Peter: I read the follow Mac 911 article. It might help you.
08.25.03 -- 09.01.03
Macworld - The Mac Product Experts
MAC 911 WEEKLY
By Christopher Breen, Contributing Editor, Macworld (mac911@macworld.com)
Q. I own an iPod and recently had a problem on my computer that caused all the data on the Mac to be erased -- including all my music. I tried a program that moves music from the iPod to iTunes and now I can no longer sync my iPod. I remember reading a statement that explained that these programs were not Apple-approved but did not understand that such consequences might arise from using them.
Currently my iPod shows that it contains no songs, yet it indicates that 8.2GB are used on it (the same amount as when I had my music on it). Also when I connect it to my computer it no longer shows up in iTunes. Any ideas?
-- Gregory Ashworth
A. Yes, a few:
Idea 1: Apple doesn't disapprove of these utilities because they might scramble the data on your iPod. Rather, Apple would prefer that you not copy files from the iPod to a Macintosh because unscrupulous souls might use such a technique to pirate music.
Idea 2: In the course of researching all three editions of my book, Secrets of the iPod, I've used every single one of these tools and have yet to encounter this kind of problem. I've also received reports of this kind of behavior from people whose iPods haven't been within a county mile of one of these utilities. Given that, I'm not sure you can pin the blame for the iPod's corruption on the utility. These things sometimes happen on their own.
Idea 3: Your iPod needs to be restored. To do so, try this:
Shut down your Mac, plug in the iPod, and restart you Mac while holding down the Shift key. This boots your Mac into Safe Mode. More often than not, if the iPod won't appear on the Desktop or in iTunes under normal circumstances, your iPod will make itself known when you boot in Safe Mode.
Once the Mac has booted, run the latest iPod Software Updater utility (version 1.3 if you have a first- or second generation iPod and version 2.0.1 if you have the latest, third-generation model). Restoring your iPod erases all the data on it so -- and I know this is going to sting a little bit, Gregory -- be sure that you have a backup of everything on your iPod before you restore it.
TIP:
Undoubtedly, Mr. Ashworth isn't the only person who, while reading the previous paragraph, commented, "And exactly how is he supposed to back up his iPod when it refuses to reveal its data?"
Seek the invisible.
The iPod holds its music in an invisible folder called iPod_Control. To reveal the unseen, download a copy of Marcel Bresink's free TinkerTool from VersionTracker (
www.versiontracker.com), install it, and, in its Finder tab, enable the Show Hidden and System Files option. Click the Relaunch Finder button and in next to no time, all the invisible files on your Mac (and iPod) will be visible.
If the iPod doesn't appear on the Desktop, launch iTunes, select the iPod in the Source list, click the iPod Preferences icon, and, in the resulting iPod Preferences window, enable the Enable FireWire Disk Use option. This causes your iPod to appear on the Desktop.
Double-click the iPod's icon on the Desktop and open the iPod_Control folder and then the Music folder within. Inside this folder, within a bunch of folders that begin with the letter F, are all the iPod's music files. To move these songs into iTunes, open iTunes preferences, click the Advanced button, and enable the Copy Songs to iTunes Music Folder When Adding to Library option. Now open each F folder and drag its contents into iTunes. The songs from the iPod will be copied to your Mac's iTunes Music Library.
