[iPod 5G] Read iPod native playlists in Rb database

[Chronon]

Hi all, just thought I'd mention my own story in case someone on a Mac (who doesn't like being dependent on wine) wants to convert their iTunes playlists to the m3u/m3u8 (rockbox) format. Here's what I did:

1. Downloaded Songbird.
2. Let it import all my iTunes stuff.
3. Added the extension Playlist Export Tool
4. Exported my playlists to ~/Music
5.

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rsync -avW --progress --size-only --delete ~/Music/* /Volumes/IPODNAME/Music/6.

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touch /Volumes/IPODNAME/iPod_Control/Music/database.ignore

This might be useful information in the IpodFAQ page or some other wiki page (maybe UsefulTools).

[geruvah]

All that seemed to work until ~/Music.
Is that a folder within the ipod or something in the computer like where the music for iTunes is located? Then after that, what are those next two steps of code?

Sorry, when it comes to coding, I know nothing unless it's a little xml.

[kiwibird]

All that seemed to work until ~/Music.
Is that a folder within the ipod or something in the computer like where the music for iTunes is located? Then after that, what are those next two steps of code?

~ means your home folder. So ~/Music is the folder called "Music" in your home folder, where I assume you've put all your mp3s etc. I'm running a Mac, for windows I have no idea how to do all this, although for Linux it should be fairly similar.

Anyway, if you've exported the playlists to the folder called "Music" within your home folder, then on a Mac or Linux you've got to open Terminal, and then write in the code in step 5; but before pressing enter, you have to exchange "/Volumes/IPODNAME/Music/" for the address to your ipod. I think on a Mac, this'll show up if you press Apple+I when you've got your ipod selected in Finder, and it'll say that the ipod is mounted to something like "/Volumes/MyIpod", in that case you put "/Volumes/MyIpod/Music/" (you get the picture?).

(Alternatively, in Terminal, first type "mount" and it'll show you all connected disks, and one of them should be "mounted" to /Volumes/MyIpod or whatever. This works for Linux too, where iPods tend to get mounted to /mnt/MyIpod or /media/MyIpod or something.)

Anyway, once you've found where the iPod is mounted, type your equivalent of

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rsync -avW --progress --size-only --delete ~/Music/* /Volumes/MyIpod/Music/
into Terminal, and then your equivalent of

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touch /Volumes/IPODNAME/iPod_Control/Music/database.ignore
Best of luck to you!


EDIT: iTunes doesn't run on Linux does it? Doh.

[geruvah]

Thanks a LOT Kiwibird! That went very smoothly. On a Mac, they don't usually say things like "/Volumes/Ipodname" (Just the ipodname) so I had to do what you said about typing mount and it helped get rid of any doubt. That should definitely be added in the wiki, since a lot of playlist solutions exist for Windows.

If you don't mind me asking, what do these codes do? It looks like it just gets ready for me to be able to put playlists on the ipod. So now I can just drag and drop them in the root, "/Volumes/iPodname" right?

*tries*

[kiwibird]

If you don't mind me asking, what do these codes do? It looks like it just gets ready for me to be able to put playlists on the ipod. So now I can just drag and drop them in the root, "/Volumes/iPodname" right?

rsync will synchronize your home music folder and your iPod music folder; so if you exported your playlists to your home music folder _before_ running the rsync command, they should also be put onto your iPod.

touch just creates an empty file (database.ignore) in the iTunes-folder on your iPod, making RockBox ignore all those iTunes files with four-letter names.

[geruvah]

Alright, now that I'm understanding this, I know where the problem is.

"EGGO" is my username. "ALAIN" is my iPod's name; it has nothing in it other than your usual folders (Calendars, Contacts, Notes, and I also added an empty folder called Music).

rsync: link_stat "/Users/EGGO/Volumes/Alpha/Music/*" failed: No such file or directory (2)

I store my music (with the Music and Itunes folder) on a seperate harddrive (named Alpha).
"rsync -avW --progress --size-only --delete Volumes/Alpha/Music/* /Volumes/ALAIN/Music/"

So the problem, it seems, is that despite saying Volumes/Alpha/Music, it points to it after going through the users when it shouldn't since it's in a whole different hard drive.

Sorry if this is trying your patience. I thought that would've been it, but I am having a better understanding how this thing works.

[kiwibird]

"EGGO" is my username. "ALAIN" is my iPod's name; it has nothing in it other than your usual folders (Calendars, Contacts, Notes, and I also added an empty folder called Music).

rsync: link_stat "/Users/EGGO/Volumes/Alpha/Music/*" failed: No such file or directory (2)

I store my music (with the Music and Itunes folder) on a seperate harddrive (named Alpha).
"rsync -avW --progress --size-only --delete Volumes/Alpha/Music/* /Volumes/ALAIN/Music/"

So the problem, it seems, is that despite saying Volumes/Alpha/Music, it points to it after going through the users when it shouldn't since it's in a whole different hard drive.

Sorry if this is trying your patience. I thought that would've been it, but I am having a better understanding how this thing works.

No problem at all. I believe you're just missing a single "/", you have

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rsync -avW --progress --size-only --delete Volumes/Alpha/Music/* /Volumes/ALAIN/Music/ where you should have

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rsync -avW --progress --size-only --delete /Volumes/Alpha/Music/* /Volumes/ALAIN/Music/
To explain: if you've just opened Terminal, it'll be "in" your home folder (/Users/EGGO), so when you wrote just "Volumes/Alpha...", Terminal figured you meant a folder called Volumes within the directory you're in. Putting a "/" makes the path "absolute" (that is, not relative to your current directory), and tells Terminal you want the Volumes-folder that's in the Root folder of you hard drive... (but this is getting rather off-topic, see http://osxdaily.com/2007/03/30/mac-os-x-directory-structure-explained/ for more info...)

[Ishtar]

Just wanted to say that I was in the same boat as Geruvah. But my problem is that when I use that Terminal command, it says there's not enough space. The playlists I'm trying to sync only takes up half of the hard-drive though, so I'm assuming it's because it's because it's trying to transfer ALL of my songs (which is more than what my ipod is capable of holding).