iTunes Disables MusicMatch

spooza writes "If you own an iPod and use it with MusicMatch on a Windows machine and then install iTunes, strange things happen: after the installation, MusicMatch is unable to communicate or even find the iPod anymore. Of course this might be a coincidence or bad programming on the Apple side, but since MusicMatch also introduced a pay-per-download service it seems not too farfetched to suspect that Apple simply took the opportunity to knock out an opponent. The funny thing is, Apple and MusicMatch cooperated before, because Apple wanted to have software that was able to work with iPod and thus not lose potential customers that want to buy an iPod but have only Windows." MusicMatch recommends deleting, then downloading and reinstalling, the MusicMatch software to reenable it.

Comments

As well as xplay...

[MeanE]

Even with the registry patch for xplay almost every time I fire up iTunes afterwards I get a blank xplay folder. EphPod seems to work fine no matter what. I wonder how they are able to overcome this.

They announced this

[NeoSkandranon]

Apple said fairly upfront that if you installed iTunes for windows, iTunes would be the only way to load your iPod anymore.

I don't even have an iPod and yet i know this.

Apple tells you this when you download iTunes

[JasonUCF]

They go through several lengthy notices when you move to download iTunes, and then to install it, that if you are already on Windows your MusicMatch software will no longer function.

MusicMatch was a bandaid for Apple when they did not have a Windows software client.

Game on.

as stated when installing iTunes

[dreamt]

Funny, I remember when installing iTunes on my laptop, it WARNED your that this would happen.

While I see MusicMatch not being happy about this, it isn't like it wasn't an expected result of the iTunes installer.

Workaround found

[Anonymous Coward]

If you want to use xpod or musicmatch with the ipod, you just have to terminate (kill) the iTunesHelper.exe process. That will allow xpod and musicmatch, and most likely any other ipod software to work.

Also breaks W2K Pro CD access after uninstall

[MightyTribble]

See this discussion over at Ars Technica for more details.

Bottom line : iTunes or GEAR removes vital registry keys that prevent audio CDs from playing once you've uninstalled the software. I had to manually hack my registry to restore functionality.

Bad Apple. No Cookie.

Ephpod

[hrath]

I highly recommend using Ephpod (http://www.ephpod.com/) with an iPod under Windows. When my SO gave me my iPod as a present last year and I installed MusicMatch on my work laptop MM was dogslow and often didn't finish syncing with the iPod. The free alternative Ephpod is simple to use and has always worked perfectly for me.

regards,

Heiko

Re:honestly

[Ageless]

Not true. There were and are tons of alternatives to Music Match on Windows.

My very own vPod is one of them.

MusicMatch and XPlay

[botono9]

Users of XPlay (third-party iPod software) may be familiar with a similar problem. If you have XPlay installed and then install the MusicMatch which comes with your iPod (I prefer XPlay to MusicMatch for interfacing with my iPod, but love MusicMatch's tagging utilities) XPlay will no longer see the iPod at all.

Nothing really suprising here. There is only one driver for the iPod on the machine and when you install software that uses accesses the driver it will register itself as the default application.

Re:iPod not entirely ready for PCs

[Ageless]

Your USB cable has three ends. One is firewire, one is USB and one is the iPod dock. Plug the USB end into the computer, the dock end into the iPod and the firewire end into the AC adapter that came with your iPod.

You had a choice!

[NaugaHunter]

iTunes warns during install that it will disable Musicmatch. You're choices are a) iTunes for the iPod with Musicmatch not using it, or b) Musicmatch only. And Explorer most definately "diddles" with default browser settings. Hell, I ran the Word demo on my new Powerbook and suddenly Explorer was my default browser and I had never even launched it.

Just because you don't like the choices doesn't mean they aren't there. Since iTunes likely launches when an iPod is plugged in having Musicmatch also recognize it probably causes problems. While one might lament that Apple had somehow worked it out that you could choose each time, I'd argue that they had no real motivation to and from an ease-of-use point of view went for iTunes taking over the iPod completely.

Re:Here's why.

[kennylives]

You got it backward:

Now, with iTunes for Windows, you can share your iPod between Windows and Mac. This is because iTunes for Windows knows how to deal with HFS volumes. But unfortunately, MusicMatch for Windows does not know how to do this.

iTunes for Mac can deal with a FAT32 iPod, but iTunes for Windows cannot deal with an HFS iPod. This is true even if you've got XPlay installed, which includes the HFS driver. iTunes/Win requires a Windows formatted iPod. Period.

I know this because until that fateful Thursday, I had a Mac iPod and used XPlay to use it on Windows, and felt all sick and dirty having to reformat my precious to FAT32... My Macs (running OSX 10.2.6/10.3) were all perfectly happy with a FAT32 iPod after the reformat, BTW.

Disclaimer: I never installed MM, so I don't know what fun bits it added to the equation here, but I doubt it does anything interesting. AFAIK, MM needs a FAT32 iPod (no HFS drivers included).