Newbie looking to import iTunes playlists to iPod Video 5.5

[nickmeister]

Hi first post here and yet to install Rockbox.  I have upgraded my iPod Video 5.5 with a cf adapter and 256 micro SD card.  All works well when syncing around 128gb but then the iPod fails to sync any more after this which I believe is an iTunes limitation.  I want to sync more songs which I how I found out about Rockbox.  I understand there is no Rockbox music library where you can create playlist etc like iTunes.  Is there a way of importing my iTunes playlists into Rockbox?

Many thanks

[nickmeister]

Also wanted to note that I use a wireless NAS drive with my iTunes library so wonders how to sync from this with Rockbox?  Thanks again

[saratoga]

Playlists saved as m3u files work in rockbox, but m3u files are just a list of files, so those files have to exist on the player. A m3u pointing to music on your PC won't work unless those same folders exist on your device.

[Frankenpod]

If it fails to sync with iTunes it would be due to the database size getting too large (essentially, too many tracks), not specifically to do with the 128gb size.

To use your iTunes playlists you'd have to export them from iTunes in m3u format then copy those playlists to rockbox.  Note though that this assumes you are keeping exactly the same directory structure on the player as on your music library.  If you aren't then it gets much more complicated.  I suggest you just copy your music library as-is, wholesale, to the ipod, keeping all directory and file names the same.

  If I remember rightly iTunes deliberately makes this very tedious by insisting you export each playlist one-at-a-time.  But there might be some third-party iTunes utility out there somewhere that will export them all at one go.

[nickmeister]

Thanks for the reply much appreciated, will export the playlists and give them a go. 

Interesting you mentioned about there being too many tracks, I was under the impression this was one of the main reasons people use Rockbox so they can get around this when modding their iPods?

I’ve synced around 4000 songs in iTunes and at some point after this is when it stops syncing for some reason?   Tends to be when I go beyond the 128gb mark?

[Frankenpod]

5.5g doesn't have the 128gb limitation.  Presumably it just happens to be the same point at which the number of tracks gets too large for the native firmware.

Though 4000 tracks seems a low figure for that problem to arise (usually it's 5-10 times that number), which suggests maybe something else is wrong.

[nickmeister]

Thanks, does Rockbox work better when syncing larger batches of files?

[Frankenpod]

No.  It's worse!

The advantage of Rockbox is simply that it doesn't stop working completely when your track count is too large.  With OF all your tracks will become inaccessible as soon as you sync one track too many.

If you have some other problem it's possible Rockbox won't solve it.