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Updated Rhythmbox iPod sync plugin

22 April 2008

Due to the comments I recrived on the last post on this topic, I decided to make a few changes.

First I want to say thank you to everyone that showed interest. Apparently this type of plugin is desperately needed. My initial version was just a quick hack to transfer meta data to and from my iPod. Note the extremely hackish nature of the link between iPod and rhythmbox tracks (filename only).

Now for the changes:

1. The most common complaint was the rhythmbox crashing bug (Segmentation Fault). This is caused by the gpod module when it attempts to locate and read the itunes database on the iPod. My fix was to just check if gpod found the itunes directory, print an error to the console, and skip any processing at all. This will prevent killing rhythmbox, but doesn’t actually fix anything.
2. More intelligent rating updates. I used mockenh’s idea to compare last played dates to determine which rating to use in case of a conflict.

I don’t really have the desire to implement playlist, or podcast synchronization since I have very little time, and I am only a mediocre programmer at best. If someone wants to swipe my code to build on, they are more than welcome to.

Some notes about my implementation.

1. I just use a periodic rsync to copy music from my iPod to my PC. rsync -av /media/BFUNGUS/iPod_Control/Music/ ~/Music/ Change any paths as necessary.
2. Since I don’t copy songs to the iPod using Linux, I didn’t write that support into it
3. The detection of the iPod mount location is dependant upon the GnomeVFS module. It must correctly recognize your iPod as a Music Player
4. The python gpod module must be installed. Debian users can apt-get install python-gpod

ipodsync v0.2

2 Responses to “Updated Rhythmbox iPod sync plugin”

1. Jens Knutson Says:
   May 12th, 2008 at 2:36 pm

   Thanks for the update - much appreciated.

2. M@ Says:
   July 23rd, 2008 at 6:32 am

   Hi, i`ve tried your plugin with no success!
   When i click on the sync ipod button, i get no results at all (even the shell seems not to communicate something).
   Have you got some tips?
   Thanks in advance
   M@

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