iPod shuffle Database Builder
Tired of having to dump all your songs off of your iPod shuffle just because you want to add a few songs to it on your PowerBook or iBook? Yeah, me too. Unlike the iPod, when you plug a shuffle into any computer that isn’t the computer that you used to put the music on to it, it will try to dump all of your music, so that you can sync it with the new computer. Its a really crappy feature. There are times when I fill it on my desktop, and when I’m out and about I want to add a couple new songs, or a few podcasts, and I have to friggen wipe the shuffle first. It stinks.
Enter python and a guy named Martin J. Fiedler. He wrote a little script that will allow you to add songs whenever and from whatever computer you want. Its very simple. You add a folder to your shuffle and drop audio files into it as if you were using them for data. Run the script and it will parse every folder looking for audio files, as it finds them it updates the iPod shuffle’s music database.
For example, I made a folder called “Audio” at the root of the shuffle, added a few songs, ran the python script from the command line, and BAM… I’ve got manually added songs to my Shuffle from my iBook.
hey thanks for the advice, but i just dowloaded the program and i don’t know how to run it? and i’m a windows user…help me please!
Comment by Lucia — July 23, 2005 @ 4:14 pm
For windows users: use the older .EXE version of the program that comes with the download. Place it on the iPod shuffle (on the main/root folder, not in any subfolder). Put songs on it. Then run the EXE program that’s on the iPod. Now you ready to go.
More experienced users can download Python and py2exec to compile a newer EXE file from the python script.
Comment by Davi — August 30, 2005 @ 5:27 pm
It sounds difficult but ill try it on my shuffle.
Comment by Farlin Paulino — May 23, 2006 @ 2:12 pm