Hi All. I don’t know if anyone can help me, but since updating my iMac to Mojave, iTunes won’t recognise my iPod Touch. I’ll plug it in and an alert box comes up:
‘iTunes could not connect to the iPod touch “*TrypF’s* iPod” because an invalid response was received from the device.’
I’ve look it up on the various Mac forums and they all say it’s either the USB port or the cable (both checked – my wife’s iPod nano connects fine), or anti-malware software interfering. Other than updating Microsoft Office to 365 recently, I can’t think what else that could be.
Or it could just be my iPod is very old and Apple have finally given up on it – however it’s a trusty old warhorse and I don’t really fancy splashing out on an iPhone just to play podcasts and music on the go.
Any help would be gratefully received.
You’re not alone, by the looks of things: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8608302
I’ve had a similar problem with my Classic, but in the mean time I’ve got 160GB of music on it to keep me going. One could argue for ever over whether Apple (or anybody) should go on supporting kit beyond a certain point, but the fact is that your Touch is probably no longer supported. And it will die eventually anyway, as will my Classic. Of course you can still download podcasts over wifi, and continue to play the music that’s already on it, so all is not lost. Don’t know how you feel about Spotify, but that’s available to you, as is TuneIn radio.
Unless your iPod Touch has developed a fault, I don’t understand why you can’t just treat it as an external storage device and move music files onto and off it, as long as they are compatible and you put them in the correct folders on the iPod.
There are several Windows music playing/library managing apps that will read and write to iPods and all manner of portable devices.
Do Apple deliberately restrict this on their own devices just to make you stop using them?
Good point…there seem to be more of these apps for Windows than Mac, but this looks worth a go. Costs, but $40 could be worse.
https://www.imobie.com/anytrans/iphone-manager.htm
Thanks Mike, but downloaded the three day trial of AnyTrans and it didn’t recognise the iPod. Maybe the old thing is just knackered. But I’ve downloaded a few podcasts using WiFi, so that’ll do for now.
Try it on a USB cable with a friend/relative’s Windows/Linux machine before you bin it. Just in case it’s a problem at the iMac end. It seems rather odd that it recognises that it’s an iPod touch and even that it’s one it’s connected to before, but it can’t read from it.
As a last resort, back up anything on it that you don’t want to lose and try this.
https://itstillworks.com/force-ipod-touch-recovery-mode-5508348.html
Note before starting that this will erase everything on your device!!
Thanks for the info Mike. Buggers! I just wiped the iPod in order to create a new library, so only have a handful of tunes – it’s like the old days of tape collections. Good point about wiFi and the podcasts. Looks like buying a slightly newer iPod or even iPhone won’t last long either. Bloody Apple robdogs…
My advice is give up now, and buy a Fiio.
X1 is brilliant at £89. If you want a touch screen, the M series start with M6 is £135. All sound better than iDevices and none of them have any of this nonsense, just drag and drop.
You do need to add in the cost of a micro SD card, about £15 per 128GB.
M3 at £60 is a bit shit.
I’m looking to retire my ancient, rather too chunky but otherwise brilliant (and still working after 10 years) Creative Zen 60Gb player.
I’ve decided, from remarks on this blog and elsewhere, that a FiiO is the way to go – but I need some impartial advice; do I go shit-for-bust and buy the X5 model (prob not – it’s a little too expensive for a too easily lost piece of kit) or should I choose between the X1 and the X3.
What are the impartially assessed relative merits of the two – one at ninety sponds and one at almost twice that?
There’s little between X1 mk II and X3 mk III. Both support 256GB cards and use similar hardware. Audio output of X3 is a little better than X1. Worth twice the cost? Probably not.
User interface of both is a bit clunky by modern standards, but probably not by comparison to the Creative.
(Mrs F has an X1.I (1st gen) and I have an X3.II (2nd gen). I only bought the X3 for the line output, which the X1.11 now has. Would I buy the X3 again? Probably not.
The X5 is a different beast – and Android device with pimped audio. The only real advantages are the UI (it will run VLC, etc) and the twin 256GB card slots.
The M series all have touch screen interfaces (M7 is the about the same cost as X3) but with less good audio hardware. M7 supports cards up to 512GB.
Personally, I’d go for an X1, live with the UI, and pocket the 210 quid.
Thanks guys.
The X5 is way too much of a spend for a device I want to be able to chuck in my laptop bag and not obsess over, so it’s deffo either X3 or X1.
Despite your sensible approach, I’m a bit of an old audio fusspot, so on the surface of things I’d amost certainly be getting an X3iii (3rd gen), if it wasn’t for comments like this in the Amazon reviews:
“Fiio have mentioned on their forums that there will be no further firmware updates for this device as it has been superseded by the new M9. The device still has many problems. The main being that it cuts a second off the beginning of each song during gapless playback.”
WTF? The M series has lesser audio hardware, but gets the firmware updates, while the X3 gets abandoned?
Add to the above the countless reviews that gripe about the utterly pants UI on both X1 and X3, and I’m having serious doubts.
I’m starting to recall why I’ve stuck with my Zen for so long…….
I’ve read of Firmware issues with the X1 and X3, yet never had any problems myself.
The only M series I’ve used is a 1st Gen M3 and it was as nasty as it was cheap. The M6 (£135) looks similar spec to M3, albeit with a touch screen.
M7 (£155) has a single low-spec ESS DAC and will probably sound less good than an X1.
M9 (£229) has very similar audio internals as X5.III (£299) and supports cards up to 2TB, so it might be the one to go for if you can afford it.
If you decide to splurge, the X5 is superb (I’ve had an an X3 and couldn’t stand the UI). It sounds better than most hifi CD players what with the DACs and what have you it has onboard.
It can handle 512gb cards too, and there are 2 SD slots on there
As far as syncing your library goes MediaMonkey will recognise it as a music device too.. I’m not a Fiio salesman but it’s everything i will need in a portable
Not that I’ve heard/seen a M9 for comparison, but a big advantage of the X5 appears to be Android.
The M9 runs whatever UI Fiio give you which, given the X1/X3, might not be that great.
Android on the X5 can run any app you care to install, so is more or less future proof. As much as anything with an evolving OS ever is, anyway.
I get on fine with the UI on my X3, but then I tag all my Flac files properly (with mp3tag), then all I ever do is select an album and play it (in track number order).
The little spendthrift devil on my shoulder wonders if there is love here for the Astell&Kern AK70…….
Nice but withdrawn, replaced by the bizarrely named A&norma SR15, at double the price of the X5.
AK70 Mk. 11 is still for sale on Amazon, and still featured (and shown on their Closeouts page) on the A&K website. I have to admit it’s a tempting little beastie.
It seems to be the choice of the high end – my friendly hi-fi shop owner uses one. I don’t use my X3 enough to justify an upgrade.
I have an X1 and am very happy with it 18 months in. I think then it’s down to the quality of the audio files and headphones, and am guessing both would need to be very high-end to be worth the extra £100. I generally play 320kps mp3s and listen on AKG Y500’s, the sound is great.
@fentonsteve
At some stage my classic iPod will die and I’ll have to invest in something new. I am a bit of a techie thickie …all my music is on a laptop on iTunes (which, gasp, I like!) How would I move it from there to something like a FiiO?
I’d have thought you could just drag and drop from the folder in which your music files are stored. That’s what I do when transferring files to my backup mp3 player if the iPod Classic is not behaving itself.
It won’t work with the iPod. You have to import via iTunes or it won’t recognise them, I’m pretty sure. I tried that years ago.
I know for sure that you can update an iPod with MediaMonkey. Done it many a time. Possibly you can do it with other software too, if it knows the (deliberately?) peculiar way the iPod structures it’s folders.
MusicBee does not seem to work with the iPod Classic unless you download and install a dedicated iPod/iPhone plugin and also have an old (max v.9) version of iTunes installed. A rather poor solution and a shame, as the full unrestricted version is completely free and I rather like it apart from this shortcoming. MusicBee is a relative newcomer and I suppose the programmers don’t think it worthwhile putting in support for what they consider to be tricky and obsolete devices. Media Monkey has the advantage of having been around in older versions when iPods were must-have devices, so they worked out how to do it and kept up the support as the software evolved.
Yes Media Monkey works ok.
I was referring to moving files to another mp3 player, not the iPod. I just drag and drop from the folder iTunes is pointed at.
I am definitely a technophobe Count but is that not a bit laborious?
First World problems, and all that!
Is that a “Yes” Mr A14?
Very easy to do but can take a very long time, depending on the device you’re copying to and the computer you’re copying from.
Yep, it can, especially filling a 2TB SD card (if such a thing ever exists)! If you are thinking of a high-capacity card, it might be worth paying the little extra for a high-speed card (the kind used for capturing 2k/4k video) and a USB 3 to SD adaptor. USB 3 is 10 times faster than USB 2, but only if used in your computer’s USB 3 port (if it has one).
Argh, the A14. I can see/hear/feel a motorway junction being built outside my office window, due to open end of 2020. When they finish that, they’ll start on the roundabout a mile from my house and widening the road to dual carriageway. I’m going to be retired before I see the end of roadworks…
@fentonsteve
Passed your way yesterday, cruising through the 50mph limit in the roadworks . Those roadworks seem to have been ever present since I started to head east from where I live. Makes me yearn for the A17/A47 alternative.. As you say, it’ll be years before its all done. And it’s a very boring road too.
The A14 is very dull, but the M11 is even duller.
The only road more boring than that is the M4 from Reading to Bristol, which seems to go on forever, with only Swindon for light relief.
Sorry, I digress.
fentonsteve – if you think the M11 and part of the M4 are dull, you want to try some roads in northern Sweden. Now THERE’S boring….
But when we do come via the Fens, the A17/A47,my wife describes it as “soul destroying.”
You can only load tracks to an Apple iPod with iTunes. Well, you can, but you need third-party apps to do so.
A Fiio fitted with a microSD card appears as a Mass Storage Device (like a USB memory stick) in a File Explorer. Or you can take the card out of the Fiio, put it in a card reader, and copy directly to it (this method is a bit quicker for large transfers). Just drag and drop the iTunes folder.
The only thing a Fiio, or any other non-Apple device for that matter, will not play is DRM-protected AAC (.m4a) files. These are the ones downloaded from iTunes Music Store prior to 2009. They are all encoded at 128k, DRM-free iTunesPlus are all 256k.
Hi FSteve – I like the sound of the FiiO, but I’m a simple soul. If I plug it into my iMac, will it appear on my desktop and I can drag and drop? And will it take podcasts from iTunes?
Thanks to all for your advice, btw.
Yep, it appears as a USB memory stick would. See my answer to Freddy above.
Listen to The Fenton, listen to….
I’m going simple. I have a decent sized SD card in my phone and the Pulsar+ app and it’s fine. I save quality listening for the Arcam system in the lounge or the £900 monitors in the music room. The iPod lives in the car as a music server till it dies. My ears are fucked anyway so it’s slightly academic, but it’s nice being able to update podcasts over whatever free WiFi I’m attached to and not having to carry another thing around with me.
Incidentally I have a brand new iPod Classic to flog if anyone is after one. Never unboxed.
I have an unboxed iPod Classic too! Not selling it, though – I’m going to load 160GB of my favourite choons on it and then put it back in the box. It’s going to be my dementia iPod, if I turn out to need one, to protect me from a diet of Michael Boobly in the care home.
Don’t leave it too late, Mike 😉
Hi Twang
I’m very interested so I’ll attempt to DM you to get an idea what you’d accept.
I’ve had to email the Mods for a steer on what to do as I can’t remember. Please bear with.
Cheers, Jim.