"Play Counts" weird deletion (not by itunes)

[newday]

i have a 60gb photo ipod and sometimes it doesn't save my ratings and play counts, which i'v added recently. after some tests i found out that's becuase of "play counts" file.

sometime it gets deleted or never gets created, donno!?

I know that itunes deletes "play counts" file when the ipod connects to it. but this s**t happend to me when had 500 new ratings and i was not running itune at all and when i browse "iPod_Control\iTunes" directory of ipod on my pc i found out that there was no "play counts" file, so they those ratings never copied to permanent database of itune & ipod.:o :mad: :o :shake: :shake: this doesn't happn always but many times.

there are three guesses for me
1- it happens when i rate many tunes during time of last connection to itune.
2- it happens when i dont use ipod for more than some hours and let it to turn off itself.
3- the strong guess is that something deletes it when it try to connect to pc as a harddrive maybe "iPodService.exe" or :confused:

after all this long story, i want to know:
-anyone has the same problem?
-what cause this if any of my guesses are wrong?
-is there any solution to stop it?

anyway,
THIS IS MY FIRST POST HERE SO
BIG HI! TO ALL MUSIC FREAX IN iLOUNGE

[newday]

i found out something else which is more confusing and that is today i gave some rates for test. i left my ipod paused for about 2 hours. after that i checked those new ratings they was there. i connect it to pc without running itunes at all and there was no "Play Counts" file :mad: :mad: :mad:

so i disconnected it, checked those ratings again and they was not there :mad: :mad: :mad: :o :o

it is weird!!!

how it reads my new ratings if there is no playcounts file at first?
is it possible something delete "Play Counts" file from my ipod when it connects to pc?!
so if something does it why it doesn't do it everytime?

i realy confused here and need help
if this problem goes on i will sell my ipod and go for creative or something else

[cjmnews]

Are you manually synchronizing? Or automatic?

Manual Sync does not transfer playcounts or ratings.

[newday]

thats not my point.

i dont sync. i dont have any library of my ipod's tune on my pc.

my ipod sometimes doesn't save ratings.

[newday]

I think i find out that there is something on my pc which deletes "play counts" file.

and i give %90 chance that it is "iPodService.exe"

i'm working on it and testing ipod with another pc which dont have any ipod related softwares installed & i will post results soon.

[newday]

its realy weird, i forced my firewall not to let "iPodService.exe" to run.

everytime i gave rating no matter how many rates and how long i left the ipod disconnected there was no "play counts" file.

i gave some new rating and i check that with my friend's pc there was that "play counts" file.
i disconnect it from that pc and connect it to my pc (still "iPodService.exe" is banned) and there was no play counts again. :o

i run "iPodService.exe" manually and it crashed when i connect my ipod to computer.

so there is a problem with that file and thats becuase it dosent run properly.

i will post more of my investigation soon but now i have the right idea what is wrong

[newday]

i think i found weirdest experience thing about ipod & winamp.

and thats it
winamp deletes "Play Counts" file of ipod if you connect ipod to pc when winamp is running.

i tried that 3 times and it happend just when winamp was running.

i will post this experince in a new post for more investigations.

how it is possible?