What the XP#%*& happened iTunes?
One of the annoying things with Windows was how iTunes inexplicably snuffed up after an update. It wasn’t the iPod; I could hook it up at the office machine just fine. It wasn’t iTunes itself; I had no problems, again, with the office PC. It was something weird about Windows, and I could not fix it.
I’m no IT genius. I’m not quite a luser, mind you, but I’ve no certifications and will win no awards for my programming or troubleshooting skills. Still, I’m at least semi-competent on figuring stuff out. Yet for the life of me, I could not fix iTunes on my laptop.
Will it do right or blow up?
Post-Switch, I updated iTunes to 4.9. No problem. I hooked up the iPod, trembling a bit due to a Pavlovian response to what a disaster and letdown this has been the past few months. I restored it (you have to reformat/restore your iPod in order to use it between two platforms.. well, I here there’s hacks around that, but the official gist is you have to reformat).
Within, oh, 10-15 minutes, my iPod was restored, updated to the latest, podcast-supporting firmware, and my library was resynched. I was jamming like new.
Viva la Switch, excuse me while I hit Shuffle mode.
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Globetrotter, homebrewer and writer Anthony St. Clair has walked with hairy coos in the Scottish Highlands, choked on seafood in Australia, and watched the full moon rise over Mt. Everest in Tibet. Anthony’s travels have also taken him around the sights and beers of Thailand, Japan, India, Canada, Ireland, the USA, Cambodia, China and Nepal. He and his wife live in Oregon and gave their son a passport for his first birthday.
As far as I know you only have to reformat if you want to update the software on the ipod from a different platform. Since you are making the switch, that makes sense.
But since I still use both, my ipod is formatted for windows. I can still sync my libraries and use the ipod under OSX, but when it tells me I have a software update available for it, it won’t install and tells me I have to install it on windows.
So I plug it into my laptop, and update the software, then plug it back into the Mac.
It’s a pain in the ass, but whatever. It would be nice though, since OSX can read and update the windows formatted ipod, for it to also be able to update the software on it. Especially since I’ve never heard an explanation for why it can’t, other than “it just can’t.”
That’s been my understanding too. I don’t have the links, but I think I remember seeing some people saying they had been able to hack their iPods to work on both – but who knows.
I’m going to see what happens when I hook it up to the office PC, say if I want to at least the collection through my PC speakers and not on headphones. No worries either way, really, I’m just glad to have it and iTunes working comfy and cozy again.
unfortunatly, you have to have it formatted NTFS (Windows) to be able to mount it on both PC and Mac, as Cid outlines above. So I’m guessing you’ve figured out now that you can’t use it to play music at work lest you unhook the speakers and plug them directly into the iPod.
Actually you beat me to it – I hadn’t even tried plugging it in to the work PC yet, but I figured that’d be the case. Thanks for saving me the, um, trouble
Works out okay though – at work I’m usually too wrapped up in internet radio and podcasts, so I just throw on the headphones during my commute and lunch.