Updated 14 Feb, 2012, 6:01 pm IST

iPod Issues: A Do-It-Yourself Guide (Part I)

22 Nov, 2007, 2:54 pm IST | Laiq Qureshi

Don't rush to the nearest Apple store if your iPod goes belly-up. Read on to find out how you can fix some common glitches...

Sites that help you get artwork
You don’t necessarily have to go online and individually download the artwork. There are a lot of online services (some free, some not) that compile the artwork for you.

Art4itunes is one of them, and although none of the services offer immaculate returns, this one gives you near-complete results. All you have to do is click on File > Export (in iTunes), and save the list as a text file. Access art4itunes, and select which region you want your album artwork from (US or UK). Select your artwork size and browse to select the text file you just saved. Next click on 'Send file' and wait. In a moment you will be taken to a new page with all the artwork it could manage to compile (mostly from Amazon).

How to transfer stuff from the pod, or use it like a hard drive?
In case you didn’t know, you can use your iPod as a hard drive. Trust me, it’s simple. In ‘My Computer’, you will see your iPod displayed as an external hard drive. Double click on it, then click on Tools > Folder options > View, and select ‘Show hidden files and folders’. Exit and you will see an erstwhile hidden folder named 'iPod Control'.

Get in, and double click on the 'music' folder. The contents of the iPod will be displayed in many folders named in a sequence — F00, F01, F02 etc. These are all hidden folders, and contain songs/videos in your iPod. Copy and paste them anywhere you want in your computer.

Transferring/converting videos into your video iPod
This is a big problem that Apple hasn't been able to address properly yet. Ideally, iTunes should allow comprehensive file conversion, but it only manages a couple of known formats. This leaves out a long list of file formats that are in fact widely used. So what do you do? Again, just ditch iTunes!

Third party conversion applications, my personal favorite being WinAVI MP4 converter, work better than iTunes. It will not only convert anything to MP4, but also allows you to change frames per second (fps) and resize the aspect ratio for a complete iPod viewing experience. This reduces the size of the file too. You will just have to wait a while for the conversion to conclude, but it works! It not only works for iPods but also for the PSP, and converts into 3GP too.

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