This tutorial will guide you in using Rhythmbox to manage your iPod in Ubuntu. The steps are specific to Ubuntu Feisty Fawn (7.04) and Rhythmbox 0.10.0.
Note: this post is part of the 10 Alternatives to iTunes for managing your iPod overview.
- By default, when you connect your iPod to your computer Rhythmbox will launch. If this is the first time you’ve used Rhythmbox you’ll be taken through a quick setup. If it’s not, you can skip down to step 7.
Click the Forward button to begin the setup.
- Choose the folder you store your music files in by clicking the Browse… button.
- Navigate to your music folder and click Open.
- Back at the setup window make sure your music folder has been selected and then click the Forward button.
- Now click Apply to finish setting up Rhythmbox.
- Rhythmbox will open and your music library will be displayed.
- To view the contents of your iPod, select it from the list in the left column.
- From here you can remove tracks from your iPod by right-clicking (ctrl-click for single button mouse folks) a song (or group of songs) and selecting Move to Trash. To add tracks to your iPod, go back to your music library, select the songs and drag them to the iPod listed in the right column.
- When you’re done updating your iPod and want to disconnect it, close down Rhythmbox, right-click the iPod icon on your desktop and select Eject. Then you can safely remove your iPod.
























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I’m really beginning to go in Love with Ubuntu.
And your tutorial + site are just great.
Dugg
Thank you for a very nice tutorial!
After I do step 9 (Right-click iPod icon -> Eject), how do I uneject without physically detaching ipod from computer and then reconnecting?
This method doesn’t work : Rhythmbox doesn’t build a database on the iPod, it just reads the content on it. So, the songs you transfer with Rhythmbox are unreadable.
Thank’s, this gide its great, you are great!
i just tried this - swear to god , it’s actually EASIER than running iTunes on XP.
it literally is a case of drag’n'drop onto your ipod. amazing stuff.
Are you sure it’s not that the files you’re downloading from the iPod are in Apple’s proprietary format (which won’t generally play elsewhere)?
Another way to eject the iPod is to right click it in the Device List on the left hand Window pane (Eject is one of the options). This has the same effect, but from within the interface.
I tried this method with my new nano 3rd generation and it trashed the database. I had to reset the ipod to factory defaults and reload the few songs I had in.
bob,
Here’s the answer: http://lilserenity.wordpress.com/2007/12/22/virgin-mobile-praise-ubuntu-and-ipod-nano-3g/
Ross,
Thanks for the info and the quick reply. The instructions on the site you gave me worked perfectly.
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