It works? That was dug up from this thread I guess. If you mean that your browser didn't scroll to anything, that's just because I changed the heading of the respective section. The information is still there.

Which iPod model do you have and what firmware version? You tagged them with episode number etc. right?

On my Classic with firmware 1.1.1 it seems correct when using foo_dop (whether or not I use EPISODEID, but files are tagged with season/episode number). If you use do Episode ID use something that sorts well (e.g. xxyy with xx zero padded season number, yy zero padded episode number), though it probably isn't too important.

0.5.8.0 released.

Changes:

• I added a iPod Devices Panel which lists connected iPods, allows you to view their contents and eject them.
• I made some crazy changes to the database reader code to make it faster.
• I tweaked a few other things in the database code in a hope to fix the iPod touch/iPhone cover flow issue.

The first two changes are experimental so I've tagged this release as experimental.

I cant seem to get the panel working (using PUI)...its just blank/white...irrespective if the ipod is connected or not. Right clicking does nothing...and no errors in the console. Is there any settings/config for it?

Tried it in Columns UI? Does "Load library" detect your iPod? Also what OS?

Im using PanelsUI, but just tested in ColumnsUI as well -this time, all I see is a white panel and some dots "..." but nothing happens when clicked/dclicked. "Load library" loads the ipod contents into a new playlist "iPod Media Library" -but nothing happens in the panel no matter what command I click in the iPod menu. Using WinXP SP2.

----edit
Ok, now I can see the dots under PUI as well and a blank or "single space" selection. Right clicking on this space brings up a menu "send to autosend playlist" and "eject" ...clicking this creates a playlist "iPod View". Though isnt this redundant? Why have two playlists [iPod Media Library/iPod View]? Still nothing happens in the panel itself..

Does your iPod have a name? The name is also displayed in the first entry in "Browse iPod" in the left pane.

You should see a tree in the panel. There should be the iPod's playlists descendent to the root entry, but maybe you don't have any playlists on your iPod..?

[edit] I uploaded 0.5.8.1. It just displays "Unnamed Device" in the panel if your iPod doesn't have a name. Should be less confusing in that case.

At the moment, if you want to rename your iPod you'll need to use iTunes.

Yes, the iPod has a name defined through iTunes. But I didnt load any playlists onto it..so thats probably the problem. I'll try it out when I get home tonight!

I'm getting a cache read timeout whenver I try to syncronize my ipod. It reads maybe the first several folders (i.e. F01-F05) before it timeouts. When I try and sync again, it starts from the place of the last timeout (F05) and reads several more before it timeouts again. Any ideas as to the cause?

foo_dop version 0.5.8.1
XP SP2
5th gen ipod

The message is "Cache read timeout!"? I am slightly confused because that only pop up if it fails to read metadata_cache.fpl from the root folder on your iPod, it gives 20 seconds for this to happen then errors out. I am not sure why it is trying to read metadata from the files at this point, strange. The only logical reason I can see is that the metadata is missing from the .fpl file but that shouldn't happen. Can you try dragging metadata_cache.fpl from the root folder of your iPod into foobar2000 and see if that causes foobar2000 to start reading metadata of all the files on your iPod?

Also, were you using a previous version of foo_dop before? And did you use the "iPod Devices Panel" at any point?

[edit] My feeling is that this was caused by an issue with panel. I'll fix it for next version, but for now you should delete the metadata_cache.fpl from the root folder on the iPod, and run "Load library" which should then read the metadata normally.
[edit] OK I made some fixes in 0.5.8.2. It should be OK now.

Musicmusic,

Again, let me thank you up front for building this awesome plugin. So far, it's really been a godsend for me.

I had some comments on the 0.5.8.1 TEST release:

Files are definitely writing to the device a lot faster now, and it's noticable when just sending files already in mp3 format to the iPhone.

The cover flow view still shows as transparent images when sent to the device with foo_dop.

Also, a few pages back in this thread you had asked if Media Monkey's iPhone sync works with the covers, and indeed it does, both for files embedded and a folder.jpg. The images show up solid (not transparent). What that programs lacks that this plugin does have is the ability to convert on-the-fly.

If there is anything I can do to help, whether it be taking some screen shots or uploading some data, please let me know. I can write with Media Monkey too if there's a way to do a comparison of the database.

No problem

Don't want to disappoint you, but there have been no changes there File copying speeds isn't something I have so much control over. Although, as I recall foobar2000 writes files in small chunks (to allow it to cancel the operation without waiting for the whole operation to finish), I wonder if this has any impact with regards to speed on the iPhone / iPod touch. (edit: scrap that, the only chunks used when copying to the touch are huge)



Really I need a ArtworkDB and iTunesDB backups with some working artwork in them (preferably from iTunes), I don't have any at the moment. There is some software around that let's you browse the device, search google if you don't know any, it should be easy to find some (Alternatively I could make a special build of foo_dop to back them up). I understand that the place holder musical note image is meant to be semi-transparent, so with regards to the artwork from foo_dop it would seem like the device is getting confused about whether it has artwork or not resulting in it displaying the artwork semi-transparent.

Oh, I'm still interested to know if ml_ipod has this problem or not.

Yep, it works now. Thanks.

Ok, quoting myself here... I had this again after trying to transfer a large movie file. The file itself got copied, and then the I/O error came up and the database wasnt updated. I think this may have something to do with the fact that you dont lock the ipod into the sync screen while the file is being copied. After a few minutes of copying, the ipod starts to sleep and perhaps this is causing foo_dop to lose the connection. Other programs keep the ipod from sleeping by displaying the sync screen until everything is complete.

On an unrelated note, the metadata for videos not transferred by foo_dop doesn't get read. I guess this probably has more to do with foobars tag reading ability than foo_dop.

OK. Well I can make it display the sync screen all the time, but it isn't the "proper" solution. Hopefully I'll have something for you to test soon

It depends what metadata fields they use (or even if they tag the file..).

I'm referring to information like title, episode #, episode ID, etc. I have tagged all my videos using itunes, and non of this information shows up in either file properties or in your custom video tagger.

Hrmph, I was testing this morning using a different machine. I know my home box is in need of some updating, but I didn't really think it would make THAT big a difference. Certainly seemed faster....

I have done some testing with Winamp and ml_ipod, and it does indeed write the album covers correctly, and the cover flow shows solid images throughout. So both Media Monkey and ml_ipod seem to have it figured out, although neither of these are without bugs. Without getting into too many gritty details, both packages hard a much harder time dealing with databases that were modified with programs other than themselves. However, whatever they are doing with the artwork seems to be right.

I will search around a bit to figure out how to extract a backup of the database for further testing.

OK, so I have run through a little more testing here. I have found an app called iPhoneExplorer which exposes the iPhone to the Windows Explorer, and allows me to extract both of that you asked for, the itunesDB and the ArtworkDB.

The first zip file is both of those two items, take from a database when the device was fully restored back to original settings, and music was added from the iTunes music library.

The second zip file is both of the same two files, using the same database as above, but adding a few additional albums from foo_dop. The two albums by the band "Decapitated" were sent from the foo_dop and show up transparent; everything else was done with iTunes to a clean device, and of course has correct album cover.

Hopefully the two files you asked for will reveal something. Ripped them off of the iPhone with the iPhoneDriveControl.exe software. I can get more from the device if needed, but there were the two files you needed earlier.

iTunes Only No foo_dop

iTunes and foo_dop edited

Musicmusic,

Would it be possible for you to make some variables to get the following information:

%ipod_size% = The size of the iPod (80 GB, 160 GB, etc)
%ipod_space_used% = The amount of GB used up on the iPod (returned in bytes)
%ipod_space_left% = The amount of space left for storage on the iPod (returned in bytes)

The variable codes can be different, those were just examples. I would find this information very useful for something I am making, and if you could implement this, that would be amazing .

Thanks for your hard work on this component .

Thank you! This means it is something simple, and there's only a few such things

I think it's more a case of them not having the problem in the first place..

Great, thanks!

Here is the version to test I mentioned. I made two changes:
-The sync screen should stick now
-I made a change which may impact on the cover flow issue (new albums only)

Hi,

0I am new to the forum and to Foobar which I must add I love! I have a 4GB nano and I can get it to do most things with foo_dop 0.5.7.0 and 0.5.8.2 but the only thing thats causing a problem is putting play lists onto it. I keep getting the error "Failed To Add File To iPod:Device Is Full" I know my iPod is not full as I have removed playlists off it with foo_dop, so there must be space. Is the 4GB nano not supported with foo_dop? Can anyone help me? Thanks in advance.


Fejaouk.

Maybe JEFF K got to it ?

Or maybe something is actually full Removing playlists doesn't remove the tracks they contain from your iPod. It should be fairly painless to check how much free space there is with Windows Explorer ? Have a read of the release notes if you're still not sure.

Yes it does . Nice touch!



Nope . Still transparent. Now that I know how to grab database files off of the iPhone, let me know if there's any combinations you'd like for me to test out. I can wipe the device clean and write files any way that you think might help nail down the issue.


Using this build, I just encountered an error during a FLAC > iPhone on-the-fly conversion. foobar2000 popped the a window that read "Error writing iTunesDB file : I/O Error: AFCFileRefOpen returned: 11 Path was: /iTunes_Control/iTunes/iTunesDB.dop.temp"

When I attempted to connected to the device using iTunes, I got an error stating "iTunes could not connect to the iPhone because the pairing record is missing". A reboot of the device allowed me to connect to it, but the music files that were being written seem to have gotten lost in no-man's land. iTunes now reports a large chunk of it's memory being taken up by "other" (which would be the newly transferred music) but the device doesn't see the actual music files, and nor does foo_dop.

Good




I had a good look at your files, and actually I didn't find anything obvious (but I did manage to find some other stuff out so it was useful, but it is unlikely to affect the cover flow issue). It seemed like those backups were created with 0.5.7 BTW (not a problem, just checking).

Well, there's only two other things I'd like to know:
-If you set foo_dop to gapless scan files does that have any effect on this issue?
-If you disable all automatic syncing features with iTunes (so it does not update the iPod automatically), send an album with foo_dop, then open iTunes and close it is the artwork still broken?

Hmm. Maybe this is what alphaex32 was seeing. Did the iPod do anything like go to sleep when it happened (and was it copying files for some time?) Now at least I know the error and I have some idea what happened but the question is why...

Eugh, strange error, it doesn't say why it didn't pair them again, not that there is a good reason the pairing record would magically go missing. I was hoping I would be able to recover from this state but it doesn't sound hopeful if iTunes can't...

It is possible to recover from this state. If you goto File/Add locations, and enter applemobiledevice://<serial>:/iTunes_Control/Music/ replacing <serial> with the string that is displayed in the foobar2000 console it should add all the files to a playlist. Then you can select them all and run "iPod/Send to iPod" from the context menu which will add the missing ones into the database.

When the error occurred, I had been sending a set of FLAC files converting on the fly. To just do the conversion, this process is pretty quick, but this time I had it set to check gapless information. Doing the gapless check for a set of 10 FLAC files had taken about 15-20 minutes, and then the device went to sleep and the aforementioned error appeared. I was going to inquire about why it takes such an obscenely long amount of time to do this gapless check in a separate post, but I guess it kind of applies here.

I will do some more playing around with the combinations you suggested.

Oh, I can fix the gapless scan thing. For transcodes it needs to read the file transcoded file, which is does so from the device. The file reading wasn't exactly optimal which it seems like shows on the iPhone/iPod touch badly due to the method file I/O happens on those devices. I uploaded 0.5.8.5 which includes this fix.

Strange the device went to sleep though - why is beyond me. In that test version a file handle is open on the device for the entire duration of the sync so that can't be it. Unfortunately the previous version didn't note any specific errors during the gapless scan, just whether it failed or not, and also you won't see that unless it does write the database successfully. So it's difficult to tell if it died during the gapless scan or as soon as it finished. I changed it in the new version so does keep a track of the specific error - and also so it displays the errors dialog even if it fails to write the database, so we can catch the first error if this happens again. Though you may see two error dialogs if it does happen which is why the other dialog wasn't shown before.

I just tried transferring a large movie again with the newest build, and I still got the I/O error. Its similar to the one that RainDawg got:

"Error writing iTunesDB file : I/O Error: AFCFileRefOpen returned: 12 Path was: /iTunes_Control/iTunes/iTunesDB.dop.temp"

And after I get it, I have to restart foobar to get ipod access again. Even if I replug the ipod, I get the "no ipod found" error.

Also, is there any chance of getting a more descriptive transfer dialog? Maybe it could say which file is currently being transferred, and have a separate progress bar for the job and for each the current file. This would be really helpful when transferring huge video files. Also, if the transfer is cancelled in the middle of the job, could you tell it to update the DB with only the files that have already finished?

Hmm OK. So this happens every time you transfer that large file? About how long until the error occurred? Was it a similar thing (iPod going to sleep) or something else? There were no other errors?

Yes it failed at same part as for RainDawg but the error code is different (but, that could be explained by one of them not being the first error).

Yours should be this:
"A connection attempt failed because the connected party did not properly respond after a period of time, or established connection failed because connected host has failed to respond."

His should be:
"A request to send or receive data was disallowed because the socket is not connected and (when sending on a datagram socket using a sendto call) no address was supplied."

I do wonder if the iPod going to sleep is the cause or just a consequence.

This is interesting. Was/is there anything in the console after reconnecting it?

Yes that's planned.

Yes indeed the "Video properties" is just a pretty interface to part of the foobar2000 tagging backend. Unfortunately foobar2000 doesn't support those atoms that iTunes uses - namely "tvsh" (Show), "tven" (Episode ID), "tvsn" (Season Number) and "tves" (Episode Number).

You didn't say where, but I assume you meant globally. Probably, this would be a good way to get the replacement metadb_display_hook API axed as well It would be better displayed in the panel or somewhere.

Doh, sorry about that. Yeah, globally would be preferred (so I can use it in track display panels).

Bump..anyone?

this is being really unpredictable. I tried transferring a different movie, and I got the error again. This time though, I could detect the ipod after reconnecting it. So I decided to try again with another video. This time, in addition to the I/O error, my ipod seemed to get stuck in a syncing mode, where I couldnt access music or videos (it showed a "cancelling sync" screen) and not even itunes could detect it. It was ok after rebooting the ipod though.

Then, I restarted foobar and transferred 2 large movies without any problems. They are the same ones that I had tried before, so it doesnt seem to depend on the actual files themselves. I then tried a third and got the I/O error and got the stuck in sync mode problem. Heres my console after those three transfers:
Listening for Apple mobile devices.
Connected to Apple Mobile Device (DID: 7, PID: 4753, Serial: c3fa1c5aa2356b00c60d564805b8a00c4c244fef)
Error reading Play Counts file : Object not found
Warning: failed to remove iPod Play Counts file; Reason: I/O Error: AFCRemovePath returned: 8 Path was: /iTunes_Control/iTunes/PlayCounts.plist

The playcounts error showed up after the third transfer (the one that failed). Also, my ipod hasnt been going into sleep mode, so I guess im not having the same problem as raindawg. I think my error may actually have something to do with the amount of space left on the device, so im gonna play around some more and try to reproduce everything.

Yeah, I wasn't actively watching it when it failed. As soon as the error popped up though, I looked and the device was in sleep mode.

Doing the gapless check does seem faster now with the newer release.

What software are you using to interpret the database files I uploaded? I wonder if I be able to try to track a little of this down on my own.

I can't swear to this, but removing playlists does not remove files.

OK, that's probably to do with foo_dop putting it in sync mode, and then not being able to release it from it.

This is OK. I will silence those. But if it's not stuck in sync mode, which it may always be now, and you can't reconnect the iPod again check if there's anything in the console in that case.

Hmm. It's all very strange, unfortunately. How much free space are we talking about exactly?

Also, guys, if you don't have the latest version of iTunes installed it may be helpful to update the Apple Mobile Device Support (by updating iTunes or extracting it from the installer).

I was just using a hex editor. If you do feel like manually editing your iTunesDB, keep in mind it is protected with a hmac-sha1 hash (on the iPod touch at least, not sure about iPhone). foo_dop can regenerate that by running the "Rewrite database" command.

I saw this in the console just now. Not sure if it has anything to do with foo_dop.
error: AMDShutdownNotificationProxy returned 3892314113

Anyway, the sync-mode stuck problem is easily fixed each time with a hard ipod reboot. I think I have the latest itunes version, but maybe ill do a reinstall anyway to be sure.

Yes that's from foo_dop. It's something that happens whilst the iPod is being disconnected, that may be the reason for the error. Nothing fatal, anyway. Just as a guide, anything that references AMD (Apple Mobile Device) or AFC (something like Apple Filesystem Connection) like that is from foo_dop.

If you have the latest version then your Apple Mobile Device stuff will be up-to-date so no point in reinstalling for that

After thinking about this a bit more, I wonder if it is just timing out during the transfer of the large file, and this is causing the issue. Something you can check is whether sending many files (about 2-3MB each) - which have a similar size in total as one of your large videos - works. Just to give you an idea, I believe the large file will be copied in large 8MB chunks which it is maybe timing out whilst doing. If this does help I'll fix it so all I/O is done in smaller chunks (1MB seems about right to me, if I do it too small it will just slow everything down).

I dont really have anything more to transfer right now in terms of smaller files (Ive got all my music on there already and only a few 100 megs left). Could you maybe do a test version with the smaller chunks and ill see if that clears up the problem with the really large files?

Sorry to keep bothering you with feature requests, but is it possible to have a menu item that when clicked will detect if the ipod is connected to the computer, and if it is, load it up so the other options will work instead of giving the "No iPod Found!" message?

How do you remove files then, so you can add playlists?

Here you go. It uses 0.5MB chunks. Hopefully this works out because I don't have any other ideas..

I'm not sure I follow you. Once the iPod is connected and ready (takes a few seconds) the other options work. If you want some visual indication that it is ready then at the moment there is the panel, I was considering adding a balloon tip or something as well.

Just want to make shure if i got everything right:

1.: I won't need iTunes to be installed on my PC to transfer mp3s to an iPod classic

2.: My files are tagged with id3v1 & apev2 Tags. foo_dop will read all infos from f2ks database and write them to the iPods database. No need to write e.g. iTunes compatible id3v2 tags.

3.: The "album artist" infos will also be stored on the iPod so songs with that tag won't be all over the place if i'm searching for a compilation. Note: tribute-cds have the name of the tributed artist/band in the "album artist" tag so they are grouped with the artists other albums.

4.: Album art stored as folder.jpg in the album folder will be transfered and show up during playback and in coverflow.

5.: ReplayGain infos will be converted (album based) and the iPod will play files at an equal level.

6.: I can synch f2ks library with the iPod so i won't need to add new albums manually.

I'm still just planning to buy an iPod but i really don't want to install iTunes or change the tagging system of my files. Did take me long enough to reach the current state...

This may explain it better:

I plug my iPod cord into my USB, and plug my iPod in along with it. My computer detects it, and makes it ready to interact with. I add some files using foo_dop, load up my playlists etc. I then choose the "Eject iPod" option in foo_dop and my iPod gets disconnected (but remains plugged into my computer).

Now what I want to do is "Detect iPod" from foo_dop to reconnect the iPod so the computer sees it. This will prevent me having to unplug my iPod from the USB cord, and then plug it back in.

Does that make more sense? I want to have the iPod reconnected to the computer without having to unplug anything.

1. No you shouldn't, but you should be prepared to use it to at least update the firmware (and maybe register the iPod).
2. That's right, but you'll need "iTunes compatible ID3v2" if you want to use lyrics.
3. It is stored on the iPod but it doesn't use it much. You can flag albums as compilations though which causes them to be listed in a separate menu without so much mess.
4. Yes.
5. Yes, but not for automatic transcodes. You'll need to enable "SoundCheck" on the iPod.
6. Essentially, yes.

Ah. Unfortunately, the type of eject used by foo_dop is the standard Windows "Safely remove hardware" one which is a "hard eject".

What you want used to be supported through the use of an undocumented iPod Service COM API, which supported a "warm"/"soft" eject. Using the service was a disaster though as it stopped working in a later version of iTunes, so it was replaced with what you have now (also, it required the iPod Service). How the service does this is another question, as far as I am aware it is some funky stuff with DeviceIOControl. I may look into it at some point and see if I can do the same.

What do you mean with "doesn't use it much"? I thougt iTunes (and so the iPod) use the "band" tag just like most f2k users use the "album artist" tag? So in my case tribute albums would be grouped with the other albums (in itunes, if i would use id3v2 tags and would use "band" tag instead of "album artist").

Will the all songs of a compilation be accollated (right word?) to the actual performer (from the "artist" tag)?

I once tested wmp11 and when i used it to group a tribute album it added a "band" tag to the songs and the album was grouped with the other albums of the album artist. So i thought iTunes (/ the iPod) work the same way!?

Ok, I tried the test version with the 0.5MB chunks, and the first large video transfer worked fine. Now, though, everytime I try to transfer another large movie, it simply hangs at "copying one file" and my ipod gets stuck in sync mode. Foobar doesnt freeze, it just doesnt seem to progress from that step of the transfer (ive given it as much as 30 minutes, when I think it normally take around 5 minutes for a 700mb video). I havent seen behavior like this yet, so Im assuming its a result of the new changes in this version. Ill revert to the previous version and confirm that.

Eugh, strange, it shouldn't get stuck. Did the "Stop" button work? Did you check CPU usage whilst it was stuck?

OK, I confirm that's a large file

stop button had no effect, and there didnt seem to be any effect on CPU usage. The only way to get it to stop is to make foobar lose the connection by turning off or disconnecting the ipod (in which case the ipod gets stuck in sync mode and I need to reset it anyway).

If the Stop button had no effect it was "stuck" inside the iTunes library (or reading the local file). How long did you wait after pressing Stop? So it's doing this often now? It seems strange it would hang when it rather likes to timeout normally.

Are you testing with the same file each time BTW?

Well I switched back to the previous version, but yeah, every time after the first that I tried to transfer a large file it would get stuck like that. I tried a bunch of different files, all of which have transferred successfully at some point with either foo_dop or another program. As for the stop button, I waited maybe a couple of minutes. Ill go back to the new test version and maybe experiment some more.

OK. If it gets stuck again, grab Process Explorer, goto foobar2000.exe Properties then the Threads tab. Double click each entry, highlight everything in the popup window and hit copy (and paste it somewhere). Do that for every thread. Then paste the whole lot here in a codebox or on pastebin.com if you prefer.