macosxhints.com iPod tips

Create always-editable playlists on the iPhone/iPod

Thu, 13 Aug 2009 07:30:00 -0700

If you're like me, you like the fact that the iPod and iPhone gives you an On-the-Go playlist that you can edit while you're on the go. There's only one flaw in this setup: Once you sync your iPod/iPhone to the computer, the On-The-Go playlist freezes into place, and turns into a normal playlist. Normal playlists aren't editable on the iPod/iPhone. Sure, you could just select all the songs from the previous playlist if you're on an iPhone, and roll them into your new one. But that, too, will freeze once synced with the computer.

Fortunately, there is a way to keep the ability to edit playlists intact, and it makes use of the (if you haven't deleted iTunes' stock playlists) My Top Rated playlist. (Note: If you use iTunes' rating system for anything other than this purpose, this probably won't work. Just so you know.) The My Top Rated playlist is a Smart Playlist, which automatically adds songs that meet its criteria. It also dynamically updates -- if you rate a song as 0 stars...

Change an iTunes movie rating

Thu, 16 Jul 2009 07:30:00 -0700

In iTunes, you can change many of the tags associated with a movie. But you can't change its rating (G, PG, etc.)--at least not with iTunes itself. But you can do it with a simple little app called MetaX.

After downloading and installing the app, right-click on the movie you want to re-rate in iTunes and select Show in Finder from the context menu. In the Finder, right-click on the movie file, select Open With, and choose MetaX.app from the list.

In MetaX, you will see a drop-down menu for Rating. Change it to whatever you want, then click on the Write button on the toolbar. (Note that, depending on the size of the movie file, you may have to select its Preferences -> General -> Enable Support for Large Files first.)

MetaX will proceed to rewrite the rating tag (and any other metadata you changed); this may take a while.When you go back to iTunes, the movie's rating should be updated.

A script to keep playlists synced with iPhones/iPods

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 07:30:00 -0700

I am always adding to and editing iTunes playlists, particularly the more oft-listened ones like my punk, ambient, and programs & podcasts playlists. Since I listen to a lot of stuff on my iPhone, I naturally want these playlists always available and up-to-date on my device. I can't tell you how many times I plugged in my iPhone to my car stereo and found, to my disappointment, that I forgot to drag-and-drop the most recent version of a playlist to the device.

Why not just set the iPhone to automatically update? Because I want the finite control that manually managing affords me. My experience with auto-updating: unintended results, creates more problems than it solves.

So I created a script that updates a specified list of playlists to all attached iPods/iPhones. It can run on a schedule (with cron), so I never have to worry that my iPhone won't have the most recent versions of my playlists!

Features

Adds sp...

Change volume on iPod touch in landscape mode

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 07:30:00 -0700

At work I plug in my iPod into my speakers and let it shuffle. Since the iPod touch now has the line out at the bottom, I can no longer position my iPod in portrait mode, since the cable to my speakers gets in the way. Therefore I position it in landscape mode, which brings up the Coverf Flow view. Nice, if only it would always refresh to the album art for the "now playing song" and, more importantly to me, if it would offer a volume slider. Both features are missing in landscape mode.

Here are two workarounds; first the simple solution:

Shuffle songs
Click the Home button to return to the main iPod touch screen
Double-click home button to display the 'music widget' with volume slider.

The widget will still be in portrait mode, though I can live with that. The second solution is a bit more complex, but works in landscape mode:

Shuffle songs
Open a photo
Landscape your iPod
Double-click the Home button to display t...

Fix non-displaying album art on iPods

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 07:30:00 -0800

A while back, I purchased a 30 Gig iPod. I naturally put all my music and some videos on the iPod, but it wasn't until recently that I wanted to add some artwork to view while my songs were playing. I went to the web and got some photos of my artists and began adding the artwork to my playlists.

After checking the necessary options to display album art on the iPod, I found that nothing was displaying. I then found that by unselecting then reselecting the Show Artwork on iPod option, the album art copied correctly then next time I synced it.

[robg adds: This is actually a common method of resolving many album art problems with the iPod; if some albums don't display art, or if some display the incorrect art, doing the above usually fixes it. It will take a few minutes for iTunes to rebuild the album art database, but you should have all your art after that.]

Update: it seems that some people are having problems with this. I've posted a comment below being ...

Work with iPod notes without iPod connected

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 07:30:00 -0700

Do you use your iPod for notes? Do you want to be able to manage your notes while your iPod isn't plugged in? Well, here's how you can manage your notes on your computer and have them appear on your iPod. What you'll need:

An iPod with disk use enabled.
A couple of AppleScripts.

Step 1: Copy the notes folder on your iPod to your home folder. So, you should have a folder at "~/Notes/". This folder should be a duplicate of the notes folder on your iPod.

Step 2: Save the following as an AppleScript:

property myipodname : "My iPod"
property shellscriptname : ""

on adding folder items to theFolder after receiving theItems
if shellscriptname is equal to "" then
if myipodname contains...



How to use a new iPod with an old Mac
Fri, 10 Oct 2008 07:30:00 -0700
The newest generation of iPods requires iTunes 8 or higher. iTunes 8 requires Windows XP service pack 2 or higher, or MacOSX 10.4.9 or higher. So what do you do if you have an older Mac which can not run, or otherwise is not running OS X 10.4.9 or later? Or perhaps you just don't want to upgrade your entire OS just to use a new iPod. Here is one possible solution...

Since Apple writes software that supports very old Windows operating systems from six or more years ago, but does not support its own Mac OS systems from just three or so years ago, the answer is to run Virtual PC on your older Mac, and run Windows XP service pack 2 or higher on it. There, thanks to Windows, you can install iTunes 8 with no problems. You'll have to transfer your library over to the windows side, and you'll have to launch Virtual PC every time you want to update your iPod -- but at least you can use a new generation iPod on an older Mac.

Sad, but it works.


Change audio book playback speed on new nano/Classic
Wed, 01 Oct 2008 07:30:02 -0700
When listening to an audio book on the new nano (and, I assume, the new Classic), if you press and hold the center button, you get access to a "contextual" menu of sorts where you can change the audio playback speed -- you can choose between Slower, Normal, Faster, and Cancel.



On older iPods, you had to go to the Settings menu to change the playback speed.


Print PDFs directly to iPod touch (and iPhone)
Tue, 30 Sep 2008 07:30:00 -0700
I frequently want to print copies of maps, directions or other things to take with me on the road.  Since I found the app Air Sharing for my iPod touch, I can save the docs to PDF, and then copy them to my iPod touch for offline viewing. I put together an Automator workflow [65KB download] that allows me to do this directly from the print dialog box.   

To configure the workflow, put the (unzipped) downloaded file into the /Library/PDF Services folder. Open the workflow in Automator, and then set the IP address of your iPod touch or iPhone in the first line of the AppleScript action, and set the save to location in the last action to the desired location on your iPod touch/iPhone. (Note that you need to have the iPhone/iPod touch mounted via Air Sharing to use this workflow.) Finally, save the workflo...


Copy music to iPod based on recent iTunes playback
Thu, 25 Sep 2008 07:30:02 -0700
My iTunes library is much larger than the capacity of a 4GB (or even 8GB) Flash-memory-based iPod. Therefore I searched for a solution that would allow me to automatically copy a selection of songs I'm actually listening to over to my iPod. I didn't want to bother changing the playlist I am syncing with the iPod manually every week or so. 



The solution was based on this AppleScript snippet I found on the Internet, with some changes to make it work the way I wanted it to work. The script adds albums to a playlist based on the songs I recently played. In that way, the iPod is always filled with the music I'm enjoying right now.
2br
Here is the script:

with ti...


Restore iPod games from your iPod
Wed, 26 Mar 2008 07:30:03 -0700
My Mac's hard drive was getting errors, so I decided to make a fresh backup and then reformat, reinstall and restore. Many of the files that couldn't be read were in ~/Music -- no problem, I thought, it's all on my iPod anyway. Getting music and video from the iPod back into iTunes is easy. Just disable syncing, enable hard disk use, and open everything in iPod_Control » Music » F* on the iPod (make sure 'Copy files to iTunes' is enabled on the Advanced tab in iTunes' Preferences).



Unfortunately that does not include games.Those can be found in iPod_Control » Games_RO, but they're not in a format that iTunes understands. There is one directory for each game you've installed. The directory is a number, but you can find out which game it is by looking in the game's Executables directory. To reinstall your games, all you need to do is create a zip file of each game, and then set the zip file's extension to .ipg. For example:
 ...


Use VPN on the iPod Touch to read Exchange mail
Tue, 05 Feb 2008 07:30:01 -0800
With Apple's Mail included in the software update ($20) for iPod Touch firmware upgrade 1.1.3, I was looking forward to really improving the utility of the device by reading my work email. However, the comments I read on the net said that the iPod Touch didn't have the networking preferences like the iPhone, and thus, VPN couldn't be done.



But they were wrong!



VPN is hidden in Settings » General » Network, and if your company's Exchange server has IMAP services activated, then you can configure the iPod Touch to read your work email. The only problem that I have found is that the VPN connection isn't persistent. If your iPod goes to sleep, the VPN connection drops out. Go back to settings to switch it back on again. Now I have full email wherever there's Wi-Fi.



[robg adds: This is the same spot where you'll find VPN settings on the iPhone. I assumed this was documented in the updated iPod Touch user's guide, but it doesn't seem to be mentioned...


Extend 24 hour movie rental period on iPods
Fri, 25 Jan 2008 07:30:00 -0800
This works at least on the iPod Nano, though I hope it works on the Mac as well. If you start to watch a movie but do not finish it and the 24 hour period is running out, just start the movie playing on the iPod and press Pause. The movie will remain playable until you close the movie -- even past the 24 hour time period. When you finally decide to stop the movie, you will receive a warning from iPod that the time has expired and will be prompted to resume watching or delete the movie.

[robg adds: During Expo last week, I wrote about my concerns with the 24-hour limit. Yesterday, my colleague Chris Breen stumbled on this same solution to the problem. Chris notes that you must choose one of the resume or delete options when you go back to the iPod; he force-restarted his iPod just to see what would happen, and found th...


A solution for iPods not synching in iTunes 7.5
Mon, 26 Nov 2007 07:30:00 -0800
I recently bought a new iPod classic to replace my 5G (with video). After setting up the iPod, it refused to sync automatically with iTunes as my 5G had -- it would eject within seconds of being connected, so I had to press Sync immediately to get it to sync. 



Last night, I got bored and went to poke around in the Preferences. Lo and behold (in iTunes 7.5), the iPhone pane has turned into the Syncing pane, and there's a checkbox with the text "Disable automatic syncing for iPods and iPhones." Unchecking it solved all my problems.



[robg adds: When I first read this, I thought it was one-time occurrence, as none of my machines have had this box checked by default. However, three additional hint submissions on the exact same subject make me suspect that something else is going on, so in case you've been having auto-sync issues, here's the solution.]


Take notes on an iPod touch
Tue, 25 Sep 2007 07:30:00 -0700
Many users have complained about 'missing' features in the iPod touch, like an email application, the ability to add entries to the Calendar, and a note taking application. Until the iPod touch is 'hacked' to allow the installation of third-party apps, or for those who don't want to hack the iPod touch, it is possible -- and not entirely inconvenient -- to use the Contacts database to take notes that are then automatically uploaded to the home computer when the iPod touch is synced.

What I do is create a new Contact with a number for the first name and A for the last name, so it shows up at the top of the contacts list. Then create a new field in the contact named Notes and type away. It will probably hold as much as you're likely to want to type with the iPod touch's keyboard. When you next sync the iPod touch, the note(s) will show up in your Address Book, in whatever folder you have designated in iTunes. The default new folder is named Added.


Recover a corrupted iPod iTunes database via copying
Thu, 26 Jul 2007 07:30:00 -0700
I don't think this is a common occurance, but if it happens to you, it can be really annoying. Something indeterminate happened to my iPod, with the result that when it was connected to iTunes, iTunes popped up a message saying that it could not read the contents of the iPod, and that I would need to restore it.

okay, all well and good, except that disk mode still worked, all the files were there, as well as all the music in /Volumes » iPod_name » iPod_Control » Music, in its requisite F00-F49 (there might be more or fewer folders on different iPod models; I'm not sure) folders. Needless to say, with a total of 11GB free on my laptop, and 22GB+ of music on my iPod, I was not looking forward to copying back and forth more files than I had room to move, nor did I want to buy another hard drive just for this purpose. 

A web search turned up nothing appreciable, except that people seem to post about this often with PC formatted iPods, and that nobody had ...


Use a Mac instead of an iPod as stereo system source
Fri, 06 Jul 2007 07:30:00 -0700
I ripped a number of my CDs using iTunes' Apple Lossless encoding for maximum fidelity. When I played songs back on my stereo system from my iPod, the music was thin and reedy, but when I played the same music back using iTunes on my computer, the music sounded virtually as good as from a CD player. 

I assume that the digital-to-analog circuitry in the iPod is not nearly as good as those on my computer, so the same music sounds much better coming from the computer than from the iPod. Since I like to listen to music while I'm working at my computer, using iTunes on my computer as jukebox source is a no-brainer. Just plug the headphone jack into a high-level input on your stereo. I use a 17" G4 Powerbook; your mileage may vary.

[robg adds: I'm running this hint in order to see what others think: I've never actually used my iPod connected to the stereo, and was curious to see if others have noticed a definite audio quality difference between an iPod and a Mac as th...


Recover space on an iPod
Thu, 31 May 2007 07:30:00 -0700
I was recently wondering why there are so many "other" files on my iPod: you know, when you connect the iPod, you see a graphic at the bottom of the iPod Summary window in iTunes showing what kinds of files you have: music, video, photos, other. For some reason, it seemed to be much more than it should have been. "Other" contains your album artwork, any files you have on the iPod if you use it in hard disk mode, and games, but it seemed that the space used was excessive.

So, with Terminal, I started rooting around. (The iPod should be in hard disk mode to do this.) I found the following folder:/Volumes/Dark Star/.TemporaryItems/folders.501/TemporaryItems
which contained a whopping 300 MB of files, named "Temp file 1", etc. I deleted these files, and recovered a fair amount of space. 

 To find the appropriate folder, replace the part of the path following Volumes with the name of your iPod, then, if you are not the first user on your Mac,...


Prevent iPod Shuffle from reverting to start of playlists
Tue, 01 May 2007 07:30:00 -0700
My iPod shuffle would occasionally behave strangely on start-up -- rather than resume play where it was when last powered off, it would resume play where it was when last powered on.  That is, if I had listened to three hours of music yesterday, it would start at the beginning, not the end, of that three-hour block today.

I eventually discovered that this behaviour occurs if the Shuffle is paused, then left alone until the green light stops blinking, then turned off.  Turning the iPod off immediately produced the expected behaviour.  Since I don't imagine it is a frequent occurrence to want to "rewind" the iPod in this way, I mention this not so much as a hint, and more as a suggestion for what to be sure not to do, if you're absent-minded like me.


Foreign language podcasts and iTunes stores
Fri, 20 Apr 2007 07:30:00 -0700
I studied a handful of foreign languages in school, and I like to exercise them a little from time to time, even if I'm firmly ensconced in the monolingual desert of the USA. Podcasts are an excellent way to do this, and of course the iTunes store's podcast directory is a very easy way to get podcasts. However, the number of foreign langage podcasts there is rather limited.

Some time ago I visited some foreign iTunes stores, and tried to get some music from them, but this failed because apparently only people with credit cards issued in the locale of any given iTunes store can buy things there. But wait (I pondered) -- almost all podcasts are free! Credit cards won't even come into play. And yes, in fact, you can go to a foreign iTunes store and download as many podcasts as you like, exactly as you would on the US iTunes store, complete with auto updates.

So, if you want to extend your podcast listening and/or viewing to some new sources, I suggest that you go down to ...