Ipod 120GB archive problem..

[admin_exported]

I sure hope someone can help as i can't see the reason behind this problem and its driving me mad!!

I bought a 120gb around 3/4 months ago, i started compiling my albums, artwork etc, over 100 albums plus and everything was great... Then recently i reformatted my laptop.... And this is where the problem lies i think.

Now i, like most people, would assume the ipod is a clever piece of kit and would remember, obviously not!!

I reformatted the laptop, reinstalled itunes, connected the ipod.... And now all of a sudden, there is no sign of any albums in the "my library" section within itunes where i used to display them??? If i click music, it displays the name of every song and still shows the amount of gigs taken and the music is still all there, not to mention the coverflow works perfectly on the ipod itself, yet no artwork is displayed in itunes no matter what i do. I can not manage the music on my ipod through itunes anymore, it wont even let me add new albums, whats that all about??!!

The problem im having is, if i change it to manually manage my music, it states that if i proceed, the old playlist "i.e. the one i want to stick with" will be replaced with the new one... Im sorry but im not sacrificing 100+ albums for the three new ones i have tried uploading, also to which, none will now copy and the sync option is faded, therefore unusable!

What can i do to get it back to normal?? Also, i didnt make a backup, i didnt think id have to. I just assumed it would sync and continue as normal once id reformatted!! There is an option to consolidate but this appears useless also..

I cant find anything in itunes help that remotely sounds related to anything im experiencing!

Can anyone help or have you experienced this??

 

[Anonymous]

Sounds like the initial problem is with iTunes. My guess would be that it's having problems locating your library. If you try and play a file does it display a little question mark and ask you to locate the file? If so you need to reload your library. Hold alt whilst iTunes is starting up and it'll ask you to locate your library (if that's not there look for the .xml file), then just browse to your library and click OK.

You may also need to go into preferences and change where you are storing your iTunes folder if you have moved it from 'My Music'.ÿ

 

[Binman]

Not sure I understand exactly what you have done - If you reformatted your PC, did you put your music back on the PC - or are you expecting the music stored on the ipod to do this?

 

[Anonymous]

No it doesnt display a question mark when asked to play a track.. However, iv just found a way to force the sync and transfer the 3 albums that wouldnt previously do so.. Im chuffed at that, but there are still a few niggles that are bugging me..

 

[Anonymous]

Not really sure I understand either. Where are you transferring files to? All of the music should still be on both devices. Is it the iPod or iTunes which has lost its place?

 

[Anonymous]

You're not the only ones that are confused trust me!!

The ipod still has all the music on, artwork etc, works perfectly, itunes shows the space taken up on the ipod along with a list of all the tracks, it just wont display the albums or the artwork in my library where they used to show up, even tho it clearly still sees the music on the device??? It lists the tracks, i cant get it to show any artwork.. And in my new library it only shows the 3 albums i have added since reformatting, even though the space accounted for is with the old library aswell!!

This is obviously a very rare problem im guessing! Its one of those problems thats impossible to explain, its one of those "it needs to be shown to be understood" examples..

 

[Anonymous]

Binman:Not sure I understand exactly what you have done - If you reformatted your PC, did you put your music back on the PC - or are you expecting the music stored on the ipod to do this?

I was expecting there not to be a problem, i thought i would reformat, reinstall and the ipod would automatically remember and recognise the music already stored on it and just show up on the newly formatted laptop. Obviously it hasn't done and is giving me a world of grief that i know no-one will be able to figure out.. I've tried allsorts!

 

[Binman]

First things first - STOP CONNECTING YOUR IPOD TO YOUR PC!! - if you're not careful you may well lose all your music forever.

Right I think I understand now, and the news isn't good (but all is not lost)

When you formatted your PC, you deleted all the music off the PC. Your Ipod just replicates whats on your PC, and its a one way process i.e Ipod replicates whats on the the PC, but the PC will not replicate whats on the Ipod (otherwise it would be very easy to copy music to other peoples PC's)

The 3 albums you have recently ripped to your PC can be put on your Ipod, but if you carry out a full sync you will be left with only the 3 new albums on your Ipod - hence the 'stop connecting your Ipod' bit at the top.

You need to recreate your Itunes (i.e your PC) library, you can either re-rip every CD you have back on to your PC, or use Google to find a program that will let you transfer your music from your Ipod to your PC (as Itunes will not allow you to do this). Once you have transferred your music on to your PC, open up Itunes and point the 'music location' in the direction of where you saved your music. This should recreate your library.

I've never done this, so cant coment on which program to use, but what ever you use, make sure that you triple check that the music is on your PC, and that it plays.

Re: Album art - you will need to log into your Apple Itunes Store account via Itunes to be able to download album artwork.

Lastly - Buy an external harddisk for about £40 and back up your data. I only started backing up when I lost 350 albums worth of ripped music, I nearly cried.

 

[Anonymous]

If you have all your music on your ipod then use 'Touch Copy' to transfare your music from your ipod onto your itunes lib or computer, I have used this program without any problems.

 

[Anonymous]

Binman:
First things first - STOP CONNECTING YOUR IPOD TO YOUR PC!! - if you're not careful you may well lose all your music forever.

Right I think I understand now, and the news isn't good (but all is not lost)

When you formatted your PC, you deleted all the music off the PC. Your Ipod just replicates whats on your PC, and its a one way process i.e Ipod replicates whats on the the PC, but the PC will not replicate whats on the Ipod (otherwise it would be very easy to copy music to other peoples PC's)

The 3 albums you have recently ripped to your PC can be put on your Ipod, but if you carry out a full sync you will be left with only the 3 new albums on your Ipod - hence the 'stop connecting your Ipod' bit at the top.

You need to recreate your Itunes (i.e your PC) library, you can either re-rip every CD you have back on to your PC, or use Google to find a program that will let you transfer your music from your Ipod to your PC (as Itunes will not allow you to do this). Once you have transferred your music on to your PC, open up Itunes and point the 'music location' in the direction of where you saved your music. This should recreate your library.

I've never done this, so cant coment on which program to use, but what ever you use, make sure that you triple check that the music is on your PC, and that it plays.

Re: Album art - you will need to log into your Apple Itunes Store account via Itunes to be able to download album artwork.

Lastly - Buy an external harddisk for about £40 and back up your data. I only started backing up when I lost 350 albums worth of ripped music, I nearly cried.

Thanks very much for that, i will try and rectify using those steps... If it works, i will be very happy.

 

[Anonymous]

mahler1:If you have all your music on your ipod then use 'Touch Copy' to transfare your music from your ipod onto your itunes lib or computer, I have used this program without any problems.

Trouble is, i downloaded it only to find its a demo program...

 

[Anonymous]

Try this.

 

[Anonymous]

Sorry, forgot about it being a demo prog, believe me it is worth buying the program as I did, have never had any problems transfaring any of my music from my ipod's to itunes, so it is really worth the cost, rather than losing any muisc or videos from my ipod's.

 

[Anonymous]

Well, problem over, i tried using the touch copy software, it found the files, compiled a list, asked if i wanted to copy to the files back, i clicked yes.... And it deleted everything for some strange reason??! I So i restored it to factory settings. Never mind, i'll start from scratch again. Luckily i didnt lose that much, only about 20gigs, but il start again, it'll give me something to do over the weekend... Im surprised how calm i actually am considering though.. Wouldn't most people be steaming by now?? Ha.