I arranged a support call with Apple about my iPod woes. I filled in the form online, then I got a call from Texas straightaway, and I was connected with an agent. The options only let you choose Mac or Windows, so I had to explain the fact I’m on Linux in the little comment box.
I was put on hold for a bit while the agent got an expert over to help. The only hold music I could make out was Stevie Wonder’s Higher Ground. I couldn’t hear the rest of the music, because of a horrific rending, whooshing sound, which I though was just the line, but when the agent came back, I could hear them fine.
In the end, the expert said he couldn’t support Linux software, so all he could do was suggest I reset the device using Menu+Center button. Ideally I should also Restore it as well, but to do that I need a Windows machine with iTunes and a net connection. I can’t do it at work, and Cassie’s MacBook only lets me format it as OSX.
I did ask whether the problem of showing “No Music” while at the same time having only 50GB free (consistent with the amount of music I transferred) was something that has showed up before. He wasn’t able to help, saying that the standard method of Reset and Restore were the only things he could suggest.
I guess I’ll ask around at work to see who could restore it for me. There must still be some Windows users in SF somewhere.
time passes…
I gave my iPod to a colleague, who said they could restore it for me on their Windows machine at home. Great!
At 23:30 that night I got a call from said colleague, asking me to talk them through the process. I did so, eyes closed, from memory, and at the end of a tense process, she said it was all done. She dropped it off at my desk the next day (in a Ziploc bag for some reason), and I tried to sync it with Songbird that evening.
It seemed to work. First I just sync’d a couple of playlists, rather than the whole thing. Then when I was confident it would work, I sync’d the whole thing. I think a result of that decision was that I have multiple copies of some songs on the iPod, depending on how many playlists they were in. Not a huge problem, but one to be solved at some point. For now, I just like having a working iPod in my pocket.