How to use Amarok to manage your iPod in Ubuntu
July 4th, 2007 by Ross McKillop |
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Now that you’ve installed Amarok in Ubuntu, you’ll want to use it manage your iPod. This tutorial will take you through the steps to do just that, and it will also show you how to make Amarok the default program that launches when your iPod is connected.
Note: this post is part of the 10 Alternatives to iTunes for managing your iPod overview.
- When you plug your iPod into your computer, Rhythmbox will launch by default. Close it down, and open Amarok. Select Settings from the top menu and then Configure Amarok… from the drop-down list.
- Select Media Devices from the left column. In the Media Devices: section select Apple iPod Media Device from the Plugin: drop-down. Click Apply and then OK.
- Back in Amarok click the Devices tab from the left column (if it isn’t already displayed).
- To add files to your iPod, drag some from your collection to the iPod list. They’ll appear in a Transfer Queue window.
- Click the Transfer button from the top menu and the files will be loaded onto your iPod.
How to make Amarok the default software for your iPod
- Select System -> Preferences -> Removable Drives and Media.
- Select the Multimedia tab and then click the Browse… button in the Portable Music Players section.
- Assuming you installed Amarok in the default location, select File System from the Places column, then the usr folder and finally the bin folder. Scroll down to amarok, select it and then click the Open button.
- Back at the Removable Devices and Media Preferences window, click the Close button.
- The next time you plug in your iPod, Amarok will launch.
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38 Responses to “How to use Amarok to manage your iPod in Ubuntu”
By eBooksDB on Jul 4, 2007 | Reply
Another great tutorial, Thanks.
Dugg.
By El Cerrajero on Jul 4, 2007 | Reply
Nice how-to but it’s pretty ugly that brown and blue colour combination, it isn’t?
By Ross McKillop on Jul 4, 2007 | Reply
El Cerrajero -
Hahah yeah it is kinda ugly. For the sake of tutorials/overviews I leave all the defaults - the brown is Ubuntu’s default theme. The blue is Amarok’s default theme. When I’m not using Ubuntu for screenshots etc, I actually have Compiz enabled with a different theme.
By Dapilot1 on Jul 4, 2007 | Reply
Thanks for the help, but what about if you have an iPod Video. How do you get videos and photos on to it?
By Bios on Jul 4, 2007 | Reply
I always love the tips and tutorials I can find on this site, no wonder i’m a RSS subscriber and I think many more people should be too. Thanks for posting this and your other useful posts.
By Jordan Meeter on Jul 4, 2007 | Reply
Thanks for the great guide, I would like to see more articles like this!
By Robvdl on Jul 4, 2007 | Reply
Does it handle OGG? I mean the iPod itself doesn’t handle OGG - I know that, but a friend of mine has a music collection where more than half of it is on OGG. I have not yet found a Linux program that can convert OGG files on the fly when you transfer them, and converting them by hand is not really a good option.
I will have to try it out. If it can convert OGG’s on the fly, that would be awesome.
By Mike on Jul 4, 2007 | Reply
“Thanks for the help, but what about if you have an iPod Video. How do you get videos and photos on to it?”
Then you can use gtkpod.
http://www.gtkpod.org/about.html
By Ross McKillop on Jul 4, 2007 | Reply
Dapilot1 - what Mike said (thanks Mike!)
Jordan - Songbird is up next, then yamipod, then gtkpod then a few others. Eventually I’ll be doing a “x alternatives to using iTunes to manage your iPod” type of post, with summaries of all the alternatives (the free/open source ones anyway). And thanks for the compliment!
Bios - assuming you’re not a spam bot, thanks!
By kris on Jul 5, 2007 | Reply
What do you use to manage your music?
By tim on Jul 5, 2007 | Reply
this is great, however, do you know of any plug-ins or adaptations that allow for mainstream music mp3 purchases… such as iTMS?
Thanks,
By David Corona on Jul 10, 2007 | Reply
THANKS!!! My Ipod was a rejected from Itunes. Simply no comunication between them in windows. I was about to send it to service, and since Apple has no store in my town, there was about 30 dolars delivery and a 15 days waiting period. But now Amarok made it sound perfectly!
Thaks to the one that wrote the tutorail.
David Corona, from Chetumal, Mexico
By rand0mwalker on Jul 18, 2007 | Reply
Nice Tutorial! Infact I use Amarok for music transfer to my Video iPod. However, the feature in iTunes which I love and which Amarok doesn’t seem to have, is that you can create playlists. Is there a way to do that , in amarok?
By Pensax on Oct 17, 2007 | Reply
Are there any solution to load mp4 in ipod using amarok?
By Nahuel Castro on Dec 21, 2007 | Reply
When I connect ipod in my ubuntu is recognized as a digital camera and I can not connect to the ipod folder, can anybody help me?
By lostondialup on Mar 22, 2008 | Reply
Great tutorial. It is sites like this that making the transition to Linux from Windows worth it. Thanks.
By Ted on May 7, 2008 | Reply
Sup-erb tutorial - read several ‘HOW TO’s’ and this is the best - simple and clear with great screenshots.
By joe on May 8, 2008 | Reply
It seems like in Hardy Heron the System Preferences->Removable Devices and Media doesn’t have a multimedia tab any longer.
By Ross McKillop on May 8, 2008 | Reply
@joe:
I’ll scare up my old iPod and give it a run in Hardy
By joe on May 8, 2008 | Reply
I found two possible places where it could be set in Hardy:
1. System Preferences -> Preferred Applications -> Multimedia where you can choose a Custom Multimedia Player, I set this to amarok, but it still launches Rhythmbox on insert
2. Nautalus edit->Preferences->Media has a bunch of options for opening Rhythmbox for music player, but doesn’t let you specify an alternative!
By joe on May 8, 2008 | Reply
Maybe I didn’t make it clear in my previous comment, both of those places *do not work*
By PICCORO on May 16, 2008 | Reply
no es necesario el amarok tan nuevo, con el 1.4.6 es mas que suficiente..
sobre la gestion de caratulas, amarok 1.4.8 ya configura las caratuals tranquilamente
sobre actualizar el ipod cuando se pierde la lista no hay que hacer tanto alboroto con sysinfo, la libreria nueva 0.6.0 y 0.6.1(cvs) ofrecen un simple comando que solo se debe ejecutar una vez llamado readsysinfo..
aqui estan lospaquetes mas actualizados tanto de amarok como de libgpod, y tambien como instalarlos
paquetes y comandos ipod debian correctos
By PICCORO on May 16, 2008 | Reply
for debian users in few days here are the packages for xandros-sarge, and etch:
paquetes y comandos ipod debian correctos
amarok 1.4.8 and libgpod 0.6.0
By Jersoncito on Jun 28, 2008 | Reply
I found Rhytmbox easier to use with the ipod.
For videos/ipod Banshee 1.0 is excelent.
Thanks for the guide!
J