Any help?
Thank you.

sirshambling · « **Reply #92 on:** September 19, 2003, 10:32:55 pm »

Steve,

I'm sorry to report that on my Ipod the "Select Artist Field" seems to broken in tonights build (256).

On synching, whether I choose "Artist", "Album Artist" or "Album Artist (Auto)" I get the same result. All my Various Artist tracks are shown as (Multiple Artist) not with the artists name.

I've been using "Artist" as the choice and it's been working fine - so since I'm getting the "Album Artist" result it may be that just the "Artist" option has gone.

Thanks again for all your efforts.

John.

Bob007 · « **Reply #93 on:** September 20, 2003, 03:29:03 am »

Another request (anyone else feel guilty about asking for MORE after all the hard work Steve's put in) :

Anyway, would it be possible to :

(a) make the synchronisation window resizable ? I have a lot of playlists/smartlists and seem to be endlessly scrolling, prior to synch-ing, in order to choose the ones I want

(b) add a right-click option to automatically expand all branches of the 'playlist' tree in the synch window for much the same reason as (a)

-- B.

_{Currently Playing :- Pablo Picasso by David Bowie}

JimH · « **Reply #94 on:** September 20, 2003, 05:11:29 am »

Quote

Steve, Adam...

This is day three of trying to get my new 3G 30gb iPod to be recognized...

Even though you may have read Adam's instructions, your best bet is to read them again very carefully. This link is in the first post of every iPod thread here:

Quote

An excellent help file (thanks Adam) on using MC and iPod can be found here:

http://www.home.earthlink.net/~ashawley01/

LI-S4 · « **Reply #95 on:** September 20, 2003, 05:55:13 am »

Quote

Even though you may have read Adam's instructions, your best bet is to read them again very carefully. This link is in the first post of every iPod thread here:

Thanks for the link...I have been following the Formatting iPod instructions. I believe I am up to the Restore step. When I run Updater to Restore it says "Can't lock the iPod. Check if any other applications are using it and try again." And I am dead-ended.

I tried to skip the Restore since I haven't been able to attach to anything so far but after renaming the drive to iPod MC still only sees it as G:/...

and I get this menu...
http://images3.fotki.com/v37/photos/4/43687/162529/Untitled2copy-vi.jpg

Too bad I sold my G2 iPod...I'll be returning this if I can't resolve this and will have to live iPodless...

JimH · « **Reply #96 on:** September 20, 2003, 12:28:02 pm »

If you have MusicMatch installed, rename the MM directory and reboot.

pcbonn · « **Reply #97 on:** September 20, 2003, 07:51:14 pm »

Steve,
I am seeing the same issue as sirshambling/John is reporting above - regarding the (Multiple Artist) going into the Artist tag on the iPod. Only difference is, I am currently using MC 9.1 build 255. Was going to upgrade to see if it fixed this issue, but I would guess not.

I have noticed that the Artist field seems to populate correctly for me, however, on the very first synchronization after starting Media Center. After that, it seems to change internally back to the "Album Artist (Auto)" option, even though it is still reporting the "Artist" option.

So, "Tom Sawyer" by Rush, off of The Waterboy soundtrack - 1st synch, it shows "Rush" on the iPod, every other synch, it shows "(Multiple Artists)" on the iPod. If I close MediaCenter, re-open it, and re-synch, it is back to "Rush".

For now, my work-around is - dock the iPod, open MediaCenter, synchronize iPod information to MediaCenter (to update my playcounts/times/ratings), close MediaCenter, re-open MediaCenter, perform the normal synchronization to get all of my updated playlists and songs on the iPod.

By the way, this program, and especially the work done on the iPod portion, is awesome!

Paul

ashawley · « **Reply #98 on:** September 21, 2003, 04:41:11 pm »

Steve:

Can you look into something. I've seen a number of posts over at the 'lounge regarding trying to sync w/the All Music auto-smartlist. When they do, they seem to report that not all of the songs show up on the iPod. I've seen it a couple of times now. Not sure why that would be.....

Adam

GaryD9 · « **Reply #99 on:** September 21, 2003, 04:55:03 pm »

Feature request:

The ability to have at least one playlist sync'd not show up on the iPod as being sync'd. An example:

I have a list: "{Gary's iPod}" with the rules of "ranking != 1", "type = mp3", and "Limit: 13000 MB". Every other list sync'd to the iPod has this playlist as a rule. As well, this list itself is sync'd to cover all those songs which I might listen to, but only via the iPod "browse" option.

The reason for the curly braces around the list name is to force it to the bottom of the alphabetical list of playlists on the iPod, though it would be much more preferable if it didn't show as a playlist whatsoever (but the contents of it still sync'd)

Simple solution: If a playlist is synced that has the exact same name as the iPod's volume name (usually "IPOD"), then the songs within the playlist are sync'd, but the playlist itself isn't put on the iPod.

Thanks
Gary

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