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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?

16 of 683 comments (clear)

  1. Apple approved fix by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Buy a newer iPod.

    1. Re:Apple approved fix by Kethinov · · Score: 5, Funny

      Better fix: don't use Windows.

      --
      You're right, I wouldn't steal a car. But if it were possible, I sure as hell would download one!
    2. Re:Apple approved fix by sulli · · Score: 5, Funny

      Even better fix: Don't use anything. Go back to vinyl for that warm, fuzzy, buttery sound.

      --

      sulli
      RTFJ.
    3. Re:Apple approved fix by morelife · · Score: 5, Funny

      Buy a newer iPod.
      -anonymous slashdot coward

      Buy a newer iPod. Sucker.
      -S. Jobs

      Buy a newer iPod. Sucker.
      -B. Gates

      Apple's DRM is illegal and unconstitutional. Buying a newer iPod will not remove the infraction.
      -D. McBride

    4. Re:Apple approved fix by Xel · · Score: 3, Funny

      Sure, I'll bring a record player along next time I go jogging. Will you follow behind me unspooling the extension cord?

      --
      "Eagles may soar, but weasels dont get sucked into jet engines."
  2. Apple always said... by KirkH · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...that the iTunes store was a way to sell more iPods. Now we see what they meant! :)

  3. Yes by Amsterdam+Vallon · · Score: 0, Funny

    Does anyone have ideas on possible fixes for the afflicted iPods?

    Drop it off a 5th story balcony.

    --

    Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate. Ex-O'Reilly/MIT employee, now a full-time Google employee.
    1. Re:Yes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Now I understand why you're only an associate professor.

  4. My opinion.. by cK-Gunslinger · · Score: 3, Funny


    Penny Arcade

    eBay it and get a walkman. =P

    1. Re:My opinion.. by dark_panda · · Score: 4, Funny

      Addendum to that opinion

      J

  5. Re:Idiot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Yes, but video killed the radio star, moron.

    FROST PIST!

  6. Re:Perhaps you should have read the manual or the by pla · · Score: 2, Funny

    But the bottom line is that nobody should ever have used a Mac iPod on a PC in the first place.

    Damn straight!

    They should have simply bought two iPods. Damned techno-anarchists, trying to deprive poor Apple of another $400!


    Regardless of what Apple may have claimed since day one, generally getting something "for PC" or "For Mac" only meant which drivers it included. If you could connect it to the same type of port and run it driverless, you could use it on either. Ethernet-connected "Apple-only" PCL6 printer? Yeah, right, whatever, smoke s'more, Jobs.

    Macs and PCs can have identical ports because the things you connect to them simply don't care about the host OS, only its own drivers. Saying it only works on one or the other OS boils down to nothing more than poor driver support (though in this case, only on the PC side, the largest potential market for iPods - Once again demonstrating Apple's disdain for its user base).


    "Switch: So you can go out and buy the same peripherals you already own in a different pastel color".

  7. Re:Err WTFark are you spewing forth? by bnenning · · Score: 3, Funny
    OR I can spend $499 for OSX 10.3


    Sure, if you felt like tipping the Apple Store guys $370.

    --
    How to solve most of our problems: 1.Lots of nuclear plants. 2.Cure aging.
  8. Re:I call bullshit by BigRedFish · · Score: 5, Funny

    Windows gays up firewire drives

    Yes, but after it does so, the firewire drive is tastefully decorated and sports a colorful rainbow sticker.

  9. Re:need to re-title the software to iShit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    B. Anal Stage (1 year)
    1. crucial in forming the adult personality.
    2. the child takes pleasure in defecation
    3. when toilet training begins he/she is forced to regulate behavior.
    4. controlling one's bowel functioning is a way of conforming to societies demands
    5. Anal personalities
    a. Anal Retentive
    b. Anal Expulsive
    ---
    You are a '5b'.

  10. Flamebait??? by BigRedFish · · Score: 3, Funny

    The parent used "gay" as a synonym for "broken." THAT's flamebait. I riff a lighthearted joke to call it out, and I get modded flamebait?

    Wait a sec... Apple hardware has impeccable aesthetics, the logo has a rainbo... oh, crap. If I read it that way I'd have modded myself a troll.