Calling Itunes/Ipod Touch Gurus!Some help please!

MrsBartolozzi

Last night DS2 set his Ipod Touch to download a film from Itunes into the Ipod (there was enough space on the Ipod|). During the night we had a powercut and so this stopped midway through. This morning he now has a tiny amount of space left on his Ipod, but we can't see what it is that is taking up the space to delete it.
Through Itunes we can only see the % of music/apps/other and there is a lot of "other" but is there a way to actually see each of the apps/songs/others ideally displayed on Itunes (why is itunes so anal?) or on the ipod. We tried downloading the film again in the hope that it will just continue where it left off, but obviously not (damm you itunes) as there is too little space to be allowed to attempt this.


I have searched online, but I can't see anything like this , maybe I'm phrasing it wrong so feel free to ask relevant questions.

Sigh, I am really regretting buying DS2 this Ipod. Much as I really hate to say it M$ stuff works like you'd think it should - what was wrong with drag and drop? Anyway rant over, and some help with this would really be appreciated,

Thanks in advance,
MrsB.

The_Grandmaster

Maybe an unconvential way - I assume this film file is quite large?

In itunes - press the ipod icon - change the ipod to 'enable disk view' (or something similar)

Open my computer and you should see your ipod there.
Tools - Folder Options - Show hidden files
Then open ipod up and look through folders for a large file which should be the film/ look at the ending of the file - not sure what format it will be but probably not mp3.

MrsBartolozzi

Hi Grandmaster, thanks for answering, but the itunes is on a macbook. (grr to ex OH who decided to use this - it makes no sense to any of us, bu t it was old and had spare HD for itunes) I have no idea how to see "my computer" or list of programs etc on the mac (I try to avoid it at all costs as it makes no sense to me) could maybe someone explain it to a Mac idiot, thanks.

The_Grandmaster

Sorry I don't use a mac so I won't be able to advise on how to see files.

There is another way - resetting your ipod to original conditions through itunes - sticking it into the power socket then reconnecting the ipod into itunes. However, if you have anything on your ipod you don't want to lose don't do it. Also putting music back on might take time... So this should be a last resort...

The_Grandmaster

http://forum.ecoustics.com/bbs/messages/34579/138629.html shows how to show hidden files I think

alexjohnson

MrsBartolozzi wrote: »

Last night DS2 set his Ipod Touch to download a film from Itunes into the Ipod (there was enough space on the Ipod|). During the night we had a powercut and so this stopped midway through. This morning he now has a tiny amount of space left on his Ipod, but we can't see what it is that is taking up the space to delete it.
Through Itunes we can only see the % of music/apps/other and there is a lot of "other" but is there a way to actually see each of the apps/songs/others ideally displayed on Itunes (why is itunes so anal?) or on the ipod. We tried downloading the film again in the hope that it will just continue where it left off, but obviously not (damm you itunes) as there is too little space to be allowed to attempt this.

I have searched online, but I can't see anything like this , maybe I'm phrasing it wrong so feel free to ask relevant questions.

Sigh, I am really regretting buying DS2 this Ipod. Much as I really hate to say it M$ stuff works like you'd think it should - what was wrong with drag and drop? Anyway rant over, and some help with this would really be appreciated,

Thanks in advance,
MrsB.

Step 0. Make sure you've turned the iPod off and on again. Saying "drag and drop" I think you know what you're doing, but to be explicit, press AND HOLD the button at the top. A slider saying "slide to power off" will appear. Do that, and turn it back on again. See if that has flushed it. Asusming not:

Step 1. Make sure your iPod is set to make backups when it syncs. (Check in preferences.)

Step 2. Disconnect the iPod from the USB cable. Quit iTunes.

Step 3. Reconnect the iPod; iTunes should start. The first thing it should do is make a back-up of itself.

Step 4. If you still have the problem, click on the icon of the iPod Touch in the lefthand menus and you will see an option called "restore." Do that - again, making sure that you have the backup.

Step 5. You can now restore from that backup. Only settings and apps are backed up - other files are not. So, these will all be downloaded again. This takes ages - maybe an hour.

Step 5A. I am confused as to why it took so long to begin with though - even something huge like a movie should only take a few minutes. Also, be aware that some files will play in iTunes but the iPod is much more picky. If this is an iTunes purchase of course it will work. If your DS2 has ripped a DVD (or worse!) then he will need to have encoded it to an iPod-compatible format.

MrsBartolozzi

Thanks Alex, switching it off an on again worked! After a long time and frustration "switch it off and on again" works for Apple stuff too!

In answer to 5A - don't know why the Macbook/itunes/?? is so slow for transfer (the film was bought from itunes) I tried uploading an audiobook cd to itunes so Ds could listen to it easily and it took absolutely ages to go on- I could have listened to it quicker, seriously - and itunes made the file so much bigger than windows made it so it was so big it took up too much space he didn't bother as he had to lose apps to fit it.
As I said though, it's ex's old work macbook (not that old though), and I have very limited experience (admittedly, mostly based on effing itunes not working for ds) of using a mac, so don't know if this is an indication of something wrong with the mac or if they all work this way.

Anyway, crisis averted, thanks to all who offered their help - Grandmaster thanks for the link, I'll certainly look into this for the future.

alexjohnson

MrsBartolozzi wrote: »

Thanks Alex, switching it off an on again worked! After a long time and frustration "switch it off and on again" works for Apple stuff too!

In answer to 5A - don't know why the Macbook/itunes/?? is so slow for transfer (the film was bought from itunes) I tried uploading an audiobook cd to itunes so Ds could listen to it easily and it took absolutely ages to go on- I could have listened to it quicker, seriously - and itunes made the file so much bigger than windows made it so it was so big it took up too much space he didn't bother as he had to lose apps to fit it.
As I said though, it's ex's old work macbook (not that old though), and I have very limited experience (admittedly, mostly based on effing itunes not working for ds) of using a mac, so don't know if this is an indication of something wrong with the mac or if they all work this way.

Anyway, crisis averted, thanks to all who offered their help - Grandmaster thanks for the link, I'll certainly look into this for the future.

Well there's nothing in it being a Mac which would explain slowness! Generally, slowness of that nature may be one of two things (assuming it is a MacBook - that means it has an Intel chip and can't be that ancient): the hard disk could just be full. Open any Finder ("desktop", though it doesn't have to be the actual Desktop) window and look at the bottom. It will tell you how much of the disk is being used. If you have more than 2GB free you should be fine. And, by the way, if you can't access My Computer (don't you find all this "My..." business hatefully patronising...?) then just hit the Apple ("command") key and N while in the Finder. It will open a window. You should be able to navigate around that, and its sidebar, intuitively.

You shoudl also ensure you are quitting apps and not just closing their windows. On the Mac these are not necessarily the same thing. In an app go to File in the menu bar and quit. If you do Apple ("command") tab - like ctrl-tab on Windows - you an cycle through open apps and quit ones you're not using. This will of course free up memory. But if you're only using iTunes this shouldn't help you.

But, and this is the bad news, if it isn't this and the speed really is glacial - like overnight to do a sync - you should be aware that this is a symptom of a hard drive dying.