iPod Deathmatch

  • Posted by Angela
  • April 5, 2006

10.5.07 Update: I guess the war is officially over, as I can now use the latest Winamp (5.3x) with the latest ml_ipod plugin (3.01) with no problems whatsoever. No video, but it can supposedly do photos…and most importantly, no more database corruption! Yay!

* * * * * * * * *

Bricked Ipod

The deathmatch between iTunes and Winamp over my ipod continued until this evening. I made a few feeble attempts to poke around in iTunes and see if I could deal with it again, but no, it’s just intolerable to me. I could spend a long time getting into all the things about it that piss me off, but it comes down to this: it just doesn’t do things the way I like to work.

So! 10,000 installs, uninstalls, and 6 hours later here we are. I thought I would describe what worked for me, in case it helps anybody else. But before I get to that, there is a lot of different advice out there on this problem, and having tried them all, I suppose I ought to enumerate what DIDN’T work:

* Simply renaming the database file on the ipod
* Making absolutely sure ml_ipod was NOT present and then installing Winamp 5.2 (this is what everyone says you should do and then all will be right with the ipod gods…uh, no).
* Replacing ml_ipod 1.31 with 1.30 (this took some hunting to even find)
* Clean installing Winamp and reverting to 5.13
* Uninstalling Winamp’s new version of the plugin
* Cursing, threatening ipod with large hammer

Winamp 5.2 would recognize the ipod and had really pretty icons, but would not actually transfer any music. Winamp 5.13 with ml_ipod 1.31 (I think?) would occasionally recognize the ipod, but crash Winamp when you actually attempted to send music over. And in some cases the ipod would be recognized but in a really funny way…it would think the ‘pod’s name was one of my playlists (this is one of the much-documented signs that something’s terribly wrong in plug-in land).

Okay, so the combination that did work–in this order:

* Renaming database
* Apple’s ipod updater UNINSTALLED
* Winamp 5.13 + ml_ipod 1.30
* Have Winamp do a reformat of the ipod (as it warns, make sure the letter drive it chose is actually your ipod)

iTunes better keep its filthy database mitts off my ipod from now on. This whole experience was so excruciating I actually started taking notice of ads for Creative’s players in my new computer porn Maximum PC mag today.

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April 5th, 2006
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Comment Number:
1
Written by:
Jeff
Posted on:
April 11, 2006 at 10:05 am

I share your pain - I had the same thing happen and it sounds like we both figured out how to fix it. The just wish I had a backup of my playlists… sigh. Cheers on not using iTunes - I still think that winamp is the best alternative so far.

Comment Number:
2
Written by:
Daniel
Posted on:
April 18, 2006 at 10:32 am

Everything was fine, new versions of winamp are suppose to be improvements. I will never upgrade again. If it aint broke, dont fix. The army was right. Thanks for your tips I followed them exactly and I got my IPOD working again. Also, this is the last time I ever accept any apple products as gifts, cause they are a pain!

Comment Number:
3
Written by:
Nihilism
Posted on:
October 11, 2006 at 12:33 pm

Okay I’m lost!
This needs more explanation.
A) How do I “Have Winamp do a reformat of the ipod”
B)”Renaming database”… To what?
C) Where is the database file you rename!
Maybe I’m just dense in the head but who knows. If you would please explain. Thanks a lot!

Comment Number:
4
Written by:
Angela
Posted on:
October 22, 2006 at 11:20 pm

If I remember correctly, in the ipod plugin in Winamp there was an option to do a reformat. You just have to look for it. As for renaming the database…again, hard to remember, but I think you just want something different. Pick something. The problem is that it can’t deal with the name it has right now because the database is corrupted beyond belief. Do a Google search for the name of the database file. I think it’s somewhere in iTunes (buried deep)–not in your ipod.