Article
Ask iLounge 2-7-08
By Jesse David Hollington
Contributing Editor
Published: Thursday, February 7, 2008
Category: Ask iLounge
Ask iLounge offers readers the opportunity to get answers to their iPod-related questions from a member of the iLounge editorial team. We'll answer several questions here each week, and of course, you can always get help with more immediate concerns from the iLounge Discussion Forums. Submit your questions for consideration using our Ask iLounge Submit Form. We reserve the right to edit questions for grammar, spelling, and length.
How do I copy music from my iPod onto my computer?
Click here for the answer.
How do I put DVDs on my iPod?
For converting DVDs, web video, TV shows and home movies to your iPod, iPhone or Apple TV, we have a three-part series outlining the best formats, settings, and various tools to use for converting all types of video content for use on these devices.
The Complete Guide to iPod, iPhone and Apple TV Video Conversion (Mac)
The Complete Guide to iPod, iPhone and Apple TV Video Conversion (Windows)
Q: What are the best speakers to use with my iPod? (15, 76-79, and 90-92)
Q: What are the best headphones to use with my iPod? (10, 72-75, and 90-92)
Q: I really want to get a nice case for my iPod. Do you have any suggestions? (36-37, 54-67, and 90-92)
Q: How can I connect my iPod to my car stereo? (14, 32-35, 68-71, and 90-92)
Q: Are there any batteries that I can use to extend my iPod's battery life? (82-83 and 90-92)
A: Answers to these and many other questions can be found in two places. Our Free iPod Book 3.3 provides a complete report card to all of the iPod accessories we've reviewed as of summer 2007, as well as over 125 iTunes and iPod tips & tricks. Further, our new 2008 iPod & iPhone Buyers' Guide has accessory tutorials at the page numbers listed in parentheses above. These and other publications in our Library are free downloads, developed by the editors of iLounge!
Q: In the past I have used TuneTools with my 30GB iPod to transfer music to my hard drive from my iPod. However, I have now recently purchased an iPod touch and my problem is that I cannot locate or find my iPod touch in “My Computer” and TuneTools says that there is no iPod found even though I have it connected. I was searching for the Enable Disk Use on my iPod touch and can’t find it. What is it that I need to be doing?
- Nicholas
A: Both the iPod touch and the iPhone now use completely different synchronization protocols from the traditional iPod models, and these are not based on any kind of “Disk Mode.”
Prior to the iPhone and iPod touch, iTunes synchronized content to the iPod simply by accessing it as if it were an external hard disk, writing files to the iPod disk directly and updating the library database index directly on the iPod. As a result, the iPod naturally had a “disk mode” that could be used to access this information, since it just appeared to the host computer as any other external hard drive would.
With the iPod touch and the iPhone, iTunes now uses a synchronization protocol that involves sending the data to the device itself, and allowing the OS X operating system on the device to actually handle writing the files to memory and updating the database index of the content that is on the iPod. The upside to this is that it provides for a more stable synchronization solution and reduces the chances of corruption from situations such as the iPod being disconnected in the middle of a sync.
The downside, of course, is that “disk mode” has effectively been eliminated, as it is no longer required to support the transfer of content to the iPod. This makes it much more difficult to get access to that content, as the iTunes-specific sync protocol must be used instead of merely reading data from an external hard disk.
As a result of this, applications that were specifically written to recover data from traditional iPod models will not be compatible with the iPod touch unless they are specifically updated by the software developer to add in this additional support.
At this point, the number of tools that have been updated for the iPod touch is still quite limited. Some possible options that are compatible with the iPod touch include CopyTrans (http://www.copytrans.net, $20, limited trial available), and iPod Access (http://www.findleydesigns.com, $20, limited trial available), and TouchCopy (http://www.wideanglesoftware.com/touchcopy, $20, limited trial available).
Q: Are there any products like TuneTalk Stereo that allow users to record lectures and such on the new iPod classic or iPod touch models? I used to record classroom lectures on my 5G iPod, but I recently broke it. Although I love music, good grades are more important, so I really need to replace my iPod before my grades slide any further. I’m just wondering if I can get a new one to serve my purpose or if I should track down an older model. Thanks a lot if you can help me out with this.
- Allen
A: Actually, any of the voice recording accessories that were built for the fifth-generation iPod remain compatible with the new iPod classic and iPod nano. This includes the Belkin TuneTalk Stereo (iLounge rating: B+), Griffin iTalk Pro Stereo (iLounge rating: B) and XtremeMac MicroMemo (iLounge rating: A-). These devices will function much the same with the iPod classic as they did with the 5G iPod, so if you already own a voice recorder for your 5G iPod, you can purchase an iPod classic or iPod nano and continue using the device you already have.
Note that these voice recorders are not compatible with the iPod touch or iPhone, since at this time the iPod touch and iPhone simply do not provide any support for voice recording at all.
Q: I have a fifth-generation iPod classic and would like to upgrade it to include the Cover Flow feature seen on new iPods, but I was recently told by Apple staff that this isn’t possible. Is this really the case? Is there another place from which i can download this software?
- Sal
A: Unfortunately, Apple has not released an update to the fifth-generation iPod to add Cover Flow or any of the other new interface features. Considering the problems with Cover Flow performance that even new iPod classic users have been experiencing, it’s possible that the hardware of the 5G iPod may simply not be capable of supporting Cover Flow effectively, but it’s also important to keep in mind that the 5G iPod is now a discontinued model, and Apple may simply not be interested in providing any firmware updates for it beyond bug fixes.
There are some third-party hacks available for the fifth-generation iPod such as iPodWizard that will bring some of the user interface from the iPod classic to the older iPod, but this is mostly in the form of a “theme” or “skin” that simply adjusts the existing interface to give it the look and feel of the iPod classic. These modifications do not actually add any new features such as Cover Flow, and as third-party hacks also risk voiding the warranty on your iPod.
Q: My sister recently bought a used Apple 30GB fifth-generation iPod and the name is “Carlos’s iPod” and to surprise her I am trying to find how to change that to her name, please help me with that surprise.
- Michael
A: Although it’s not necessarily obvious, renaming an iPod is actually fairly simple. Just connect the iPod to your computer, and then either double-click on it in the iTunes source list and the name will change to an editable field and you will be able to type in a new name for the iPod. Simply enter a new name for the iPod and press enter:

Q: I’ve been a PC user for many years and getting closer to crossing over to the Mac. In my research I see where iTunes is part of the iLife program which costs around $80. Is the iTunes portion of iLife the same as the free downloadable version of iTunes.
- Linda
A: The short answer is yes. Traditionally, Apple had bundled iTunes as part of iLife, since it fell into the same general category as the other applications that are part of iLife—part of a suite of media management and authoring applications.
Despite this, iTunes was always available as a free download from Apple, and the version that traditionally was included on the iLife DVD has never been any different from the version available directly from Apple’s iTunes download site.
Probably because of this, Apple has abandoned any concept of iTunes being part of the iLife package in recent versions. If you look at the iLife ‘08 page (http://www.apple.com/ilife) you will note that iTunes is no longer listed as a component of the iLife suite.
Although you do not need more than iTunes to manage your iPod, some of the additional applications included in the iLife ‘08 package will integrate with iTunes and provide an improved experience with the iPod. iPhoto provides photo management capabilities and will allow iTunes to transfer pictures directly from your iPhoto albums onto your iPod, iPhone or Apple TV. iMovie provides direct conversion of your own video into formats that are ready for the iPod, iPhone or Apple TV, and GarageBand ‘08 allows the creation of ring tones for the iPhone.
Keep in mind as well that the current version of iLife is included with all new Mac computers, so the purchase price that you’re seeing generally only applies to users who are upgrading from a previous version of iLife. If you’re purchasing a new Mac, you will get the current version of iLife pre-installed on it.
Q: I just recently added my music from my iPod to a second PC I have upstairs. Now all my music is in this folder and is still in the layout from the iPod_control folder (i.e. F00, F01 etc...). Is there a way to have iTunes rename those so that each has the proper song name and possibly organize the files so they are in folders by artist? Thanks for any help you might give on that.
- George
A: This is a common issue if you’ve transferred the content from your iPod back to your computer manually, as opposed to using a third-party application. The good news, however, is that the tags within these files are still intact in terms of information such as track name, album, artist, etc. In fact the only information not stored within the tags would be details such as rating, play count, last played time, and any playlists that the tracks were in—if you wanted to recover this additional information, you will need to use an actual third-party software tool that can read the iPod database to extract this information from there.
If you’re merely concerned with getting the files reorganized and renamed properly, the simplest way to do this is actually just to reimport them into iTunes, ensuring that the option to “Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library” is enabled. iTunes will copy these files into your iTunes music folder, renaming them and reorganizing them into sub-folders by artist and album in the process, based on the tags found within the files themselves.
The options for configuring how iTunes handles importing files can be found in iTunes’ advanced preferences:

Simply ensure that the iTunes Music Folder path is set correctly, and that the “Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library” option is enabled. You may also wish to enable the option to “Keep iTunes Music folder organized”, which will ensure that the iTunes music folder is reorganized as you re-tag any tracks in the future.
Once you’ve confirmed these settings are correct, simply choose the File, Add Folder to Library option from within iTunes, and select the parent folder containing all of the music copied from your iPod. iTunes will copy tracks from this location, renaming and organizing them based on the tag information contained within.
Note that since this is a copy process, the original files are left intact in their original location. If your hard disk space is limited, you can move these files into your iTunes music folder manually, and then import them from there, ensuring the “Keep iTunes Music folder organized” setting is enabled. In this case, since the files are already in the iTunes music folder, then iTunes will simply reorganize and rename the existing files based on the tag information.
Ask iLounge Archives:
5-9-08: About iPod battery life and charging, Using Apple FM Radio remote on older iPod models, Scan and Fix dialog using iPod on Windows Vista, Preserving iTunes metadata when reinstalling Windows, Importing multiple tracks into iTunes, About iTunes and ID3 tags
5-2-08: Transferring digital camera movies to iPod, Reordering and shuffling playlists, Transferring playlists between iTunes libraries, Importing audiobooks, Correcting tags on CD import, Burning CDs with longer gaps
4-25-08: Finding Duplicates in iTunes, Setting files to open in iTunes automatically, Resetting authorizations, 1G iPod nano and voice recording, Syncing a library larger than your iPod capacity, Grouping multi-disc albums
4-17-08: Ripping CDs to external hard drive, Zeppelin speakers and USB port, Bluetooth stereo on iPhone, Converting TV shows to iPod, Audio recording on iPod touch, Wireless security on iPod touch
4-10-08: Transferring LPs to iTunes, Movie Rentals and 5G iPod, New iPod models on older Macs, Maintaining Playback Position on iPod, Importing CDs on multiple computers
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1
Still haven’t a way to correct this. I moved files to an external hd and now everything shows up as ! when when I try to play and as “Original File could not be found” then it ask “would you like to locate.” After searching through the hd and finding the file it will then play. I do not want to do this for all 5000+ songs.
Also, I can’t sign up for ilounge. I know I"m typing in the same username and password
Posted by kpolite336 on February 11, 2008 at 9:19 PM (PDT)
2
Thanks for your 2-7-08 Ask ilounge article on manually copying music files back to a pc and re-importing them back into iTunes. My son’s 4th gen iPod crashed and iTunes would not recognize it as an iPod, but the computer recognized it as a hdd. We coied the contents back to the pc and set iTunes as you instructed and let it do its thing. Itunes rebuilt almost everything and we filled in the rest manually. Excellent,, many thanks!
Posted by Steve S. on February 13, 2008 at 10:08 AM (PDT)
3
Does the new Ipod Touch 32Gb version fixes the screen, battery life, transfer times and audio quality Issues?
Posted by Realtek on February 14, 2008 at 11:33 PM (PDT)