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[neo]

Steve:

Well, I just spent over an hour trying to get playlists to disappear, to no avail.  While this might make you happy, it has made me quite frustrated. Several thoughts:

* My actual smartlists may be differentiated from other peoples by several factors which I did not test: some smartlists with lots of tracks (200-400 tracks per smartlist) and some smartlists with few very large tracks (maybe 5 tracks at 300-400MB each).

* Having to manually log everything probably overconstrains my (and others) usage patterns.  I may otherwise be doing things that I may not be thinking of right now.  I think it would be VERY USEFUL if you could enable some kind of logging to a text file.

I will continue to test things out . . . :(

n

[neo]

Steve:

I figured as much.  Just as I was through for the night, I went to check the pod, and the playlists are gone.  Here is what I did:

* After all of the previous testing (which I did keep a detailed log of), I deleted the test smartlist and synced.
* Uploaded smartlists with the following specs:
  * smartlist 1, 13 files, 75 MB
  * smartlist 2, 3 files, 155 MB
  * smartlist 3, 6 files, 538 MB
  * smartlist 4, 100 files, 678 MB
  * smartlist 5, 140 files, 870 MB
  * smartlist 6, 124 files, 1.3 GB

Maybe smartlist length and/or file size actually is an issue . . .  My smartlist criteria are typically rating and genre based (for example "all trance, exclude anything with a rating of 1-3").

After an initialize, all of the same smartlists synced fine.

n

[cj]

This isn't playlist related, sorry. I haven't had any problems with playlists. I guess that's good:)
My goal is to sync all of my lame VBR mp3 files to the ipod at a fixed 128 kpbs with the convert option in the synchronization dialog.  I've been trying to do this ever since I bought Media Center and it has always behaved the same for me. I haven't tried too much with it, but the basic scenario is this. It converts and downloads some number of files. In this case it finishes 1544 of 2536 files. I'm sinking multiple playlists, but it doesn't appear to ever get through the first one. After the 1544th file, Media Center exits. No crash notification for XP or anything. It's just gone. Everytime I try to synch again Media Center just disapears. Is there anything else I can try to make this work? Does converting from one type to another work for anyone else with the iPod?

Thanks,
Craig
-------------------------------



Media Center Registered 10.0.11 -- C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center\

Microsoft Windows XP  Workstation 5.1 Service Pack 1 (Build 2600)
AMD Athlon 2000 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 785 MB, Free - 518 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: LITE-ON  LTR-48125W         Addr: 1:0:0  Speed:48  MaxSpeed:48  BurnProof:Yes
  Test mode: No /  Eject after writing: Yes /  Direct decoding: Yes /  Write CD-Text: No
  Use playback settings: No /  Normalization: None

[SteveG]

rhaehnel,

Can you try to recreate this reliably (i.e. when I create playlist 'A' and sync it fails eveytime)? I realize this may not be possible, but if you can that would help.

Bryan,

Those smartlists appear fine. Please add them one at a time and disconnect and make sure the playlists are still there.

neo,

Thanks for your testing and reporting. The initialize from within iPod is what I am after. In regards to logging, I am not sure what to log until I can narrow this down some. Could you try (after a reinitialize) synching each of your smartlists individually and then disconnect and make sure all is well. Post for me the rules for each list and if you find one that screws up, that would give me a good place to start and then I will log it for issues that may cause the disappearance. Also do you have 'Delete unselected files from Portable' or 'Sync data to MC' checked? If you have "Delete unselected" checked and are still having problems, please test with it unselected.

Craig,

Can you isolate what is the 1544th file and then try to transfer that one individually with conversion enabled to see if that file is the problem?

[btvillarin]

Alright Steve...

This morning, I did one last sync with my Best, Best 1 WK, and Comedy playlists (cuz I did the same last night as the night before), and it sync'd fine.

Now, as you said, I was going to start adding smartlists one at a time, disconnecting afterwards.  I started with my Not Rated playlist.  After I sync'd, they disappeared from my iPod.

I looked in that playlist and saw one file that had an é (Alt+0233) in its filename and track name.  I'm changing and searching for more, then attempting again.

Suggestions?

[SteveG]

Bryan,

Please rerun the test with "Delete unselected files" unchecked and see what happens.

Thanks,

Steve

[btvillarin]

Steve:

*LoL*  I weeded all the é characters from my library.

1. NR
After removing that é character, that playlist sync'd fine.  I move on...

2. 3+
Sync'd OK

3. Alt. Only
Sync'd OK

4. Best <1 WK
Sync'd OK

So far, so good Steve...

[btvillarin]

5. Recent Imports
Sync'd OK

6. 1 Week Old
Sync'd OK

7. Slower Stuff
Sync'd OK

8. Fast Music
Syn'd OK

The Worst smartlist is only there to delete the songs I rate 1 & 2.  Was that é destroying my playlists?

[SteveG]

Bryan,

That seems unlikely. Do you have 'Delete files' checked or unchecked.

Steve

[btvillarin]

It's always checked.

[SteveG]

Bryan,

Can you try synching 'Not Rated' with some of the  é (Alt+0233) characters. I want to definitively rule that out. If that works, try to recreate this test..

This morning, I did one last sync with my Best, Best 1 WK, and Comedy playlists (cuz I did the same last night as the night before), and it sync'd fine.

Now, as you said, I was going to start adding smartlists one at a time, disconnecting afterwards.  I started with my Not Rated playlist.  After I sync'd, they disappeared from my iPod.

From a clean iPod Sync with  Best, Best 1 WK, and Comedy playlists only. Disconnect make sure all is well. Then add Not Rated and see if you can duplicate the disappearance.

Thanks again,

Steve

[btvillarin]

1. Initialized iPod

2. Sync'd Best, Best 1 WK, and Comedy smartlists. *OK*

3. Added é to 6 MP3s of the same artist, then sync'd Not Rated smartlist. *OK*
What in the world!?! Ugh...

4. Been listening to my NR smartlist with MC, rating songs today, so I'm syncing the same lists again. *OK*

Now I don't know what's goin' on.  Perhaps I overlooked a initialize after upgrading builds?  I don't know, anymore ideas you'd like me to try?  I'll go about my usual usage, making sure to remember what steps I did if something goes wrong.

[SteveG]

Everyone,

Let me summarize where the mysterious playlist situation is.

Bryan is no longer having the problem. Rhaehnel should try recreating the problem consistently and verify that plugin 9.0.83 is installed. Neo was doing well until he synced all his smartlists and I have asked Neo to add each smartlist individually checking that playlists exist after each sync to try to isolate the problem.  I am still unable to duplicate the problem, so I apologize for not declaring it finished yet. Thanks to all for help.

[btvillarin]

Bryan is no longer having the problem.

Scratch that.  Over the past hour or so, I've rated quite a few songs, edited a bunch of Unknown and Blank genres, and edited the Date (Year) value for a few CDs here and there.  I saved the library, then just ran a sync.  I disconnect, and see my iPod playlists gone.

Honestly, I'm stumped.  I didn't do anything out of the ordinary than try and continue organizing my MP3s.  *LoL*

Well, I did use Palm2iPod to get my contacts and addresses onto my iPod, hoping that this issue was gone.  But I even did a few syncs after that instance.

The smartlists I had on it were the ones that have been working: Best, Best 1 WK, Comedy...oops, and Not Rated. ?

Sorry Steve...

[Madcow]

Just had the disappearing playlists problem with the following:

Media Center 10.0.12
iPod plugin 9.0.83

I have two iPods (mine and my wife's).  I sync'd mine - fine, no problem.  Ejected it, put my wife's iPod in, sync'd it - no playlists.  Will now have to initialise it and start over.

I made NO changes to smartlists, playlists, ratings or anything between the two syncs.  The only difference was the fact that it was two different iPods.

Does this help at all?

[gwj]

Does anyone have any experience in using the Griffin Technology iTRIP accessory to the iPOD?

Does it work with Media Centre in transfering the Statio list?

Graham J

[ashawley]

Graham:

The iTrip works fine with MC9 and the iPod.  The only potential problem you could have is in importing the mp3 files into MC9.  Be default MC9 skips files under 5 seconds long when importing.  Make sure you have this option turned off.  You'll find it on the Import Media dialog box, it's only visable when you click the "Advanced" button.

Once that's checked the mp3 files will import fine.

I guess I shouldn't assume that you know you're supposed to copy the MP3 radio station files from the CD to your computer and then import them into MC9.  Then add them to a Playlist and sync that w/your iPod.

Adam

[neo]

Steve:

I did the tests you asked for, as follows:

* Initialize pod
* Sync smartlist
* Verify smartlist on pod

I did this once for each playlist, and it worked fine.  I thought it would, as initializing is what I have always done to clear up problems.

The problem Bryan and I are having seem to always be after a flurry of activity, including id3 and library tag changes, moves and/or renames, imports, changing smartlists around, adding and removing smartlists from the pod, but only once it has been a while since the last MC init.  I would guess this is some type of synergistic bug that will not be solved by isolating potential causes.

Re: logging, I would say start as follows: in the callback for the sync>Start button, before you actually do the transfer, take a snapshot of the MC library (or maybe just the file information for the files being synced) and the itunesdb file (and any other relevant files on the pod), and do the same directly after the sync.  In addition, log all of the operations that occur ("Delete files", "Update files", "Sync data", et al.).  Then it will be very easy to see 1) what information is being sent where, and 2) how that information is being received, and you will have before and after to make comparisons.  I would start with only saving the snapshot for the most recent sync.  I have lots of hard drive space, and I am willing to be a guinea pig, so if you want to create a special binary and send it to me, I will keep logging until I get it to work (i.e. break), and then send you the information.

n

[serf]

I'm not a very good beta tester, as I don't have a lot of time to follow the prescribed protocol.

I used lame to rip 5 CDs for about 50 songs.  I imported them into the libarary.  I analyzed the audio for the new songs.  I shut down MC10.12, and safely disconnected the iPod.  I restarted MC10.12 & reconnected the iPod.  I synched.  I lost all playlists.  I restored using the Apple software, reinitialized and I'm re-synching now, which has worked in the past.

This happens every time I import new songs.

Steve

[Jonny5]

Will the latest iPod plugins work in 9.1 or just 10?
Version 9.1 does everything I could ever need (plus a whole lot more) but I still get the dissapearing playlist problem everytime I sync after importing a new track.  I just rebuild the iPod database and sync again and eveything is fine again until the next time I add a song to my library.

I'm guessing the .316 build will be the last 9.1 beta.  I'd be rather unhappy if I had to purchase version 10 just to sort out the only problem I have with the software.  I only purchased version 9 two months ago.  

[SteveG]

Everyone,

Based on last night's reports I made modifications that I hope will fix the playlist issue. Please either get tonight's build of MC 10 or Plugin 9.0.84 which is now available and give it a try from a cleanly initialized iPod. Thanks for your help testing this.


Jonny5,

The problem should be fixed from the plugin which will not require an upgrade to 10.  

[Jonny5]

Excellent news.
Thanks Steve.

[btvillarin]

Thanks Steve!  I'll do this when I get home later this afternoon.  (Note to self: initialize iPod beforehand)  

[MarkGrigsby]

Steve,

Bad news I'm afraid    My playlists just disappeared again...  These are the exact steps I took this evening :

1.  Installed new plugin version
2.  Re-initialised iPod in MC
3.  Synced all my music back to iPod.  I have 4 non-overlapping smartlists which contain various types of music (5300 songs),  and 5 playlists which I created manually to select certain albums.
4.  Disconnected, played some tracks.
5.  Imported a new album to MC.  Album automatically picked up by one of my smartlists.  I also created a manual playlist for the album.
6.  Connected iPod.  Selected same playlists as before to sync, plus the new manual playlist.  Synced with 'transfer data to MC' checked.
7.  Disconnected iPod.  Playlists gone.

Unfortunately I don't have time right now to do in-depth testing starting with few songs, adding playlists etc.  May be able to this weekend, if needed.

Cheers, and please don't give up - I'm sure you'll figure it out in the end!

Mark

[neo]

Steve:

AHA!!!  I have a reproducable case (but maybe not the only one)!

To reproduce:

* Initialize, or not (I did both ways, with no difference).

* Load up some smartlists (SLs).  For me:
SL1
SL2
SL3
SL5

* Eject and make sure everything is cool.

* Now, add SL4.  Since MC sends SLs in order, the send order will be:
SL1
SL2
SL3
SL4
SL5

with SL4 being the only one which is actually being added; all of the others are only being updated.  IMPORTANT: Make sure SL4 will take 3-4 minutes to upload.

* While MC is sending SL4, make changes to SL5.  In my case, I changed some track ratings in SL5 which would cause the tracks to be excluded from SL5.  To force the change, I selected another SL, and then back to SL5.  In addition to fewer tracks, SL5 also has [Sort:Random].  So, switching the view to another SL and back has now committed two changes: fewer tracks, and re-randomization.

The key here is that these changes were made _after_ the sync was started but _before_ the sync process tried to update SL5.  I tried this 3 times, and playlists disappeared all three times.

Strangely, I now feel better about my disappearing-playlist ipod . . . :)

Anyone want to confirm?

n

P.S.: All of this was after installing plugin 9.0.84.

[btvillarin]

SL1
1 Week Old
playlistid==500943823 [Last Played]=>10080

SL2
3+ (id 500943823)
[Rating]=>=3 ~s=1000 -[Genre]=[Comedy]

SL3
Rock Stuff
playlistid==500943823 -[Genre]=[Pop],[R&B],[Soundtrack]

SL4
Best (id 892713907)
[Rating]=>=4 ~s=5000 -[Genre]=[Comedy],[Soundtrack]

SL5
Best 1 WK
playlistid==892713907 [Last Played]=>=10080

SL6
Christmas
[Media Type]=[Audio] [Album]=Christmas OR [Name]=Christmas OR [Filename (path)]=Christmas ~s=1000

SL7
Comedy
[Rating]=>=3 [Genre]=[Comedy] ~s=500

SL8
NR
[media type]=[audio] [rating]==0 ~s=1000 -[Genre]=[Comedy],[Halloween]

SL9
Pop n Stuff
playlistid==892713907 [Genre]=[Pop],[Pop Rock],[R&B]

SL10
Recent Imports
[Media Type]=[Audio] [Date Imported]=<=30240 ~s=500

I redid my smartlists because some were based on other smartlists...so I simplified them a bit.  Here's a thorough log:

1. Initialize
2. Sync SL4
3. Disconnect *OK*
4. Sync SL5
5. Disconnect *OK*
6. Sync SL7
7. Disconnect *OK*
8. Sync SL8
9. Disconnect *OK*
10. Sync SL9
11. Disconnect *OK
12. Sync SL2
13. Disconnect *OK*
14. Sync SL3
15. Disconnect *OK*
16. Listened to 5 songs from SL5
17. Rated about 37 songs from SL8
18. Sync current smartlists
19. Disconnect *Choke*

[btvillarin]

20. Initialize
21. Sync SL2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9
22. Disconnect *OK*
23. Listen to SL8 and rated 37 songs
24. Sync
25. Disconnect *OK*

[NickM]

Not sure how many people use the iTrip - I just got mine from Griffin and it's fantastic.

The software that comes with it doesn't install unless it can find MMJ. That horrible beast has been long since removed from my system, so perhaps this might help for those in a similar position.

On the CD that comes with the iTrip is a directory called “All”. Copy the MP3 files from this to a temporary location on your HDD and import them into MC.  (May just be a particular bug in 10.0.13, but I couldn’t import directly from the CD.)

Add a playlist group called iTrip and within that a playlist called Frequency.  Add the files that you have just imported to the Frequency playlist.  Then sync this playlist with your iPod.

On the iPod select the corresponding frequency that you want the iTrip to transmit on from the playlist and play, stopping when the iTrip LED flashes rapidly.  The LED flashes three times slowly to indicate the frequency has been stored.  

That’s it.  The less software the better…

nick

[tlongacre]

NickM,

Nice to know you are having a good experience with the iTrip. I wonder where you live -- somewhere in the country? In the San Francisco Bay Area where I live, the iTrip is basically useless 'cause there's no clear station to use. This, of course, isn't the iTrip's fault, but it is a big problem in many places.

[NickM]

Singapore - our bandwidth is fairly congested too.  The frequency list is in 0.2MHz increments from 87.9 to 107.9

Hope one of them works for you!

nick

[btvillarin]

26. 8 hours later, Sync
27. Disconnect *CHOKE*

[SteveG]

Bryan,

Thanks for the testing, a clear pattern is still not evident, but thank you for the detailed reports.

Neo,

Thanks for your report. I cannot duplicate it. I will continue to try with larger numbers of files, but this complicates looking for a pattern.


Everyone,

I will build a version soon that will log information that will hopefully give us a solution.  I have manually checked the failed iTunesDB's that have been sent to me and cannot see a problem. The fact that MC sees all the data implies that most everything is correct. Why iPod does not recognize the playlist data sporadically is still a mystery.


Thanks for everyone's patience.

Steve

[wrighto]

Hi,

I am very new to my Ipod (40 GB / Dock) and this software.

I have purchase the iTRIP attachment (FM transmitter) and on attempting to install the appropriate software into the iPod, iTrip is asking for MusicMatch software to be installed.

(Presumably because that was the MP3 software which came with the iPod. If this software has been discarded in favour of Media Jukebox and the iPod re-formatted as per instructions, how can I download the iTrip software into the iPod through Media centre (vsn 9)

Thanks.
Chris (U.K)

[ashawley]

wrighto:

Look for my post about 10 posts up or so.  I answer this same question.

In fact, I just did this last night.  Copy the mp3s on the CD to your PC (they are in a folder called "US" or "All" if you want international stations).

Them import them into MC9 per the instructions in my post, then add them to a Playlist and sync.

I suggest that you filter out that playlist from any other smartlists you've made.

Adam

[btvillarin]

I think I'll limit the # of playlists I sync onto my iPod.  I don't know.

28. Initialize
29. Sync SL2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9 (unchecked "Sync data to MC")
30. Disconnect *OK*
31. Listened to about 30 songs from SL5
32. Sync SL2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9 (re-checked "Sync data to MC")
33. Disconnect *CHOKE*

[bd6675]

Hello there,

    I have a reoccurring problem that spans multiple MC9 & MC10 versions.  First, I have a 40g iPod on a Windows XP Professional machine running MC 10.0.13.  Whenever I attempt add a new track or set of tracks to my iPod it adds the tracks into the new playlist I just created, however, it also adds each of those tracks in random playlists as well.  So if I add an album that has 13 tracks it will put all 13 tracks in the new playlist I just created, however, it also adds those 13 tracks (in groups of 1, 2, or 3 and never does it add duplicate tracks) to random playlists throughout my list of playlists until all 13 tracks have been used.  When I look at the iPod itself after I disconnect it, it does not show any of my playlists except the On-The-Go playlist, however, all the songs are on the iPod but they are not placed in playlists.  The only way for me to fix this is to rebuild iPod from database and then synch all the playlists again and everything is fine until I need to add more tracks and I have to go through this whole process again.  When I synch I have both Delete Unselected Files From Portable and Synch Data To MC checked.   I am not sure if that makes sense.....it is sort of hard to describe...  Any help on this would be most appreciated.

Thanks,

Chris

[bd6675]

Hello again,

     I forgot to add that my iPod is running 2.1 and that the same thing happened on the previous version 2.0.1 but not as often.

Thanks,

Chris

[btvillarin]

After I sync'd tonight before going to bed, before I disconnected my iPod, I browsed through it via MC9.  Looking through the playlists available, just checking to see if everything was OK, my Not Rated playlist wasn't right...cuz almost all of the songs under it had ratings.  After a rebuild and another sync, things were fine.  ?

[packyb]

i have no idea what is going on with my ipod. i have a 30GB ipod and the latest version of MC10. I have used MC and my iPod for 9 months now, and haven't encountered any major obstacles - until now.

i store all of my music on my hard drive in .ape format, and when I transfer it to my ipod I convert it to mp3 (192).

it had been a week or so since I had connected my ipod to my computer, so I connected it to take some songs off and add some new ones; and when I opened MC, the music on my ipod was gone. It said that 27.7GB was used, and that 44.8MB was available, but all of the information fields were blank. I disconnected the ipod, and sure enough all of my music was gone. ok.

right clicked the g: drive and intitialized ipod. selected 100 songs to transfer, started the transfer, and it decoded/encoded/sent the first group of 10 songs (it always sends 10 at a time), but then it still appeared as if it were working, but no other songs were actually sent to the ipod. At the end, a pop-up appeared with the remaining songs listed and the statement "The following is a list of files that failed to transfer with and error code," and then it lists the songs and next to each it says "file type not supported."

One other thing to note: after MC converts the first 10 songs and transfers to the deivce, it seems to get hung up. a pop-up appears with a "Please Wait: Analyzing Audio files" statement. Then it appears to go back to decoding/encoding, but never transfers to device. Also, I notice that on my comuter's toolbar the MC tab says "Media Center "Not Responding," but when I look at the task manager, it says it is running. (All other functionality of MC works.)

Hmmm....Re-formatted the ipod in windows, re-initialized it in MC, tried again - same result. Tried to change the encoding to mp3 VBR - as opposed to mp3 (192) - same result. Tried to restore from Ipod Manager, then re-initailize in MC, same result.



Basically, right now I can only upload 10 songs to my ipod. I need some help!

[SteveG]

Everyone,

I have taken one more stab at the disappearing playlists. It is available either in tonight's MC 10 (v 10.0.15) or from the webpage (iPod plugin v 9.0.85). I hope all is better.


Packyb,

I found and think I fixed your bug in tonight's MC 10 (10.0.15).

Chris,

Please try again with 10.0.15. I made many revisions today.

Whenever I attempt add a new track or set of tracks to my iPod it adds the tracks into the new playlist I just created, however, it also adds each of those tracks in random playlists as well.

Are these playlists or smartlists? If a smartlist, are you sure the rules for the smartlist are not changing the tracks (i.e. a rule like 'random' or '20 tracks').

[btvillarin]

After a DB rebuild, rating songs from my Not Rated smartlist, and two syncs in between those with 6 smartlists...they're still there!

Lookin good so far, Steve.  Did you know what you were doing, or just taking stabs in the dark?  

[neo]

Steve:

Your superhero powers may have helped with Bryan, but they were not enough to overcome my evil ipod plugin (9.0.85).  I crashed it straightaway.

FYI, the reason I recommended logging is that a while back I was working on a driver for the nomad ii mg for linux, and I was having a problem I could not figure out, but after looking at the logs, everything was crystal clear.  It did take a few adjustments as to what was being logged, but once I was looking at the right info, it was obvious.  Just my $0.02.

n

[btvillarin]

neo: 3rd sync went through smoothly

[btvillarin]

Spoke too soon...  

[MarkGrigsby]

Failed for me too...  Re-initialised, synced all my playlists (10 of them), disconnected, imported new album, synced again - playlists gone  

In fact, it seems to be worse for me than 2 versions ago - but that may indeed be a coincidence...

[neo]

Bryan, Mark:

So there are at least two know cases:

* Changing smartlists between the time you hit "sync" and the time the smartlists actually syncs.

* Importing.  If I have some time this weekend, I may sit down and try to replicate the importing problem, with the goal of having a reproducable scenario.

One question for both of you: did the tracks you imported change the specific playlists that you had already uploaded to the pod?

n

[btvillarin]

One question for both of you: did the tracks you imported change the specific playlists that you had already uploaded to the pod?

Yeah, especially if I rate them right away.  But all my playlists are smartlists, continually changing if they haven't been played in 7 days, stuff like that.

[bd6675]

Hey Steve,

   In response to your question below, it adds them to regular non-smartlist playlists.  I have only 1 smartlist and it is a lastplayed smartlist ([Last Played]=>=40320).  It adds all the tracks as it should to that smartlist.

Are these playlists or smartlists? If a smartlist, are you sure the rules for the smartlist are not changing the tracks (i.e. a rule like 'random' or '20 tracks').

Thanks,

Chris

[packyb]

Packyb,

I found and think I fixed your bug in tonight's MC 10 (10.0.15).

Thanks for getting to this Steve, that seemed to fix one part, but now there is a new set of issues.

The MC decode/encode/transfer process appears to be working. It still stutters/freezes for a few seconds after each time it transfers (The "Please Wait: Analyzing Audio Files..." prompt appears). Also, the "Device Transfer in Progress" only appears for the first transfer of 10 songs. For each apparent subsequent transfer, only the "Please Wait: Analyzing Audio Files..." prompt pops up, and then the songs appear in MC to have been transferred to the iPod.

But now, the new problem is that after I transfer songs and eject my iPod, there appears to be no  songs/artists/albums on it. When I go to iPod Settings>About, it shows that the space is being used, but that there are no songs. When I plug the iPod back into my pc and launch MC, MC shows that the songs are on the iPod.

For example, I just uploaded three CDs to the iPod, and in MC everything went well. It shows that there are 40 files, using .1 GB of space and that the iPod has 27.6 GB of Free Space. Then I eject, the iPod, go to Settings>About, and it shows that there is indeed now only 27.6 GB of free space, but that there are no songs on the iPod. Re-attach to pc, and MC shows that the songs are on the iPod.

A couple of other things:

When I go to iPod Updater and perform a Restore, when it gets to the end of the Restore process it displays a prompt that it "Can't Unmount iPod." I can't remember if this is normal, but I have been ejecting it manually, and it seems to work fine.

In XP, when I go to Start>Programs>iPod> Ipod Manager, there is a red "X" through the iPod icon. The Manager still launches, but this is different than it was before.

I apologize for including so much detail, but I guess I am hoping that the more information you have, the better the chance that this problem can be rectified.

[neo]

Steve:

FYI, the latest ipod plugin is blowing away my ratings whenever I try to sync the pod information back into MC.  If this continues, I will switch back to the previous ipod plugin.

n