WARNING Updater 2005-06-26 SCRAMBLES FILENAMES

[mellingwhite]

Up until now, it has been easy to transfer mp3s from a 4th Gen Ipod to any WinXP computer using Windows Search. (And there was a variety of legitimate reasons why you might wish to do this!)

With "disk usage" enabled on the Ipod, it was possible to search the hidden music files on the Ipod. All you had to do was type in the song name using the Windows Search function. Once Windows found the song, it was possible to drag and drop files from the Ipod to the PC.

However, Updater 2005-06-26 scrambles all the filenames and now makes this impossible.

If, for legitimate reasons, you wish easily to copy songs from your Ipod to a WinXP computer, DO NOT INSTALL Updater 2005-06-26.

Anyone else noticed?

[jdbartlett]

Er, no, but I noticed it long before having installed the 06/26 update and thought, "Oh, good job I had the sense to make DVD backups and not rely on a portable hard disk as my only backup!" I can see how it'd be an annoyance for people who want to restore files from their iPod, but Apple's documentation is pretty clear that they don't want people to get songs from their iPods, probably because they're not willing to support people using their iPods as backup devices - hard disks aren't as reliable as CD or DVD backups.

[mellingwhite]

Perhaps my original post was confusing.

I didn't mean transferring songs from the "disk usage" section of the Ipod. I was talking about transferring songs from the Ipod's hidden Music folder.

[jdbartlett]

Yep, that's what I figured you meant. For me, those file names have always been scrambled. You could still use software to grab them, or, if you copy the lot of them into one folder and import that folder into iTunes, they'll still come up with the correct titles from the ID3 tags.

[mellingwhite]

Weird. On my PC, those filenames have not been scrambled on any other Ipod software, up to and including 2005-03-23.

[tankado]

yup confirmed it is not encrypted. nice info