Dang! That’s good to know - I almost downloaded the latest version of winamp here at home - I’d a been po’ed if it aced my iPod…

5.21 fixes the problem. It was a conflict between ml_ipod and pmp_ipod, the new iPod plugin for the Media Library’s portable media support.

How badly does it screw up the ipod? Does it just delete playlists and songs, or does it brick the ipod to the point where you can’t turn it on OR reset it with the apple firmware installer?

Now to be honest, I doubt that it screws up your ipod to the point that you cant restore it. Try putting it into disk mode (reset the ipod, and while its resetting, hold down the middle of the clickwheel and bottom). I’m betting that will let you restore it.

Now, why is it Winamps duty to report problems with a 3rd party plugin? Its like complaining that Mazda isn’t warning people about a 3rd party brake customisation people are doing even though it probably said in the conditions that Mazda has nothing to do with the mod? Why should winamp have to create concern for people who aren’t affected (the majority) because of a problem that barely any are affected by, and which they didn’t create.

Finally, its an ipod, don’t use third party software with it. If you dont want problems, use iTunes. Seriously, you wouldn’t complain to open office every time their software didn’t open a word file properly.

The whole reason of using Winamp is because people are sick and tired of using the shit software developed by Apple computers for windows xp or have been using the great app and are hella loyal to it.

I’m using that plug-in with 5.21, and I’ve had no problems. I went from a pretty old version of Winamp straight to 5.21, and my Ipod seems fine.

Nice post Andrew, but i think what they mean by messes up your ipod is that it messes up the playlists, as it did to mine…

Hiew, my main point was that the author is saying that Nullsoft should take responsibility for a faulty plugin, when that is clearly rediculous. In fact, its as rediculous as blaming Apple for making the ipod, or even Microsoft for windows. Microsoft better put a big fat disclosure on their website about this plugin, since they are obviously responsible. It runs on THEIR OS.

And I’d like to point out the author cant be blamed either. If you choose to use this FREE 3rd party plugin, and it doesn’t work, its your own problem. You should be thankful that the author wasted his own time and released this for free at all.

Also, why do people buy ipods if they are sick of Apple? If you dont like apple software, think that its flaky, then fine, thats your choice Hiew. But for the love of god, get another Mp3 player then. Its starting to sound like there are people out there who go “Hmm I hate YYY. Their software is so flaky. I want to get the new XXX they just released, despite there being many other ones on the market, and despite me thinking all of their stuff is crap”.

I can guarentee that no matter how bad you think itunes is (I love it though), at least its usable unlike what some other players ship with..

bull. works fine for me.

i’ll start with clearing up, i should say that i dont actually think iTunes is a bad program, it works great for what most users use it for (play and download music) however for those who want a more well rounded media player iTunes isn’t all that great since they put but limitations on what audio types are able to be played as well as video. oh well.

Funny thing is that the Winamp plugin was written by the same guy … I also found with 5.2 worked fine with my iPod Nano but failed to recognise my iPod Photo. 5.1 + ml_ipod works fine with both.

The audio types on iTunes can be extended with Quicktime extensions.. I’ve done it before with OGG files on Mac

It fucked my 5th Gen iPod Video sideways. So much so that I’m typing this as my actual device is at Apple being “diagnosed”

a. their “Genius Bar” is everything but
b. I loathe iTunes

For those of you interested in what exactly it did to my device — Syncing my iPod and attempting to update it with iTunes was repeatedly unsuccessful. It’d sync, recognize it as a new device, update, reboot, sync, recognize it as a new device, update, etc. A headache indeed. Particularly since I didn’t even use Winamp in conjunctionw ith my iPod. It’s existence on my system fucked iTunes and the devices’ capability to properly function.

But who knows, I could be wrong…

Did you try to put it into disk mode Emma?

Emma: I don’t believe ml_pod is designed in the first place to work with 5th gens.
To everybody else, my ipod (4th gen) was rather fecked up badly by the Winamp 5.2. I lost all my firmware customizations (had custom mario icons set up), all my Playlists, and had to do a hard-reset to just get my iPod running again. I use winamp because it’s the best player for XP, and iTunes is rather bloated and slow. However, I <3 Apple’s industrial design.

I used to really love Winamp. When I got my iPod, however, I decided to try out iTunes and I fell in love. iTunes + Konfabulator (now Yahoo! Widget Engine) works GREAT. I love the iTunes Bar by Daniel Dickison which really compensates for the fact that Winamp is skinnable and you can have a little player on the top of your screen so you can work with Winamp no matter what window you have open. You can also compensate for the lack of file support with Quicktime Component plugins for things like OGG for example. Check out the Xiph.Org Quicktime Components project for more information.

Even though it can sometimes run slow on Windows, it’s worth it for me. I just love the interface and I just don’t think that Winamp can match it.

I used the iPod plugin for Winamp about a year ago when I bought by 4G ipod and it screwed up my iPod so bad that I had to reformat the drive. I did everything that the customer service ppl said on the phone. EVERYTHING that was possible.

At last, I had to return the iPod to apple for service and since the whole harddrive was fucked up beyond all recognition, they sent me a brand new iPod !! (well, because it was personalized with laser engraving :P )

DO NOT USE WINAMP FOR IPOD. PERIOD.

- Neil

PS - Except this, I love winamp =)

Let’s keep it nice, shall we?

haven’t had problems with the new Winamp, works fine :!

Right, because liking iTunes means you also like AOL. Nincompoop.

all you have to do is get the HP formatting tool and format your ipod with FAT32 and then after thats done use the ipod restore tool w/e and it will be fine. it worked when i bricked mine after many fails of linux installation on my nano

Uhm.. Nullsoft is working with AOL verymuch so. It’s obvious.
When you go to winamp.com at the top it says: “AOL Music”, at the bottom in links it says: “AOL Music, Moviefone, and AOL Games”.
My point is you can’t count on any one corporation to totally avoid any contact with a larger corporation.. because in the end.. it’s all owned by the top 5.

Thats right Hiew!
I have been using the great app and are hella loyal to it. The problem here is not the 3rd party plugin that aint working: it’s working fine! The problem is Winamp not recognizing the many users using this plugin and therefore not making sure the app and plugin work fine together, when they update to a new version. The example of Open Office not opening a word file correct is totally incorrect: a better example would be if windows vista should not be able to run OO properly, and I surely would blame MS for that.
Backwards compatibility for 3rd party software woeiii!

I can sympathise, I lost all my playcounts and ratings once. It sucks, especially if you have smart playlists based on those citeria.

Then again, with any ipod, it’s usually a question of grabbing the lastest ipod updater from Apple, blanking the entire ipod, and restoring the songs from itunes (if you have ‘update checked songs only’ on, a must with a large collection) automatically.

BTW you’ve been digg’ed so expect a horde of screaming monkeys at your doorstep any time now.

That and the smart playlists are the main reason I’m still on itunes/windows, although my linux box uses Amarok which is like itunes on steroids. With social software links. Sadly, the current stable version doesn’t really sync with ipod well and the beta still crashes often. But when the beta becomes stable it’ll rock hard.

I got a 2gb nano a few weeks ago, and I uninstalled WinAmp right after I read this. I have nothing against WinAmp, it’s a solid tool, but there is no way in hell I’m risking ANYTHING to do with my nano.
Just curious, how does liking iTunes equal liking AOL?

Here’s the deal:

Winamp 5.2 had a “bug” that when you installed it when ml_ipod was still installed, your iPod could be blanked. Considering this bug is due to the plugin, and not Winamp, how would they know? Why would they want to recheck thousands of plugins every release?

Winamp 5.21 was released shortly after to fix this problem. Therefor, Nullsoft fixed a problem that wasn’t even their fault in the first place.

Oh well, blame away, for no reason at all. Go back to iTunes then.

This problem is one that i was affected by, although i looked on the ipod and noticed that everythign was infact still there.

I fixed the problem using the “rebuild database” fuction in Mediamonkey (which i then promptly uninstalled)

I only ever use winamp with my ipod to copy songs off of the device and now that i have deleted the plugins folder and reinstalled winamp i have found that that is a feature not in the winamp portables plugin.

If you completely f**k your ipod up and can’t restore it just go here:
http://ampsat11.com/blog/blogs/the_buzz_at_amps/archive/2005/11/17/37.aspx
worked for me, and would presumbly, work for anyone who has a error with their firmware and can’t get it back.

Try Yamipod - it makes a nice iTunes replacement.

I always read the post on winamp plug-ins.
Those are user created and I NEVER dl a plugin that has issues…
so maybe you should be the one to actully make a bad comment on next to the plug-in.. but intead you wasted alot of time blogging about it everywhere else

Mr. Too-cowardly-to-leave-an-email, I mean “Coldheart”: Your writing leaves much to be desired, but I am assuming you are accusing me of not researching the plugins I use. I research EVERYTHING I install on my machine VERY carefully. There is nothing that would have warned me because there was no notice on Winamp’s site saying that the new version of Winamp INTEGRATED the plugin, and furthermore, would fuck up your ipod IF you had ml_ipod installed in the previous version. So you see…you can’t avoid the truck if you can’t see the truck coming. For the rest of you asshats that apparently can’t read very well, I’ll say it again a little differently: Winamp comes out with new versions about every other week. There was no sign that THIS version, out of the other dozens I’ve upgraded in the last year, was any different than previous versions. As soon as they knew the plugin had an issue they should have started posting notices. It’s that simple.

Nanaki: you CAN’T go back to iTunes. Their database is part of this whole problem.

I’m pleased that the nearly 1500 people that dugg the story thought it was worth hearing about. But I’ve had it with trolls, so comments for this post are now closed.