INTERACT FORUM
More => Old Versions => Media Center 11 (Development Ended) => Topic started by: SteveG on November 04, 2003, 04:46:13 pm
-
Hello All,
For anyone who is new to MC, please be sure to get the latest version from our downloads page or from the first thread on this board.
An excellent help file (thanks Adam) on using MC and iPod can be found here:
http://www.home.earthlink.net/~ashawley01/
For additional information, please check the previous help thread at:
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?board=3;action=display;threadid=16210
For any issues not covered, please post below and someone will respond ASAP. Please copy and paste your system info from MC Help and include the version of the Portable Drive Plugin you use.
Thanks,
Steve
JRiver
-
I'm unclear on some of the iTunes issues that I've been reading about lately. I've read over a LOT of posts on this, but there are a LOT of them, and since I haven't yet installed iTunes on the same system as MC yet, I'm not sure about the specific factors that lead to problems.
For example, do the problems occur just by the very presence of iTunes on the system? In other words, if you set up iTunes to NOT start up when the iPod is connected, and if you don't use iTunes to sync, do you still get problems? Is the whole issue about copying a file from iTunes to the iPod needed if you only use MC to sync? Do the problems with iTunes files not playing on the iPod happen only to songs purchased on the iPod? I'm confused since I see posts about Audible files not playing correctly on the iPod, but I'm not having problems with these. Does the presence of iTunes actually break Audible functionality on the iPod when synched via MC.
Thanks for any clarification on the whole iTunes/MC subject,
Larry
-
Everyone,
Larry raises some good questions regarding protected content and iPod and interaction with iTunes. Let me clarify this as much as possible.
iTunes tries to take control of the iPod. If you try to go back and forth between iTunes and MC, things may work out fine or they may get messed up. I will need more responses from people who have tried this to be sure. In some basic testing, it seems to work. My recomendation is to deactivate the 'Open iTunes when attached' option in iTunes to minimize interference. Unfortunately, even when this is deactivated, iTunes will in some circumstances reenable this.
For example, do the problems occur just by the very presence of iTunes on the system? In other words, if you set up iTunes to NOT start up when the iPod is connected, and if you don't use iTunes to sync, do you still get problems?
No.
Is the whole issue about copying a file from iTunes to the iPod needed if you only use MC to sync?
No, it is only important if you are transfering .mp4 files with MC. If you want to use MC to move .mp4 to iPod if you format your iPod cleanly from Windows you will need to transfer an .mp4 one time with iTunes. This creates a file called iSCInfo on your iPod which is the key for allowing all subsequent playback of mp4 files on iPod. Whether the files are transferred with MC or iTunes is irrelevant.
Do the problems with iTunes files not playing on the iPod happen only to songs purchased on the iPod?
Only with protected AAC files (i.e. mp4). These problems only occur until you transfer one file one time with iTunes. Reinitializing the iPod from MC does not cause you to have to retransfer the file with iTunes. You will be all set until you completely format your iPod from Windows.
I'm confused since I see posts about Audible files not playing correctly on the iPod...
If you don't transfer .mp4 to iPod and use MC for Audible, this should cause no problems. If you have .mp4 and Audible content, follow the instructions above and all should be well.
-
Using .295 and having checked (i.e., on) the "sync to MC" option, the ratings on the iPod do not transfer to MC9, which then synchs and wipes out the ratings I put into the iPod (30GB, using 2.1 iPod update).
(Ratings from MC9 transfer to the iPod.)
Am I doing something wrong?
-
serf,
If you sync and then change the rating for a file both in MC and on iPod, and then resync, MC will use the rating from MC. If you sync and change a rating on iPod only, then if you have the 'Sync data to MC' box checked, iPod should overwrite the MC data.
Steve
-
That's what I thought, but changing ratings only in iPod & then using "sync to MC" didn't transfer anything to MC9, and then wiped out the ratings recently entered on the iPod.
-
i have MC9 beta version 9.1.291.
just transferred 15 songs to my iPod, and as usual, it loads them ~9 songs at a time (my files are stored in .ape format and it must convert them to mp3's each time). however, this time, after the first 9 songs were "transferred to the device," a pop-up appeared saying "Transfer Complete." But, there were still 6 songs to go. I clicked "OK" and everything seemed to work fine, but wondering if this is a bug?
Also, just loaded another 7 songs, and realized that both times when the "Transfer Complete" pop-up appeared, the pop-up detailing the conversion process still appeared to be sending information.
-
I'm using 9.1.295. if I perform a synch which fails due to lack of space the ipod database appears to get corrupted so that a number of tracks are listed as being on the root of the H: drive (my iPod's drive letter). The moe times in a row a synch fails due to lack of space the more missing files there are. I can recover the situation by rebuilding the database and performing a successful synch.
I've just spotted that all my last played and playcount data has been corrupted too. Back to a backup library I guess.
-
I'm still having my problem with the iPod and MC not synching correctly. Here's the steps I took:
1. Use the Apple Updater to restore the iPOD (20gb, 3rd Gen)
2. Load up MC and Initialize the iPOD.
3. Click on the Portable Download button and synched a smartlist with @ 5GB of files.
4. After that is done, I click on the Portable Download button again. Unselecting the previously selected smartlist does not increase the space available after sync. (Delete unselected & Sync Data are checked) but it does cause the files on the iPOD to vanish if the drive is selected under CD, DVDs, & Handhelds.
5. Rebuilding the iPOD database from within MC causes the hidden files to reappear under CD, DVDs, & Handhelds.
6. Deleting the files manually from under CD, DVDs, & Handhelds and then clicking on the Portal Download buttons reports the correct amount of free space available.
I had itunes on my computer but removed it. Ipod services are disabled.
I've been trying to get this to work for about a week. I absolutely don't want to go back to itunes.
-
Steve - I've still had a few problems with my m4p files (purchased from iTunes) syncing to the ipod. They were all working correctly if you remember from my post. However I was testing out the use of smartlist and somehow screwed up my m4p files. I'm not really sure how I did that. I save that for another time since I might not have done it right. I haven't used them in the past.
Anyway.....After screwing up my m4p files I ended up trying a rebuild of the ipod DB but that did not work either. So I then did an MC Initialize and then did a full sync using the 'synchronize' option from the right click menu with only the defaulted 'All music' checked. This completed successfully however my m4p files did not play. They went back to the usual thing of jumping back to the menu. I then check explore to see if my iSCInfo file was in the iTunes folder. It was but still no go.
I then deleted the m4p files from the ipod using MC then I used the drag and drop method for moving them to the ipod.
This corrected my problem. The m4p files played just fine. So basically the only way that I've ever gotten the m4p files to play on the ipod is by using the drag and drop method.
What's different about the drag and drop method compared to the synchronize option on the right click menu?
-
Crap!!!
The darn Audible files got screwed up as well. I've attempted everything that I did last time (which worked last time) and I still can't get them to work. I think I'm going to have to quit, it's getting to late.
I've already spent way too much time on this tonight. I'll have to try again tomorrow. ?
-
Okay I lied! I should have gone to bed but I didn't.
However after tons of test I got every file type working again. Maybe my time missed sleeping will help someone else. Anyway...the only way I could get the Audible files working this time and still keep the m4p files working as well was to completely start over. I restored with Apples update pgm and then I had to drag and dropped the Audible files to the ipod and do a transfer first with nothing else transferring. Then I tested them. They finally worked. Then I drag and dropped the m4p files and did a transfer. Tested m4p files and the Audible files. Both worked. **Quick note - when I tried the same thing but reversed the order by doing the drag and drop of m4p's first this didn't work. ** Then I did a complete sync to add the remainder of the library (mp3's). I'm not sure why it only worked in this order but it did. (order that worked - transfer .aa then test, transfer .m4p then test, sync remainder of lib and test all). Important note - I tried changing this order around and every time the .aa files would not play. Kind of weird if you ask me but what do I know?
Anyway they all work now and that's all I care about. So I guess I'm going to completely stay away from creating smartlist until I can figure out what the heck caused my original problem. The only thing I tried to do was create a smartlist that selected the m4p files that I recently purchased and somehow that screwed things up. I did get a message when I tried the transfer of the smartlist that told me that one of the files already existed and it ask something like 'do you wish to over write the existing file' and I clicked yes. Then when I checked the ipod the 'all music' smartlist was gone, the new smartlist that I created was not there and all of the m4p files were no longer on the ipod.
The strange thing is when I viewed the ipod from within MC9 I could still see the m4p's on the ipod and I could still play them from within MC9. I tried rebuilding the ipod DB and I also tried deleting the m4p's off the ipod and re-adding them back but neither worked.
Sorry for the long story and multi post....
I'm going to bed!
-
I have a 1st gen 9.2 gig ipod running version 9.3 and have just downloaded MC9 after restoring the ipod and reinstalling MC9, I still cannot figure out how to initialize my pod for MC9. When i right click on the IPOD in MC's tree the only option I get is "format" which consistently fails.
My ipod is empty, so I'm desperate!
?
-
that's ipod version 1.3...sorry
-
serf,
I cannot duplicate this. What firmware do you have? Have you been running iTunes or another application to access iPod? Have you reimported tracks into MC that you had already transferred to iPod? If you answer yes to the last question, this is the problem. Delete the tracks from iPod and resend and you will be OK.
packyb,
This was fixed after .291. Please get the latest version of MC and let me know if you still see the problem.
Phil,
I was not leaving enough space to write the iTunesDB files when the maximum space on iPod was exceeded. I think this will be fixed in the next build. How big are your iTunesDB file and your PlayCounts file when you are near full capacity?
Radiant,
Step 4 - Try deselecting all smartlists and you should see the space increase. Do you have more than one playlist on iPod? If so, if you have files in more than one playlist and you deselect one playlist in the Sync dialogue, the available space will not increase because the files will remain on iPod.
it does cause the files on the iPOD to vanish if the drive is selected under CD, DVDs, & Handhelds.
After the sync? Do you see the files if you click on the root iPod drive letter (as opposed to the playlist). Have you reimported any of the files into MC that you already sent to iPod?
thtv01,
What's different about the drag and drop method compared to the synchronize option on the right click menu?
Functionally, not much.
I can transfer .mp4 files and then transfer .aa and all play fine. I think this is what you are saying fails for you right?
I did get a message when I tried the transfer of the smartlist that told me that one of the files already existed and it ask something like 'do you wish to over write the existing file' and I clicked yes.
You must not be using the Sync dialogue. It sounds like you are drag and dropping the smartlist on the iPod. Try using the Sync dialogue. Hope you got some sleep.
joshuamarx,
Please get MC 9.1.296 if you do not have it. The right click options were messed up a few versions back.
-
Is there a reason why MC syncs at circa 7Mb/s and Anapod Explorer is able to achieve circa 15?
-
mindracing,
Can you confirm this speed difference in real time (not just what the players report)?
Steve
-
Questions and Answers
Steve,
I did as you suggested nd tied up MC library.
I have been able to sync in part MC by drag n' dropping. I can honestly say I do not change the naming and encoding format and yet found the following issues which prevented a full sync.
Firstly I reformated iPod from using MC and not the iPod. This cleared the problem where MC quoted usage when no music was on the iPod.
My observations were:
1. windows had some blank folders yet MC contained mp3 format. Why?
2. in the grag n' drop I noticed that some tracks stayed in the queue while others on the same CD finished the copying sequence. Why?
3. tracks that synced perfectly in the past no long do meaning I have had to delete them and re-rip. Why?
4. windows created folders for genres in My Music. Why?
5. problematical Cds were those that comprised more than one cd (i.e a 4CD set). Some would sync and others in the set did not. Each file name was consistent with the cd is was supposed to represent. strange?
Finally I manually uploaded tracks and they have not appeared on the iPod despite the folder conversion showing the transfer took place
Iplod along (on the slow road to a full iPod)
-
Phil,
I was not leaving enough space to write the iTunesDB files when the maximum space on iPod was exceeded. I think this will be fixed in the next build. How big are your iTunesDB file and your PlayCounts file when you are near full capacity?
Steve
I've just had a successful synch using 9.1.297. This time I madesure there was plenty of lee way in the music I was synching so that I didn't exceed the capacity of the iPod. The synch ran through, there were no orphaned files on the iPod and my play count/last played data was updated correctly. I'm a happy camper :D
As for the iTunesDB file, it is currently 1,453,966 bytes and the Play Counts file is 19,704 bytes. This is with 1634 songs on my 9.2Gb 2G iPod with 157Mb of free space left.
-
I'm having the same problem skeet was having...I sync 4300+ songs and everything is fine ths morning...come back from work and sync again to update the ratings and playcount...and now I only see 88 songs on the ipod. If I browse the ipod from MC9 it sees all the songs. The same thing happened to me yesterday.
-
Steve:
If you get a chance, can you take a loot at my Random Isn't? (http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?board=3;action=display;threadid=16282) thread? I'm not sure but I sure am noticing something strange when I play the smartlist on the iPod vs viewing it in MC9.
Adam
-
Questions and Answers
Steve,
A follow up to my earlier posting.
A new day has dawned and I tried to manually sync some files that failed the drag n' drop process I undertook yesterday and which at the time showed that they were moving from in queue to finished. I was unable to even complete the action.
A message box with a white cross on a white background appeared. The tracks I tried to sync had (seemingly) sync'd through drag n' drop routine yesterday.
Any reason for this?
iPlod along
-
Niro,
If you are approaching the size limit on the iPod, this could have caused a problem. I fixed something related to this yesterday, but we have not done a build yet to include it. Also, are you running MC at work? If you are syncing against two copies of MC, this will cause problems. What happens if you "Rebuild iTunesDB', do all the files appear?
Adam,
When you did the sync with the smartlist with Random removed, is your playlist view for that smartlist set to sort by 'Artist'. This would account for what you are seeing.
Iplod,
I am struggling to follow your questions. If you are having consistent problems transferring certain files, email me one and I will see if I can replicate the problem. Try to keep your testing as simple as possible, when you introduce layers of variables, it is much harder to make suggestions.
-
Steve,
Sorry to confuse you as I can see from the many postings that you have a lot of issues on your plate at the moment.
Please tell me the best way to send you a file to review and which file (eg mediajukebox format). Basically my problem is that after some success of dragging files to sync that this option no longer works.
The day before yesterday I was able to drag files over and sync with the iPod successfully.
The next day I did the same again and from the transfer window it appeared that this strategy had again worked. However when I dismounted the iPod the files had not transferred.
This morning I tried without success to drag over some of the files that originally appeared in the transfer window yesterday and which had appeared to transfer successfully but ultimately had not.
So over the course of three days there has been a deteriation in the drag n'drop process from working to not working.
iPlos along
-
IPlod,
Try to figure out a way to replicate your problem with a degree of certainty. Use small numbers of files and repeat steps so that you can try to give me something to work with. I cannot duplicate your problem and have not seen similar posts. Try to be as clear as possible in your description of how you are doing things. You mention dragging files over and syncing, but these are two different processes and I need to narrow this down to give you advice.
Steve
-
Steve:
No, the smartlist had now sorting on it in MC9 (in the view I mean). Nor did it have sorting in the rules.
So, it was just weird to me that it was sorted in MC9's view, but not on the iPod.
Don't worry about this one...I'm giving up on the whole "random isn't" thing. No one seems to be able to duplicate it, nor do I get the sense that anyone believe's it's happening. ;D
So, I'll shuffle off to my little corner now.
Adam
-
Same thing just happened again today...everything working fine and now I synch'd and my ipod is missing 90% of the songs. I THINK this only happens when I make changes to the MC9 library. I sync'd a few times and as far as I know (don't remember if I actually checked after every sync) and the files were stilll there...but just now I added some songs to the MC9 library, synch'd, and everything on the ipod disapeared. I can't verify if it only happens when I make changes to the library...I'll try doing it again tommorow (ipod doing an initial upload again right now :( ).
I'm not using MC9 at work btw. Just at home. I'm not exactly sure what the restore ItunesDB option is that you're taking about. So...I haven't even tried it.
-
I just tried restoring the database from ipod in MC9 (guess that's what you meant by restore from itunesDB?), and that actually did work. Then I resynch'd with MC9 to get my playlists back onto the ipod.
-
Ok, I am about to give up. :'(
I installed the iTunes software a couple of weeks ago and since then MC and my iPod have not spoken! I have gone through scores of posts and followed every instruction I can all with no joy... hopefully someone here (much smarter than myself) can give me some help.
Here are the particulars: I am running MC version 9.1 build 291, iPod firmware v. 2.1 on a 30gig iPod, all of which is on a PC running windows XP home. I have now removed the iTunes software from my computer. The iPod service is still installed, but I have been toggling between running and stopped for the various testing that I do.
I have reformatted my iPod using the iPod updater (many times now). When I go into MC, it sees my iPod, but when I select FORMAT it puts up a progress dialog box that says "Static" and then pops up a "Format Failed" message. I cannot get around this.
Does anyone have suggestions for me?
-
Steve,
I aplogise for not making myself very clear. I am not a computer novice by the quality of knowledge shown in the other postings.
I have now been able to complete a full sync betwen MC and my Ipod. I did this by deleting all mp3-2 files and deleted all empty folders from My Music and then deleted the same files from MC.
I am after two pieces of advice from anyone:
1. how are mp3-2 files created. I have not knowingly created them, and 2
2. some of my problems stem from CDs with multiple artists so I am wondering what is the best way to name them with my naming convention below. For example how would one name the following:
CD Tamala Motown Gold
CD number 3
Track 11
Track name I heard it through the grapevine
Artist Marvin Gaye
My present file name convention is:
Base path:My Music/
Directory rule: Artist/Album
Filename: Artist/Album/Track no./Name
Many thanks for your help.
IPlod along
-
Please help. I can rip and use MediaCenter 9 perfectly except I cannot sync with my IPOD to get any music on it. Everytime I connect my IPOD it says do not disconnect and then when I drop music into "handheld" it says ok to disconnect and am unable to transfer music to IPOD. I cannot see my IPOD in MC or in my computer for more than a second or two before it disconnects. However I am able to sync with Jukebox without difficulty. I am running USB 2.0 . Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
?
Media Center 9.1.291 -- C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center\
Microsoft Windows XP Workstation 5.1 Service Pack 1 (Build 2600)
Intel Pentium 4 1595 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 654 MB, Free - 405 MB
Internet Explorer: 6.0.2800.1106 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.82 (xpsp1.020828-1920) / Shlwapi.dll: 6.00.2800.1226 / Shell32.dll: 6.00.2800.1233 (xpsp2.030604-1804) / wnaspi32.dll: 2, 0, 0, 0 , ASPI for WIN32 DLL, Copyright © Adaptec 1995 / Aspi32.sys: N/A
Ripping / Drive D: Copy mode:Normal CD Type:Auto Read speed:Max
Digital playback: Yes / Use YADB: Yes / Get cover art: No / Calc replay gain: Yes / Copy volume: 32767
Eject after ripping: No / Play sound after ripping: No
Burning / Drive D: LITE-ON LTR-16102B Addr: 1:0:0 Speed:16 MaxSpeed:16 BurnProof:Yes
Test mode: No / Eject after writing: Yes / Direct decoding: Yes / Write CD-Text: No
Use playback settings: No / Normalization: None
-
Adam's instructions in the first post here are a good place to start.
Musicmatch and iTunes can interfere and may need to be uninstalled. You'll find more about this if you look at old posts.
-
Steve -
I'm still having a problem with getting an error message when I sync. Specifically:
"The following is a list of files that failed to transfer with an error code."
In the list box I get:
"G:\iPod_Control\Music\F03\185633.mp3-2"
In your last response you said this means "The system cannot find the file specified". In my last response I thought I figured out which track was in issue. However, while the one I found was having a problem, I fixed it, it now plays correctly, but I continue to get the error.
This brings me back to my first question: how do I know which track is missing/broken/AWOL? I'm hoping once I figure that out I might have a better idea of why I'm getting the error in the first place.
Any thoughts?
VPH
-
I am recording some audio cassettes that I have - some continuing education - all spoken word - no music. I have multiple tracks for many of these tapes - something like:
PR 1
PR 2
PR 3..........etc
When I sync to the iPod these tracks do not show up in order (1,2,3), but rather at what seems like random (2,3,1). How can I get these tracks in the proper sequence on my iPod?
-
Steve - I am having a problem with files that I transfer to my Ipod showing up. Here is an example that happened to me today. I had some songs on my Ipod I wanted to delete because I had made a new rip of them at a higher bitrate, so I browsed to the songs via the CD, DVD, and Handhelds tree. I deleted the old songs off the Ipod from there. I browsed to my new "version" of the songs in my Media Library, right clicked on the album, and chose Send to, CD, DVD, and Handhelds, Ipod Drive Letter. Next I went to my Ipod in the CD, DVD, and Handheld tree and chose Transfer. Right away MC told me I already had files on the Ipod with the same name and if I should overwrite. I don't think that warning should be coming up. So I chose yes to overwrite. The new songs showed up on the Ipod in MC, but not on the Ipod itself after I disconnected it. I had to reconnect the Ipod and choose Rebuild Database from Ipod for the files to show up. This has happened to me before also. A rebuild always fixes it. I do not have another other Ipod software installed, just MC. The Ipod was initialized with MC somewhere in the 280 builds I believe. My handhelds plugin is version 9.0.75.
Media Center Registered 9.1.299 -- C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center\
Microsoft Windows XP Workstation 5.1 Service Pack 1 (Build 2600)
AMD Athlon 2303 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 1048 MB, Free - 744 MB
Internet Explorer: 6.0.2800.1106 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.82 (xpsp1.020828-1920) / Shlwapi.dll: 6.00.2800.1226 / Shell32.dll: 6.00.2800.1233 (xpsp2.030604-1804) / wnaspi32.dll: N/A
Ripping / Drive F: Copy mode:Normal CD Type:Auto Read speed:Max
Drive G: Copy mode:Normal CD Type:Auto Read speed:Max
Drive H: Copy mode:Normal CD Type:Auto Read speed:Max
Digital playback: Yes / Use YADB: Yes / Get cover art: Yes / Calc replay gain: Yes / Copy volume: 32767
Eject after ripping: No / Play sound after ripping: No
Burning / Drive F: LITE-ON LTR-48125W Addr: 2:0:0 Speed:48 MaxSpeed:48 BurnProof:Yes
Drive G: SONY DVD RW DRU-500A Addr: 2:1:0 Speed:24 MaxSpeed:24 BurnProof:Yes
Test mode: No / Eject after writing: No / Direct decoding: Yes / Write CD-Text: Yes
Use playback settings: No / Normalization: None
-
Does anyone else get the "Format Failed" message when they try to format their iPod from within MC? I cannot get past this.
-
CageB - When you say that you are choosing the 'format' option in MC do you mean the 'initialize' option? Because I'm not sure what format option you are talking about. You only need to initialize not format.
After running Apple's restore program disconnect the ipod then set time and date. Reconnect ipod and bring up MC. Click on the 'CD, DVD, and Handhelds' in the file tree to expand. You should get a message that the ipod needs to be initialized. Then right click on the ipod in the now expanded file tree and choose 'initialize'. Make sure that you are looking under the 'CD, DVD, and Handhelds' and not the 'file explorer' in the files tree that shows all of your drives.
MC should quickly initialize your ipod.
I hope that helps.
Tim
-
Tim,
Thanks for the post. Turns out that what I had to do was remove and reinstall the MC software. I checked out the iPodLounge and there were a number of other people that had the same problem.
I'm not certain what the problem was, but what was happening was when you right clicked to get the iPod menu in MC, instead of getting a full menu (with the initialize option being one choice) you got a single menu pick for "Format." Selecting that would give you the error described above. After the reinstall, all is well.
Bill
-
I noted with some consternation that tracks for which I have properly-formatted tags for artist and album title are being transferred to the iPod with the value '(Multiple Artists)' in the artist tag.
I investigated in MC, studying the Tag Info window. I confirmed that I had good values in both the Artist and Album fields. I also noted that the Album Artist (auto) field is populated with the value '(Multiple Artists)' for each of the tracks in question. That field allows editing, but the new values are discarded when refreshed.
I also saw that the Album Type field contains the value 'Multiple Artists (complete)' or 'Multiple Artists (incomplete)'. That value cannot be changed.
Why is MC using the Album Artist (auto) field to populate the iPod's Artist field? What do I change to force the iPod to reflect the values in MC's Artist field?
-
Iplod,
1) Are you referring to the error message you see in MC when you talk about mp3-2? The -2 is an error code, not a file type.
Post item 2 in the main forum for lots of suggestions on what might be best (which is subjective).
dbi,
This sounds either a hardware issue or a problem with another application fighting for the connection with the iPod. Do you have MusicMatch or iTunes installed? If so, can you run them without seeing the iPod disappear? If not, then it is a hardware problem. If you can run them, try uninstalling them or at least rename their folders temporarily so they will not try to run.
VPH,
In the iPod view, sort your files by Filename and then locate the path to the file F03\185633.mp3. Delete this file from iPod and then try readding it from MC.
molarman,
If you are syncing, you are using playlists/ smartlists. Create a playlist and order your tracks in the order you want and then sync it to get the files in order. Alternately you could create a smartlist for these files, and then you could apply a sorting rule to always have the tracks in the order you want.
bjevers,
When you deleted the files from iPod, were you at the root view (i.e. the drive letter)? If not, you did not delete the files, but only deleted them from a particular playlist and that is your problem.
Rancyland,
The Album Artist (Auto) field is used by default to populate the Artist field. If you want to use another field (i.e. Artist) simply right click on the iPod drive letter in MC and use the 'Select Artist Field' option.
Steve
-
If I use MC9 to load up my iPod and then use iTunes to create a 'dynamic playlist', MC9 is no longer able to access the iPod- I get a core error and MC9 dies a horrific death.
I realize I could avoid this whole problem by not using iTunes, but the dynamic playlists are really awesome and its the only way I can successfully xfer useable iTunes purchased files to my iPod.
Any chance that MC9 will be able to access the iPod after iTunes does its 'magic' on the ipod database?
-
rhaenel,
Running MC 9.1.299 I cannot duplicate your crash. Please get 9.1.299 if you do not have it. With 9.1.299 you should not have problems transferring tunes purchased with iTunes to your iPod.
Steve
-
Steve - Yes, I had the Ipod letter selected (thus showing everything on the device) when I deleted the files. I have no playlists on my Ipod. It seems like everytime I transfer new songs to my Ipod, I have to use the Rebuild DB option for them to actually show up on the Ipod. They show up in MC however.
-
the new build seems to fix the issue w/ xfering itunes purchased files, however, I still cannot access the ipod from MC9 after using itunes on the ipod.
Does anyone else get this behavior?
-
I'm still having problems where every now and then my ipod loses most of the songs and usually the playlists disapear to (I get one blank playlist which is empty, and the "on the go" playlist. Restoring the database from ipod does restore it. I'm using 9.1.299 version of mc9.
-
niro-
I've seen this one. It usually happens when I do a partial sync( 1 or 2 playslists out of 20). As a workaround I just sync w/ all my playlists selected.
I'm still having problems where every now and then my ipod loses most of the songs and usually the playlists disapear to (I get one blank playlist which is empty, and the "on the go" playlist. Restoring the database from ipod does restore it. I'm using 9.1.299 version of mc9.
-
bjevers,
If you have not reinitialized since the .280 builds, could you try that?
rhaenel,
Thanks for the iTunesDB file. iTunes is writing some garbage into one of the database entries that was causing me problems. I have corrected this and it will be available in tonight's MC build.
Niro,
If you are seeing an "On the go" playlist, is iTunes running? When you are synching, do you have "Delete files" selected? If not, do you have all the playlists selected that you want to synch?
-
mindracing,
Can you confirm this speed difference in real time (not just what the players report)?
Steve
Will do, as soon as my new firewire lead arrives from Apple. (I've used the other to hardwire into the car using IceLink) It's excellent.
-
Steve,
I have the delete unselected files from portable checked off and usually the Sync data to MC checked off. Itunes is not installed and actually never was, only the ipod manager is installed (although this happened even when the ipod manager wasn't installed). I do have the playlists I want to sync selected (about 12 of them)...I even created an "everything" play list that includes all the songs because someone told me that the "all music" auto smartlist can cause this problem over at the ipodlounge forum.
-
steve,
i recently reripped some cds from a different computer and replaced the original files on my computer and had MC do an update, which in turn updated the bitrates and all neccessary info into MC.
however i just looked and realized that none of those files were re-transfered to the iPod, unless i deleted them from the iPod first and then did another sync. i believe it allready checks to see if the tags have changed and reuploads it if they have. so perhaps you could make it check file sizes on sync as well and if the size has changed, it will re-upload the song? any thoughts on this? thanks again.
-will
-
VPH,
In the iPod view, sort your files by Filename and then locate the path to the file F03\185633.mp3. Delete this file from iPod and then try readding it from MC.
Steve -
The problem wasn't that the file was on the iPod - I looked on the iPod and didn't find it. The problem was that I had a file in MC that didn't exist (the file was deleted accidentally using Exploder). I figured it out by guessing which tracks I had most recently loaded/manipulated then hunted and pecked around until I found the track in MC whose file was missing and removed it from MC.
My question: any way to modify the error message to indicate which track in MC is corrupt/in error/not found (ie., The track "Synchronicity" on the album "Synchronicity" by "The Police" was not found) instead of indicating which track in the iPod wasn't found (ie., F03\185633.mp3)? Since the track never made it to the iPod. the error message indicating which iPod track number didn't help. Make sense?
Hope my errored ways doesn't affect your campaign for Emporer of the Western Hemisphere.
VPH
-
Niro,
In summary, sometimes your playlists and some of your songs do not appear in MC after a sync. Your files are on the iPod because when you do a 'Rebuild database' the files then appear in MC (this process does not transfer files, but only reaccounts for files on iPod). If you have not tried Initializing your iPod, please do this again. If you still have problems, try synching a small number of playlists and then gradually increase this until you see the problem.
Will,
When you reimport files into MC, they get assigned a new ID number in MC. If the files are already on iPod, you will need to delete them for synching to work correctly. If you do not delete them, the new file in MC and the old file on iPod are essentially different files in terms of synching.
VPH,
This change is in tonight's build.
-
My Belkin recorder arrived today.
Plugged it in and it works just as expected.
However - now MC fails to recognise the iPOD as anything other than a drive, producing the annoying 'h' box at start-up.
Interestingly, Anapod explorer, Audible Manager and iPODSYNC all work just as they always did.
I'm loathe to reformat and try the whole thing again at the moment as I need my iPOD and its tunes.
The Belkin does add a 'recordings' directory (and maybe other stuff I'm not aware of). COuld this be the problem?
-
Mindracing,
Hard to say without getting the Belkin. Can you email me your iTunesDB which is causing the error in MC?
steve @ jriver.com
-
Steve,
The file is on its way.
I deleted the recordings folder and it made no difference - it was worth a shot!
-
I can not get mc9 to format I have downloaded your plugin I purchased this program but I'm very frustrated apple tech says to use itunes. I have xp pro usb 2.0 with 2.1 firmware When i right click on ipod in tree only the word format comes up & fails everytime. Can I please get some ideas before I give up?
-
Well the files DO appear in MC, they just don't show on the ipod. When the ipod's plugged in to the PC I can browse it in MC without a problem...but the ipod itself does not show all the songs. In the ipod if I go to settings/about it'll show 90 songs (instead of 4400), but it will show the correct space taken (22gigs, 15 gigs avail).
I did initialize my ipod again...matter of fact I just reinstalled my entire OS last night. This doesn't happen every sync...it works fine and them out of nowhere this problem will come up. I still do think this only happens when I make changes in the MC library...but not sure I didn't have a chance to test that.
-
;D I uninstalled mc9 and reinstalled it & Everthing works great!!!!Any body having trouble with xp make sure you have 2.1 and try this thanks for advice.
-
steve, actually i am not reimporting the files into MC. I am reripping the files on another computer, replacing the files in windows (which have the exact same name), then i go to the songs in MC and say update from tags. this in turn will read the new bitrate, and update it in the library but keeps the same id number and retains playlists, playcounts and all that. but does not update it on the ipod. if it checked file size differences it would update it.
if this doesn't get fixed its not a huge deal
thanks
-
Steve - So far reinitalizing my Ipod with build 300 has fixed my problem (songs not showing up after a transfer unless I rebuilt db). I will let you know if it reappears.
-
Prioir to v9.1.299, I noted problems with PC playlists not downloading to the iPod after drag 'n drop. You replicated the problem and .299 fixed it. However, album/artist browses on the iPod only feature one artist (or album); no other artists (or albums) are searchable. The only browse that yields any results is Playlist.
-
Album title sorting on the iPod sorts titles beginning with the word "A" as "Title, A". For example, "A Midsummer Night's Eve" sorts as if the title is "Midsummer Night's Eve, A", appearing in the M's between "Live At Redondo Beach" and "Momentum". Renaming the title to drop the A leaves it in the same place in the sort. Changing the title to simply "A" puts it in the A's. Changing it to "A B" put it in the B's, changing it to "A C" puts it in the C's, etc. NOTE this problem is true for titles that begin with "The" as well.
-
Vivvy - This is a new feature. To disable it go to Tools then Options. Now select Tree & View then Sorting. Uncheck "Ignore Articles".
-
Niro,
If the problem can not be repeated regularly, you must be doing something different in the times it works vs the times it does not. It could be that certain files are causing the problem or certain playlists. Try to give me more clues if you can.
will,
When you replace the files, are you putting them in the exact same location as the previous file? If so, when you sync the tag information does all information update except bitrate and size? If so, this is easy to fix.
-
Steve, I just thought I'd let you know that the plugin is working almost perfectly for me. The only slight niggle I have is that the plugin prevents me from loading as much music as I used to be able to. If I try to get within 100Mb of the iPod being full the plugin fails to upload the last few tracks in my synch. This is handled cleanly and the error message makes sense although it is strange to be told the iPod is full in one dialog box then look at the status bar and see there is 100Mb of free space. I completely understand why you've done this, it's to prevent corruption of the iTunes database I was experiencing. The only thingis, my database was just over 1Mb, not 100Mb. It would be nice to get another 50Mb of music on, at least that would be almost another album of music. Apart from this minor niggle it's a double thumbs up from me. ;D
-
steve, sorry for the confusion. yes i do put it in the exact same place and when i update tag info MC does read the correct size and bitrate. but when i sync my ipod it doesn' t upload the new higher bitrate songs to the ipod, it leaves the old songs on it. i hope this is clear.
thanks
-w
-
Prioir to v9.1.299, I noted problems with PC playlists not downloading to the iPod after drag 'n drop. You replicated the problem and .299 fixed it. However, album/artist browses on the iPod only feature one artist (or album); no other artists (or albums) are searchable. The only browse that yields any results is Playlist.
-
Phil,
The 100MB will be reduced in tonight's build to 25MB. There are additional files that must be written besides the iTunesDB and I want to be sure to leave enough space.
Will,
I reripped a track on another PC, replaced it on my PC and then updated the library from the tags. I then resynched the file with 'Delete Files' checked off and the new file replaced the old one on iPod. What am I missing?
Vivvy,
I took a playlist with 20 files and drag and dropped it on the iPod drive letter and then transferred the files. When I disconnect the iPod, all files can be browsed to via Artist and Album. What am I missing, or can anyone else replicate this?
Steve
-
Just moving a thread to here:
I would like to know if us IPOD users can get a feature that I can check or uncheck that says something like- Auto dismounts IPOD when Media Center is closed.
My wife and family keep grabbing the IPOD out of the dock with out "safely ejecting the hardware (IPOD)" I don’t blame them its annoying.
When you’re dashing out the door it would be nice just to grab it and run.
_______________________
JimH
Administrator
Re:feature request
« Reply #1 on: November 12, 2003, 07:50:11 PM »
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It's a good idea. You might want to copy and paste it to the iPod Support thread here.
-
Senshine,
This will be a right click option in the next MC build.
Steve
-
My iPod is a Gen2 20gig model. v1.3 hardware
Two problems:
1) MC v302 -- crashes when synching.
I've been ripping new CDs in *.ape instead of 320BR mp3. Last night I finished ripping and began to upload to the Pod. MC would consistenly crash after 50+ song conversions when I forced the conversion of files from ape to mp3 (excluding existing mp3 files).
I could not figure out what was causing it so I initialized the Pod within MC and tried again -- same problem.
I then deselected all playlist except one (the critical one I need tonight) and tried again (by the way, a "select all" and "deselect all" check box would sure help for those of us with many playlists). One playlist would "work," however, it has the same defect in the synching as exhibited in the files that were transferred prior to crashing in the first instance --
2) Files are uploaded to the Pod with no referenced playlist:
(http://www.kokorohealth.com/company/mc9pix/noplaylist.jpg)
Column one is for the listing of playlists (column three is a user defined column from MC9 labeled "tempo.")
Any ideas?
Thanks.
*********************
Media Center Registered 9.1.302 -- C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center\
Microsoft Windows 2000 Workstation 5.0 Service Pack 4 (Build 2195)
Intel Pentium 4 2403 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 523 MB, Free - 193 MB
Internet Explorer: 6.0.2800.1106 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.81 / Shlwapi.dll: 6.00.2800.1276 / Shell32.dll: 5.00.3700.6705 / wnaspi32.dll: Internal ASPI Layer
Ripping / Drive E: Copy mode:Normal CD Type:Auto Read speed:Max
Drive F: Copy mode:Normal CD Type:Auto Read speed:Max
Digital playback: Yes / Use YADB: Yes / Get cover art: Yes / Calc replay gain: Yes / Copy volume: 32767
Eject after ripping: No / Play sound after ripping: Yes Soundfile: chord.wav
Burning / Drive E: LITE-ON LTR-48125W Addr: 1:0:0 Speed:48 MaxSpeed:48 BurnProof:Yes
Drive F: PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-106D Addr: 1:1:0 Speed:16 MaxSpeed:16 BurnProof:Yes
Test mode: No / Eject after writing: Yes / Direct decoding: Yes / Write CD-Text: No
Use playback settings: No / Normalization: None
-
Just installed the latest release and when clicking on F (the iPOD) the files are retreived but clicking on the + next to F causes the dreaded 'h' box and MC closes.
Media Center Registered 9.1.302 -- C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center\
Microsoft Windows XP Workstation 5.1 Service Pack 1 (Build 2600)
Intel Unknown 139 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 383 MB, Free - 99 MB
Internet Explorer: 6.0.2800.1106 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.82 (xpsp1.020828-1920) / Shlwapi.dll: 6.00.2800.1276 / Shell32.dll: 6.00.2800.1233 (xpsp2.030604-1804) / wnaspi32.dll: N/A
Ripping / Drive D: Copy mode:Normal CD Type:Auto Read speed:Max
Digital playback: Yes / Use YADB: Yes / Get cover art: Yes / Calc replay gain: Yes / Copy volume: 32767
Eject after ripping: Yes / Play sound after ripping: No
Burning / Drive D: TOSHIBA CDRW/DVD SDR2102 Addr: 1:0:0 Speed:8 MaxSpeed:8 BurnProof:Yes
Test mode: No / Eject after writing: Yes / Direct decoding: Yes / Write CD-Text: No
Use playback settings: No / Normalization: None
-
canaro99,
Look in the upper right hand corner of the sync dialogue and you will see 'Select All' and 'Select None'. This was deemphasized because users were getting confused by these buttons.
1) On a clean iPod, what happens if you sync less than 50 of the songs that need conversion? Did your one playlist have less than 50 songs?
2) In scenario 2, what happens if you click on the playlist in the tree? Do you see the files listed in the right view?
Ashley,
Please send me your iTunesDB.
-
Regarding the
(by the way, a "select all" and "deselect all" check box would sure help for those of us with many playlists).
Stupid hat award for not looking!
Well, maybe only a small hat -- a check box next to the major groups, e.g. smartlists etc would help if you do not want anything under a group such as "Recent Playing Now' or "Auto Smartlist (video and Image)" etc.
The rest still goes. I've tried several times and still no luck.
John
-
canaro99,
Look in the upper right hand corner of the sync dialogue and you will see 'Select All' and 'Select None'. This was deemphasized because users were getting confused by these buttons.
Thanks. It helps to look. I made another comment about a "check box" for major groups.
canaro99,
1) On a clean iPod, what happens if you sync less than 50 of the songs that need conversion? Did your one playlist have less than 50 songs?
<50 Songs: I'll check this evening. The smallest playlist had 87 songs.
canaro99,
2) In scenario 2, what happens if you click on the playlist in the tree? Do you see the files listed in the right view?
I'll check this evening.
Thanks.
-
Hello,
I have yet to buy a 40gb Ipod but I do have a question. All of my music is in WMA lossless format which I wish to leave it in. Do I have to convert it in order to sync with the ipod or will the software do it for me automatically. If I do have to convert the music how can I do it while leaving the original file in the WMA format and creating a "new" mp3 file to sync with the IPOD? Thanks in advance for your help,
Robert
-
robertc2k,
There is an option on the iPod sync dialog box that allows you to convert as you sync. I just tested it using an ape file -- the ape was converted to mp3 and placed on my iPod, and the origianl ape file is still in my library.
If I understand your request correctly, this function does exactly what you want.
Happy iPodding!
crow
-
Robertc2k - Media Center can convert your files on the fly from WMA to MP3 while transferring them to the Ipod.
-
canaro99,
1) On a clean iPod, what happens if you sync less than 50 of the songs that need conversion? Did your one playlist have less than 50 songs?
2) In scenario 2, what happens if you click on the playlist in the tree? Do you see the files listed in the right view?
2) Playlist from MC in tree show correct files. Clicking on (the few that show) playlist names from the iPod drive letter do not show all of the correct files.
This problem has only appeared since I decided to go "lossless" with ape files on my ripping. Is the problem in the conversion process. I seem to have opened a bucket of worms by wanting higher quality files on my computer.
-
canaro99,
Look in the upper right hand corner of the sync dialogue and you will see 'Select All' and 'Select None'. This was deemphasized because users were getting confused by these buttons.
Doesn't work here either. Some songs with playlist relationships and most without.
:P
-
Wow ask and you shall recieve...thanks. When you mean next build do you mean 9.1.303 or 9.1.304 or do you mean the next stable..like 9.2
thanks
(IPOD auto disconnect)
-
Steve - reformatted and the problem is gone so I guess the DB got corrupted. What I don't understand is how.
I've also been trying to resolve an issue with Audible files not playing. It's still there. The forum at iPODlounge suggested that there was a problem with MC that caused this. Is this correct?
Any ideas anybody?
Media Center Registered 9.1.302 -- C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center\
Microsoft Windows XP Workstation 5.1 Service Pack 1 (Build 2600)
Intel Unknown 150 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 383 MB, Free - 76 MB
Internet Explorer: 6.0.2800.1106 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.82 (xpsp1.020828-1920) / Shlwapi.dll: 6.00.2800.1276 / Shell32.dll: 6.00.2800.1233 (xpsp2.030604-1804) / wnaspi32.dll: N/A
Ripping / Drive D: Copy mode:Normal CD Type:Auto Read speed:Max
Digital playback: Yes / Use YADB: Yes / Get cover art: Yes / Calc replay gain: Yes / Copy volume: 32767
Eject after ripping: Yes / Play sound after ripping: No
Burning / Drive D: TOSHIBA CDRW/DVD SDR2102 Addr: 1:0:0 Speed:8 MaxSpeed:8 BurnProof:Yes
Test mode: No / Eject after writing: Yes / Direct decoding: Yes / Write CD-Text: No
Use playback settings: No / Normalization: None
-
Just installed the latest release and when clicking on F (the iPOD) the files are retreived but clicking on the + next to F causes the dreaded 'h' box and MC closes.
This has happened again.
I am working on resolving the issue of Audible files not playing and straight after using Audible Manager the problem re appeared in MC so it seems that Audible is corrupting the DB.
I have reformatted and used Audible to transfer all books. They play fine. Files and tags must be OK.
Removed all Audible files using AM and started MC.
Expand CD, DVD Handhelds - iPOD shows as F.
Click + next to F - MC tells me iPOD is not formatted for MC - trees expands OK.
Initialise iPOD from within MC.
Use 'Send to' to upload audible files. Files transfer OK.
Unmount iPOD. Audible files play OK. They are not, however, listed under an ALbum, just by artist or under Album/All i.e. in the Album root.
When the files are uploaded using Audible Manager they appear under album Audible.
Reconnect iPOD. Add a music album. Unmount iPOD. Music album listed by name.Audible files just in 'root'. They can only be found if you know the artist.
Deleted audible files from iPOD using MC.
Change tag of 1 audible file (which is against Audible.com advice) to Album = Audible. Transfer to iPOD.
Eject ipod. File shows up under ALbum/Audible but doesn't play.
Reconnect ipod and delete audible file. Retag with blank in Album. Drag to iPOD and transfer. Flie doesn't play.
Delete file. Transfer another audible file without tag editing. It doesn't play!
This indicates that it is not the file itself that is the problem here.
Re inialise ipod. Transfer the Audible file that had the album tag changed and then removed. It plays OK.
This confirms that it's not a corruption of the file.
Close MC and open Audible Manager.
AM sees no Audible files on the iPOD.
Upload 1 aa file to ipod using Audible Manager.
Unmount ipod.
Audible album is now present and contains 1 aa book. It doesn't play!
Restart MC.
Back to the same problem. MC closes when the + is clicked!
Any ideas?
-
No offense, but you keep posting in different boards and never answer my question. What version of MC9 are you using? BTW, there is no need to use the Audible manager for anything other than downloading the files. Once I do that I shut it down and then transfer the audible files to the iPod using MC9. Also, there was a problem with a couple of the late .2xx versions that could be causing this as well.
Again, please stay in one thread, and also tell us what version of MC9 you are using. BTW, I've been trying to help you, but you never reply.
Bill McNair
-
Bill, bjevers, crow,
Thanks for jumping in and replying.
Ashley,
Switching back and forth between Audible Manager and MC will cause problems. Audible formats the database in one way and MC in another. Try initializing in MC and then transfer whatever you want and if you are having problems playing .aa files, let me know.
Senshine,
It wan in 9.1.303, but that version was pulled. The next 9.1 release should have this.
John,
I am losing your train of thought.
Doesn't work here either. Some songs with playlist relationships and most without.
Not sure what this refers to. The select all, deselect all? FYI in regards to..
I made another comment about a "check box" for major groups.
Try right clicking on a selection in the sync dialogue tree and use 'Select subitems' and 'Deselect subitems' to get the behavior you want.
2) Playlist from MC in tree show correct files. Clicking on (the few that show) playlist names from the iPod drive letter do not show all of the correct files.
I don't follow. You click on the Playlist in the tree and see the files, but if you click on the drive letter you don't see the files at all?
-
John,
I am losing your train of thought.
Doesn't work here either. Some songs with playlist relationships and most without.
Not sure what this refers to. The select all, deselect all? FYI in regards to..]
I don't follow. You click on the Playlist in the tree and see the files, but if you click on the drive letter you don't see the files at all?
Steve,
You know, it's funny, when you're staring at the screen and attempting to describe what you're seeing, your writing seems clear and concise -- I think I should ask a third part to read what I write first.....
My comment about songs with and without playlists refer to this picture that is what MC is showing is on my iPod after a synch: some songs have a playlist shown and others do not. They all should be related to a playlist.
This is the screen shot:
(http://www.kokorohealth.com/company/mc9pix/noplaylist.jpg)
With respect to the relationship question:
My problems began with: build 302 and/or the decision to start ripping files in ape format. When I try to synch my iPod, I select
1. Force file conversion on uploads
2. Choose mp3
3. Skip files of selected encoder type has been both selected and deselected with no apparent difference in the final result.
I don't know whether the problems are related to converting ape files to mp3, uploading both mp3 and converted ape files, the current build or some other problem.
Bottom line: I have a useless white/chrome paper weight on my desk that I need to use Thursday, Friday, and Sunday for DJ work and this is #%$^@@!! frustrating. (Thank you, I needed that release.)
Steve (and others) thank you for any ideas.
John
-
RE: Playlists. (I just installed build .302 and haven't used it yet, so if this works differently there, just ignore me.)
I don't recall this happening in earlier versions of MC9, but I coulda been blind. But now all my Playlists on the iPod are named with the Group they belong to in Parentheses afterwards.
I find this messy, a bit annoying, and as far as I can tell, unneccessary. I can't do anything on the iPod with that information, it just adds confusion when I am looking at my list of Playlists.
Is this something I can turn off or otherwise stop from happening?
Thanks.
-
Steve,
Since the last message, I've done the following:
1. Reformated the iPod with Apple 1.3 updater.
2. Initialize the iPod with MC
When trying to transfer files I get either:
a. No handheld device detected..... I go through the initialize drill again and seem to get caught in "Okay to Disconnect Loop" hell.
b. Files failed to transfer with error message "0"
c. The iPod is "detected" but no transfer only the "Okay to disconnect" loop.
HELP!!
-
Further note: Simply dragging files to the "drag files etc" dialog causes an "Okay to disconnect."
BTW,
build 302 HH ver 76
System Info:
Media Center Registered 9.1.302 -- C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center\
Microsoft Windows 2000 Workstation 5.0 Service Pack 4 (Build 2195)
Intel Pentium 4 2377 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 523 MB, Free - 235 MB
Internet Explorer: 6.0.2800.1106 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.81 / Shlwapi.dll: 6.00.2800.1276 / Shell32.dll: 5.00.3700.6705 / wnaspi32.dll: Internal ASPI Layer
Ripping / Drive E: Copy mode:Normal CD Type:Auto Read speed:Max
Drive F: Copy mode:Normal CD Type:Auto Read speed:Max
Digital playback: Yes / Use YADB: Yes / Get cover art: Yes / Calc replay gain: Yes / Copy volume: 32767
Eject after ripping: No / Play sound after ripping: Yes Soundfile: chord.wav
Burning / Drive E: LITE-ON LTR-48125W Addr: 1:0:0 Speed:48 MaxSpeed:48 BurnProof:Yes
Drive F: PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-106D Addr: 1:1:0 Speed:16 MaxSpeed:16 BurnProof:Yes
Test mode: No / Eject after writing: Yes / Direct decoding: Yes / Write CD-Text: No
Use playback settings: No / Normalization: None
-
tlongacre,
This was implemented a while back because in MC it is possible to have multiple playlists named the same thing (i.e. 'My Favorites' and 'My Favorite Group\My Favorites)and the iPod does not have a multi level naming system for Playlists. This can be improved in the future.
John,
I know your frustrated, but try to keep things simple for now. Lets first address the No Handheld detected issue. Try formatting the iPod in Windows, disconnect and reconnect your iPod. Is it detected correctly by MC and in Explorer? If not, you have some kind of hardware issue that needs to be resolved. If it is detected, drag an drop a few files on the iPod drive letter and transfer them.
Steve
-
Steve,
Thank you.
Since the post, I've done the following:
1. Reformatted with Updater.
2. Initialized with MC.
3. Ran a small, but partially successful test.
4. Disconnected the iPod.
5. Reconnected the iPod.
It now immediately goes to "Okay to Disconnect" upon connection.
I rest the iPod. (BTW, nothing on my system has changed with respect to programs etc) since this has started.
I reconnect and the cycle of "Okay to Disconnect" continues.......
Thanks
-
John,
If the iPod is going to the 'disconnect' mode, this sounds like a hardware issue. If you don't run MC when you reconnect, you will probably see the drive disappear in Explorer. Another possibility is that another application is interfering, but that would not explain the disconnect. Most likely it is the cable, your firewire port, or your iPod. Try running another application and see if it exhibits the same behavior.
Steve
-
tlongacre,
This was implemented a while back because in MC it is possible to have multiple playlists named the same thing (i.e. 'My Favorites' and 'My Favorite Group\My Favorites)and the iPod does not have a multi level naming system for Playlists. This can be improved in the future.
Oh good, I'm glad I wasn't just crazy and had never noticed these before. Yes, let's please have an improvement. Why don't you just disalloy two Playlists with the same name?
-
Steve,
It's probably Argentina and not hardware -- everything worked fine until I came back after a month. I went from 269 to 305 (as of today).
I've not had these issues before -- the immediate "okay to disconnect" -- I'm using the same sound card (Audigy2), the same Apple factory cable, the same computer. The only thing I've done to try to fix this mess is re-install Updater 1.3; restore the pod, initialize the pod and then everything has gone back to the same old story -- right now I feel like selling the iPoop for a good price and going back to CDs -- they work.
I'm on my way out with CDs to do a job I expected to do with the pod and MC >:(
I'll try again tomorrow (and probably waste most of the day).
-
canaro99:
Try uninstalling "iPod Manager" (or it might show up as iPod Software for Windows").
If you reinstalled the updater this may have gotten back on your system.
Also, of note--the Audigy is a terrible card for firewire. The reason is that Creative decided not to follow the IEEE1394 standard, and decided to create their own (SB1394). Why? Well, that's beyond me. I know that you didn't have problems before using this card, but it's something to think about.
Adam
-
I think Adam may be right about the 'iPod Manager'. I use to experience the same problem that canaro99 is having. It seemed like every time I would connect the iPod it would be fine for a minute or two then all of a sudden it would disconnect. I then came along one of Adam's post on the iPodlounge about removing the 'iPod manager' and ever since I removed it I've never had the problem again.
One note, I also removed everything to do with MMJB at that same time just to be safe and I've never looked back.
Tim
-
Steve,
All Audible files now playing correctly. Thanks for your help. When MC can download aa files to we'll be set!
A low priority adddition to the plug-in would be to automatically create a 'virtual album' called Audible, that the aa files can be found in. I'm using a playlist at the moment as the aa files don't support the album tag. Don't lose sleep over it though!
Thanks.
-
I'm not mad at MC9, just upset that I have to take a few extra steps when want to have a successful sync. I hope I can get some help on this.
Very often, I've had to rebuild the iPod database. I have a smartlist where songs need ratings. Once I get some of those songs rated the way I like, I sync with MC9 so those songs can be placed in the proper smartlist.
Today, I've had to rebuild my iPod DB twice. After I sync, and I check my iPod playlists, there will be one blank and the "On-The-Go" playlist. So, I reconnect my iPod, rebuild the DB, sync, and it finally works.
It's been happening for quite some time, even after reinitializing my iPod.
Any suggestions to guide me to a solution? Other than this, everything is totally awesome!
Thanks!
P.S. Sorry KingSparta...I forgot about this thread. Forgiveness? :D
-
I regularly experience the same thing re the playlists.
It is a real pain but I'm sure it will be resolved eventually. I have noticed that the playlists show up in MC when looking at the iPOD but don't display on the iPOD itself. Sometimes a soft reset of the iPOD fixes this.
-
Now that I'm all synched and working I thought I'd have a play and see how for the plug-in has come on since I was last active. I've been out of the loop a while.
I love the sync data to MC feature.
What I'd like to know is when is a track considered as 'listened too'.
Is it as soon as it starts playing or when it finishes?
I was out in the car with my iPOD today and some of the tracks I listened to aren't listed in 'heard today' but it may be because I didn't hear them thru.
Trivial I know but nice to know all the same.
Thanks.
-
What does "some portable files are not in MC data base and could not be..." message mean when synching with sync data to MC checked?
And, why, after synching, does the 'retreiveing file info' box run twice?
Is there a plan to sync the on-the-go playlist?
Can MC be made to autostart on ipod connection?
Thanks for helping me catch up.
-
Steve and Shawn,
Thanks for the ideas and the help.
I unistalled everything related to apple and ipod (except MC) and then reinstalled updater starting at 1.2. When I finally got to 1.3 (I also unistalled the iPod Manager) and updated and restored my pod it communicated.
Upon synching files (both mp3 and converted ape) the resultant display shows many playlists missing, although the files are on the pod. I found that going back and resynching, at first, would add the playlist info. As my number of files increased (currently 459) MC consistently crashes (build 305) when I try this additional synch to "complete" the playlist info.
Any ideas??
Thanks.
-
Crud.
Today, I restored my iPod to see if it'd help with the playlists "disappearing" sporadically. Three successful syncs later, and it happens again.
I'm using build 305 right now. I sure hope this can get fixed! :)
-
Hi,
I'm using media center build 9.1302
Some problems I've noticed about the plugin:
When I plug my ipod in, even though its set to autosynch, nothing happens. I have to click on the portable tool down at the bottom.
If I rename a file in MC, that is also on the ipod, and then synch with the ipod, after the info has been synched from ipod to MC and error message appears, saying: Failed to update some songs...
This happens every subsequent synch and is annoying. I have to rebuild the ipod database to overcome this. I also tried to find the files that i changed on the ipod and manually delete them, and then resynch again (thought this might be quicker). If I try to do that though (manually delete the files) I find that each song in that album is on the ipod twice, but when i try to delete them all half of them cause an error -2. so they dont delete, and i get the "some files couldnt be updated" error again on next synch.
I guess that maybe the delete files not in synch is not working properly, or the updating of tags on ipod isnt working properly.
The delete files not in synch takes ages.
when searching for songs on the ipod (using media center) the screen update after every key press. Annoying because its refreshing 4000 files after each letter. it should refresh after the whole word has been typed, or after you press enter.
Other than that, all is sweet. And its cool having the ratings and last played info updating properly. now my smartlists are beginning to reflect my music habits. nice.
-
What I'd like to know is when is a track considered as 'listened too'.
Is it as soon as it starts playing or when it finishes?
I was out in the car with my iPOD today and some of the tracks I listened to aren't listed in 'heard today' but it may be because I didn't hear them thru.
Trivial I know but nice to know all the same.
Thanks.
I think (tho' not 100% sure) the answer to this is that MC itself considers a song listened to when its past half way played. However the iPod waits until the track is played to the actual end until it marks it as played.
I kinda like both together strangely enough.
-=Tim=-
-
Tonight, using MC 9.1.305 / iPod Plug-in 9.0.76.
I synchronized six new playlists, full of new tracks.
These playlists and the new tracks all loaded to the iPod OK. BUT all the other playlists disappeared.
Synching again, selecting all my current playlists, restored them to where they should be.
20Gb Series 2 iPod.
-
What??? Where's the iPod plugin v9.0.76? The only one I see here (http://www.musicex.com/cgi-bin/downloads/mcplugins.pl?type=8) is 9.0.38. BTW, is the date format on those pages 1) dd-mm-yyyy or 2) mm-dd-yyyy? If it's 1, then I need to download it. LOL
-
On .305 and still having the problem with PC playlists not downloading to the iPod with tunes. I have to manually add the downloaded songs to the iPod playlists (which have the same playlist name as their PC counterparts.) Why?
-
I've just been playing with my Belkin recorder and it works great.
It creates a directory called Recordings on the iPOD.
Do you anticipate any synching problems with this?
Could MC sync this folder as well? I now this won't be a top priority but it would be an excellent facility.
If you don't have a Belkin recorder and need some support from this end just ask.
Thanks
Ash
-
tlongacre,
MC is currently designed to allow multiple playlists with the same name. This is a case of MC's design winning over iPod's implementation.
John (Canaro),
We have to solve this one step at a time. As of Friday you had what appeared to be a hardware problem ( the disconnect stuff) and a problem with playlists. Unless the hardware problem is solved, this could very probably effect the correct creation of the playlists. Are you still having the problem with iPod spontaneously disconnecting?
Ashley,
I regularly experience the same thing re the playlists.
When you see this, please send me the iTunesDB or try to find a pattern of how to recreate the problem.
What I'd like to know is when is a track considered as 'listened too'.
When the track is played all the way through. This is iPod's design.
What does "some portable files are not in MC data base and could not be..." message mean when synching with sync data to MC checked?
You have files on your iPod that are not in the MC database. This can happen when you transfer files to iPod, then delete them from the MC database and reimport them. This could very possibly be the cause of synching problems for you.
And, why, after synching, does the 'retreiveing file info' box run twice?
This is a result of some recent changes to the tree in MC. It should be fixed in the next MC build.
Is there a plan to sync the on-the-go playlist?
Yes, that is the plan, as is dynamic playlist support. This is a difficult project without any specs from Apple, but I am trying.
Can MC be made to autostart on ipod connection?
Maybe in the future.
Do you anticipate any synching problems with this? (Belkin)
Not sure. I don't have one yet.
Bryan,
After you see the problem, email me your iTunesDB file from the iPod and I will see if I see any problems. Are you reimporting tunes that are already on the iPod? What did you do differently between successful synch 3 and then the fourth?
9.0.76 is part of MC 9.1.305
Park,
When I plug my ipod in, even though its set to autosynch, nothing happens.
This was broken recently. The next MC build should resolve it.
If I rename a file in MC, that is also on the ipod, and then synch with the ipod, after the info has been synched from ipod to MC and error message appears, saying: Failed to update some songs...
I cannot duplicate this. Are you sure you are not reimporting any songs at the same time into MC? That woud explain the - 2 error. It would also explain why the delet files not in synch takes a long time. If you are not reimporting, are you manually renaming the song or using 'Rename files from properties'?
mcphzgig,
You should check all the playlists that you want to have on the iPod at the end of the sync before synching. If you select less than all, the files will remain but not the playlists (assuming you do not have delete files not in synch checked).
Vivvy,
More info please. Synching or drag and drop? Have you reimported tracks? Have you reinitialized?
-
Hi Steve,
Thanks for taking the time to sift through the latest batch of questions from us. You rock man... :D
Let's see...if this happens again, I'll email you my iTunesDB file. I'm 100% sure that when I'm synchronizing, the majority are the same tunes. There's a few that might be new, due to a smartlist I setup to have songs rotated that haven't been played in a week. Between the successful and unsuccessful sync, nothing changed. I might've rated a few, but in the syncs before, they never affected anything. It seemed to be at random.
I think I'm going to be restoring a system image of my computer (messed up a few things), so I'll be backing up my library and getting MC reinstalled...probably going with 9.1.304. That's the latest stable version, correct?
I'm thinking that since Adam (Shawley) doesn't have the iPod utility on his computer, maybe I should do without it as well. The reinitializing option does the same thing as a restore with the iPod utility, right? So, when I get my main system restored, I'll see if that variable was the weird cause of our playlists disappearing. If not, you'll most likely be receiving my iTunesDB file in a day or two. :D
-
btvillarin:
By Pod Utility do you mean iPod Manager? No, I don't have that installed. But even w/o it, you can still do Restores with the Updater by going to Start>Programs>iPod. It's in there, it's called System Software [/i]x[/i] (the version number of your Updater).
iPod Manager is just a launcher for the program.
Adam
-
Adam, I meant iPod System Software 2.1. I don't have iPod manager. So, I guess that theory goes out the window. :-\
-
btvillarin:
OK, yeah, you want to keep that installed (the Updater). It doesn't have any effect on anything anyway....
Adam
-
What does "some portable files are not in MC data base and could not be..." message mean when synching with sync data to MC checked?
You have files on your iPod that are not in the MC database. This can happen when you transfer files to iPod, then delete them from the MC database and reimport them. This could very possibly be the cause of synching problems for you.
Thanks for that Steve,
What's strange is that the message came after doing a format of the iPOD and then a full sync with MC, having deleted no files or reimported any.
Is there a simple way to compare what's on the iPOD with what MC thinks is on there to find the rogue files?
-
I'm confused since I see posts about Audible files not playing correctly on the iPod...
If you don't transfer .mp4 to iPod and use MC for Audible, this should cause no problems. If you have .mp4 and Audible content, follow the instructions above and all should be well.
I was having trouble with Audible content also. But no longer, since I:
- stopped editing the tags on the Audible files
- download with Audible Manager but install with MC
- they get lost in your files, so in MC put them in a Plalist yourself (eg "Audible").
Now, no problem, though I did have to reinitialize a couple of times on the road to wisdom :)
One last thing - when playing an Audible file, touch the center spot once on the iPod and you will see hash marks on the progress bar - they are chapter markers and you can jump back and forth to them ...
-
I can echo the above. I've found exactly the same.
On an unrelated topic, what is the difference between Album Artist and Album Artist (Auto)?
I can see the difference in the results but can't determine the rule.
Also, is it possible to have just the name of the playlist on the iPOD rather than the name followed by (group - group - name)?
I'd really appreciate an explanation of what the Set Upload Volume adjustment dialogue does. What is the difference between replay gain and adjust all file volumes?
Thanks for your help.
-
Ok. Let me know what I need to supply to diagnose the problem (if anything), but I am having the same Playlist sync problem that others describe. I successfully synced my iPod (iPod 30GB w/ Dock connector using USB 2.0, did a restore to v2.1, initialized with MC9 306 Plugin 76). Everything worked great, music converted from APE to MP3, 2 playlists synced properly. Yesteday I added some manually created playlists (rather than smartlists). I added them to the synchronization list and synced. Now when I look at the iPod in MC9, I see that the first several files in the playlist were not actually files that I selected to be in the original playlist, in fact, the original playlists in MC9 are fine. Plus when I eject the iPod and go to playlists I have just a single blank (no name) playlist that has nothing in it and my On the Go list.
Another thing. I get the "Please wait... Analyzing Device" dialog anytime I do anything (RIP a CD while the cursor is on the tree in the handheld section, delete a playlist off the iPod, refresh the view, etc.) and it takes about 1 to 3 minutes to disappear and yield control of MC9 back to me. Am I doing something wrong?
Finally, being my first post, I should let you know that this is one amazing piece of software. I am a software analyst by profession and the work you guys are doing far exceeds the quality, thoroughness, ease of use, and value of almost anything I have ever seen. Great job and thanks!
Gautam
-
Bryan,
9.1.304 or the latest should all be fine. Please let me know how it turns out.
Ashley,
There is not a simple way. I could make a plugin that would give us some info. Let me know if you see it again and I will email you something to debug it.
Album Artist(Auto) will use 'Album Artist' if it is available and if not, then Artist.
The group name in the parenthesis is necessary for now.
Set Upload Volume Adjustment - 'Apply Replay Gain' will adjust the volume on iPod by the Replay Gain value in MC. The arrow box associated with that checkbox will boost or decrease the volume that amount in addition to the Replay Gain. 'Adjust all file volumes' will simply boost or decrease volumes on iPod by the percentage shown.
Francelonian,
Thanks for the post. I am not sure what you mean by "they get lost in your files" but creating a smartlist or playlist are good ideas.
Gautam,
In regards to the playlists disappearing, something is corrupting your iTunesDB file. What happens if you reinitialize your iPod (right click on the drive letter) and then sync the manual playlists one at a time. If it messes up, please email me your iTunesDB file from the iPod (in the iPod_Control\iTunes folder on iPod). (steve @ jriver.com)
Do you mean the 'Retrieving File Info' message or 'Analyzing Devices'?
Thanks for the compliments.
-
Ashley,
There is not a simple way. I could make a plugin that would give us some info. Let me know if you see it again and I will email you something to debug it.
I do get this every time. Send me the file and I'll get at it.
Thanks
Ash
-
What if I said that maybe I found a weird solution about our playlists disappearing?
For me, I have to move the cord from computer to power charger. When I want to initiate a sync, I sometimes have the cord already plugged into the iPod when I plug it into the computer. But now, I'm removing it from the iPod, plugging the cord into the computer, waiting a few seconds, then plugging the iPod in. The last two syncs have been good so far. Maybe when I get to 10, I can start goin' nuts in happiness... :D
I guess try it out, especially if you sync more than two times a day.
-
Vivvy,
More info please. Synching or drag and drop? Have you reimported tracks? Have you reinitialized?
Drag and drop. Reimported from where? These were loaded from MC. Reinitialized before initial install of MC.
-
Ash,
The change has to occur in MC. I made a modification so that you will see the numbers of the files that are not found in the next build of MC. You will need to match them with the files on iPod to figure out where the problem is.
Bryan,
Let me know what you find.
Vivvy,
Reimported into MC. When MC installs it imports files from your PC. You can manually reimport and if you delete files that are in MC and then reimport them into MC while the files are still on iPod, it would explain what you are seeing. Try the reinitialize again.
Steve
-
In regards to the playlists disappearing, something is corrupting your iTunesDB file. What happens if you reinitialize your iPod (right click on the drive letter) and then sync the manual playlists one at a time. If it messes up, please email me your iTunesDB file from the iPod (in the iPod_Control\iTunes folder on iPod). (steve @ jriver.com)
Do you mean the 'Retrieving File Info' message or 'Analyzing Devices'?
Ok. I will try what you suggest when I get home today.
On the second note, I am getting the Analyzing Devices dialog. The only other device I have is my CD/DVD burner. It only happens when the iPod is actively connected and is visible in the tree view.
-
The group name in the parenthesis is necessary for now.
I find it annoying, too. But I was wondering, since all you're trying to do is ensure unique names, why not insert a bunch of extra spaces between the user-given playlist name and its parenthesized parent. That would make the Playlist menu on the iPod itself a lot easier to read (which is all I care about -- I rarely look in the ipod tree in MC).
-
I'd really like it if right-clicking on the ipod drive in "CD, DVD & Handhelds" didn't feel compelled to refresh the view pane (this happens if I was looking at some other view at the time). It's especially annoying if what I'm bringing up that menu for is going to immediately destroy the contents of that pane (e.g., Eject).
(Actually, it's annoying that any time one switches views to the iPod, it has to go fetch everything from the device again. Do you just not want to have to remember the contents, or are you worried that I'm changing the contents behind your back? If the latter, which is surely an unusual thing to do, I'd be happier if there were a Refresh command to handle that situation.)
By the way, what does the menu item "Enable Auto-Eject on Close" mean?
-
I'd really like it if right-clicking on the ipod drive in "CD, DVD & Handhelds" didn't feel compelled to refresh the view pane (this happens if I was looking at some other view at the time). It's especially annoying if what I'm bringing up that menu for is going to immediately destroy the contents of that pane (e.g., Eject).
(Actually, it's annoying that any time one switches views to the iPod, it has to go fetch everything from the device again. Do you just not want to have to remember the contents, or are you worried that I'm changing the contents behind your back? If the latter, which is surely an unusual thing to do, I'd be happier if there were a Refresh command to handle that situation.)
Yeah, I agree. It's a little frustrating.
By the way, what does the menu item "Enable Auto-Eject on Close" mean?
With this option selected, when you close MC, the iPod is automatically ejected (OK to remove from the dock). This feature snuck in under my radar somehow, and I was quite happy to discover it. :)
crow
-
Ok this is gettin pretty annoying. It happened again...a lil differently this time tho'. I synch'd my ipod today after work and everything looked ok...even the ratings I changed on the ipod transferred over to MC, but now there's nothing on the ipod. This time, even when I try browsing the ipod from MC9 nothing shows up, but it still says only 14gb free (out of 37). Selecting the restore db from ipod option when right clicking on the ipod drive letter restored all the songs, but not the playlists. I had to synch again to restore the playlists.
-
yeah, i agree with 6400 songs it takes a while for mc to load the songs each time i click on the drive. it would be great if it remembered it after clicking it once.
-
Man, I think I might be onto something...
Four syncs, still going well. Hope my posting about this doesn't annoy anyone. And by the way, I haven't restored my system yet like I said I was. :D
Once I hit 10 syncs, then perhaps that should throw up a flag? What bug would this be caused from? The iPod or MC9?
Weird....
-
This my be relevant to the above problem or not. Here goes anyway.
I had similar synching problems with playlists and having to continually restore.
My music files are all on an external firewire drive and I was synching the iPOD via firewire too.
I bought the combined USB2/Firewire cable from Apple and now sync the iPOD using USB. The sync problems would seem to have disappeared. Albiet a lot slower.
The firewire half of the cable is now connected to the mains charger. So. it could be an issue with powering the iPOD from the firewire socket or a firmware issue with my firewire.
-
Mindracing,
I kind of have the setup you describe as having switched to and have the problem. I have my music on a external USB2.0 drive, I have the iPod connected to power via the split cable (Firewire cable to power and to the PC via the USB 2.0 cable).
Steve,
I tried re-initializing the iPod and things seem to work better. I am still getting the "Analyzing Devices" dialog for 1 to 3 minutes problem.
I did a sync with my first smartlist and that worked well. I then tried to sync with a second (manual) playlist and that transferred my music, but it seemed to transfer about 10-15 files and then seemed to restart the sync dialog to finish the other five. The result was a playlist that only had the last five songs on it (all of the music made it over fine). An immediate re-sync seemed to fix the playlist. I then did the rest of my playlists in a mass synchronize. When complete, I only saw a single playlist in my iPod. Again I re-synced immediately and my playlists were back in place.
Hope this helps shed some light. I can't figure out an explanation. Thanks for any help you can provide.
Gautam
-
Mindracing,
I kind of have the setup you describe as having switched to and have the problem. I have my music on a external USB2.0 drive, I have the iPod connected to power via the split cable (Firewire cable to power and to the PC via the USB 2.0 cable).
Steve,
I tried re-initializing the iPod and things seem to work better. I am still getting the "Analyzing Devices" dialog for 1 to 3 minutes problem.
I did a sync with my first smartlist and that worked well. I then tried to sync with a second (manual) playlist and that transferred my music, but it seemed to transfer about 10-15 files and then seemed to restart the sync dialog to finish the other five. The result was a playlist that only had the last five songs on it (all of the music made it over fine). An immediate re-sync seemed to fix the playlist. I then did the rest of my playlists in a mass synchronize. When complete, I only saw a single playlist in my iPod. Again I re-synced immediately and my playlists were back in place.
Hope this helps shed some light. I can't figure out an explanation. Thanks for any help you can provide.
Gautam
Gautam,
When I had this problem I noticed that the playlists didn't show up on the iPOD, they did show up as being on the iPOD from whithin MC.
To check this I used Anapod Explorer and the playlists were shown as being on the iPOD too.
Something in the sync causes the iPOD not to recognise the playlists. I have no idea what though.
Maybe you could email your iTUNES DB file to SteveG next time this happens, to see if it is the database or the way that the iPOD is interpreting the datbase that causes this.
-
Steve,
"Reinitialize" is a recurrent instruction that appears just about every day, regardless of product version being supported. The "last known stable version" yields the suggestion as frequently as the beta versions do. Reloading thousands of songs with each new problem is less inviting a solution than one would expect for a commercially released product. Has it only been within the past 30 days that I've been paying attention, or has "reinitialize your iPod" been a staple of JRiver's support portfolio all along?
-
Steve,
"Reinitialize" is a recurrent instruction that appears just about every day, regardless of product version being supported. The "last known stable version" yields the suggestion as frequently as the beta versions do. Reloading thousands of songs with each new problem is less inviting a solution than one would expect for a commercially released product. Has it only been within the past 30 days that I've been paying attention, or has "reinitialize your iPod" been a staple of JRiver's support portfolio all along?
Hmm, well no one on this thread with problems is using a commercially released product. Everyone (so far) is using one of the betas that are full of warnings about issues, instability, etc.
-
About what I posted earlier about plugging in the cable into the firewire port before plugging it into the iPod: that theory is out. Sixth sync later, that didn't work out well. A couple songs on a playlist didn't sync the ratings, so I did one more, and the playlists on the iPod were gone. Oh well. Restoring my system to that previous image sometime this week. ;D
-
Even though MC is a vast improvement on MM, I am still having problems with playing Audible files. I have a 3G Ipod 15Gb, with about 10 Gb of music on it, which I manage through MC. However, I also used to listen to Audible files, but since Ive been using MC I have not been succesful with them. After managing to get MC to put the audible programs on the Ipod, I cant get them to play. When I select an Audible file to play on the Ipod, nothing happens, however when I select play on any of the other tracks (MP3s) that I sync'ed at the same time, they play just fine. I'm using MC 9.1.307 (Regsitered) btw, but not for much longer if I cant get Audible to work. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
-
John (Canaro),
We have to solve this one step at a time. As of Friday you had what appeared to be a hardware problem ( the disconnect stuff) and a problem with playlists. Unless the hardware problem is solved, this could very probably effect the correct creation of the playlists. Are you still having the problem with iPod spontaneously disconnecting?
Steve,
I've been out of town until yesterday. Thanks for the suggestions. The hardware and auto disconnect seemed to be solved. I reinstalled everything related to iPod.
HOWEVER, playlist names are still missing upon synching. Resynching sometimes will enable the missing names to appear; but most of the time MC crashes within 30 seconds of the resynch.
If this were entirely software, I would think the entire iPod group would be raising hell over this (although I see I am not alone in the missing playlist problem). Could this be related to some corruption in the dbase? If so, how do I correct it?
I really need this problem solved or I need some other iPod software so I can use my (now) paperweight.
Thanks.
-
gbdesai,
I am still getting the "Analyzing Devices" dialog for 1 to 3 minutes problem.
What happens if you do not have a CD or DVD in the drive? What happens if you disconnect your CD/DVD burner? (I want to see what device is causing the 'Analyzing Devices' message. I cannot duplicate it here)
In regards to your specific Playlist issue, I strongly suspect you were doing conversions at the same time. If this is the case, I fixed the problem you were seeing and it will be in the next build of MC.
bvm, will and crow
why not insert a bunch of extra spaces between the user-given playlist name and its parenthesized parent.
Done in the next build. I think it looks akward, but we will see what others think.
I'd really like it if right-clicking on the ipod drive in "CD, DVD & Handhelds" didn't feel compelled to refresh the view pane
In the next build there is an option to "Show files at root" which you can opt out of so there will be no file retrieval at root. I already store the information, the time lag is the time it takes for MC to talk to the plugin. I think this will be a solution.
Niro,
but now there's nothing on the ipod.
Presumably when you disconnect the iPod and go to play. The fact that when you reconnect the files are not viewable under MC tells me that the iTunesDB is not getting written correctly. Could be a hardware issue in that while I am writing the file something disconnects. After it occurs, send me your iTunesDB so I can verify if the file is indeed incorrectly written. (steve @ jriver.com)
Bryan,
Waiting for results and then I will come up with a theory. Thanks.
Vivvy,
Remember you are on the support page here, so you are seeing people who are having issues, not the people who everything is working for. In regards to the reinitialize, when people are having problems, very often they are related to the iPod's interaction with other programs and the hardware itself. In order to quickly flush out these problems, a reinitialize helps to establish as near to a baseline as I can to troubleshoot. If you are interested in solving a problem you are having, which may or may not be MC's fault, you have to be willing to establish where the problem is. This requires more effort than "It didn't work, fix it".
-
Andshep,
Were you running iTunes at all? Are you saying you have never been able to play Audible files when using MC but you were running MusicMatch? If so, can you try reinitializing iPod from MC (you will lose all your data) and then transfer a few audible files and see if you can play them. If you cannot, I have more suggestions if you used iTunes.
John,
I think I remember that you are doing file conversions on the fly. I found and fixed a bug today that would have caused playlists to disappear when doing on the fly conversion of more than 10 files. It is fixed in the next build of MC. Please get it when it becomes available (tonight?) and let me know if you are set.
Steve
-
Steve:
Did you see my reply (#135)?
-
John,
I think I remember that you are doing file conversions on the fly. I found and fixed a bug today that would have caused playlists to disappear when doing on the fly conversion of more than 10 files. It is fixed in the next build of MC. Please get it when it becomes available (tonight?) and let me know if you are set.
Steve
I eagerly ;D look forward to a fix. .... 8)
Thanks.
-
Bryan,
Sorry, I missed that. Can you try creating some playlists and then populate them with files and sync them. If all works well, do multiple syncs until you see the problem. My best guess now is that there are some files that may be screwing up the Database. In particular look for the '|' character in any part of the tag. This could cause problems and possibly you have file(s) that are being synched sometimes and other times not (i.e. in a smartlist) which causes the sporadic appearance of your problem. Any other reliable reproduction of the problem will help.
Steve
-
Steve:
Can you try creating some playlists and then populate them with files and sync them. If all works well, do multiple syncs until you see the problem.
Not smartlists, just plain-jane playlists, right? Like, a few songs that do work. I can do that.
My best guess now is that there are some files that may be screwing up the Database. In particular look for the '|' character in any part of the tag. This could cause problems and possibly you have file(s) that are being synched sometimes and other times not (i.e. in a smartlist) which causes the sporadic appearance of your problem.
Any characters I should look for? Maybe you've got a good point, because I usually average 2 syncs a day. If there's a song with a weird character, perhaps that is the problem. Even better, what should I do to try and find these odd characters? Can I do it in MC9?
Bryan
-
Steve:
I've figured out the find and replace question myself. There's a few characters that came to mind that I assumed should be replaced.
° - Alt+0176
… - Alt+0133
| (already on the keyboard)
• - Alt+0149
Under Media Library, I typed in each of the characters above (one by one). Then, I selected all the songs that resulted, right-clicked, and went to Library Tools > Find and Replace. In that box, I made sure all the boxes were checked, entered the character in the Find What field, then left the Replace field blank. A few exceptions were the •, where I entered a dash (-) to replace it with.
I haven't made regular playlists yet, so I'll see how that goes so far. I hope that's okay for now Steve. :D Thanks for that idea!
Bryan
-
Steve,
I downloaded 309 (it still shows HH v76). I first started a synch with existing files on the iPod and MC crashed 10 songs into the synch.
I initialized the pod and started over. 195 songs into the synch and most do not have playlist names attached. The program, however, is still running and converting ape files on the fly. At this rate, it will take several hours (14 gig of files). I'll update in the morning.
-
Steve,
254 songs into the synching, including "on-the-fly" conversions of ape to mp3 and MC crashed again.
I'm coming to the conclusion that something does not allow graceful otf conversions when synching.
Do I re-rip, convert the ape to mp3 on my hd and then dump the ape files, or is there some other possibility?
P.S. I just tried to synch several mp3 only playlists and MC crashes within 15 seconds.
-
I've been using iTunes for a while and this past weekend decided to give MC9 another try.
So I reformatted the iPod, installed latest build, (whatever it was on Sat.), reformatted the iPod, and started from scratch.
I synched my iPod, but afterward found that my Audible files would not play. They appeared on the iPod, but would not play.
I like MC9, but I switched back to iTunes. I'll check back later when the bugs are worked out. (I'd stick around to help particpate in the troubleshooting, but since I had to pay $40 just to try MC9.1, I'll pass :)
-
Question: does the "Import iPod data into MC" item on the iPod device's right-click menu perform the first step of what a full Synchronize does when "Sync data to MC" is checked, or is it in any way different? From its name, I'm assuming it's the same, but the warning dialog that pops up ("This will overwrite MC tags with information from iPod") is slightly alarming. I'm hoping it really means "This will overwrite MC tags with information from iPod, except where you've made changes in MC more recently than your last synch".
By the way, I've noticed recently that the "deleting files not in synch" phase of the synch seems to be taking a lot longer than it used to -- about 50 seconds for my 2700 files. Is that unusual when, in fact, no files need to be deleted? (The rest of the synch takes 4-5 minutes, synching a reported 9298 playlist entries. I'm hoping that can someday be a lot faster, since most of those playlist entries are simple smartlists that could be tiny dynamic playlists ;) )
-
bvm, will and crow
why not insert a bunch of extra spaces between the user-given playlist name and its parenthesized parent.
Done in the next build. I think it looks akward, but we will see what others think.
Looks better to me, thanks (in the 309 build). I wouldn't mind twice that much space, even (the idea being to maximally hide the parent playlist information when looking at the iPod screen -- to me, if all I see after the real playlist name is whitespace followed by ..., that would be excellent).
-
Steve,
I just ran a "synch" for 1165 files -- 1157 were mp3 and 8 were ape. I deselected the "force file conversion."
Result: 1157 files transferred successfully WITH playlists and 8 unsupported files types (ape) not transferred.
My conclusion: Something in the file conversion on the fly does not work.
Do I convert my ape files to mp3 and forget any formatother than mp3 if my primary use of MC outside of my computer is the iPod?
Thanks
-
Reinitialized again. Confirmed PC playlists still do not download to iPod, regardless if synch or drag 'n drop. Now, another problem (v.308) of purchased downloads resident on PC will not download (or synch) to iPod. Error 3. I'm only using MC with iPod.
« Reply #138 on: November 19, 2003, 11:44:40 AM »
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Vivvy,
Remember you are on the support page here, so you are seeing people who are having issues, not the people who everything is working for. In regards to the reinitialize, when people are having problems, very often they are related to the iPod's interaction with other programs and the hardware itself. In order to quickly flush out these problems, a reinitialize helps to establish as near to a baseline as I can to troubleshoot. If you are interested in solving a problem you are having, which may or may not be MC's fault, you have to be willing to establish where the problem is. This requires more effort than "It didn't work, fix it".
« Reply #133 on: November 19, 2003, 09:13:56 AM »
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Steve,
"Reinitialize" is a recurrent instruction that appears just about every day, regardless of product version being supported. The "last known stable version" yields the suggestion as frequently as the beta versions do. Reloading thousands of songs with each new problem is less inviting a solution than one would expect for a commercially released product. Has it only been within the past 30 days that I've been paying attention, or has "reinitialize your iPod" been a staple of JRiver's support portfolio all along?
« Reply #122 on: November 18, 2003, 01:19:04 PM »
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Vivvy,
Reimported into MC. When MC installs it imports files from your PC. You can manually reimport and if you delete files that are in MC and then reimport them into MC while the files are still on iPod, it would explain what you are seeing. Try the reinitialize again.
Steve
« Reply #121 on: November 18, 2003, 12:53:28 PM »
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Vivvy,
More info please. Synching or drag and drop? Have you reimported tracks? Have you reinitialized?
Drag and drop. Reimported from where? These were loaded from MC. Reinitialized before initial install of MC.
« Reply #107 on: November 17, 2003, 03:52:37 AM »
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On .305 and still having the problem with PC playlists not downloading to the iPod with tunes. I have to manually add the downloaded songs to the iPod playlists (which have the same playlist name as their PC counterparts.) Why?
-
I've been using iTunes for a while and this past weekend decided to give MC9 another try.
So I reformatted the iPod, installed latest build, (whatever it was on Sat.), reformatted the iPod, and started from scratch.
I synched my iPod, but afterward found that my Audible files would not play. They appeared on the iPod, but would not play.
I like MC9, but I switched back to iTunes. I'll check back later when the bugs are worked out. (I'd stick around to help particpate in the troubleshooting, but since I had to pay $40 just to try MC9.1, I'll pass :)
This has been discussed on the board previously. In order to play purchased/protected content, you need to first sync one track with iTunes. This creates a key file on your iPod to allow protected content playback. After that, no more iTunes.
-
Steve,
build 308 309 v76; forced file conversion deselected:
I synched 3,414 songs to my iPod. 287 did not synch (all were ape files and this was expected). All playlists were in order (albeit with the annoying (and short lived-- I hope parentheses)).
My conclusion, unless something is wrong with my ape files (they play fine on my computer) there is something "haywire" when the force file conversion option is used during a synch (at least with ape files).
Ideas or suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks for your help.
-
Bryan,
I would not suggest renaming stuff yet, because we don't know where the problem is. I would suggest creating playlists and populate them with more and more files, synching after each add. See if you can then narrow down when the problem occurs. The characters I would be concerned about are '|' and '\'. Also if you see the problem, send me the iTunesDB so I can look at it.
John,
At this point you have a problem in the middle of doing on the fly conversions of ape files at file 254. Synching when not converting .ape is fine. Create a playlist (not smartlist) and add 20 .ape files and then sync them doing conversion. If all goes well, add 20 more. Resync. Repeat until you see the problem. Today I created 50 .ape tracks, and converted them on the fly to iPod without a problem.
parannoya,
I synched my iPod, but afterward found that my Audible files would not play. They appeared on the iPod, but would not play.
Please try bdjohns1 suggestion. iTunes does some weird permission things for .aa files on iPod. I know that if I Format my iPod from Windows so that it is truly clean and then transfer .aa files with MC they play fine. I think bdjohns1 suggestion can work as well.
bvm,
does the "Import iPod data into MC" item on the iPod device's right-click menu perform the first step of what a full Synchronize does when "Sync data to MC" is checked
Yes. I will modify the message so as not to alarm. In regards to the delete time, that does seem too long. Can anyone else confirm what bvm is reporting?
Vivvy,
Error 3 means the system cannot find the specified file. What happens if you try to play that file in MC? My guess is the path is messed up and it won'd play (or transfer to iPod). Do not use the 'Last known stable version' it is old. Use the latest. I really don't want to debate your stance on the reinitialize. As I pointed out, this is the best way to solve problems. If you want to solve your problem, please follow my suggestions.
Please do the following.
1) Reinitialize iPod.
2) Create a playlist in MC and add 10 files to it.
3) Play the playlist from within MC to verify that all files playback. Once a track starts to play you can skip to the next track.
4) Drag and drop the playlist on the iPod drive letter.
4) Upload files.
5) Post the results of this test and what Operating System you have.
-
Steve,
I built a 10 song ape file playlist. Selected force conversion on synch to: mp3 320 BR.
10 songs uploaded and ALL playlist names gone. Selected synch again with no additional songs and MC crashed within 10 seconds.
I deselected file conversion and resynched. Playlist names reappeared and ape files were not uploaded.
I don't get it.
I don't think I should have to forget ripping files into any format except mp3 but I can't figure it out and the time being wasted is really frustrating.
Thanks.
-
All-
Long time no speak. I've been away using an older beta, and was satisfied with its syncing abilities (playcounts only, on my 1.3OS 10 gig Ipod).
I upgraded to the newest beta last night (309), and now, despite several attempts, get the old "crazy numbers" on my play counts. Huge negative and positive numbers like 80244880 or whatever.
I've formatted with Windows, Restored using the Apple Updater, Initialized in MC, no luck.
I tried searching for the old solution to this, but I must be using the wrong search queries.
Can some please repost the way to get out of this cycle? Please give me every detail, as I remember that setting the date and time was crucial in the past....
And thanks in advance.
-
I thought everything was going fine & I went to try to download more songs to Ipod & as soon as I press handheld or letter f I get error message saying runtime has ask to terminate program in unusual way? Any suggestions please??
-
I agree with this comment:
"I like MC9, but I switched back to iTunes. I'll check back later when the bugs are worked out. (I'd stick around to help particpate in the troubleshooting, but since I had to pay $40 just to try MC9.1, I'll pass"
I'm quitting MC before the 30-day trial is up. I'm not about to provide free debugging services to help make a commercial product better. That's what software companies are supposed to do before release. Back to MusicMatch...
-
Further to the missing playlists saga:
Today I inserted my iPOD for a sync and got the 'ding' that says a new USB device has connectet.
Clicked on 'F' and the list expanded. No playlist, no albums, no artists and no genre.
Ejected iPOD and everything was there.
Re inserted and this time waited a while for MC to fully recognise the iPOD. Everything OK.
I have noticed before that MC is a bit behind all other software when recognising the iPOD.
I find that iPODsync, Anapod Explore and Windows Explorer see it correctly almost immediately. MC takes its time.
-
I know that there are some characters that the iPOD doesn't like in tag names but are there any that should be avoided for Playlist names?
Also, I know that playlist are sorted alphabetically, numbers before letters, but where do other characters end up? Start or End?
Thanks
-
John (and anyone converting more than 10 files at a time on the fly with disappearing playlists while synching)
Good news. I think I found the root of your problem. I have fixed it, but it will not be available until the next build of MC which won't be until next week. Sorry for the delay and for the aggravation.
mclaugh,
When you say you get the crazy numbers, is that when you have selected 'iPod' in the tree and are viewing the files on iPod from MC or is it in MC after the sync? I am unable to duplicate it with 1.3 firmware. Try this, close MC and from within Windows Explorer, go to your iPod\iPod_Control\iTunes directory and delete your 'Play Counts' file. Without opening MC, disconnect your iPod and play some files. Reconnect iPod and see if the playcounts are displayed correctly.
jniz,
Your iTunesDB is probably corrupted. Please try the following.. (you may end up losing all your data on the iPod, but hopefully not)
1) From Windows, go to your iPod\iPod_Control\iTunes directory and delete your iTunesDB file. When you view your iPod in MC you will not see your files listed. Your files are still there, they just are not recognized by MC.
2) Right click on your iPod drive letter and select 'Rebuild Database from iPod'. This will reconstruct your iTunesDB but will not recreate playlists.
3) If you want your playlists back, resync your iPod with your Playlists selected. This should go relatively quickly because MC will not need to retransfer the files, but only the Playlist data.
Ashley,
Any time delay you see is most likely attributable to the retrieval of the data from iPod's database, not the hardware connection iteself. You can verify this by deselecting the right click option 'Show files at root'. With this deselected, MC should recognize your iPod when it connects at virtually the same time as Explorer recognizes the iPod.
In regards to the playlists, the characters to watch out for are '|' and '\'. Monday's build will fully safeguard against any possibility of creating playlists with these characters. Currently MC does not support '\' in a Playlist name and if you have '|' in a playlist name it will be converted to a '?' character. What will change Monday is that you will no longer be able to manually create a playlist directly on iPod with those characters.
In regards to iPod's sorting of non alphabetic or numeric characters, I would have to test to be sure, it is determined by the firmware on iPod.
Everyone,
If you followed any of Vivvy's posts, let me make a few comments. I am always available to work with whatever problems users are having. The combination of layers of hardware, drivers, competing software solutions, the necessity for our own software to evolve, and no documentation on iPod from Apple,makes solving problems difficult and frustrating at times, but generally not impossible. In order to productively move towards solutions, it is necessary for users to cooperate with suggestions and be patient, I intend to return the same courtesy. Vivvy seems to want me to somehow solve his problems without his cooperation. I wish him well and look forward to helping others in whatever way I can.
Steve
-
I performed a playlist sync today and all of my ratings reset to 0!
Has anyone else experienced this?
If so what is the cause?
-
Ashley,
Were the ratings set to 0 on iPod? When you looked at the ratings for the files on iPod from within MC, did they have values other than 0?
I must go for the day, but will take a look at your reponse on Monday.
Steve
-
Everyone,
If you followed any of Vivvy's posts, let me make a few comments. I am always available to work with whatever problems users are having. The combination of layers of hardware, drivers, competing software solutions, the necessity for our own software to evolve, and no documentation on iPod from Apple,makes solving problems difficult and frustrating at times, but generally not impossible. In order to productively move towards solutions, it is necessary for users to cooperate with suggestions and be patient, I intend to return the same courtesy. Vivvy seems to want me to somehow solve his problems without his cooperation which is way too frustrating. I wish him well and look forward to helping others in whatever way I can.
Steve
I have been following Vivvy's post and fully understand his frustration. What I guess he misses is that we are working on a Beta and should expect the odd niggle causing frustration.
IMO contributing to MC and in particular the iPOD plug-ins development is a privilege and represents an excellent model of customer service: we have a problem - Steve helps fix it. We have an idea - Steve does his best to implement it.
How many other products give this level of service. I for one enjoy being involved, in a small way, in the development of such a great product. It is only through our problems and requests and Steve's responses that the product is of the form it now is.
Keep up the good work Steve, and everyone at J River.
-
Ashley,
Were the ratings set to 0 on iPod? When you looked at the ratings for the files on iPod from within MC, did they have values other than 0?
I must go for the day, but will take a look at your reponse on Monday.
Steve
Steve,
I don't set ratings on the iPOD, just in MC and I didn't look at the ratings on the iPOD. I just noticed that my Smartlist for 1 hours worth of rated 5 was empty. Then I found that all my ratings were gone.
Sorry to be vague. If it happens again I'll take more notice. I'll keep playlists containing the rated songs so that I can easily restore them should they get lost agian.
-
Ashley,
Any time delay you see is most likely attributable to the retrieval of the data from iPod's database, not the hardware connection iteself. You can verify this by deselecting the right click option 'Show files at root'. With this deselected, MC should recognize your iPod when it connects at virtually the same time as Explorer recognizes the iPod.
Where can I find this 'Show files at root' option. I can't see it when I right click on 'F'.
Would it be possible to include the volume adjustment dialogue on the sync dialogue? It would seem neater to me to have all sync options in one place.
-
Steve,
Thank you. I look forward to the fix. Will this also solve the crashing problem I've described?
BTW, frustrations aside, I echo Mindracing's comment about support. I've not encountered any company (beta or otherwise) that is as responsive as the JRiver folks -- thank you!
-
John (and anyone converting more than 10 files at a time on the fly with disappearing playlists while synching)
Good news. I think I found the root of your problem. I have fixed it, but it will not be available until the next build of MC which won't be until next week. Sorry for the delay and for the aggravation.
Awesome! Good job Steve!
-
Would it be possible to move the iPod/iTunes thread to a separate discussion board? I like to keep up with what's going on in this area but it's becoming increasingly difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff as the thread(s) grows longer. Searches on this topic are also becoming difficult.
I think the number of posts is a strong indicator of the level of interest in this area. Perhaps a forum for iPod as well as all other such handheld devices Media Jukebox/Media Center supports would be more appropriate?
Thanks!
-
Just to add a little backup to the Vivvy issue.
I really think a lot of his discontent stems from not being familiar with the interactive development approach of MC9.
When I first started using MC9 I was uncomfortable as well with the approach. I felt like I was a non-payed QA department.
But I kept with it and soon I was able to see some of my recommendations make it into the software.
Neat, thought I. This is fun. And as the product has progressed I've found it quite an enjoyable experience. Worth treble the money I paid for the software.
True, it's not for all. Some folks prefer the the standard approach: you get what they give you--no input at all (or very little).
I prefer to have my voice heard and see fast results.
So, hats off to you Steve, don't let 'em get to you. ;D
Adam
-
Hi,
I would appreciate some help with an iPod sync problem I'm having.
I have been syncing successfully (always latest MC build, 40Gb iPOD) for a few weeks - no music transfer, just updating a few playlists / ratings. Yesterday I added 3 new CDS to MC, which were automatically included in some of my smart playlists. I synced as normal (with both 'delete files not in sync' and 'transfer data to MC' ticked), and the files appeared to transfer successfully.
After disconnecting, I had no playlists - only a single 'entry' in the playlist screen which was an empty space. This 'playlist' was an empty list. Also, the 3 new albums were not to be found no matter where I looked on the iPod. I reconnected, and the 3 albums DID show up in the g:\ view on MC.
I deduced there must be a problem with the DB, so I selected the 'rebuild iPod DB' option. This completed in about 15 seconds (I have about 35Gb of music, so surprised it was so quick!). I then did another sync, and ALL my files transferred again to the iPod.
Would like to understand what is going on, and if I can try to avoid this in future! I'm not bothered about the odd resync, but it took ages to redownload all my music! By the way, I am not using any other iPod software on the PC.
Thanks,
Mark.
PS Sorry for the long post - I tried to be as detailed as possible, in case that helps.
-
John (and anyone converting more than 10 files at a time on the fly with disappearing playlists while synching)
Good news. I think I found the root of your problem. I have fixed it, but it will not be available until the next build of MC which won't be until next week. Sorry for the delay and for the aggravation.
mclaugh,
When you say you get the crazy numbers, is that when you have selected 'iPod' in the tree and are viewing the files on iPod from MC or is it in MC after the sync? I am unable to duplicate it with 1.3 firmware. Try this, close MC and from within Windows Explorer, go to your iPod\iPod_Control\iTunes directory and delete your 'Play Counts' file. Without opening MC, disconnect your iPod and play some files. Reconnect iPod and see if the playcounts are displayed correctly.
jniz,
Your iTunesDB is probably corrupted. Please try the following.. (you may end up losing all your data on the iPod, but hopefully not)
1) From Windows, go to your iPod\iPod_Control\iTunes directory and delete your iTunesDB file. When you view your iPod in MC you will not see your files listed. Your files are still there, they just are not recognized by MC.
2) Right click on your iPod drive letter and select 'Rebuild Database from iPod'. This will reconstruct your iTunesDB but will not recreate playlists.
3) If you want your playlists back, resync your iPod with your Playlists selected. This should go relatively quickly because MC will not need to retransfer the files, but only the Playlist data.
Ashley,
Any time delay you see is most likely attributable to the retrieval of the data from iPod's database, not the hardware connection iteself. You can verify this by deselecting the right click option 'Show files at root'. With this deselected, MC should recognize your iPod when it connects at virtually the same time as Explorer recognizes the iPod.
In regards to the playlists, the characters to watch out for are '|' and '\'. Monday's build will fully safeguard against any possibility of creating playlists with these characters. Currently MC does not support '\' in a Playlist name and if you have '|' in a playlist name it will be converted to a '?' character. What will change Monday is that you will no longer be able to manually create a playlist directly on iPod with those characters.
In regards to iPod's sorting of non alphabetic or numeric characters, I would have to test to be sure, it is determined by the firmware on iPod.
Everyone,
If you followed any of Vivvy's posts, let me make a few comments. I am always available to work with whatever problems users are having. The combination of layers of hardware, drivers, competing software solutions, the necessity for our own software to evolve, and no documentation on iPod from Apple,makes solving problems difficult and frustrating at times, but generally not impossible. In order to productively move towards solutions, it is necessary for users to cooperate with suggestions and be patient, I intend to return the same courtesy. Vivvy seems to want me to somehow solve his problems without his cooperation. I wish him well and look forward to helping others in whatever way I can.
Steve
-
My bad!!I got things working again thankyou Ashley and Adam I refromated my ipod & it worked fine. Can you tell where to go, to make mc9 most compatibale with xp pro I have read a lot of different things. I have gen 3 with new update should I get rid of ipod manager? Things like that ect. I do like this program
-
Mark:
There's been this bug that we've been having to deal with, which was exactly what you described. Plus, the steps you took to rebuild the database is what's needed to be done to get the playlists to show up again.
Quoted from Steve on 01:02 PM CST Friday, November 21, 2003
Good news. I think I found the root of your problem. I have fixed it, but it will not be available until the next build of MC which won't be until next week. Sorry for the delay and for the aggravation.
jniz:
Get rid of iPod manager because...Adam (Shawley) said to. I forget the reason, but I know it's a good one. ;D Everything else should be fine.
Keep track of this MC9 forum (not just this thread) for the latest builds. I'm running Windows XP Pro as well, and other than that playlist bug, MC9 runs very well on my system.
Cheers!
Bryan
-
In the last few months I've noticed that you can't disconnect your iPod using the Windows "Unplug or Eject Hardware" proggy that appears in your system tray while MC is running. This never used to be a problem - but I'm sorry I don't know what version the problem was introduced in as I missed out a whole load.
Also - if you try to use the Eject Ipod function within MC, the iPod correctly goes to "OK to disconnect" but it appears that Windows wasn't aware that the device has been ejected because when you remove the iPod from its dock, Windows slaps your wrists and says that it wasn't properly dismounted and you risk loosing data.
Therefore - the only way to correctly remove your iPod at present is to quit MC and then use the Windows "Remove hardware" thingy. This definately never used to be the case...
Media Center Registered 9.1.309 -- C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center\
Microsoft Windows 2000 Workstation 5.0 Service Pack 4 (Build 2195)
AMD Athlon 1797 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 523 MB, Free - 261 MB
Internet Explorer: 6.0.2800.1106 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.81 / Shlwapi.dll: 6.00.2800.1276 / Shell32.dll: 5.00.3700.6705 / wnaspi32.dll: N/A
Ripping / Drive D: Copy mode:Normal CD Type:Auto Read speed:Max
Digital playback: Yes / Use YADB: Yes / Get cover art: Yes / Calc replay gain: Yes / Copy volume: 32767
Eject after ripping: Yes / Play sound after ripping: No
Burning / No burners found.
Test mode: No / Eject after writing: Yes / Direct decoding: Yes / Write CD-Text: No
Use playback settings: No / Normalization: None
-
BoothUK,
Im running XP Pro and have no problem ejecting the sys tray app while MC is running. Check that nothing else is 'hanging on' to the iPOD.
-
My bad!!I got things working again thankyou Ashley and Adam I refromated my ipod & it worked fine. Can you tell where to go, to make mc9 most compatibale with xp pro I have read a lot of different things. I have gen 3 with new update should I get rid of ipod manager? Things like that ect. I do like this program
In my experience the only way to be totally reliable is to run nothing else except MC with the iPOD. I only need to use Audible Manager to download the aa files from Audible bu I use MC to sync them and this works fine.
If you do have Audible Manager check that it's not running iPOD manager in the background as I've found it doesn't exit sometimes when you exit AM. Best to just remove iPODManager all together IMO.
-
I am having new problems with my iPod.
When I dock the iPod, Windows picks it up. MC does too, but there's another listing in my Handheld list (called "Lyra" -- I had a Lyra about a year ago, but I haven't plugged it into my computer since last winter, and it just showed up all of a sudden). You can see a screenshot below. I have Restored my iPod, and when I come back into MC and right-click the iPod, all I get is "Format" (also visible in the screenshot).
Here is the screenshot:
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-9/384749/ipod(Medium).JPG (http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-9/384749/ipod(Medium).JPG)
By the way, the screenshot was taken before I Restored. Notice that it shows no songs on the iPod, even though they are there. Along the bottom, it shows that there is only 5.1 gig free (of the 30 gig). Even after the Restore, it shows only "Format" on the right-click menu. EDIT: I just looked at the screenshot again, and it was taken AFTER my Restore. But it did act the way I described before the restore. Thanks.
What is going on?
Thanks for any help,
crow
Media Center Registered 9.1.309 -- C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center\
Microsoft Windows XP Workstation 5.1 Service Pack 1 (Build 2600)
Intel Pentium 4 2253 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 523 MB, Free - 240 MB
Internet Explorer: 6.0.2800.1106 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.82 (xpsp1.020828-1920) / Shlwapi.dll: 6.00.2800.1276 / Shell32.dll: 6.00.2800.1233 (xpsp2.030604-1804) / wnaspi32.dll: 4.71 (0002) , ASPI for Win32 DLL, Copyright © 1989-2002 Adaptec, Inc. / Aspi32.sys: 4.71 (0002)
Ripping / Drive D: Copy mode:Normal CD Type:Auto Read speed:Max
Drive E: Copy mode:Normal CD Type:Auto Read speed:Max
Digital playback: Yes / Use YADB: Yes / Get cover art: Yes / Calc replay gain: Yes / Copy volume: 32767
Eject after ripping: No / Play sound after ripping: No
Burning / Drive E: LITE-ON LTR-40125S Addr: 1:1:0 Speed:40 MaxSpeed:40 BurnProof:Yes
Test mode: No / Eject after writing: Yes / Direct decoding: Yes / Write CD-Text: Yes
Use playback settings: No / Normalization: None
-
Mindracing,
I don't think anything is. I've got iTunes installed but I don't use it and the iPod Manager service is disabled. Besides - it always works as soon as I quit MC - so surely it's MC that's causing the problem.
Other than this MC works perfectly for me! ;)
-
When you install iTUNES it removes iPOD Manager as it's not needed. Did you reinstall it?
If you didn't it may be that your iTUNES installation's not wuite right. Try uninstalling it and iPOD manager and then see what happens.
Can you eject the iPOD from within MC OK?
-
After removing a few songs and adding a few others to the MC9 library...I synch'd my ipod, after that synch there were no playlists on the ipod (except "on the go") and also there were no songs on it when browsing. Going to settings/about listed 0 songs...but still 24 gigs occupied. I then rebuild the ipod database from MC9, which restored all my songs but not the playlists...then I had to resynch again to get the playlists back.
I'm using MC9.1.306.
Oh yea..I looked at the itunesdb file on the ipod, it was completely empty (0 bytes).
-
OK,
I got it to work. I had to turn off "Enable WMDM detection" in the Plugin manager. Then it worked -- I was able to initialize and sync.
But I got a "file type not supported" error for my iTMS files (m4p). The "iscinfo" file is on the iPod....
crow
-
Nevermind,
A reinstall fixed it. Sorry for wasting board space :-[
crow
-
Sorry yes - it's not iPod Manager - but the iPod service that accompanies iTunes that I disabled in the Services control panel. Therefore I'm sure it's not iTunes which is causing the problem.
It was definately an upgrade of MC which started this behaviour. I'm just surprised more people aren't seeing it.
I'll try completely removing iTunes when I've got a minute and see if the problem persists.
Thanks!
-
Everyone,
Thanks for the words of encouragement, the whole Vivvy affair was a drain. Also, thanks to all for helping field questions over the weekend, that is a big help. Also, this thread has grown large again. I will lock this one and start a new one.
Ashley,
Update me when you can if you see the ratings issue again. Try to confirm that it was the sync that caused the ratings to go away as opposed to something else. The show files at root should be available as a right-click option at the root letter. If not, try getting the next build and then you should be able to see it. In regards to the volume adjustment, this option is iPod specific and the sync dialogue is not, so for now it is best to leave it in the right click.
John,
Hopefully. It is hard to say what the crash was all about as I could not replicate it here.
SomeOneWho,
Not at this time. Sorry. After this post, I will open a new thread and close this one so it is not so cumbersome to navigate.
Mark,
The fact that the rebuild went so quickly and the files all retransfered leads me to believe that when you synched with 'delete files not in sync' checked, you may not have had all the playlsits you wanted selected, or MC did not recognize them, or perhaps you had reimported files which were already on iPod. Any of these situations would cause the files to delete on iPod which would be consistent with what you saw. Hard to say. If you see it again, please view your iPod from Windows and check if the music files are on the iPod. Also, copy and send me your iTunesDB so I can see what you are seeing.
BoothUK,
I am unable to duplicate this. Please update me when you remove iTunes and see if anything changes.
Niro,
I am not sure. I cannot duplicate this. Have you seen this consistently or was this a one time thing? If you see it again, please send me the iTunesDB.