The Energon Pub

[Me, Grimlock!]

I just got an iPod Shuffle for my birthday and I'm having some problems with it. Don't know if it's because I don't know how to use it (I read the user manual a couple of times... and the instructions almost seem waaaaay too vague) or if it's defective.

I downloaded music on to the Shuffle. When I turn it on, I get a voice saying I need to sync it to iTunes. Okay. I've never had to sync an mp3 player before, but whatever. So I go ahead, download iTunes, do their registration etc. etc. etc. for about 20 minutes. Then I sync the Shuffle, disconnect it from the computer, and try again. The voice says I still need to sync it. So I try again... and again... and again. And every time I try, the computer gives me a message saying "iPod has been synced", clear as day, but the iPod itself is enver synced. Must have been six times. I keep getting that voice.

Furthermore, somewhere along the way, all the contents of my iPod got erased. So I had to put music on there again. But nothing is working.

I've got Vista, and it's done some crazy crap before, but this time I don't think it's Vista's fault. So is there some step I'm missing that isn't in the manual or is this thing broken? Seems like a lot of hoops to jump through just to listen to music.

[Overcracker]

Unlike regular MP3 players Ipods all need to sync with iTunes to get the music. Copying straight over through explorer won't work as the Ipod won't know what to do with them.

Now that you have Itunes, import your music into Itunes and have it sync with the Ipod. Then you'll be able to play your music on your Shuffle.

[cybercat]

I just got an iPod Shuffle for my birthday and I'm having some problems with it. Don't know if it's because I don't know how to use it (I read the user manual a couple of times... and the instructions almost seem waaaaay too vague) or if it's defective.

I downloaded music on to the Shuffle. When I turn it on, I get a voice saying I need to sync it to iTunes. Okay. I've never had to sync an mp3 player before, but whatever. So I go ahead, download iTunes, do their registration etc. etc. etc. for about 20 minutes. Then I sync the Shuffle, disconnect it from the computer, and try again. The voice says I still need to sync it. So I try again... and again... and again. And every time I try, the computer gives me a message saying "iPod has been synced", clear as day, but the iPod itself is enver synced. Must have been six times. I keep getting that voice.

Furthermore, somewhere along the way, all the contents of my iPod got erased. So I had to put music on there again. But nothing is working.

I've got Vista, and it's done some crazy crap before, but this time I don't think it's Vista's fault. So is there some step I'm missing that isn't in the manual or is this thing broken? Seems like a lot of hoops to jump through just to listen to music.

A) Feel free to blame Vista. It doesn't like Ipods of any stripe. When you downloaded the iTunes, did you get the one that includes the Vista Patch?

B) Yeah, my nano doesn't like to unsync either. Have you tried clicking the icon in the icon tray about removing USB devices? Sometimes that clears it.

C) "Restore Factory Settings". That's your nuclear option, but if you have all the music and stuff on iTunes on your computer, it won't be that distressing.

D) If all these fail, call iTunes support. I hate customer support, but this might be a hardware issue.

HK, computer idiot.

[Me, Grimlock!]

Thanks for the replies. I think I've got things going, but still a few problems.

The music is playing at least. But iTunes says there's a gig of music files and 1.5 gigs of "other files." What are these other files? They don't show up in Windows Explorer. So is this 4 gig iPod really a 2.5 gig iPod?

Also, it seems to ignore the m3u playlists and plays the songs in (I think) alphabetical order by band name. At any rate, it's not playing them by playlist order. Is there a way to tell it to use playlists? The rather vague documentation doesn't cover this.

Also, when it reads out the name of the mp3, it repeats the band name for some reason, even though the ID tag for the mp3 is fine. Not a big deal, but I don't know where it's getting that from.

[Phenotype]

Okay, here is your problem. You can't copy music to the iPod through Windows Explorer, the only way to copy music to an iPod is through iTunes. So, that means you need to import your entire MP3 library to iTunes to then copy the music from iTunes to your iPod by selecting the files in iTunes, and dragging and dropping them onto the icon for your iPod (in iTunes). Also, you can't use m3u playlists, you need to create your playlists in iTunes and copy them to your iPod by dragging and dropping. The "other" files might be the Shuffle's OS but I doubt that would take up 1.5 gigs, most of those files are probably MP3's you copied onto the iPod through Windows Explorer, you'll need to open Explorer back up and delete them and then re-copy them through iTunes.