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iTunes for Windows Breaking Older iPods

Posted by Cliff on from the danger-will-robinson! dept.

evil_liam asks: "In our office we've been running an older 5gb iPod with both Macs and PC's (using Xplay), but when we installed iTunes for the PC the iPod stopped working. Songs and playlists transfer over fine, and you can see them and play them in iTunes, but you can't listen to them on the iPod, itself. It shows the song details and so forth, but skips through the tracks, playing 0 seconds of each one until it finishes. This only applies to tracks added since iTunes was installed. No amount of reformatting, or rolling back firmware seems to work. When I called Apple, they stated that they simply don't support the use of the older Mac iPods on PC's and are not responsible, even though they admit that it was their own software that caused this. We're not alone, see this thread at Apple. I'm not quite suggesting that this was deliberate, but they are aware of it and don't seem to care." Does anyone have ideas on possible fixes for the afflicted iPods?

5 of 683 comments (clear)

  1. Will be fixed.. by grub · · Score: 0, Flamebait


    Apple always seems to shit on their customers, at least from the lower echelons of their support and management ladder. Once word gets to someone with real power the problem will likely be remedied.
    How often does /. carry an "Apple craps on customers!" story only to have a fix in a few days?

    --
    Trolling is a art,
  2. Re:Not Bashing... by cgranade · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Not, of course, that Windows doesn't completely fuck up on older hardware, or that MS doesn't break other companies stuff...

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    #define DRM chmod 000

  3. Apple is becoming mainstream now by whoda · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Patches and fixes, and "it's not our problem" horror stories, are now almost a daily news item on /.

    That donation Microsoft made a few years back is really working wonders. Who would have thought?

    ;)

  4. How evident is the distinction to consumers? by sacrilicious · · Score: 1, Flamebait
    Yes, it stinks that some people used to do this without problems, and now they're not so lucky. But the bottom line is that nobody should ever have used a Mac iPod on a PC in the first place.

    If I understand correctly then there's a "Mac ipod" and a "Windows ipod"? I've browsed the apple store and certainly not had this distinction leap out at me. If Apple is relying on people reading this fine print in order to avoid buying "the wrong kind" of ipod, I'd say that it's Apple responsibility to do far better than that. I hope my understanding is inaccurate, but if not then it's just like a car dealer forcing car buyers to read fine print to see if the car includes the "reverse" gear, something they'll probably not catch otherwise.

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    - First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then ???, then profit.
  5. note to apple fanboys.. by Suppafly · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Quit thinking that Apple cares about you.

    They don't. They care about money. Just like every other company. Anyone that tells you otherwise is a lyer.

    I'm just amazed at all of the disillusioned mac fanatics that are just now realizing that steve jobs and co really really don't give a damn about them.