DRoidX and DOubleTwist - again

[bill hansen]

iTunes v 10 - DoubleTwist 3.0.0 -

OS is Win 7

DroidX

From the descriptions, I never expected synching music and podcasts from iTunes to the Droid to be as difficult and time consuming as it apparently is.

When I first downloaded DT (and after considerable poking around, more or less blindly) I was able to get an initial couple of music CDs and a few podcasts onto the Droid. After adding two more CDs and four individual podcasts purchased from the iTunes store, I can't get anything to synch, and it looks like four podcasts I purchased from the iTunes store have vanished from both iTunes and DT. [The Droid has over 13 GB of available memory, so that's not the problem.]

Procedure followed: Open DoubleTwist - connect Droid - and then I'm stuck. My Droid is apparently recognized by DT as "billhansen2008", my gmail address. But there is no synch button in the lower right hand corner of DT - drag and drop doesn't work - and the video "tutorials" I've found are nothing more than ads for DT, stating that it can do this, do that, etc, but without any instructions on how to synch. Most of the video tutorials don't even look like the options available in my copy of DT.

This has been a frustrating mess. Can anyone direct me toward any solution at all - or should I just accept the fact that the Droid won't always accept things from iTunes?

Last question -if DT isn't going to work, is there any other way to get music or podcasts into the Droid?

Bill Hansen

 

[hookbill]

Bill, if your music/videos are DRM protected then they are not going to move over. So either they are DRM protected OR it could be that the music for iTunes is located in different folders.

But if you can't drag and drop them, probably it's because they are protected.

 

[bill hansen]

Thanks for you reply. There are just so many mysteries to the DoubleTwist app. Among them are:

If the reason I can't drag and drop files is that they're protected, why would the iTunes store sell me music and podcasts which are protected?

Why was I able to move two CDs worth of music from my own CDs into iTunes if those CDs were protected? Why was I able to synch them into the Droid on one occasion, but I can't do that now?

I had four podcasts which I purchased from the iTunes store. They went into iTunes automatically, as I purchased them. They appeared in iTunes stuck in among the many dozens of music files I had spreviously moved to iTunes. Those podcasts disappeared from iTunes andfrom my Windows/Users/Bill/My Music/iTunes/Podcasts folder, immediately after my first attempt to synch them into the Droid.

I sure hope someone can help me with this, or at least direct me to a source of help.

Anyone???

Bill

Another mystery - Why does DT spend hours on the message "removing playlist Jazz and Pop" but refuse to go any further than that? It's been three hours now - it seems that no program would be that slow. I'll let DT run for another 3 hours, but then I think I have to quit it again.

 

[racingelting]

Edited by moderator. DRM conversion devices are not allowed to be discussed in Droid Forus. Use a program like Media Monkey or Winamp and just drag and drop to your sd card. Google it there is alot of info out there. When I first started converting it took a awhile but now I can make as many copies as I want and play it on ANY device. I just buy my music on CD or from Amazon.

Jamie

 

[bill hansen]

Jamie and others -

Thanks for trying to help. I'm pretty sure you didn't have time to read my posts very carefully. First - iTunes wouldn't sell me music or podcasts which were protected. Second - my own CDs transferred to iTunes and then to the Droid on one occasion (yes, it took many hours of frustration and more hours of transfer time, but it finally succeded). So DRM is not the problem.

I've done an uninstall/reinstall on DT, then tried to synch once again. DT gets stuck "updating podcasts" or some such thing. I let it run overnight last night, about 6 hours, and this morning it hadn't done anything at all. No new music and no new podcasts had been transferred.

I'm going to see if I can get Winamp to work. Doubletwist, on my systems, is just too time consuming, and clearly there's some sort of bug which keeps it from working. I have other things to do, aside from monkeying around with a buggy app which has no tech support. (If I sound angry, it's because I am angry - not at you folks, but at myself for wasting so much time, and at DT, for not having any in-house help at all.)

Thanks again for your attempts to help.

Bill

 

[hookbill]

Just so you understand, iTunes doesn't do DRM anymore, but if you bought music from them a few years ago they did. DRM is transferrable to CD:s but only a limited amount of times, after 3 (or 5, it's been a while) transfers it will no longer allow you to burn a CD.

So if your music is over 3 years old there is a good possibility that they are DRM protected and that would prevent you from dragging and dropping.

As far as being upset with Double Twist, it's free so you really shouldn't be upset with them at all.

If you have any questions about whether or not a song is protected, you can tell by looking at the information on the songs file in iTunes by right clicking on the tack.

 

[bill hansen]

Hook -

Thanks - That's good info to have. In the future I'll try to locate that info in iTunes before buying.

On the basis of your last post, I'll give DT another try. I'm in the process of doing another uninstall/reinstall of both iTunes and DT, restart computer, and I'll start all over again. (Will uninstall/reinstall DT on Droid also).

Just a difference of opinion here - I have to disagree that I have no business being annoyed that a free app takes a ton of time and still doesn't work. I think it's irresponsible to offer software which may or may not work - the equivalent, in my mind, of sending out malware.

I'd better note again that I'm not angry at you - I'm grateful for your attempts to help. But I'm mad at myself for wasting all this time, and I'm disgusted with the people who put out DT.

(Final note - after uninstall/reinstall of iTunes and DT on computer and Droid, then restart of computer, still no synch. Enough already.)

Bill

 

[Liderc]

This doesn't offer much help, but Doubletwist itself works just fine. I was going to Miami just last week, wanted to put about 200 of my itunes songs onto my droid along with 10 podcasts. I downloaded doubletwist on my computer and droid and it was literally 2 steps and I now had everything I wanted on my droid working perfectly.

I'm not directly blaming user error, but Doubletwist itself works completely fine.

 

[racingelting]

Hook Great Info I wasn't aware of that. Bill I haven't used but I have heard of people using Isyncr or something of the sort. Sorry I didn't read you post more clearly.

Jamie

 

[bill hansen]

After my last failure yesterday, I just went to using Windows Explorer with the Droid wired in to the computer. It was simple and quick to drag and drop things (music CDs, downloaded music files, pdocasts) from iTunes to the Droid. The only (very small) disadvantage I can see is that the drag-and-drop approach doesn't always catch the "album art".

I know I'm biased, but I don't think my problem is user error. The workflow for using DT seems very straightforward - it's just that in my case, it doesn't work. The DT program will start to synch, it will get stuck very shortly thereafter, and nothing gets transferred.

I suspect it's something odd about the individual computer and or the individual Droid I'm using. Example - every single time I connect the Droid by USB, it brings up a noisy ad for V Cast Media Manager. I have to close that ad in order to do anything else. I checked to be sure that V Cast isn't on my computer, and it is not. That can't be normal.

Once my frustration and irritation dies down a little, and when I have a half day or more to kill, I'll try one of the synching programs again - maybe Winamp?

For now, thanks again to everyone. Over and out. - Bill

 

[CBLJazz]

32 gb micro sd question

My phone won't play the music files from my brand new, sand disc micro sd card.
It see the disc, i can move apps to the drive, but can not use my ringtones or use muic.

i can play the files directly from a file manager or from my computer when mounted though

ugh.

please help.

 

[Hallsie11]

I gave up also

My first experience with double twist was also pretty long. It turns out that it wont work on my windows xp laptop at all. I had already purchased Isyncr which does work but has limitations that doubletwist seemed to be able to beat. I also seemed to have lost podcasts inbetween Itunes and the phone. I don't know what it is but yes I didn't think mine was user error either. I went over and over forums and faqs to make sure I was doing it right and no matter what I did either one thing or another didn't work. And of course let me say it wasn't an entirely bad experience but it is definitely not as seamless as it could have been for me.