How do I get long audio files onto my iPod?

March 13, 2007 6:47 AM

I have series of lectures that I'd like to listen to on my ipod. Each lecture is about 60-65 minutes long, and there are about 35 of them. But for some strange reason, I can't get them to transfer to my ipod...

I have them all loaded up on a playlist on iTunes and I can listen to them on my computer (MacBookPro) just fine. It seems that iTunes will not let me sync these lectures (or the playlist) to my ipod (30 gig, 5th gen). I'm sure there's enough space (the files are 350mb total, and I have 4gb free), and I've even tried it by clicking "manually update my songs", and even if I drag the lectures one by one from my library to my ipod, the lectures will not transfer.

(I have not experienced any other problems with transferring any other songs to or from my ipod.) Any ideas?

posted by ruwan to computers & internet (11 comments total)

Where did you get these lectures?
Might there be some sort of tag restricting them to computer-use only? I.E. you are not allowed to transfer them to any portable player?
posted by Thorzdad at 6:56 AM on March 13, 2007

Are you sure they're MP3/AAC? They may be WAV, FLAC, or something else. (But I'm sure you'd probably know it.)
posted by unixrat at 6:57 AM on March 13, 2007

Thanks for responding! These lectures are MP3 format (at least that's what it says when I get info). From the sound of it, these lectures sound like someone taped them with a personal recorder (they sure don't sound official), so I doubt there's any kind of restriction. (But how do I check and remove them in case I'm wrong about that issue?)
posted by ruwan at 7:03 AM on March 13, 2007

Are they correctly tagged? Maybe there's no ID3 info and you just can't select them on the 'Pod even if they're technically present?
posted by Skyanth at 7:17 AM on March 13, 2007

The ipod will load files with no ID3 format, it'll just use the file name for selection/display.

In my experience iTunes is sometimes a little less than forthcoming about why it won't transfer things. For example, my darling girlfriend's pod wasn't copying some files that she'd purchased via iTunes because they were not authorized (must have been prior to a computer replacement and she hadn't played them since) but it never prompts to auth on TRANSFER to the iPod, only on trying to play via iTunes.

So - are you sure they play IN ITUNES? It seems a basic question but you don't explicitly say here and I personally don't use iTunes for computer-based playback, only syncing my pod, so it doesn't seem entirely implausible.
posted by phearlez at 7:36 AM on March 13, 2007

You could try burning them to an audio CD, and then re-importing them. That should definitely leave them in an iTunes/iPod friendly format.
posted by veedubya at 7:45 AM on March 13, 2007

Turning MP3 audiobooks into iPod audiobooks
posted by caddis at 8:20 AM on March 13, 2007

Are these "The Teaching Company" lectures? If so, did you happen to download them from a torrent site? If so, then maybe there is something buried in them by whoever uploaded them that is causing problems?
posted by dios at 8:49 AM on March 13, 2007

Do the filenames use any non alphanumeric characters? I don't know about the iPod, but my Neuros player tends to barf on "#", "!", and some other characters in filenames.
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 9:35 AM on March 13, 2007

To answer some questions:
- no these are not Teaching Company lectures. I think they were recorded by a student in a lecture hall, and they were just sent to be through the grapevine because a friend thought I'd be interested.
- They play fine in iTunes (I've even made them into a playlist, which I'm similarly unable to send to my ipod).
- They only use alphanumeric characters in their naming. To be safe, I went ahead and renamed them all, still no luck. :(
posted by ruwan at 10:50 AM on March 13, 2007

That's odd and annoying. Apple lists compatibility here and file/codec specifics here.

You might try getting a copy of SOX and just doing an mp3 to mp3 conversion on a file and see if that helps. I play files that long all the time (I tape stuff with a Radioshark) without an issue so I am not inclined to think that's the problem. More likely it's a glitch in the file that a recode will resolve.
posted by phearlez at 12:58 PM on March 13, 2007