Apple's iPod problematic install on Windows

Apple is known for having the most userfriendly experience in computing. I've always been a PC fan, even in the old 8086 and 80286 days before Windows even existed - DOS was my friend.

My first experience with Apple was a Macintosh IISE I believe which my college roommate had. I could never get used to the one-click mouse. I also had to take a computer science class designing chip circuits using Macs. The interface was pretty, but it didn't have color. All and all, and to be perfectly honest, I wasn't that impressed with Macs.

Then came the Apple iPod - the coolest MP3 player on the planet!! I wanted to replace my Creative Labs Nomad II (64 measly megabytes - approx. ~12 songs) for an Apple iPod. So for at least 3 Christmas's I have desired an iPod. But alas, it was not to be.

Then this past weekend my wife bought me a brand new 15 GB ipod as an anniversary gift. I installed all the software, set up itunes, etc., and then attempted to transfer my music library to the ipod.

I expected the "Apple experience" - you know, so simple and idiot could do it, right? Was I wrong! The problem started when the iPod prompted me to name the iPod. I called it's "Tom Keating's iPod" or something to that effect. I then launched iTunes, selected some songs to download, and then I got this error:

"The iPod cannot be updated. The required folder cannot be found."

huh? what?

So then I download the latest software from Apple's website and even reset the iPod back to factory defaults. Once again, I try to download my songs - same error. Finally, on a mere hunch, I decide to leave the default iPod name (IPOD all caps) and not change it to "Tom Keating's iPod".

Sure enough, after leaving it as "IPOD" everything was fine. So nice error message Apple! How bout something more intuitive? Even searching Apple's site revealed nothing about this error. I believe there is either a character limit or it didn't like the apostrophe. Who knows? I was too busy playing with the working iPod to figure out the exact cause.

After a slow start getting the iPod installed and working, I can finally say I love an Apple product. It only took them 15+ years for me to feel that way.

So does this finally make me part of the elite Mac fan club? Nah... I still love and am married to Windows - and polygamy is not permitted. Though I do have an occasional "affair" with Linux from time-to-time. : )

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7 Comments

Well, ipod works perfect on a mac.. it's more a windows problem. i'm sure.
i worked 10 years with pc's... so don't tell me about it.
Don't blame apple for windows crappy operating system.

I have been dealing with this very same issue all weekend. I don't have a new iPod, but I "upgraded" to iTunes 7.0 and then started getting the same message as you did. Funny thing is (it's not really funny), my iPod name used to work (it's very similar to yours, and with the apostrophe) under version 6.0 and earlier.

By the way, I, too, reset my iPod, which didn't work. Then I went back to version 6.0 and started getting other error messages. So, I thought I was screwed. But there is hope!

I certainly hope that renaming my iPod "IPOD" works as it did for you. I will let you know.

Thanks for the blog entry!

I am having the same problem and I tried changing it to "IPOD", but that didn't work either...WTF!!! I never should have updated to 7.0...it's been trouble ever since! Any suggestions?

I ran into a similiar issue. This is the fix that worked for me:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=302398

Download the (Windows) TweakUI utility (the URL above will help you grab it), follow Apple's instructions, and you should be good to go. I'd recommend stopping and restarting iTunes after you follow the procedure.

Oddly enough, XP's 'My Music' folder *seemed* to be located in its default location, but still must have been off in XP's registry somehow. Once I reset it using TweakUI, no more pesky error messages.

Worked like a charm. smile

And I renamed my iPod to whatever the heck I wanted. wink

I've used my iPod for almost 2 years on a Windows machine. And, today is the first day I recieved this HORRIBLE HORRIBLE error message.

How do I change the name of my iPod?

Thanks,
Dan
dan@minisitesecretsrevealed.com

Yesterday i got a new 160gb ipod classic, and it won't sync on my laptop, but it works perfectly with my mom's computer. the problem is, all of my music and videos are on my laptop, i have about 300 songs on the other computer. i have restored it several times, restarted my computer, downloaded the latest version of itunes and the ipod software, and virtually everything else. i just restored it again and named it "IPOD" and i got the same message... "The iPod 'IPOD' cannot be synced. The required folder cannot be found" i have been wanting an ipod for years, and i finally got my first one and it doesnt work?!

Ive gotten this message too, sadly. This has never happened with my last ipod, but it randomly started occuring barely a week after i finally upgraded. Personally, I think most of the new ipods are glitchy, but that may just be me. None of the above solutions worked for me! This is really strange man. Anybody got any more answers?

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