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.
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What about subscriptions to Podcasts, Video podcasts, and purchases from the iTunes music store. Can it handle all that too?
this tutorial is obviously aimed at anyone that just wants to load their mp3’s onto the iPod. straightforward no questions asked
hobnob,
Correct. There are so many features to Winamp that trying to cover them all would be far too time consuming. If you include the hundreds (thousands?) of plugins, it would take a lifetime.
It’s also a part of a larger ‘overview’ on iTunes alternatives that I’m going to publish later tonight/early tomorrow.
In the past I have used this feature, although be it you needed to install the plugin, on a number of occasions it corrupted my ipod. Hss this been noted or addressed in any way ?
Eitan,
It depends on how far back in the past you used this feature.. I reviewed the release notes for the last few versions of Winamp and found the following:
Winamp 5.34:
Fixed: [pmp_ipod] Incompatibility with iTunes 7.1
Winamp 5.31:
* Fixed: [ml_pmp/pmp_ipod/pmp_usb] ‘no disc in drive’ error message
Winamp 5.3
* New: [pmp_ipod] gapless playback support on newer models
* Improved: [enc_aacplus] saves itunes/ipod-compatible gapless information
* Improved: [pmp_ipod] support for iTunesLock
* Fixed: [pmp_ipod] Artist list on iPod not sorting “The” correctly
Winamp 5.22
* Improved: [pmp_ipod] Loading times for iPods reduced
Winamp 5.21
* Fixed: [ml_ipod] and [pmp_ipod] conflict
–
So it sure looks like they’re constantly improving the iPod integration.
With that said, generally iTunes does not like to ‘play nice’ with ANY other software when it comes to managing your iPod. If you sync it with anything other than iTunes, the next time your iPod is plugged in and iTunes is running, it’ll try and “fix” the problems. That can involve wiping out whatever is currently on your iPod. Once you make a decision to use something other than iTunes to manage your iPod, it’s a pretty good idea to stick with that thing. Or, make sure to keep everything backed up so doing a restore isn’t too much of a hassle.
If i recall i used the ml_ipod plugin or something of that nature which i see they did address in version 5.21
Will certainly give it a try again, my music is backed up for such occasions. iTunes is a joke when it comes to usability.
Thanks
Indeed, winamp integrated ml_ipod a few versions back to give all winamp users ipod & portable player support, and its pretty stable now.
However ml_ipod has continued independent development since the integration and if you find like using winamp to manage your ipod, I strongly advise you to go download the newest version of ml_ipod (currently version 3) from http://mlipod.sourceforge.net/
no i don;t work for them, but I liked this new version so much, I donated some of my hard earned cash.
If you use your iPod for a lot of podcasts, download and use ml_ipod instead of Winamp’s built-in ipod support. The most recent version of the ml_ipod plugin is far superior to Winamp’s built-in support.
http://www.closetosoftware.com
exellent art display for winamp
I fucking hate iTunes, it lags all the time, it crashes and its a pain in the ass to use it… takes a lot of time to do simple stuff.
Thanks a bunch for this! I abhor iTunes as it would not cooperate whenever I tried to do simple things, and this just made my life a heck of a lot easier. Kudos.
How do i get this to work with iPod Classic 160gb?
wow. this makes me very, very happy. i find itunes to be invasive and irritating. i know it’s irrational, but hey.
no more itunes
I have the same question concerning the 160Gb. I used Anapod Explorer on my old iPods, but it did not work with the 160Gb model. Is there something “different” about the 160?
Thank you Ross for this tutorial. I can’t wait to get home and enable Disk Use in the hope that I can ultimately get rid of an extremely sluggish and time-consuming Itune.
I own a 160GB Classic and have purchased Red Chair Anapod without careful reading and now to think that I can get this business done from the confort of my favorite interface (Winamp)is very conforting. Thanks again.
I have a very large music collection (>400 gigs). Which alternative is the fastest: winamp, itunes, floola, yamipod, mediamonkey or other using a 5th gen ipod?? Thanx
Thank you for posting this! My iTunes crashed about a year ago and refused to start back up, so I’ve been stuck with the same songs for quite some time!
Thank you
Nice one, but I have a question.
I need iTunes installed anyway?
@Fred Banionis:
Nope. Don’t need iTunes on your computer at all.
Ross
Winamp does not recognize ipod, it used to before. I have the ipod plugin, the computer recognizes the ipod, should i reinstall winamp?
Hi, say when adding songs, can you save playlists and send em as playlists? Or is the only way of sending songs to ipods through winamp restricted to 1 way and then having to go into your ipod manually to create the playlists. (Because personally it’s easier to arrange playlists on the computer than on the ipod) I seperate all my songs into Trance Folder, HipHop folder, Korean folder and Slow folder. THANK YOU!
This totally rocks, thanks. Next step, kill iTunes.
Question:
When the iTunes starts out, it check if you have all the mp3 you have on your iPod are on your PC, and if it can’t find it, it’s going to delete the one on your iPod.
It may be a stupid question, but just for the sake of don’t having a bad time: Winamp do the same too or it don’t care if you don’t have the mp3 anymore?
Will this work with out iTunes installed?
My problem is I can’t even get iTunes installed, so I’m not sure how I would do that first step “enable disk use” set. Will Winamp not work without doing that?
Thanks!
My problem is the iTunes installation. If I can not set that “enable disk use” via iTunes, will I not be able to use the Winamp either?
iTunes is HORRIBLE!
it doesnt seem to work on my ipod nano, does anyone know why? ive followed the steps but once i eject it and check, it says zero music. it doesnt seem to recognize any of them, even though when i check it on my computer, the folders all seem to have the music as it should (under the F00 etc folders) anyone know how to get it to work?
will winamp work with 160 classic? Been looking at poddox, is there a reliable program that can create playlists and transfer music to and from my PC?
Thank you for this simple tutorial. You have no idea how much i hate iTunes.
Been using winamp (with latest ml_ipod plug in) now for a few days with my 6G classic and new nano…both work fine…
Do any of these prevent duplicate songs from being copied into the playlists? Say I have a Hip Hop playlist with many artist. When I add tracks to an existing artist some time 20 or 30 songs per artist its hard to tell what is already there and some are in multiple playlists. It would just be nice and easy to drag the artist and just have it add the songs that are missing.
when i download songs onto my ipod from winamp, when i eject my ipod, that songs arent in order alphabetically is there any way that i can make them go in order
safassad
so i did all this, the songs are in my ipod but they don’t play… whats up with this and how can i fix it???
I have tried adding songs & videos to my ipod nano 3rd generation (4GB) using itunes to no avail. It always ends up being empty after ejecting. What should I do?
i didnt knew u had to have itns to made ipod har drvie thanks
Eegzz,
In the hopes you get notified when comments are made…..How did you solve your problem. My 80gig classic was working fine with Winamp 5.54, but I upgraded the ipod software, using itunes to version 1.2.1. since then winamp doesn’t recognize the ipod. the computer(win2000 srvc 4) sees the ipod in disk mode, as a drive letter.
I’ve gotten rid of pmp_ipod.dll & replaced it with the newest version of ml_ipod.dll found here http://mlipod.sourceforge.net
An alternative to iTunes… hallelujah.
Thanks so much, I hate iTunes with a fiery passion so it is awesome to be able to manage my iPod in my beloved Winamp XD
si eu am un IPhon si nu stiu cu pot sa bag clipuri video ,TV
Unfortunately, Apple has disabled the “Enable disk use” feature in the 2.0.2. version. Yet another step in Apples’ attempt to limit in what way the consumer can manage their content. Faschism, anyone?
So can I install itunes on some shit computer that I never want to use again, set my ipod to “enable disk use”, and then copy songs to my ipod with winamp on another, non-itunes-infected computer? And there’s no retarded “syncing” crap with winamp, right? I can just copy files from my computer’s HD to the ipod?
And what’s this thing Robb said about it being a no go in 2.0.2? Is that the itunes version? Can I just use an earlier version of itunes?
God, non-MSC supporting media players is one of the dumber things man’s come up with in the last decade.
I recently downloaded winamp to manage my ipod nano’s music. How do i remove songs from my nano without using itunes. Can i do this with winamp or someother software. I can add the tracks but unsure of the removing part using winamp with the ipod nano. Help!!!
That’s a good question. I recently had an ipod for about a week before returning it, and I think itunes might be the only feasible tool to manage music on the ipod. I tried a few different alternatives, and they worked sort of okay for copying music to the ipod (*), but say I rename a file in my music collection, or fix an ID3 tag, or even just add a bunch of new mp3s to it. I’m not sure of an easy way to get those changes onto the ipod without clearing the ipod completely and then copying everything to it all over again. In a perfect world, where mp3 players look like removeable disk drives, you can simply use any incremental backup tool to scan your music collection, detect changes to the files since the last backup, and make those changes on the mp3 player. Other than that, I think the only other option is this “syncing” business.
* When putting mp3s on the ipod, I noticed that if I copy them all to it, then try to copy my playlists, it actually copies the files referenced in the playlists to the ipod, so I have multiple copies of the same frickin file. How retarded is that? It can’t just either copy the playlist (which is a simple text file) by itself to the ipod, or read the playlist and create a corresponding playlist on the ipod in whatever lame format they use?
Really had a tough time arranging songs using i-tunes. This is definitely simpler, arrange the songs on playlist and transfer the playlist to ipod, I-tunes really sucks. Thank you.
So if you have two playlist that contain some of the same songs, you get duplicate files on the ipod? What if you add some songs to your computer and want to put them on the ipod? Do you clear the entire ipod, add the new songs to whatever playlists you want them on, and then copy the playlists to the ipod again?
This whole “use playlists to specify which files to copy” thing is weird.
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