MacOS + USB flash + Fit = Unplayable file --> not any more...

[TKZ12NO1]

I didn't want to keep using my iPod in the car, so I sat down with my Apple PowerBook and dragged some songs from iTunes onto a USB flash keychain or thumb drive.

During this first attempt, some played, some did not, and I would see "UNPLAYABLE FILE" between every song.

Some searching on FitFreak turned up a couple of posts where people had the answers to this problem (what a knowledgeable following the Fit has).
1. Songs purchased on iTunes won't play in the Fit from anything other than an iPod to which they're associated.
2. Having a Mac means that your operating system likes to spread itself around: little files you cant see are placed on the thumb drive by the operating system, and the radio in the Fit spits them out as "UNPLAYABLE FILE" between every song it can play.

So today I got a new larger thumb drive (8GB), and went into iTunes to drag some songs to it. I enabled the "Kind" column under the View>View Options menu. Then I sorted the songs so all the Protected AAC files were grouped toward the bottom. Then I made some new folders on the thumb drive - one for each artist. Then I dragged the songs I liked from each artist into the folders. This way in the car I could use the big knob on the radio to scroll through artist folders and pick one that way.

Then I wanted to stop the hidden files from being hidden, but found that even if I could, resolving the problem that way would be more trouble than I cared to undertake. Then I found this site: BlueHarvest Hidden File Cleaner Upper
Well worth looking into. It took 788 files off my thumb drive that would have amounted to that many instances of UNPLAYABLE FILE showing up.

Considering I commute 30 minutes each way, I've got more than enough music ripped from CDs or from the old Napster days for the ride, but I still want to listen to stuff I bought off of iTunes, so now I'm looking into stripping the DRM away from all the $.99 songs I've purchased so that I can enjoy them in the car without my iPod Touch which is usually on my person and with me at work for other usage.

[SomberResplendence]

Awesome post. I have OSX and was thinking about getting an 8 gig soon. Thanks for also adding the the wealth of knowledge on fit freak :P

[pharmpk]

Interesting post. I hadn't thought about just dragging the songs from the iTunes window to a USB drive; it works! It also adds duplicate files as TKZ mentioned. I created a folder on my USB drive called FitMusic. I found the music using the Terminal program (/Applications/Utilities). After changing directory (cd /Volumes/NO\ NAME/FitMusic) you can see the files with the list directory command (ls -al) [My USB drive was called 'NO NAME' in the Finder]. Each 'real' music file has an additional hidden file starting with '_'. They appear as ._MusicFileName. They can be removed easily enough with the rm command.

I'm sure you know you can remove the DRM by burning to a CD and re-ripping back into iTunes. A bit of a pain but do-able.

[FitFreakette]

My tech guy at work said the same thing about burning the tunes to a CD and dumping them back into iTunes.....problem is, I can't seem to get them back into iTunes! What am I doing wrong??!! Perhaps I need to call it a night and try again tomorrow. This is frustrating. The flashdrive works great, but the protected songs are a PAIN! I love the support of this forum.....the ideas, the answers, the encouragement......does feel like some sort of support group like someone mentioned elsewhere! Had my 09 Fit for 24 hours and I'm lovin it....just not lovin' iTunes right now!

[Fit*Bob]

Another nice utility for the Mac OSX is Houdini. It's freeware from MacUpdate and can be found at Houdini 2.1 - MacUpdate
It allows you to toggle the hidden files and folders on your OSX Mac so that you can delete them as well as create your own hidden files and folders. And I'm not really happy with the way Itunes doesn't even allow you to use music that you have legally purchased from them. I'm through purchasing from them.

[pharmpk]

Originally Posted by FitFreakette

My tech guy at work said the same thing about burning the tunes to a CD and dumping them back into iTunes.....problem is, I can't seem to get them back into iTunes!

You are probably trying to burn an mp3 or music data CD ;-) to get the most on each CD. What you need to do is burn a music CD... with 12+ songs per CD At least I believe that is how it works. It's a pity because the newer head units now read the mp3 etc CDs so they could do double duty. My two year old Honda factory radio only plays audio CD's but I've got the older HondaLink in it so I just use my iPod.

[robodude]

Or use use a PC

[Kyle is raaddd]

wow robodude, don't be lame.
people can use what they want.


interesting though,....

[robodude]

I'm a mac user but I'm glad I have a PC too.

[pharmpk]

Originally Posted by robodude

I'm a mac user but I'm glad I have a PC too.

Do you see extra files when you do the same drag and drop onto the USB drive using a Windows machine (aka PC)?

From the Terminal directory listing they all seem to be the same size, maybe containing something useful...

no, maybe not
"Mac OS X 2??M4A hookATTR;????xThis resource fork intentionally left blank" ;-)

[Kyle is raaddd]

alright sorry i guess it was just the way it was worded
it's sometimes hard to portray things by typing you know?

[pharmpk]

Originally Posted by robodude

I'm a mac user but I'm glad I have a PC too.

I'm a Mac user (too) and I'm glad I have Parallels so I don't have to have a PC ;-)

[robodude]

Does Parallels prevent the problems when writing to the USB drive?

I bet Honda could release an update to fix the mac issues. Obviously Honda didn't test mac compatbility. But to be honest from my experience, all the files are playing anyway.

[pharmpk]

Originally Posted by robodude

Does Parallels prevent the problems when writing to the USB drive?

I don't know but guess it would work like a PC?

I bet Honda could release an update to fix the mac issues. Obviously Honda didn't test mac compatibility. But to be honest from my experience, all the files are playing anyway.

The Mac way would be to use an iPod :-) Still waiting to try it in on an ordered Fit...

[MattD]

I attempted to try with one of my iPods yesterday and the USB link didn't work. It said Unsupported Device. I'm guessing that it was because the hard drive in the iPod (4th Gen. 20GB) was formatted for OS X. I'm going to try with an iPod Nano later today to see if the flash memory, which has no formatting will work.

[zakurie]

The solution to all of your problems is here:

SyncTunes Home

My A3 had a navigation system that had slots for SD cards, and transferring songs from iTunes on OSX always resulted in 2 files per song (the MP3/AAC and the ID3 tag). The ID3 tag is the unplayable file.

SyncTunes is simple to use and results in the transfer of only the music files. You create a playlist in iTunes of the music you want to transfer, then use SyncTunes to select the playlist and the drive. SyncTunes will transfer the music to the drive in an iTunes hierarchy (artists>albums>songs).

[HuskyBoy]

SyncTunes looks perfect, but unfortunately, the file's been taken down! Darn it! Thanks just the same!

[zakurie]

Whoa, I wonder why they took the file down.

I've got a copy of SyncTunes. PM with your email address and I will send it to you.

[selektor]

There is a easier way to see the hidden files stored on your flash drive using the tools already available in all versions of OSX.

Open the Terminal app (Applications/Utilities/Terminal). Go to the directory on your flash drive containing your music, my drive is mounted as MUSIC
cd /Volumes/MUSIC

then type the below to list all files in that directory:
ls -a

As with all Unix based OSes, a hidden file simply has a "." in front of its name. To un-hide it from the OSX Finder do:
mv .filename filename

You just changed the name of the file omitting the leading period. Now you can delete them in the Finder as needed.

Or do:
rm -rf .* (NOTE: MAKE SURE THE PERIOD IS IN THERE!)

This deletes the hidden files and directories that you see when doing ls -a

If unsure, rename and delete in the Finder as noted above.

[Ein]

This seems to work:

iTuneMyWalkman

Don't forget to read the instructions first.