iPod 6 Classic with Rockbos is not recognized by Windows 10 after adding files

[QRDeNameland]

Howdy folks, just joined the community.  I have scoured the forums and I'm just not finding my particular problem.

So I recently had my old iPod 6 Classic modded with an iFlash Quad controller with 2 512 GB MicroSDs.  It had been working fine with about 550GB of Vorbis files, aside from some battery life issues (similar to https://forums.rockbox.org/index.php/topic,54591.0.html) which I have been able to work around.

Then this week, I copied a bunch of new music to it, which seemed to work fine on the copy, but after ejecting the iPod it's effectively bricked. When Rockbox boots, it gets to "Committing Database 1/9" and never gets past it, eventually it seems to just drain the battery and shut off, even when plugged into USB. I've seen that this much seems to be common problem, from what I'm reading. The bigger problem, though, is in this state it will simply not be recognized by either of my Windows 10 computers in any way. Not as a USB device, not even an errored/unknown entry in Device Manager. 

So I can't even connect to it to reformat and rebuild from scratch. Some stuff said to install iTunes to get iPod driver support but even iTunes does not see it. I'm reading some stuff on how to use Rockbox Simulator to build large databases more reliably, but I can't do a damn thing if it the device is not recognized.  I did do a test rebuild of database using the simulator and it went fine, so I don't think it's a corrupted file or anything like that.

So just to list the technical details:

MB029C/A iPod classic 80GB Silver
Model #: A1238

storage: iFlash quad https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B01M9GJ2A1/

Rockbox version 3.15

not sure if there's anything else I can add to that

Again, I'd just be happy if I could get it to the point that Windows can see it and I can rebuild it.  Any help is greatly appreciated.

[saratoga]

3.15 won't work reliably with the iflash adapters. Update to the current build and it will probably work a lot better.

[QRDeNameland]

3.15 won't work reliably with the iflash adapters. Update to the current build and it will probably work a lot better.

1)  As far as I knew 3.15 was the current build.  What would the current build be?

2)  That doesn't address the core problem as stated.  How can I update anything if I can't get the device recognized by my computer?

[Frankenpod]

To update it you may have to start again from scratch.  I.e. put it in DFU mode and restore the original firmware, then install rockbox again (this time the latest development build - 3.15 really is quite old now).

[QRDeNameland]

Ok, after much tribulation I have finally gotten into DFU mode and have drive reformatted.  So just to be clear, I want to reinstall with the Development Version (e01055a287) and not the Daily Build?

[saratoga]

The daily build is the development build from a few hours earlier, so it doesn't really make a difference in this case. Just don't run a stable release from 3 years before workarounds were added for your flash adapter.

[QRDeNameland]

Thanks for your help.  It's not like any of this is obvious.

[Frankenpod]

Thanks for your help.  It's not like any of this is obvious.

Did you get it to work in the end?  The quad iflashes _can_ be gotten to work (eventually).  Personally I usually use the most recent dev build (after checking the forum to see if there are any obvious issues with it).

[QRDeNameland]

Thanks for your help.  It's not like any of this is obvious.

Did you get it to work in the end?  The quad iflashes _can_ be gotten to work (eventually).  Personally I usually use the most recent dev build (after checking the forum to see if there are any obvious issues with it).

Well, I got the latest dev build of Rockbox installed, and then recopied all the music back to it, but it seems to back to the original problem...after seemingly initializing the database, it shuts down and upon restarting it hangs forever on 'Committing Database'.

Is it possible to just copy over the database files from Rockbox Simulator, which built the database fine using the same music folder I loaded the actual iPod with?

[rockbox_dev123]

Is it possible to just copy over the database files from Rockbox Simulator, which built the database fine using the same music folder I loaded the actual iPod with?

Yes

[Frankenpod]

Is it possible to just copy over the database files from Rockbox Simulator, which built the database fine using the same music folder I loaded the actual iPod with?

In general, yes, though it depends on whether the simulator is using a version of rockbox that doesn't have any major differences in its treatment of the database compared to the version you have on the ipod.  I think the downloadable windows simulators all use an older version of RB than the current development version.

  I used to build the database that way, but (a) RB seemed to improve its support of flash mods to the point where it became possible to build it on the ipod itself, and (b) at some points changes were made to the database code that made the simulator's output incompatible with the latest RB version - but maybe those changes were later reverted again?

Have you deleted (via the computer) any database files left on the ipod from the previous failed attempts to build it?  If the old, broken, database-related files are still on there, that might prevent even the newer version of RB from successfully building the DB.

[speachy]

In general, yes, though it depends on whether the simulator is using a version of rockbox that doesn't have any major differences in its treatment of the database compared to the version you have on the ipod.  I think the downloadable windows simulators all use an older version of RB than the current development version.

Those windows builds of the UI sims are downright ancient.  It looks like the current git code doesn't even build a windows sim cleanly either. 

There's also the so-called 'dbtool', but that is target specific because in theory the DB format can change on a per-target basis.

We actually compile linux versions of every simulator target as part of our per-commit commits, but we throw them away as they're not guaranteed to be portable.  Once the windows sim build is fixed, we could also add that to the build farm..

[QRDeNameland]

Have you deleted (via the computer) any database files left on the ipod from the previous failed attempts to build it?  If the old, broken, database-related files are still on there, that might prevent even the newer version of RB from successfully building the DB.

I reformatted the iPod drive completely, so there shouldn't be anything left from previous attempts.  And it looks like I will have to do so again, as I am again in the situation where none of my 3 computers will actually mount it as a drive.

Based on these subsequent comments, I don't feel like I have any good options if the simulator is so out of date.  Maybe I just reformat/reload again and just don't use the database...just build some playlists?  It seemed to be working before initializing the database.

[Frankenpod]

Have you deleted (via the computer) any database files left on the ipod from the previous failed attempts to build it?  If the old, broken, database-related files are still on there, that might prevent even the newer version of RB from successfully building the DB.

I reformatted the iPod drive completely, so there shouldn't be anything left from previous attempts.  And it looks like I will have to do so again, as I am again in the situation where none of my 3 computers will actually mount it as a drive.

Based on these subsequent comments, I don't feel like I have any good options if the simulator is so out of date.  Maybe I just reformat/reload again and just don't use the database...just build some playlists?  It seemed to be working before initializing the database.

Can't really tell what's going on, then.  If trying to build the database is actually corrupting the storage so comprehensively that the ipod can no longer be seen by the computer, then that's more extreme than any issues with the database I've experienced.   Database building would often fail or produce an incomplete corrupt database (and get stuck on a "committing database" step), but it didn't stop the device connecting to the computer.  And those problems seemed to go away with newer versions of RB.

Can you boot it into disk mode (centre-button-and-play-button) [or even just force it to reboot into original firmware, by force-rebooting it then holding the menu button down as it boots] and if so can the computer then see it?  If that works you could then try deleting the failed database files, which might stop it freezing at that step every boot.

[Frankenpod]

Oh, just noticed you say it was originally an 80gb ipod - so it's a 6th gen that won't recognise more than 128gb in original firmware mode.  That's going to make it more difficult to fix anything.