Maria’s Guides

My 5th generation iPod turns up its nose at my new iMac; later they become friends.

If you’ve been following this blog, you might remember that I recently replaced my Dual G5 Power Mac — currently available on eBay! — with a 24″ iMac. This was a big splurge for me, but one that I truly think I deserved after working my butt off on my Leopard book for months.

Anyway, the biggest task when setting up a new computer is moving data files across the network from the old computer to the new one. I did this in steps. One of the first steps was to move my iTunes data over and get my 5th Generation iPod — you know, the first video-capable iPod — able to sync.

Problems Abound

The data transfer went well. That wasn’t a problem. And hooking the iPod’s dock into the new machine was fine, too.

When I set the iPod in the dock, a dialog told me that the iPod was synced with another Mac. Did I want to sync with this one instead? I responded that I did.

And then the trouble began.

The computer began by telling me that it couldn’t sync 12 of my songs because I wasn’t authorized to play them. That’s weird. I only have one .Mac account, which I used to buy music on iTunes. Over the years I’ve bought 700+ songs there. Why are only 12 of them unauthorized? (And yes, I did authorize the new computer to play iTunes store purchases.)

(A side note here. This is one of the reasons I believe DRM has to go. It’s a pain in the ass to deal with authorization crap like this. And it’s one of the reasons I don’t buy much music on the iTunes Store these days.)

I decided to ignore the problem when a new problem came up. A dialog told me that I didn’t have enough space on the iPod to copy the music. How odd. I had the same amount of space on the iPod when I synced it with my Dual G5, which had the same exact iTunes library on it.

I decided to restore the iPod. I clicked the restore button in iTunes and went through the process. Restoring an iPod, in case you don’t know, erases it and reinstalls all the basic iPod software on it. My software was up-to-date and I had time, so I figured, why not?

Trouble is, when the restore was done, the computer still told me it didn’t have enough space on the iPod to copy the music.

Now I went into troubleshooting mode. I went to Apple’s Web site and found a support page that said putting the iPod into “Disk Mode” would help troubleshoot iPod problems. It then proceeded to explain how to do this. I followed the instructions.

I’m not linking to the page because I think it made the problem worse. Once the iPod was in Disk Mode, it stopped acting “normal” when connected to the dock.

Here’s how I define “normal”:

• When you place the iPod in the dock while iTunes is running, an icon for the iPod should appear in the Source list. This didn’t work. The iPod’s icon appeared on the desktop but not in iTunes, so I couldn’t access its settings.
• When you place the iPod in the dock while iTunes is not running, iTunes should launch and display the iPod’s icon in the source list. This worked fine and was my workaround for accessing the iPod’s settings.
• If the iPod’s icon appears on the desktop, the Enable Disk Use check box should be turned on in iPod options. (In the latest version of iTunes, select the iPod icon in the source list and click the Summary tab in the main window to access iPod options.) In my case, it wasn’t. I was able to access the iPod as a disk with the Enable Disk Use option turned off.

No, my iPod was not acting normal. It was acting weird.

But yes, I was able to sync my iTunes content.

My iMac Goes Catatonic

The worst part came the next day when I went into my office. My iMac is set up to start before I arrive so it downloads e-mail and podcasts before I get in. But that morning, all it showed me was a blank white screen.

Holy cow, I thought. (In reality, I used a different phrase.) I already broke my new iMac.

Various restarts — even with the Restore disk inserted and the C key held down — didn’t solve the problem. I was just reaching for the phone to call Apple for help when I realized that the iPod was sitting in its cradle with the big “Do Not Disconnect” indicator showing.

Screw that, I thought. And I ruthlessly pulled the iPod out of the cradle.

I restarted the iMac and it came back to life. Whew.

Evidently, the iMac was attempting to boot from the iPod’s disk. So now I had to remember to keep my iPod out of its cradle at the end of the day.

The Solution

The solution, when I found it a few days later, was pretty simple.

It wasn’t as if I found the solution online. I didn’t. If I did, I’d just link to it and write about something else this morning. Instead, I let my subconscious work on it, as it works on many of my problems. And while I was driving or showering or flying or doing something else that’s relatively mindless, my subconscious popped a suggestion into my conscious mind.

The iPod thinks Enable Disk Mode is turned on, right? Why not actually turn it on in iPod options?

So the next time I was at my desk, I Quit iTunes and put the iPod in its cradle. iTunes launched. I displayed iPod Options and turned on the Enable Disk Use check box. The iPod appeared on the desktop. I ejected the iPod, pulled it out of the cradle, and quit iTunes. Then I launched iTunes and put the iPod back in its cradle.

The iPod’s icon appeared in iTunes but not on the desktop. I displayed iPod options and saw that the Enable Disk Use check box was turned off. If you recall from the previous paragraph, I’d turned it on.

Very weird, but it’s working right, so who cares?

This is Tiger, Leopard is Next Week

Now in case you want to blame the problem on Leopard, don’t. All this happened under the latest version of Tiger. I haven’t moved my production machine up to Leopard yet. I wanted to get all the files and apps over first and make sure everything was running right.

Next week I’ll install Leopard on that machine. And if I have any problems or tips, you’ll be able to read about them here.