This brief tutorial will show you how to use Winamp to manage your iPod.
Note: this post is part of the 10 Alternatives to iTunes for managing your iPod overview.
- First, make sure to enable disk use on your iPod by connecting it and opening iTunes (if it doesn’t auto-launch). Select your iPod and then click the Settings tab. Scroll down to the Options section and remove the check from the box labeled Open iTunes when this iPod is attached. Then place a check in the Enable disk use box (if it isn’t checked already). Click Apply.
- Exit out of iTunes, and confirm that your iPod has now mounted itself as a drive.
- Download and install Winamp if you haven’t yet. If you opt to create a custom installation, make sure to leave the iPod support selection in Portable Media Player Support (which is a part of the Winamp Library) checked.
- Launch Winamp and if the Media Library window doesn’t appear, select View and then Media Library.
- In the left column of the Media Library window, select your iPod from the Portables list. Any files currently on your iPod will be displayed.
- To add music to your iPod, open the Playlist window, add some songs to it and then right-click those songs. From the pop-up menu select Send to: and then choose your iPod.
- You’ll see a percentage status indicator as the files are sent to your iPod.
- The files listed on your iPod may not refresh on their own. Just click Portables…
- … and then click your iPod again. All of the files you just sent to your iPod will now be listed.
- You can eject your iPod right from within Winamp by clicking the Eject button in the bottom right corner of the Media Library window.
Thiago:
Winamp displays cover art by looking for an image file in the directory with the mp3 file, named after the mp3’s ID3 tag album title. At least, that’s how my winamp is set up. I think it’ll also accept an image named “folder.jpg”, although that could be a problem if you have files in the same directory from different albums.
I think the ipod requires the album art to be embedded in the ID3 tag, so winamp won’t correctly transfer the album art to the ipod. When I tried it, I didn’t get album art on the ipod unless it was embedded in the tag.
i successfully use the winamp on my ipod shuffle 1gb.. very great program.. and so much faster than itunes.. hell itunes just sucks…
just a question guys.. after i enabled the disk use on my ipod.. can i uninstall my itubes? or just leave it alone on my laptop.. thanks..
hope for your kind replies..^^
P.S.: Winamp works better with the ml_ipod plugin installed.
Brent:
Thanks for reply. I’ve tested what you had wrote.
I was happy that I found an alternative, Itunes sucks. All I want is to play music from my computer on my Ipod, why the hell is itunes crashing all the time?? This is not encouraging to by a mac
Good site, thanks. I am a new IPod user, heard ITunes was a problem, so tried out winamp instead. Seems to work ok, I’ve loaded on my 20GB of mp3s, plus another 20GB of music ripped from CDs in winamp. Problem I’m having, though, is duplicate files. I stored my MP3s stored in folders and I guess there’s overlap. I had a 1000 or so duplicates, which I went through and deleted, and I also renamed another few hundred files without info. But when I pressed “Sync” next, I pressed ok without de-selecting all the files to/from IPod that I changed, and it downloaded them all again, and copied over my name changes. I now have 3 or 4 of many files on my ipod and lost all my work. Can you recommend my best option for managing my songs with winamp? Do I edit song info in my ipod or in winamp library? For example, would I be best off to edit in Ipod, get it perfect, and then delete my music library on computer (after backing up of course), and then upload it all back? Or vice versa? Any suggestions most appreciated…..wasted quite a bit of time on this through dumb trial and error. Thanks in advance for any help.
According to what I read on the Winamp web site, the free version won’t rip CD’s to MP3–only to WMA. And I don’t think an iPod can play WMA files.
Media Monkey is a very similar program. In fact it can even use some of the “plugins” that were created for Winamp. It also comes in two flavors–free and “gold”. But the free version rips to MP3 and doesn’t seem to be missing any essential features for use with an iPod.
Hi Neil
Funny, I didn’t even think to look at format. It created .m4a files, not .mp3 as I had thought. But they play on Ipod just fine.
I’m pretty happy with winamp so far, but this duplicate file thing is a question mark…I suspect I might have the same problem with ITunes, as I have been storing my files in a non-organized way, and it is clashing with how Ipods organize them…I think the way to go might be to clean up the library in the Ipod, with everything I have there, then re-download it fresh to my computer.
However, will keep Media Monkey in mind as an alternative.
John
@John: Try a small and simple free util called Sharepod. It installs directly onto your iPod. Sort the display by artist or title and del the duplicates. Then backup your music to your PC using any of the options offered for file naming. My personal choice is
(Album)\(Track#)-(Title)
Save to a dir that isn’t currently in your Winamp library. Clear out your Winamp lib, and then import the files that you just saved.
@John: Try a small and simple free util called Sharepod. It installs directly onto your iPod. Sort the display by artist or title and del the duplicates. Then backup your music to your PC using any of the options offered for file naming. My personal choice is
(Album)\(Track#)-(Title)
Save to a dir that isn’t currently in your Winamp library. Go into Winamp, clear out your Winamp library, and then import the files that you just saved.
Thanks Neil, I’ll give that a try.
Is there a way do use winamp in order to upload photos to ipod??
If don’t, what app could I use?
Does this work with the newest sixth-gen iPod Classic?
Cheers!
brigado cara eu te amo
Help,
j’ai synchronisé mon ipod avec winamp, transfert ok mais apres l’ejection mon ipod m’affiche zero chanson rien n’est lisible et pourtant c’est bien dedans!?
I’ve started using the ml_ipod plugin for Winamp, and I gotta say it’s freakin awesome. Way more useful than the one that comes with Winamp. Now my ipod basically mirrors my Winamp media library, with the media library smart views (which I use extensively) converted to playlists on the ipod.
Also, I got a brand new ipod classic 120 GB (6th gen, I think) because the drive on my old one crapped out and they replaced it at the apple store. I just finished syncing it with my Winamp media library on a new computer that has never had itunes installed. So apparently you don’t need to use itunes at all, even just to set the “enable disc use” flag.
Also, I had an album that itunes would not accept into its music library (I used itunes on an old computer with the old ipod before the drive went bad). I tried everything to get the files to be acceptable to itunes. I verified with several programs that they were mp3s with the right kind of ID3 tags, no APE tags, etc. itunes would only show about 5 of the 50+ songs in the album (it’s a box set) when I added the folder to the library. Winamp has no problem adding these songs to its media library, and ml_ipod transferred them to the ipod just fine. Awesome.
Great article
Thanks a lot simplehelp.net has done a wonderful job
All the Best
Hey – I’ve seen this question come up several times, but I’ve not seen an answer to it: How do I enable disk use on iPod when I can’t use iTunes to do it??
You Rock my friend. I recently installed iTunes on my PC running Windows 7 Ultimate and had nothing but trouble trying to get it to work with my wife’s 3rd Gen Ipod Shuffle. I too have been using WinAmp now for about 10 years as an alternative to WMP. WinAmp is so much easier to use with her Shuffle than that horrible excuse of a program known as iTunes.
Thanks so much,
Keith
why after adding the songs, they don’t show in the recently added?
i added a lot of songs but can’t see them all in one list, i have to look for them one by one !!
any help??
i tried to sync the new ipod nano 5th gen to winamp and it doesn’t recognize it…any ideas if it is supposed to work with latest ipod?
OK, i need some help. Just got a Nano 5th Gen and don’t want to use itunes (can’t stand it) found this site and followed all the instructions, but no go… I can see my ipod in winamp but when i load mp3s on it, and eject it, i can’t see them on my ipod…
any suggestions??? also i saw a few people mention a plug-in called ml_ipod but i can’t find that eather.
Thanx!
Shmoo
why after i sync my ipod on winamp i cant see the songs i sync i cant even play it on my ipod pls help
Hey Shmoo, I’ve had the same problem. I think I read somewhere that Winamp doesn’t properly support the new Nano (5G). It writes the music database in an older iPod format that the new one doesn’t recognize. I wish I could remember where I saw this, though.
Hg
Same problem here….would be nice with som help
thank you man good bless you…….
OK i did the same thing it says but it says that there is nothing in the portables yet i can play the songs off the i pod from the audio list how do i fix this?
i love winamp, im sick and tired of itunes im gonna try this winamp. so far i have synced 20% of all of my music with no problem at all. so far so good. and thanx for the guide
Gentlemen,
I am glad I found this forum. I have particular needs for which this seems ideal but I need a little more help before actually going out and buying a large ipod.
On my computer, on a remote drive, I have a huge collection of digitized classical music, which I use winamp on my computer to play. The collection is in nested folders. For instance, there’s a folder called Beethoven, which includes three different folders that hold three separate sets of his nine symphonies. Each symphony, in turn, is a folder containing the movements, which are .wav files. The winamp playlists (one per symphony) are also nested in folders in the same way.
I hope that’s clear. What I’m wondering is whether I can get not only the music, but the playlists that go with it, onto the ipod–or am I going to have to make new playlists (and give them names) on the ipod itself? Does the ipod store files of playlists?
Many thanks in advance.
KaiserD2 –
I have the exact answer you don’t want. I have no idea.
I’m guessing you’ll need to make new playlists.
With any luck someone else following this thread pops up and has the answer. If that doesn’t happen, and you give it a go – PLEASE come back and share your results with us. I’d personally like to know. Thanks! And sorry I was of no help…
Hola! tengo un ipod clasic de 120 gb le he pasado musica con el winamp pro y todo iba bien hasta que lo hice en otra compu instale el winamp pro el mismo con el q lo utilizaba en la compu de siempre pero al momento de expulsarlo me dice que esta siendo utilizado por otro programa y no lo expulsa, siendo que no tengo ningun programa abierto, no se si tenga algo q ver el windows vista espero me puedan ayudar gracias
Okay, sure I can get my songs on my iPod using winamp, it picked up my videos, but you cannot play anymore than audio, and the only way to get my videos to actively play back and to sync is by using iTunes…can you help? It would be nice to know cause then I can go back and sync my videos to my iPod again. The videos I have are all MP4s.
I put music on using Winamp, all working fine and all, but when I put om my shuffle, it keeps telling me: “pls use itunes to sink music.” WTF can’t install itunes, cow I need a Internet connection, and serial key, witch I can only get from iCrap (iTunes) but can’t install without it WTF!! How is their logic?!? Pls help.. Lol should have just got an Phillips or something
I’m glad it works for everyone else, but it’s not working for me, I can’t do step 5, since my ipod isn’t showing up in the list. It’s an ipod nano. Yes I reinstalled and made sure it had the box ticked, I checked “current install” and it already had it, so I don’t know where the problem lies.
Larry – you may want to check w/ the WinAMP help section – it could very well be that the version of the Nano you have isn’t supported by WinAMP, yet. They should have a list of all the MP3 players and their versions, that are compatible.