iPod Problem

is it pretty definitely the cable rather than the ipod itself though?

oh god now itunes has frozen. EVERYTHING ON THIS COMPUTER IS MALFUNCTIONING RIGHT NOW.

well I dunno - it's the first step I would try in troubleshooting the problem though!

WHY

does my ipod refuse to play certain mp3s that work fine in itunes? it's really weird - when i click on them on my ipod it sort of pauses at 0:00 for a couple of seconds then immediately skips to the next track on the album, and repeats the process without playing any sound. why would it do this to me? how can i get the little fucker to stop doing it?

Sounds like the file is corrupted, although I don't know why in that case it plays fine in iTunes. Maybe the read process is different or something, idk. Can you re-download or re-rip the files? I would try a fresh copy of the file.

Hmm when my ipod started doing this it was because the hard drive was failing... if it's that then the solution will probably be to buy a new ipod (or in my case buy something else).

hmm, it's only done it for two albums ever, one a couple of years ago and it hasn't failed yet...

Might be worth running a disk check on it anyway to rule it out? I'm sure there are other reasons it could happen, not necessarily that.

Another way to test it would be try to copy the file it skips on from the ipod back to your computer, when mine stopped working I would get data cyclic redundancy errors if I tried to do that.

a disk check on the ipod? how do you do that?

you do it on the Mac, go to Disk Utility when the iPod is plugged in and it should show up there as a disk

don't you get error messages that certain files were not transferred when syncing with the pc (or apple computer)? i had a similar problem with a couple of old mp3s (mpeg layer 2). the way i solved it was to convert them to mp3 and delete the old files. afterwards the syncing worked fine. maybe a firmware update on the ipod could help too but i haven't done that yet.

Might also be a syncing issue?
I'd set all my music syncing to manual, or at least I thought I did, until it became clear that iTunes purchases (songs) on the laptop were automatically transferred to my iPhone. Resulting in songs/albums ending up there twice, since I manually transferred them as well. I've tried two things: selecting and deleting the doubles, or deleting them all and retransfer them manually. Now there's a Young Smoke album and a partial Charles Mingus album that don't play when I select them, like lex, on the iPhone. The files play fine in iTunes on the laptop. Funny thing is that these files do not show up in my iPhone list when I've hooked it up to the laptop, WTF. Basically there are files that I can't play when I see them on the iPhone and I can't remove them because iTunes doesn't see them...

xxposts

lex how old is your ipod?

no error messages, syncing is manual (the mp3s with these issues aren't itunes purchases), ipod is...about 1.5 years old i think?

so it should be playing mp3s pretty solidly out of the box

it's only with specific files, yeah?

yeah. all files on specific albums (only two ever) (one of those was an official mixtape)

i've had dodgy mp3s recently so i reckon it's that. you can get hold of apps that fix mp3s but i can't think of one to recommend off-hand; maybe someone else here can

did you already try to convert those files to mp3 in itunes? that should do the job if they play in itunes.

My iPod sometimes skips wav and aiff files that play fine on iTunes. Just need to convert them.

they are mp3s already

the ipod has skipped wav files before but i assumed that was just cuz they're huge

i know. but as i said before, they might be not readable by the ipod but readable by itunes. just have a try.

this happens to me all the time with rap mixtapes, very frustrating & mysterious

Changing tags has helped fixed playback issues for me in the past.

like add some text to a meaningless tag and see if it fixes it.

Should be set at 44.1 kHz and 16-bit...but I forget where those settings are.

I've had those problems pretty frequently, and my solution was to just make another copy of the mp3 in iTunes using the Create Mp3 Version tool, and when that didn't work I'd open the file in Audacity and save a fresh mp3.

does anyone else have a problem with opening youtube links that are posted on ilx with their ipod?

are you using an old version of zing?

my ipod classic is on its last leg of its last leg and i need a replacement

1) will ANYONE in the world fix my ipod classic?
2) if not, what is the best alternative? i know there must be a company making an mp3 player but idk where to begin

heeeeeeelp please

i am not going to completely switch the way i listen to music. this one is perfectly fine but the delivery device is not.

My ipod classic packed in. I wonder if it could be fixed and how much that would be

isn't there some enterprising person who knows how to fix these things who wants to make a little money fixing all of these beloved sad dying ipods?

I am determined to either learn how to fix these things or how to Frankenstein together an mp3 player that runs on the same software before my own Classic turfs out. Because I could otherwise see myself abandoning music altogether for a while if I wind up having to abandon a decade and a half of meticulous playlist construction.

It's minor as existential crises go, but Apple's abandonment of the iPod and the inevitable obsolescence of the surviving hardware is like knowing you'll wake up one day to discover that all of your books are now filled with blank pages. What do you even do.

when someone tells me i should just give up and embrace streaming, ii feel like someone has told me that i can only eat liquified food for the rest of my life
the dnw factor is high

the question is not to philosophize about the nature of the problem -- i want a solution! i have googled for some products and there are mp3 players available. are any of them an acceptable substitute?!

if they'd make a 256 GB iPhone I'd be cool with it. how hard can it be really.

speaking for myself, listening to music while i am going from here to there is receiving nourishment, i've been doing it since i got my first walkman -- before the ipod i had fully accepted that i needed to carry a bag big enough to hold a CD wallet + extra batteries, and i did that in spite of it being inconvenient. it beat carrying tapes around. then i got an ipod and everything was great for almost a decade. NOW WHAT

as I understand it the problem here is really "I need a player that integrates with a pre-existing iTunes library/playlists", right?

yes
god this whole situation makes me so irrationally angry (i don't tend to get that way about much but listening to music is very important to me)

LL, I am totally with you in regard to streaming solution being no solution at all. I have one iPod Classic with bad sectors on its hard drive (it fools me into thinking it's totally fine and then goes crazy when I try to play something that lives in its death spot) and one iPod Classic in good shape (which I bought the day they announced they were discontinuing them) but I have also done a lot of messing around with inexpensive Micro SD Card based MP3 players and so I have thoughts on this matter!

First things first: the control wheel on the iPod Classic is untouchable; you will not find another player with an interface that good. Not all the other interfaces are bad but none of them approach that fuckin' wheel.

Now... I'm not sure there are technicians out there who can repair your iPC as is, but there are a bunch of technicians out there who specialize in refitting iPCs with new solid state drives to replace the spinning-disc hard drive. There are also people who simply sell you an iPC which has already been refitted in this way. The plus side is your iPod ends up with higher capacity than it had before. Like 256GB, 512GB, even 1TB supposedly. The higher capacity the more they charge you. The possible minus side is I'm not sure if iTunes will still play totally nicely with your Ipod once it has an SSDD in it. I don't think that's such a big deal though - iTunes is an awful, awful experience at this point and you can just put RockBox (a free alternative firmware) and move things onto/off of your SSDD iPod in folder structures just like you would any other external hard drive. I have Rockbox on both of mine; it's fantastic and I don't miss iTunes 0.01%. Having a solid state drive put into your dying iPod is gonna cost you as much or more as a new ipod would have back before they were discontinued, but less than buying an actual new-used iPod today.

When my iPC that's in good health eventually starts croaking, I want to have a high capacity SSDD put in it.

OK. Other players. I will cover this in another post in a bit.

oh also. What are the symptoms of your dying friend?

have you considered getting a 128 GB iPhone as a replacement? I think you can find 'em for like $250

the case cracked open when i dropped it on the sidewalk (i blame my dog but it's not his fault) and is currently being held together with a binder clip
the funny thing is that last i checked, it worked but i know it will probably not work soon. the binder clip solution isn't sustainable.

so like the metal rear housing and the front housing separated?

if that's what it's called, yes

It might not actually be ~broken~ - IIRC when people open them up to do their own alterations they talk about carefully but forcefully prying the housing halves apart. Do you have any in town friends who are handy with electronics?

I hardly ever use my Classic anymore but I do keep it around - never had any problems with the hard drive but I have had to open it up twice to replace a) a broken earphone jack socket and b) a dead battery. It's quite a hassle but doable with the right tools.

i see that the rear half has little springs tack welded into the perimeter which are easily broken when one removes it on purpose, even with care - I wonder if one or more of those little springs broke on impact and that's why it doesnt stay together now.

speaking for myself, listening to music while i am going from here to there is receiving nourishment, i've been doing it since i got my first walkman -- before the ipod i had fully accepted that i needed to carry a bag big enough to hold a CD wallet + extra batteries, and i did that in spite of it being inconvenient. it beat carrying tapes around. then i got an ipod and everything was great for almost a decade. NOW WHAT

btw, total samesies on all of this.

The iPod Touch is available for $299, 128 gigs. Does anyone have any experience with these? I'm still holding onto my 160 classic, it's probably got a few years left but the day of reckoning is going to come.

speaking for myself, I can't roll with touch screen interface for an mp3 player. I need to be able to skip tracks, adjust volume, pause etc with it in my pocket etc. Even a mediocre button-based interface is preferable to a touch screen for this application IMO

i traded a coworker for her old ipod nano! this thread helped me get over some of my obsessive fear about this. i know the problem isn't going to go away, but at least i have a plan. yay!

People are selling unused 7th gen classics on ebay for like 200 uk pounds, seems reasonable to me

The nano is a nice little imp. Of course its modest capacity will force you to sweat who comes on and off your library but that contest can be fun if you're not mentally ill in the way I am.

it's not going to totally solve my problem -- how can i carry the collected works of ____ in my bag at all times just in case? -- but it will help for the time being

Nanos are great, forces you to switch up your library and I find I actually listen to the same albums consistently. Whereas a 30 gb or more is too many options for me personally. I dunno I want to avoid ADD listening streaming trends, I've seen how it's affected my friends - they hardly even listen to a full album now

I dunno, it's been super nice listening to hour after hour of Tara Jane O'Neil's discography today but it's also super nice knowing that that isn't my only option.

Fair enough, I totally get how it could be limiting

the best thing to do with an ipod when you don't know what to listen to is just go to alphabetical list of songs, pick a good starting spot, and just let it go

just as good as random + you get a funny list of song titles

^^yes!

I gave in and bought an iPod Touch 128GB this week. While my 16GB phone works fine in the car - where I do most of my listening - sometimes the limited storage frustrated me. Started filling the Touch yesterday and after it felt like I'd put a lot on there's still 75GB of storage left!

ipod crapped out couple months back and now i'm a convert to iphone/itunes combo, which has made it a lot easier (take the plunge). little weird to play the entirety of an album tho, it tends to shuffle songs - anyone know how to turn that off?

When you have something playing, go to the large album art playing screen (if you're not there, click on the small album art in the lower left corner) and scroll up. You'll see the shuffle and repeat buttons appear and you can turn shuffle off. If that's not the issue, only other thing I can think of is maybe your track # metadata is missing, which you can fix in iTunes. In my experience the tracks play in alphabetical order in that instance.

i absolutely hated my few months of trying to use my iphone as an itunes-driven music player

Rejecter that fixed it! Cheers.

Yeah Jon the transition hasn’t been smooth