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General discussion

Solve the argument of Ipod Defragging once and for all.....

May 24, 2009 9:09PM PDT

Hi all

I have heard many solutions to solving the issue of the 5.5G ipod freezing or stuttering when skipping through songs, my ipod has now sadly developed the same problem and its annoys the hell out of me when it lags. I have heard from apple that they do not recommend to defrag the ipod (it is of course in hard disk mode), however i have heard that defragging has solved the issue that I am facing or at least "make the ipod faster". I would like to know if there is any fact to what apple say or what other people say. I am hoping that someone can point me in the right direction and either help me solve the issue with my ipod or at least stop me from "physically" destroying it.......

Discussion is locked

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No arguments from me.
May 25, 2009 1:11AM PDT

As you can imagine the hard disk based players do use mechanical devices. Defragmenting does add wear to that device and could push an unit that would have lasted a year or 2 down to a few weeks.

Why should you care what others say? Do what you want.

I do want to share that I found some stuttering to vanish by pushing the sound file over to Apple's encoding rather than variable rate MP3.
Bob

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Thanks
May 25, 2009 3:10AM PDT

I guess its not that I care what everyone else says, I just what to know the possible conseqences of my actions ie if i defrag the ipod, against apples wishes, will it actually be "physically" or in any other way be ruined? i do care for my ipod's well being afterall. Thanks for the tip Bob, about the pushing the sound file over to apples encoding rather than MP3, though I have a rather big music collection (approx 20.83GB and counting, accroding to iTunes) so that could take a while....but thanks anyway....

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Here...
May 25, 2009 5:25AM PDT

Just here that issue occured on just one set of files. It was an oddity so I looked and found VBR MP3s and tossed them over. That was that.

As to your question, I think you want to know what the future holds. I can't tell. It should be fine but imagine those that suffer a failure. They might tell me I broke their pod.
Bob

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hmmm indeed
May 25, 2009 6:17AM PDT

I suppose your right bob. It seems that I will have to find out for myself, afterall. The majority of my music collection is in MP3, but because it is so big to begin with, this could take all eternity what with the conversions and checking which ones are VBR etc. I did speak to an apple helper. The blok had a good look at it and explained to me that this was a gradual problem with the ipod as it hard drive based etc. This is where i got the idea of defragging it. I won't bother risk ruining my ipod, instead i have restored it and deleted all the album work. I can't see what, if any, difference it will make but hopefully that might be something.....

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Problem Solved!!!
May 25, 2009 6:27AM PDT

I appreciate your help Bob, I might still need it, but my ipod has recovered! The deleting of album artwork and restoration to factory setting has worked wonders! Flicks through all 3135 songs with ease. Losing the Album Artwork is merly a small price to pay for a fully functional and satisfactory ipod....thanks once again for your input bob and i will sure to take a look at those VBR files....

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That's a fine clue. THANK YOU.
May 25, 2009 9:00AM PDT
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AAC
May 26, 2009 1:53AM PDT

You were talking about AAC weren't you Bob when descibing about Apple's "encoding" format? I wanted to know if u used their default settings....

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I leaned my lesson.
May 26, 2009 10:30AM PDT

Don't tinker with the settings too much.

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Don't want to risk the good library.....
May 26, 2009 4:28PM PDT

Thanks for tip Bob but I am just sticking to the apple settings of high quality (128kps), i am now debating with myself whether i should delete the songs that are VBR and in mp3 and keep the ones in AAC. Aside from that, I hope your VBR conversion tip does pay off. This morning I noticed the ipod was freezing/stuttering on some tracks but would comfortably fling through others so i looked up your VBR tip and started converting to aac....hopefully this should make the problem go away once and for all......

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I have a brand new iPod Classic and it skips from the start.
May 29, 2009 1:39PM PDT

It would skip a song every 7-15 mins. Even with brand new aac files bought from iTunes as well as 128kb mp3 files. Usually never the same file so it's not a problem with the file. I would go back and immediately play the file that skipped again and it would play back fine without skipping. The same songs played fine on my other non-Apple mp3 player. If you go to Apple's support site, you'll see a lot of other people that have the same problem. I finally decided to defrag the iPod and now I have no problems with it skipping songs. Your battery will last longer since you don't have to keep on going back to play your song that was skipped.

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hmmm not quite the same problem I had...
May 29, 2009 8:00PM PDT

hmmmm I didn't have that issue with mine, I think mine was more of the interface stuttering that the actual playback. But none the less thanks for noting your experience with the ipod defrag. I am still far too iffy on the whole subject. I mean apple say not to do it, at risk of ruining your ipod, so it therefore make sense to heed their warnings seeing that they make the product. I think i will talk to a apple genius about this.

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I once defraged my ipod.
Jun 5, 2009 1:34PM PDT

I defraged my old 40gb when it wasn't working right (but that was the old one the one that integrated the wheel and buttons) and it worked fine, but that was before I heard it could harm my ipod. Now I'm a little afraid to do it with my 120gb so I just restore it which really
makes me angry because then I have to refill it then it will probable mess up 4 months later which will repeat the cycle until it or I die.

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Say what???
Jun 4, 2009 12:19AM PDT

Defragging a hard drive causes physical DAMAGE to a hard drive?

That's a new one. Who at Apple has the nerve to make that insipid and inane claim? Are those tiny HDs from Toshiba (or whomever Apple sourced them from) that delicately weak and anemic that a simple defrag will render them useless? And we're supposed to accept this bald statement? What kind of crap is Apple putting into these iPods, anyways?

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What the "Apple Genius" said......
Jun 15, 2009 8:19PM PDT

Talked to one of the helpers at the store and apparantly restoring the ipod is pretty much like defragging it....apparantly.....i believe that apple as a whole company made that "insipid and inane" comment.....

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Well that is kinda right...
Jun 23, 2009 7:13AM PDT

If you wipe you drive clean you will not have to worry about defraging because there is nothing left that could be fragmented.
Also from what I know there is a big difference between restoring
and defraging. Restoring does a clean sweep over your ipod's hd while
defraging the hd would make it move files. (Something that I'm pretty sure is not something it does normally. Please correct me if I'm wrong.)
Which would possible put a lot of strain on the drive and possibly increase the heat it generates which could damage the drive.

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What apple said
Jun 23, 2009 4:07PM PDT

That is pretty much what he said....so he therefore recommended that we not defrag our ipods....i suspect that having only 6GB free from 27...is far too much of a strain on my ipod....looks like i shall restore it and then if that don't work than perhaps limits the songs on it....this really hacks me off!....

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Trying it now
Mar 5, 2012 3:38AM PST

Defragging my 120 as we speak....I'll give results after completion...one thing is for sure...it's really slow process Happy

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It's done
Mar 5, 2012 4:35AM PST

I formatted using a free program called Auslogics Disk Defragmenter and it worked perfectly! Hope this helps Happy Cheers!