no Unfamilar iPods found

I try to add a device for sync and I get "no Unfamilar iPod found" .  I have just done a restore to factory settings. iPod us a 5G, 30 Gig with software version 1.2.1.  Itunes has been removed and reloaded - version 7.1.1.5.

 So here is what I have tried - (1) Beta version of Happy Fish - same problem, (2) Prior Beta version - same problem. Removed beta version and then deleted remanents of the Happy Fish which were not deleted prior to reinstall.  (3) I have looked on the device for the HF file and not found it and yes show hidden is turned on. (4) Tried adding the device as a MP3 player and it will add it but no schronozation takes place and I find not HF file still on the device.

 I would very muck like to use this application as iTunes is buggy.  I'm running XP Pro Service Pack 2.  Connecting to device using apple supplied cord and a USB extender cable off a USB 2 port.

Any troubleshooting help would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.
 

ual60,

It sounds like you've done everything I can think of to suggest.  I have seen problems in the past if the iTunes installation is performed while HappyFish is running because HF hooks into some of the files and the iTunes installer cannot upgrade them while HF is running.  The only thing I can think of would be to try one more time uninstalling HappyFish, reinstalling iTunes, and then reinstalling HappyFish. 

Anyone else have seen this behaviour before?

Regards,

Will

Will,

 I have made some progress but still am not there.  I removed HappyFish and iTunes completely including any entries in the registry.  I then loaded iTunes and RENAMED my iPod.  My iPod was "Chip's iPod" and I renamed it "ChiPod."  No, apostrophes or spaces.  I connected the device imported my feeds and then went about synchronizing.  Well, it just turns and turns on the synchronization but it doesn't seem to bring the information down into the iPod.

A couple of questions. (1) Should the iPod be in disk mode or does it matter? (2) Does iTunes need to be running? (3) If I want the podcasts to be organized all under the podcast directory how is that done?

I know these last questions might be basic but I'm really trying hard to get this to work.  I don't like the lack of control that I have with iTunes.

Regards,

UAL60 

Will,

    I'm good.  Once I figured out that I had to download the files to the computer 1st, it all kind of clicked.  I did notice that everything is loaded as a playlist.  Can it be lumped under podcasts?  Also, I downloaded Geek News Central and noticed that the details, i.e the information that Todd provides if you care to click a couple of times on the iPod is not available.  All the files are MP3 files is that the reason or is it something else.

Sorry for the bother, but if you could answer those questions.  I would like to get my iPod back to a condtion where I have things where I want them if you know what i Mean.

Regards,

UAL60
 

UAL60,

I'm sorry you had so much trouble getting started but am glad to hear that it seems to be working for you now.  Yes, your iPod must be in disk mode for it to work with HF.  I'm kicking myself for not remembering to mention that.  I will add that to the error messages that show when trying to set up an iPod profile.  Yes, iTunes must be running for the sync to work.  Basically, HF tells iTunes what to do the iPod - which files to add and remove and to make playlists etc.  You have two options for syning content to playlists.  You can add them to playlists based on feed title or genre.  Go into the feed preferences (right-click on a feed and choose "Feed settings").  Click on the "ID3 Tags & File Names" option.  Choose the custom tag option and put "Podcast".  Now when HF pulls the files down it will change the genre tag.  Under the device preferences dialog (select you iPod from the drop down on the sync tab then click the gear icon and choose preferences) check the create playlist option and choose genre.  This will group all the items together in one playlist.  As for the extra comments under Geek News Central I'm not sure what's going on there.  I recently started listening to a new podcast that has notes like that - one of the Slate podcasts (Daily Explainer?) - and I noticed that they did not show up.  I'll do some poking, but it may be a while before I can fix it. 

Thanks for sticking with it and letting me know how you got things working.  The documentation for HF is horrible (read: more or less nonexistent).  I'm a typical programmer in that regard.  If you could only see the code comments though...  Anyway, I'm getting a wiki set up and hope that I can rope you good users out there into pitching in.

Let me know if you still have more questions.

Regards,

Will

Quick question.  Using HF to sync directly to the ipod, is it possible to have multiple podcasts on the same playlist?  For example, could I have HF create a sports playlist (with a few different podcast episodes) and a news or music playlist?

Thank you for your commitment to your software, Will.  I left Juice quickly because it's developer was overly pretentious and belligerent about what he was doing.  I appreciate that you take all of our "problems" to heart and do your best to fix them!

Jean-Etienne 

Jean-Etienne,

Thanks for the kind words and for using HappyFish.  I definitely want HappyFish to be the best it can be. 

Yes, you can have multiple podcasts on the same playlist.  Give this a try:

Go into the feed preferences (right-click on a feed and choose "Feed settings").  Once this dialog is open you can change settings for any and all feeds.  For each of the feeds you want to appear in the "news" group click on "ID3 Tags & File Names" and choose the custom genre tag option.  Put something meanigful, but not something that might show up as a normal genre.  I would suggest "News Playlist" or something like that.  Do this for the other groupings you want to create like "Sports Playlist", "Comedy Playlist", etc.  Next, under the device preferences dialog (select your iPod from the drop down on the sync tab then click the gear icon and choose preferences) check the "create playlists" option and choose genre as the basis instead of feed title.  This should create the playlists you're looking for. 

The one drawback is that the genre tags are only changed when the files are downloaded (right at download completion).  So this change will not be retroactive.  However, you should be able to go the download folder for each feed, select all the files, and with all the files still selected right-click on the group and choose properties from the context menu.  In the properties dialog click on the details tab.  There you can change the genre and have it update the files en mass.

Regards,

Will