iPod Shuffle without iTunes

posted Jun 3rd 2005 9:00am by Eliot Phillips
filed under: ipod hacks

shuffle gray

Martin Fielder did most of the hard work when it comes to using the iPod Shuffle without iTunes. All you have to do is copy the music over to your Shuffle like a normal mass storage device. Then run the database builder which takes care of all of the dirty work. Ohad took care of the final loose ends for Windows users by converting the Python script to an exe. Head over to his blog to pick up the zip file and start managing your own music, because… well… you’re not an idiot.

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Comments [36]

Reader Comments

Some people are still idiots, but it’s nice to be able to take charge of your own player and show some little independance :)

Posted at 9:16 am on Jun 3rd, 2005 by filtronic

One word: Yummy!
Thanks for the link.

Posted at 10:15 am on Jun 3rd, 2005 by Israel torres

Wow! Thank you so much for this link, I really needed to stop using itunes but I couldn’t find a way around it. Thanks again, keep up the great work!

Posted at 10:51 am on Jun 3rd, 2005 by Steve

Nice hack technically, but does it worth it ?
iTunes rocks regarding songs management – the only reason one would like that would be to use open softwares, but it stops here …

At least now *nix users can use that script – but on windows, gime a break :)

Posted at 10:53 am on Jun 3rd, 2005 by Mathieu Massebuf

People still use Windows?

Posted at 11:10 am on Jun 3rd, 2005 by Sean

can you have a little bit of both worlds?

I like managing my songs on my shuffle thru iTunes, specially because of the smart playlists, I just choose my mood (depending of where I’m heading to (Gym, work, etc) and it just feels it up perfectly for me.

I would like however to have this .exe on my shuffle (and run it off of there) in the case that I go for example, to somebody elses house and want to copy a few mp3s to my shuffle, without having to wait to get to my house to add it to my iTunes to listen to it.

I was doing this same thing with another software kinda like this called yamipod ( http://www.yamipod.com ) which now has support for the shuffle as well, and it accomplishes this same thing. With the added feature that you can actually play the songs as well out of the shuffle, running the same program, in any computer.

Posted at 11:46 am on Jun 3rd, 2005 by mrqcho

why noy just use the winamp plugin
http://www.mlipod.com
it works just fine for me

Posted at 12:50 pm on Jun 3rd, 2005 by TExas

Not to discourage all this cool hacking, but the best solution for itunes haters is to buy a different brand player, a fully featured player really should include this functionality by default.

Posted at 1:48 pm on Jun 3rd, 2005 by stevecrozz

Most players I’ve seen require some other program it seems like. The only ones that don’t (by my experience) are those ones with the built-in jumpdrive.

Also, iTunes is a slow son of a bitch on Windows. **SLOW**.

Posted at 2:51 pm on Jun 3rd, 2005 by Joshua Holbrook

My old Clie, the two RCA lyras I own, and the little crappy Benq player I threw into the river… None of the above required any special software to load mp3’s onto it. Just dump the files onto the flash memory or directly to the unit’s internal memory and away we go.

ALL personal media players should be that easy. Too bad compatibility is still such an issue or I’d buy a nice video player.

Posted at 5:12 pm on Jun 3rd, 2005 by greg

I created a portable exe version of rebuild_db myself a few weeks back. If you want instructions on how to do it yourself (so you can use a custom icon or modified script, for example), check out my thread on ipodlounge:

http://forums.ipodlounge.com/showthread.php?s=1ca53535717cd2e7c96dfa773befe30d&threadid=96705

The advantage of using my method is that you only get the solitary exe file as an output, which looks a lot nicer and is easier to organise than an exe with several other dlls and such.

Posted at 7:05 pm on Jun 3rd, 2005 by Ash

actually, in my book, if you got so far as to purchase an ipod shuffle, you could pretty much easily be categorized as an idiot.

Posted at 8:00 pm on Jun 3rd, 2005 by belinda

@ post 12 lol it just buying one of those mp3 512 – 1 gig player it was only hot cause it was white and the creaters of ipod made it |woopy|

Posted at 12:41 am on Jun 4th, 2005 by Matthew

i got a IPS 1gb, i really feel database builder was the indicated program for me, but i dont know why it isnt working with my ips.
juan_manuel_s@yahoo.com

Posted at 3:45 pm on Jun 4th, 2005 by juan

i think i downloaded a corrupt program (database builder) and i wasnt working.
i tried downloading it from a diferent source and now it functions perfect.
thanks to those trying to help

Posted at 12:17 am on Jun 5th, 2005 by juan

mlipod also supports the Shuffle, as does the foo_pod plugin for the foobar 2000 player. Using foo_pod will also give you ReplayGain volume leveling on the iPod or iPod shuffle.

Both of these program’s support for the Shuffle were developed independantly from Martin Fielder’s code, BTW. I know, because I figured out most of the Shuffle formats myself to get it done. :)

Info about the Shuffle’s file formats can be found at http://www.ipodlinux.org/ITunesDB

Posted at 2:09 am on Jun 7th, 2005 by Otto

@belinda: Design-aware people and audiophiles are idiots, then? ;)

btw. the latest versions of the database builder shuffle your songs pretty well even if you put them on the shuffle in iTunes.

Posted at 4:04 am on Jun 7th, 2005 by Andre

Hi !
I found > on a p2p network.
It’s a very small but GREAT tool for Windows users.
As I couldn’t find it anywhere else on the web,
I made this : http://agoraphobeus.free.fr/iShuffle/index.html

Posted at 9:43 am on Nov 9th, 2005 by Agoraphobeus

You can try this, written in java, so can run anywhere

http://jshuffle.sf.net/

Posted at 9:59 pm on Nov 9th, 2005 by Khad

What I like about it is that it is writen in python, so it will run any where, you can organize the music HOWEVER you like, as opposed to having it automaticly stuck in folders like /iPod_Control/Music/F00/QXMI.mp3
( I got a shuffle for cristmas :-D )

Posted at 4:39 pm on Dec 30th, 2005 by aztennenbaum

Coupled with a windows python installer saved on your ipod, there is nowhere you can not use it

Posted at 4:42 pm on Dec 30th, 2005 by aztennenbaum

I suggest (for Win users) the iShuffle program posted and commented here by agoraphobeus… because: I MADE THe program !!! :)
These application it’s very simple to use… only run iShuffle from your iPod drive and your files located on the “Music” folder.. will be detected by your iPod Shuffle. That’s All!!
For more info, visit the website: http://agoraphobeus.free.fr/iShuffle/index.html (the website, was made by agoraphobeus) thanks again!!

Posted at 7:22 pm on Jan 3rd, 2006 by packard

What would i do without Perl! This ipodshuffle script is just what i needed to rebuild my ipod every morning :)
I’ll also try YamiPod it looks nice.

Posted at 5:34 pm on Apr 23rd, 2006 by Chuck

Now iShuffle has new Web Site!!
http://www.ishuffle.com.ar

Regards!!

Posted at 3:38 pm on Jun 17th, 2006 by Packard

That fix is brilliant! Now I can sync to the iPod (a present, not really my choice) from Windows Movie Player, and within a couple of extra clicks it’s all ready to go! Thanks so much, it was driving me crazy why it wouldn’t work!

Posted at 2:41 pm on Jul 26th, 2006 by Lofty_76

The best way I know to manage a Shuffle without iTunes is iShuffle.
Though, there are less minimalists choices on this page http://ipodmanagers.blogspot.com/

Posted at 5:21 am on May 29th, 2007 by Fx

Why doesn’t everyone just get WINAMP 5.xx series, and use the media library???

What is all the fuss about??
This has been around for a few years already.

Open winamp->check box to view the “media library”->”portables”

now, what is all the fuss about again?

Posted at 11:17 am on Aug 28th, 2007 by MAF_240

What the? Just google SharePod. It let’s you use your ipod on someone else’s computer without screwing it up for life. You just have to follow the instructions, and you can use your ipod on your friends computer. Works with windows only, i think.
DOWNLOAD NOW!

Posted at 5:17 am on Sep 28th, 2008 by Boby

You rock dude. I really needed this tool.

Posted at 8:21 pm on Nov 8th, 2008 by Franklin

WOW Thank you for telling me about winamp! it really works…..

CHEERS

Posted at 3:04 pm on Dec 2nd, 2008 by Michael

finally a hack to kick itunes out of its place..u shouldn’t need itunes to copy/remove crap out of an ipod.

Posted at 3:40 pm on Jan 18th, 2009 by crackdown

aaah, is there an update to this?

Posted at 2:08 pm on Mar 1st, 2009 by Dagan

Great, Works awsome, Thanks

Posted at 10:07 am on May 13th, 2009 by Davman

Today, there is a lot of solution to manage iPod without iTunes.

For me the best one (and free of course) it’s CopyTrans Manager.

Because it’s light and fast. That’s why I love it.

http://www.copytrans.net/copytransmanager.php

Posted at 5:39 am on Jun 3rd, 2009 by May

Good Morning just figured i would let you know that i had a issue with your blog coming up frozen also. Must be chimpanzees in the page.

Posted at 6:50 pm on Oct 30th, 2009 by bryan y. davis

all u gotta do is find an mp3 type song and save it in a folder. (it can be any folder) Then open the folder. go to the song u downloaded, and open it in iTunes. once it opens in iTunes, the song should start playing.(the song is found in ur music library on iTunes) drag the song to ur iPod and there you go. it acts like its already been paid for.

Posted at 7:30 am on Nov 15th, 2009 by Alec Smith

iPod Shuffle without iTunes

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