Why does the iPod touch not have Disc Mode???

[srhope]

Hi,

I am getting a new computer in a week and want to take my music library with me.

I found THIS (http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=300173) tutorial on the apple site showing how i should do it. It doesn't seem to work with the Ipod Touch though, is this because it uses flash memory, not a hard drive (Is that correct?)

It's really annoying as i would like the music on my laptop as well as the Ipod.

Is there a way to do this somehow else?

My Ipod Touch is not Jailbroken however.

Thanks

[Foldarn]

That's correct, it does not. The previous iPods had the iPod chip with the firmware and a blank hard drive. The hard drive was formatted to match the Operating System's OS that the iPod was first set up on. That's why Windows can recognize any iPod formatted on a Windows machine and a Mac could recognize all of them regardless of the original computer.

The Touch is a small computer. It is running an actual operating system and the flash is formatted in OSX format. I don't know what the format is actually called. NFS or something, I don't know. This means Windows simply does not know HOW to read it so Apple disabled disk mode with it since it was worthless.

One way I could see Apple working around this would be to have 2 flash modules in the unit. One formatted with OS X and the other formatted with the originating computer's format (FAT32 in Windows' case) and allow disk mode. That would HAVE to be done in a future gen iPod Touch. Perhaps if there's a way to partition the flash in the unit to 2 differing formats, then it could be possible...

[DerekVOF]

Actually, you're incorrect. Although the iPod Touch is formatted the same for Mac OS X (using HFS+ I believe), that's not the reason it's not mountable. It has nothing to do with the formatting. If that was all it was, don't you think Mac users would be able to mount it then?

The problem is that, as you say, the iPod Touch is a smaller computer. How do you mount a computer on another computer? As a network mount, not like an external hard drive.

However, Apple has implemented neither and the reason is probably pretty simple - do you think Apple really want your average consumer to have direct access to the iPod Touch when the entire filesystem is then visible? The older iPods had a firmware that was not accessible via disk mode, hence the difference.

You're going to have consumers left and right trying to move and change things around. The last they want to have to deal with is thousands of people every day crowding into Apple Stores and tying up their support because they decided that all these folders with .app extensions (like MobileMusicPlayer.app) are taking up space for their Spice Girls songs... Grandpa Joe does not need access to the filesystem where he can accidentally delete stuff.

Apple didn't disable disk mode because it's worthless - 1) it wouldn't support disk mode because of the changes to the operating system and 2) they really don't want people who have no business in a filesystem messing it up...

[srhope]

So what would be the advice for transferring my music?

Will i need to copy songs to disc, then re-import? I'm guessing that all the artwork would go with this as well.

[DerekVOF]

There are directions in the iTunes forum on how to relocate your music library - http://forums.ilounge.com/showthread.php?t=31133

[paranoidxe]

Why did they disable this? There is no real good reason..."messing up the file system" isn't a real reason because every other iPod also had disk mode iPhone/iPod Touch are the first to introduce no disk mode.

The sync method is different from other iPods as the iPhone and iPod Touch is using a different driver than previous iPods...this is why you can just disconnect the iPod when syncing is complete instead of having to eject it..Windows no longer picks up the device as a removable storage which is why it doesn't show up in my computer...the new driver (Apple Mobile Device Driver) prevents it.

[jhollington]

There are some programs that will allow you to copy music from an iPod touch or iPhone back to an iPod touch or iPhone back to your computer, despite the lack of disk mode. Check out www.findleydesigns.com for one possible option.

Realistically, Apple could include a disk mode in the iPod touch and iPhone -- they've simply chosen not to. It's not that they've disabled it, however -- they just haven't written it.

The basic issue is that with the traditional iPod models, iTunes basically handled all of the access to the iPod as an external hard drive anyway, so the additional "disk mode" wasn't really anything that Apple had to add -- the iPod just was a removable hard disk, and iTunes simply wrote to the iPod's database and copied files to the iPod in much the same way that Windows Explorer or Finder would. In fact, the only thing the "Disk Use" option in iTunes did was to prevent iTunes from automatically ejecting the iPod after it finished syncing -- there was no other magic stuff involved.

(For example, you can confirm this by taking a traditional iPod and connecting it to a computer without iTunes installed -- it will just show up as an external hard disk).

With the iPod touch and the iPhone, iTunes instead uses a different communications protocol to access the device, which is more device-specific. The unit doesn't appear as a removable disk by default (not because any driver prevents it -- it's just not a removable hard drive class of device), and in fact won't really appear to anything but iTunes. Apple could easily write in a "disk mode" specifically to allow you to use it for file transfer, but they probably don't have any great incentive to do so. Further, even if they did add a "Disk Mode" it probably would not allow any access to the iPod side of the file system -- you'd just have a restricted "sandbox" area that you could use as a portable storage device (remember that the \iPod_Control directory on traditional iPods has always been hidden -- Apple doesn't really want you tinkering with that either).

This new approach used by the iPhone and iPod touch has huge benefits in that you're far less likely to get a corrupted iPod database from things like iTunes crashing in the middle of a sync, since all database access is handled by the iPod touch operating system, and you can even do things like yank it out of the cradle in the middle of a sync with impunity. The downside, of course, is that there's no "disk mode" by default.

[DerekVOF]

Why did they disable this? There is no real good reason..."messing up the file system" isn't a real reason because every other iPod also had disk mode iPhone/iPod Touch are the first to introduce no disk mode.

The sync method is different from other iPods as the iPhone and iPod Touch is using a different driver than previous iPods...this is why you can just disconnect the iPod when syncing is complete instead of having to eject it..Windows no longer picks up the device as a removable storage which is why it doesn't show up in my computer...the new driver (Apple Mobile Device Driver) prevents it.

The iPod Touch/iPhone have a FULL operating system -- not some firmware that isn't user-accessible... The new driver is because this is a mini-computer NOT an external hard drive... big difference which requires new drivers...

[ipodlover29]

Hi,

I am getting a new computer in a week and want to take my music library with me.

I found THIS (http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=300173) tutorial on the apple site showing how i should do it. It doesn't seem to work with the Ipod Touch though, is this because it uses flash memory, not a hard drive (Is that correct?)

It's really annoying as i would like the music on my laptop as well as the Ipod.

Is there a way to do this somehow else?


My Ipod Touch is not Jailbroken however.

Thanks

This might help have not tried it yet though..there is a demo available

Here is the link

http://www.wideanglesoftware.com/touchcopy/

With TouchCopy you can...

Use your iPhone or iPod Touch as an external hard drive. Store any type of data, move your files between your home and office. Use your iPod as a backup device.
Copy iPhone/iPod Touch music, playlists, podcasts and video to your PC. Backup all your music and video in a couple of mouse clicks.
Transfer music, playlists and video from your iPhone or iPod Touch directly into iTunes. Also transfers your Album Art, Ratings, Play Count and other song data.
Back Up all of your iPhone or iPod Touch Music, Movies and Playlists at the touch of a button. Back up to your PC or iTunes.
Copy Photos. View and save Photos on your iPhone or iPod Touch to your computer. View and copy photos taken on your iPhone.
Search for music on your iPhone/iPod Touch. The search results can be saved to your computer or transferred into iTunes as a playlist.
Play music and video on your iPhone or iPod Touch through your PC without having iTunes installed. Use TouchCopy to change your music rating.

[paranoidxe]

The iPod Touch/iPhone have a FULL operating system -- not some firmware that isn't user-accessible... The new driver is because this is a mini-computer NOT an external hard drive... big difference which requires new drivers...

Thats debatable...the iPod Nano/iPod Video/iPod Classic all require a operating system in order to work...Yes the iPod Touch is more complex than other iPods but this doesn't mean disk mode can't work on it.

I mean my windows directory shows up on my hard drive and yet its a full fledged operating system why isn't microsoft blocking that? Apple has decided to stop disk usage for whatever reason..there really is no good reason why they have disabled it. Just because the iPhone and iPod Touch is complex doesn't mean it can't have disk mode thats kind of ridiculous wouldn't you say.

I personally could care less about it I have USB flash drives.

[jhollington]

Well, as I mentioned earlier, it's not that the iPod touch can't have a "Disk Mode" because of the way it operates, it's more that the other iPods have one simply as a side-effect of the way they operate -- they show up as an external hard disk anyway.

Apple didn't disable Disk Mode in the iPod touch -- they merely didn't program it in. It's a subtle but important difference.