iTunes 10.6 + Firewire iPod

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Level 1

39 points

iTunes 10.6 + Firewire iPod

I've been scouring the Apple Support Website for inforrmation about my problem but haven't found an answer yet.

My situation is that I'm running a Powermac G5 (final model) with OSX 10.5.8 installed, which I just updated with the new version of iTunes (10.6). I have been running iTunes since setting up this machine with a (don't laugh) 3rd Generation iPod (40 GB), and more recently a 2nd Generation iPod shuffle. Last Fall I added an iPhone 4S to the mix. iTunes has been handling all three devices reasonably well, but I will admit that there has been a bit more instability since adding the iPhone.

Beginning Saturday night, the firewire iPod is no longer recognized by iTunes, which becomes unresponsive (spinning beach ball) and stays that way until I force it to quit. The iPod never as much as shows up in the device list. When I disconnect the 3G and restart iTunes, it still recognizes the iPhone and Shuffle just fine. Add the 3G iPod back into the mix, and boom, spinning beach ball.

At first, of course, I just assumed that my antique iPod had simply died, but I had an older Mac sitting around so I connected the 3G iPod to see what would happen. The older machine is an iMac G4, running OSX 10.4.11 and iTunes 7.3. iTunes launches and my 3G iPod shows up in the devices list. All my music is there and plays, device information checks ok. I did run Disk Utility, and it found and successfully repaired a directory error, so I thought that might be the culprit so I reconnected it to my G5, but again got the dreaded spinning beach ball. I did also try the iPod troubleshooting procedures, up to but not including restore. Since the iPod appears to be ok in an earlier version of iTunes, I decided to focus on iTunes.

I reinstalled iTunes and removed the Apple Mobile Device Service files, as instructed at http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1747, but that did not rectify the situation. I couldn't find anything that definitievly states that firewire support was removed from iTunes in this lated version, but neither could I find anything specifically stating that it still supports firewire iPods.

Any ideas or suggestions?

Posted on Mar 12, 2012 7:02 PM

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Answer 1

Mar 21, 2012 2:01 PM in response to wbaetz

Wish I had the link but I read last December that new versions of iTunes would no longer support FireWire iPods.

Which would explain your iPod working on an "older" machine than your venerable G5.

Not long ago the friend to whom I had given an old Windows Sony laptop made the mistake of accepting an iTunes update from 9 to 10. 9 ran fine on the old laptop with its 1ghz processor and 1 GB of ram. 10 absolutely, positively did not.

I was able to find her a retrograde install of iTunes for Windows, which put her back in "business."

Don't know if there's any way to do the same on Mac. There are sites that offer complete old versions of some software. Worth a try to find one. You may have to do a wipe and install from your Leopard discs since Apple isn't much on about letting users retrograde. Good luck!

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Answer 2

wbaetz Author

Level 1

39 points

Mar 21, 2012 2:53 PM in response to George from Tulsa

George, thanks for your reply. I had not heard that before, but it doesn't surprise me. For the record, FW iPods were supported until the last update that just came out the week before last. I don't think I'll sweat it too much. I have an older machine that can't run the latest iTunes anyway, and can use that to maintain my iPod3G. Or I can get with the program and get a newer iPod. No big deal either way.

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