Photo Storage on the iPod -- The Gory Details

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Well, other than the changes to the image sizes that I've noticed, everything still works the same on the 5G iPod in terms of photo storage. "Full Resolution" photo storage will still sort into subdirectories by Year\Month\Day.

However, you could always back up your photos to your iPod manually in Disk Mode. In that case I would suggest leaving the "Store Full Resolution" photos option off, and then just copying the files over manually (or perhaps on a scheduled basis). This may be a bit more awkward, but it's really the only way to ensure your subdirectory structure is preserved.
 

iPod Dance

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With iPodLinux, you can put a big-assed Jpeg in your iPod, and zoom in, and pan around on the fly!

(takes awhile on my greyscale 4th gen)
 

JFan

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If you have iTunes set to copy the full resolution photos to your iPod and you've edited your photos in iPhoto, does it copy only the most recent edits of each photo, or are the originals also copied over? I'm hoping that it copies both which could make the iPod a great way to keep a complete backup of your entire photo library including the ability to "un-edit" photos back to their originals if you wanted.

Thanks! Awesome overview that answered all my questions about how the iPod stores photos (excepting the question above of course! :)
 

mrmagwitch

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what are my options

I bought the 60gig video ipod and i use windows.

is the auto update process the only way to upload photos? i know mac users can use iphoto or i can purchase adobe elements (not sure if thats the right one), but outside those two options what are there?

i got to say it is super frustrating to not be able to manipulate or add one or two new photos without clearing and re-adding all 800+ photos i have (if i am doing this wrong please tell me).

the load time for my photos is easily over an hour. yikes!

if this is the only way to work with photos then i have to say i feel ripped off.
 

yinyang

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for those that may need to access these ithmb files on the iPod photos and use a mac, then try one of these apps to see if they will do what you need...

File Juicer - this app is pretty straight forward to use, and costs US$8 (you can try before you buy!)

Keith's iPod photo Reader- probably the same Keith from earlier in this post!! haven't tried this one out, but seems pretty simple, though perhaps not as fully featured as File Juicer. however it seems to be very specific in what it's doing, and it's free :)
 
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Re: what are my options

mrmagwitch said:
i got to say it is super frustrating to not be able to manipulate or add one or two new photos without clearing and re-adding all 800+ photos i have (if i am doing this wrong please tell me).
No, it should actually be quite a bit simpler than this. If you're not using iPhoto (Mac) or Photoshop Album/Elements (Windows), then you simply setup iTunes to synchronize with a folder on your hard drive. This is your "My Pictures" folder by default in Windows, although you can specify any folder that you would like to use.

Any supported photos found in this folder and any sub-folders will be enabled for upload to the iPod. Each first-level sub-folder will show up as an album in iTunes and on the iPod, and you have the option of selecting "Copy all photos and albums" which will copy all supported photos in all subdirectories, or selecting copy "Selected Albums Only" in which case only those albums (sub-folders) that you select will be transferred.

To add a single photo, all you need to do is to place it within one of these selected folders and iTunes will find it and auto-sync it to your iPod the next time you connect. The same applies for removing pictures... Simply take them out of the appropriate folder (either delete them or move them somewhere else) and iTunes will remove that photo from your iPod the next time you sync.

For a more complete tutorial check out my article The Complete Guide to iPod photo Pictures in our articles section here on iLounge.
 

René

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Hi,
A great device.

I do have a question: the order of the photomaps on the ipod (like on any other one) is not in alphabetic order, the latest on the computer created/addapted maps are being shown on the bottom of the list on the ipod. Is there any way to change this order to an alphabetic one?
Thanks, this would solve a big problem for me with over 4.000 photo's on the ipod, since i also use the ipod as a second backup of my photo's
 

GGG

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I have just got hold of a 60GB Video iPod and I find it superb for looking at photos.

I have some questions that I can't find answers to:

I am using XP SP2 and have used the iTunes Photo Sync feature to load up my 6500+ photos successfully. I find that if you make a change to the root folder that you specify in iTunes, then as you sync the iPod and iTunes, any photo changes will cause a complete "Optimizing Photos for iPod" sequence which takes a long time. The time taken is a pain because you can't use the iPod until it completes. There are times when I just want to sync the iPod with a new song yet not re-Optimize the photo library.

Is there any way to do this offline, i.e. when the iPod is not connected and then just updare the few modified or new photos? Or is there a way to disable the photo syncing yet keep the photos on the iPod? I find that the iPod is so good for looking at photos that every time I browse my photos on the iPod I see photos that need editing, regrouping, moving, etc. Yet if I edit 1 photo the whole long photo Optimizing takes place.

Secondly, I see that the iPod will only display the first level of Photo directory as a directory, and then the contents of any subdirectories are in the displayed first level. Is there any way around this? Can you keep the full directory level. I.e. What I would like to have is a structure such a directory for each year, then a subdirectory for each month and then a subdirectory for events within that month. Any way to do this?

Finaly, I have Photoshop Elements3 and can see this in the Photo iPod Syn drop down box. Is there any advantage over the simple browse to your folder to sync method gained with Elements? I find Elements to be slow and cumbersome at best. Even though I have been using Photoshop for many years I find Picasa a breath of fresh air after using Elements. I really wish that Picasa could be used to sync with the iPod.
 

awheewall

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I agree with you on the Picasa thing. I've just installed Photoshop Album for these same purpose, but find that it's rubbish. I'm going to try Elements but don't really expect anything any better. Whereas Picasa is a pure pleasure to use. What we really need is the Picasa to create a datafile that is the same as Photoshop Album/Elements and then the iTunes would just use that and be none the wiser. I would have thought getting Google to update Picasa would be easier than getting Apple to update iTunes to use Picasa.
 
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GGG said:
I am using XP SP2 and have used the iTunes Photo Sync feature to load up my 6500+ photos successfully. I find that if you make a change to the root folder that you specify in iTunes, then as you sync the iPod and iTunes, any photo changes will cause a complete "Optimizing Photos for iPod" sequence which takes a long time. The time taken is a pain because you can't use the iPod until it completes. There are times when I just want to sync the iPod with a new song yet not re-Optimize the photo library.
This should only happen if you change the main photo folder specified in iTunes, since at that point iTunes assumes that it's using a new photo library. I'm not sure why you would need to change this on a regular basis, as iTunes will scan this folder (and folders below it) for changes during the next sync, and add/remove photos as appropriate.

If you're simply syncing a new song (or even a new photo) and haven't changed this setting, iTunes should just very quickly sync the changes. It will, of course, optimize any new photos that you've added to your folders, but should not re-optimize the whole collection unless you've moved the folder (or changed the path in iTunes).

Is there any way to do this offline, i.e. when the iPod is not connected and then just updare the few modified or new photos? Or is there a way to disable the photo syncing yet keep the photos on the iPod? I find that the iPod is so good for looking at photos that every time I browse my photos on the iPod I see photos that need editing, regrouping, moving, etc. Yet if I edit 1 photo the whole long photo Optimizing takes place.
Unfortunately, there is no way to perform the photo optimization stage offline. Further, the optimization done will depend on which iPod model is connected, since the photos need to be optimized (resized) differently for the 5G than they do for the colour 4G models.

You can disable the photo syncing completely and iTunes will ask if you want to leave the existing collection on your iPod. You can answer "Yes" to this question and any photos that were already on your iPod will remain there. Of course, you'll have to re-enable photo syncing if you ever want to add anything to your iPod.

Secondly, I see that the iPod will only display the first level of Photo directory as a directory, and then the contents of any subdirectories are in the displayed first level. Is there any way around this? Can you keep the full directory level. I.e. What I would like to have is a structure such a directory for each year, then a subdirectory for each month and then a subdirectory for events within that month. Any way to do this?
Unfortunately, for album display this is not the case. The full-resolution photos stored on your iPod (if this option is selected) will be placed in a YEAR\MONTH\DAY folder structure (which you can't change either), but iTunes treats each folder as it's own "album" and I have never been able to find a way to nest anything deeper than that.

Finaly, I have Photoshop Elements3 and can see this in the Photo iPod Syn drop down box. Is there any advantage over the simple browse to your folder to sync method gained with Elements? I find Elements to be slow and cumbersome at best. Even though I have been using Photoshop for many years I find Picasa a breath of fresh air after using Elements. I really wish that Picasa could be used to sync with the iPod.
Other than the features of Photoshop Elements itself, I don't really see many advantages. If using Photoshop Elements, you can organize your photos into "collections" which will synchronize with the iPod as albums. The sort order and album order, however, doesn't really change, so there's not much advantage there over simply using straight folders.

I did use Photoshop Elements myself when I was using Windows (I now use iPhoto on Mac), but that was largely because I was looking for a tool to manage my photo collection and decided I might as well use the iPod compatible solution. I agree that Elements tends to be quite a bit slower, but it does have a lot or photo management and organizational features that tools like Picasa have traditionally been missing. Of course, whether one would need or use these extra features is another story entirely.....
 

GGG

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jhollington - Many thanks for such a detailed set of answers.

I find that iTunes will re-optimize my entire photo library, even when the same destination photo directory remains unchanged when certain things happen. So far this seems to occur if a subdirectory is deleted or moved yet it doesn't happen when a single photo is deleted. I suspect iTunes does some Photo directory check to see if enough has changed to require a complete re-optimize. I will do some more checking of this.

I guess this is not such a problem because as you point out, if I deselect Photo Sync I can leave the existing photos on the iPod and just do a music sync.

What I would like to happen is that if I edit a photo then I would like to see the edited photo in the next sync without the long optimize. Also I would like the facility of uploading a few photos to my Library and then be able to do a sync to quickly get the new photos onto the iPod fo viewing.

I expect there will be some clever 3rd Party SW to manipulate the iPod Cache folder to do this - one day.
 

AMRivlin

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Picasa and the iPod is a genusis idea... personally iPhoto is a bit clunky and terribly slow... I have a G4 1.1 and 1.25gig of ram, yes I know the 5400 rpm drive in my ibook slows it down, but picasa's interface would work so nicely with the ipod, hopefully someone will come to our rescue...
 

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So far, most of the comments on this thread have been about XP. Anyone found a way to get images from a Windows 98SE system onto an iPod?
 

AMRivlin

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honestly, upgrade. I didn't know anyone was using software that was 5 years outdated. I know XP/2k aren't the best, but figured everyone had some version of it now... Stolen or Legal.
 

lvirden

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AMRivlin said:
honestly, upgrade.
Honestly - the only computer in our house is one that is so old and underpowered that Win98SE is the only thing that will run on it.
So upgrading it is out of the question. And I don't make enough to buy even the cheapest computer system you've seen advertised. I have been saving for months and have about 1/2 the price of the cheapest computers saved up.

Thanks though.
 

AMRivlin

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Ok. Well, I don't want to hijack this page, or make assumptions, I do think the cheapest computers out there can be had for 349.99 Maybe less without keyboard monitor or mouse... But that is all u need if you need a processor boost from P1 land up to P4 2ghz land.

I must say I ran windows 2000 on a 300mhz amd chip years ago, I just jacked the ram from 64MB to 384... (Maybe 50 bucks on Crucial these days) Anyway best of luck.
 

domhnall

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If you visit the iPod scrubs website, you will see some cool (and tiny) animations used for scrubbing. I actually use my iPod photo for scrubbing through 3D animation for previewing/reviewing purposes.

However, in my case, I have for example, 20 iPod scrubs. These files total less than 70mb. There are approximately 6500 stills in total. Yet when I transport these animations to my iPod photo, the ithmb files bloat to a massive 5+ gigs.

Is there a decent workaround for this? I know I could eliminate the TV res ithmbs, but what if I wanted to keep some photos available for TV screen viewing...
 

Jim101

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New member here, I have been reading as much as possible and this board is a great place. Now, I am getting ready to buy my first iPod, the 5G 30G. I want to be able to carry a good selection on music and be able to back-up some pictures during a vacation or view them on a TV while on vacation....
Now, I may have missed this, but, the device that connects to the iPod that your camera cable connects to says it will support the Oly 720Z, I have the Oly 730Z which I am guessing will work, is there any way to find out?? I really need to know this before I purchase the iPod....If I have this in the wrong area, let me know and I'll move it..........

Thanks in advance,

Jim
 

ebaydjpal

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hi everyone, new here. i read the entire thread hoping to find solution to my problem or did not realize the solution was already mentioned.

i have a 60GB Ipod. when i added photos using itunes, all my 2592x1944 jpg files were resized to 778x583 :( is there a way i can restore them back to their original size? thanks in advance!
 
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