"The reason I needed to format my iPod is because the iPod shuffle is the only model that works correctly with a Windows format in iTunes on a Mac."

Very disapointing to see something here that is so blatantly incorrect. All iPods for the last several generations work cross platform. I use my current ipod video this way, and my prior 4th gen worked great as well. Dozens of students in the department I support use theirs cross platform.

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Anonymous wrote:
Very disapointing to see something here that is so blatantly incorrect. All iPods for the last several generations work cross platform.

I tested this with both of my nanos and my shuffle, and only the shuffle appeared in iTunes for me when the devices were formatted for Windows. All work equally well as data storage devices regardless of their format, however.

Jeff

Jeff I'm afraid you are the one that is mistaken as all iPods work for both Windows and Mac if properly formatted. If your Windows machine can't see the iPod it's most likely a problem with the Windows OS. The USB port needs to be powered or I believe it would work better if it was. Go to Apple's support page for the iPod to see some solutions. Even my first generation 5gig iPod was able to be formatted with Windows and used with Windows.

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Anonymous wrote:
Jeff I'm afraid you are the one that is mistaken as all iPods work for both Windows and Mac if properly formatted. If your Windows machine can't see the iPod it's most likely a problem with the Windows OS.

I'm sorry, my first reply wasn't very specific, and with out a crystal ball you wouldn't have any way of knowing that my iPods, when formatted for Windows, appear in iTunes on a PC just as they should. Outside of my shuffle, they do not appear in iTunes in Mac OS X. As a matter of fact, my shuffle is always formatted for Windows just in case I need to move files cross platform.

When formatted for the Mac, my nanos perform as I expect and iTunes recognizes them, too.

I think this is worth resolving so that no one ends up confused on the formatting issue.

Jeff's wording was clear in the article that an iPod (other than the Shuffle), if formatted for Windows, doesn't work in iTunes when plugged into a Mac.

Guest, are you saying this isn't so? Based on what you've said, I'm not convinced you understand the situation stated by Jeff.

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Apple KB article 61672 wrote:
You cannot use an iPod whose disk is configured for Macintosh on a Windows-compatible computer. However, you can restore the iPod disk to use it with a Windows-compatible computer. To do this, see "Restoring iPod to factory settings." While a Windows formatted iPod may work on a Mac, Apple supports this configuration only with iPod shuffle.

It MAY work, but it's not supported. Does this mean you're both right?

Mac formats the drive has HFS+.
Windows formats it as Fat32.

Of course Windows cant read HFS+ drives.
Naturally a Mac *CAN* read Fat32 drives.

If you format your nano on a Windows machine it will show up fine on a Mac in iTunes. The reverse is not true.

Seperately:
However what does worry me is that I had to get my Nano replaced. Now its acting strange again claiming when i put it my Apple Lynard headphones in that 'I cant connect it to to Firewire. Use a USB cable.'

I'm worried that from the replacement you describe that these Nanos are more fragle that I would of realized.

In Dec. 2005 I bought a 60G, 5thG video iPod at one of those large "computer" stores because my regular reseller had no inventory and didn't know when they would have any product. It worked almost perfectly until I tried updating the software on my "mini" to which I had just transferred all 7500 songs from my
powerbook. This was not my first iPod so I was was surprise to see a drop down telling me I could not download because my iPod was formatted for windows. It is now March, and a 2nd upgrade is on line and again the same message. Now, I buy the FM radio attachment from Apple and find out I can't use it with my Windows formatted iPod. As they say in Quebec "FRANCHMENT"
Took the thing back to where I bought it, and complained that they had sold me a Windows iPod. I showed them the "settings" screen where it said clearly
'windows format'. They told me there was no such "animal" as a Windows or a Mac format iPod. Some how I had picked up this "
format" by mistake? I reset the thing, downloaded 8000 songs. Eurica!
My Experience! Hope it helps!
John R
Ottawa, Canada

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Guest wrote:
I was surprise to see a drop down telling me I could not download because my iPod was formatted for windows

My current iPod is 60g video as well and is windows formated and works just fine on the mac. Likewise with the 4th gen I had before. Likwise with many iPods I've worked with. You would be the first person I or any of my coworkers would have encountered with this error. My guess would be there was a problem with it out of the box.

I did find that since I plugged mine into a Mac first, the goofy software formated it for Mac. I then restored it manually on the PC since it was now unreadable by that platform, and it worked fine on both after that because the Mac reads a PC disk by design. I can load music and podcasts without issue from either platform, as well as use the drive space for file storage.

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Guest wrote:
They told me there was no such animal as a Windows or a Mac format iPod

Clearly they had no clue what they were talking about, but again windows formated iPods work fine on Macs. Anyone who says different has a problem with their iPod or is doing something wrong. It is true that for some reason Apple does not SUPPORT doing this, but it does work.

Why they don't want to provide help for something their OS/device does, and they have purposefully included, I can not divine, especially with the new intel Macs. Of course, if I understand correctly, although Apple provides a utility to dual boot the intel Macs, they don't support that tool. Also, I know from experience that although Macs boot from a Firewire device, and everyone knows this and does it, it's not supported by Apple. Clearly the lack of support for a product or function does not mean it doesn't work 100% of the time.

I have an iPod photo and an iPod Nano, both formatted for windows (I used them on a PC before getting my Mac) and both show up on iTunes on my Mac.

can i do the same on a windows os?

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Anonymous wrote:
can i do the same on a windows os?

Of course.

I just plugged in my iPod which had started out on my old Windows computer into my brand new Mac, and it works like a dream ... save for one thing. The firmware won't update.

Ugh ... and having to reset it the first time because it was in German was bad enough.

Please help me..I m unable to format my ipod nano 4 gb. it is showing that windows was unable to format

Are you using Windows or iTunes to format the iPod?, Or, more specifically, the iPod updater software for Windows?

If you put a security lock on your iPod but forgot what it was.......How do you get out of the lock and back 2 playing music again?

Yes, you can use ipods cross platform, but in order to update the ipod, you must have it formatted as the same format for the machine it is connected to.


-Gakio