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View Full Version : iPod Not Playing Nice with the 360?


Chris Gohlke
11-27-2007, 12:00 AM
<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.xbox360fanboy.com/2007/11/25/oh-teh-noez-some-ipods-not-working-on-the-360/' target='_blank'>http://www.xbox360fanboy.com/2007/11/25/oh-teh-noez-some-ipods-not-working-on-the-360/</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Word handed done from a few iPod owners is that Apple's latest firmware update has rendered iPod playback on the 360 iffy. Tony sent us a tip stating that his fifth gen iPod is no longer recognized by his 360 after updating the firmware on his iPod. We've also heard from various iPod / 360 owners that, for some reason or another, their iPods either never worked (in the case of the the iPod Touch) or just quit working (2GB iPod Nano). Something is fishy here kids and either Apple or Microsoft should get on the horn, kiss and make up and throw a new Optional iPod Support download on the XBLM or fix it via a firmware update."</i><br /><br />It is not overly clear who is at fault here. Hopefully it is just a glitch. If Apple purposely locked out using your iPod on the 360, shame on them, it is not like they have anything that competes with the 360 and why would they want to block their loyal customers from listening to their music. If Microsoft did it in the hopes of driving purchases of the Zune, shame on them as they should support what is still the biggest player in the MP3 market.

EscapePod
11-27-2007, 03:28 AM
... previously, iPod works with 360. Apple pushes out new firmware update. iPod stops working with 360. If this is in anyway MS's fault, they must be magicians.

Gee guys, we can't expect Apple to test their firmware updates with every possible scenario (or can we?). :wink:

Chris Gohlke
11-27-2007, 03:33 AM
Not saying they did, and I have no idea what Microsoft does to support the iPod on the 360, but I would assume they have to do something since I don't think the iPod is directly readable as a drive.

So, if MS's software was looking for something in particular to ID an iPod to enable support, it is certainly possible that an update on the Apple side would disable it on the Xbox by causing it to not be recognizable.

Felix Torres
11-27-2007, 07:39 AM
MS provides an optional plug-in to the 360 Media Player that lets it see the iPod file system. As a side-effect, it allows USB-connected external drives formatted with HFS to be usable for holding media files. This means that of the three standards files systems in use today, the 360 supports FAT32 (supported by everybody), HFS (supported by MAC and LINUX but *not* windows) and it does *not* support NFS, which is Windows preferred OS. That is exhibit "A".

Exhibit B is that iPods have been working fine with the 360 (better than with the PS3, BTW, which MS uses as selling point) for two years now. None of the many 360 updates to date have broken this compatibility and it has been months since the last one; no problems were reported at the time. The *next* 360 update isn't until next week, and it is running about a month behind schedule.

Exhibit C is that, as pointed out, the problems only started after the Apple update.

That said, it should be no surprise that an Apple update broke iPod compatibility for the 360; it is no secret that MS achieved this without any Apple cooperation, which was asked for and denied. The surprise is that it took Apple two years to figure out how to break it.

As for the reason why, well, its pretty obvious; if you want to play music off an iPod you should be buying an Apple-manufactored or licensed iPod docking accessory (whose manufacturers pay Apple a royalty) and not a 360 which uses USB and is therefore not liable for royalties to Apple.

Its all about money.

Because, of course, Apple needs every last penny they can squeeze out of iPod users.

RichL
11-27-2007, 01:31 PM
Wow, conspiracy theories abound!

There is a logical conclusion - Apple has never officially published the file system structure for the iPod and does not maintain it as a public interface. They don't publish the structure so that they have the flexibility to change it for performance/bug fixing reasons at any time. They've obviously decided to change it in this instance, thus breaking software they never supported in the first place.

Would you expect Microsoft to document and support every last internal technology in Windows, just in-case someone hacked up a program that uses it?

Chris Gohlke
11-27-2007, 02:22 PM
Really, it does not matter to me who is at fault. I was just pointing out that the specific cause was not yet noted and it theoretically could be eithers fault, although I would certainly concede that it appears more likely to be an Apple issue.

EscapePod
11-28-2007, 03:06 AM
We're glad you posted it Chris. Thanks.

I enjoy both the 360, mostly as a Windows Media Center Extender, and the iPod, mostly as travel entertainment. Thanks to your post here on DMT, I'm holding off on the iPod update for a while (if possible), to see if any further change is made that might correct it.

Chris Gohlke
11-28-2007, 03:35 AM
No problem, I am thinking about getting my first iPod but I am trying to find out how well iTunes plays with the Zune software when sharing the My Music folder. I've got a Zune that I'd continue to use for my main player, but want a Touch mostly for the web browser.

Lee Yuan Sheng
11-28-2007, 09:55 AM
Just want to say that, the touch and the iPhone, with their new-fangled way of storing their data, means that there's just about nothing that can interface them outside of iTunes. Which really sucks, but oh well...

Chris Gohlke
11-28-2007, 02:21 PM
So are you saying that it would set up its own folder and copy all my MP3's from My Music to the new folder? Seems like a waste of space.

Dyvim
11-29-2007, 08:57 PM
So are you saying that it would set up its own folder and copy all my MP3's from My Music to the new folder? Seems like a waste of space.
No, he's talking about how files are stored on the new iPods \ iPhone.

But to get iTunes and Zune software playing well together, you'll need to be careful. Super important: when you install iTunes and before you do anything else, go to the Advanced tab on the Preferences dialog and uncheck "Keep iTunes music folder organized" option. Having this checked, would cause iTunes to copy music files around and also rename the files as it sees fit. You should also set the iTunes music folder location to be the path to your "My Music" folder. This isn't strictly necessary if you uncheck the Keep organized option, but will probably help make your life a little easier.

Once you get those options set, then you can add all your music files- you can just D&amp;D your My Music folder into iTunes and it should grab everything.

Note: as Jason has repeatedly complained, iTunes does not watch folders. So any time you add new music to your library, you will have to manually add it to your iTunes library. But that's a pretty painless D&amp;D operation.

If your music library is on an external drive, network share, etc. you also need to be careful. Don't ever start iTunes if that drive isn't connected (if it drops out after iTunes is running, it's ok - it just won't find your files)- it will cause iTunes to change the path of every file in its library to a local location (something like C:\Documents and Settings\MYNAME\My Music\iTunes). Then when you get your network drive back online you are hosed because it will be trying to find your music files in the wrong place. You could nuke your library and manually re-add all your music files, but then you'd lose your playlists, play counts and ratings and other meta-data that doesn't go into files.