Are there any benefits switching my Touch to Mac format? Or should I just leave it PC? I'd like to be able to add files to the Touch using the Finder, but I'm not sure if that's possible yet.
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iPod touch Switched from PC to Mac. Should I switch my Touch to Mac too?
- Thread starter hierobryan
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There's no reason to switch it unless you want the Touch to be formatted to HFS+. The Windows format iPod Touch is formatted to FAT32. This file system can be read and written to by OS X.
This also makes it compatible with other Windows machines for transferring files but limits your individual file size to less then 4 GB.
This also makes it compatible with other Windows machines for transferring files but limits your individual file size to less then 4 GB.
what are you guys talking about?
it is a mac product and it is set up thru a mac product.
my touch works on a mac and on a pc.
it is a mac product and it is set up thru a mac product.
my touch works on a mac and on a pc.
It's not a "Mac" product if its also intended to work on a PC. But a Mac can read Windows formats (FAT32) but Windows cant read a Mac format. So if your iPod touch is formattedvia FAT32, then you can use both.
Not sure which one your talking about, but I'll give you both.
And for Mac's being able to run FAT32:
PC's can read Mac format, but you have to find programs to enable it to do so, since it cant do it by default (or on its own).
If you want more info, Google is your friend.
Only thing is to note is that if you are on your Mac when using (syncing) the Touch and you click "check for updates" in iTunes, it won't find any if it formatted for Windows. This is the main reason I switched all my iPods from Windows to Mac. I use my MBP 99.9999% of the time, and it is just easier to update that way.
What else would it be formatted if PC's can read it? if I can google, so can you. Stop being so damn lazy.
Hmm, from what I understand, iPod Touch's and iPhone's are different from the previous iPods in that they are NOT readable by either a mac or a pc (except through itunes and special programs such as iPhoneList or iBrickr), because they use their own proprietary format (which may be HFC). That's why there's no disk mode, and there is no reason/way to switch the Touch.
The computer is still reading the ipod! How else would it know what's on the ipod? Yes, it has no disk mode, that doesn't mean anything. If you plug your ipod into your computer and click on the music file you can see the songs and listen to them (if the music is manually managed) thus the iPod is being read.
and it's also all read/writable through cyberduck so the computer CAN read and write to it.
Afaik
Isn't the Touch and iPhone running a mobile version of OS X? So in essence, iTunes in Windows must give a Windows computer the ability to sync an HFS volume. Very interesting question, I was actually thinking about this the other day.
Isn't the Touch and iPhone running a mobile version of OS X? So in essence, iTunes in Windows must give a Windows computer the ability to sync an HFS volume. Very interesting question, I was actually thinking about this the other day.
This thread got really confusing.
Firstly, I didn't realize there was a "mac" or "pc" setting for the iPod touch. Nothing in my settings panel says that it's configured for one of the other. And besides, I can view my touch files from a pc running iTunes even though I use a Mac.
If there is some crazy mac or pc setting, I'd really appreciate someone pointing this out to me. Not because I need to change it, but it seems unlikely that I would have missed such a setting when I was first setting it up. Though being an iPod novice, I may very well have skipped this altogether.
Secondly, I have doubts that even if there was a mac or pc setting, that any part of it would change the way that the filesystem worked. I thought that flash memory had it's own individual method for writing, rewriting data to clusters to keep the thing balanced and preserve memory life. And there was just some kind of device layer that would interpret the data in a FAT format (or some other format) that a PC or Mac or any OS could read.
Surprisingly enough, after doing a decent amount of googling I couldn't find an answer to convince myself one way or the other. I'm either just completely behind the times (possible), inept at preforming google searches (also possible), or this is a non-issue (I'm leaning towards this one). I would love it if someone could give some evidence to clear up this mystery.
Firstly, I didn't realize there was a "mac" or "pc" setting for the iPod touch. Nothing in my settings panel says that it's configured for one of the other. And besides, I can view my touch files from a pc running iTunes even though I use a Mac.
If there is some crazy mac or pc setting, I'd really appreciate someone pointing this out to me. Not because I need to change it, but it seems unlikely that I would have missed such a setting when I was first setting it up. Though being an iPod novice, I may very well have skipped this altogether.
Secondly, I have doubts that even if there was a mac or pc setting, that any part of it would change the way that the filesystem worked. I thought that flash memory had it's own individual method for writing, rewriting data to clusters to keep the thing balanced and preserve memory life. And there was just some kind of device layer that would interpret the data in a FAT format (or some other format) that a PC or Mac or any OS could read.
Surprisingly enough, after doing a decent amount of googling I couldn't find an answer to convince myself one way or the other. I'm either just completely behind the times (possible), inept at preforming google searches (also possible), or this is a non-issue (I'm leaning towards this one). I would love it if someone could give some evidence to clear up this mystery.
Wikipedia (I know it's not that reliable) said this: If the iPod is formatted on a Mac OS X computer it uses the HFS+ file system format, which allows it to serve as a boot disk for a Mac computer.[10] If it is formatted on Windows, the FAT32 format is used. With the advent of the Windows-compatible iPod, iPod's default file system switched from HFS+ to FAT32, although it can be reformatted to either filesystem (excluding the iPod shuffle which is strictly FAT32). Generally, if a new iPod (excluding the iPod shuffle) is initially plugged into a computer running Windows, it will be formatted with FAT32, and if initially plugged into a Mac running Mac OS X it will be formatted with HFS+.
you got it wrong
This article is talking about the iPod, as in the previous Gen iPods, not iPod touch or iPhone. Neither windows nor mac 'formats' the device like the old ones, therefore there is no issue about whether you have it setup for PC or Mac.
This article is talking about the iPod, as in the previous Gen iPods, not iPod touch or iPhone. Neither windows nor mac 'formats' the device like the old ones, therefore there is no issue about whether you have it setup for PC or Mac.
I think you have it wrong. If what you were saying is correct then wouldn't the article say something about the iPod touch and iPhone? Instead it only excludes the iPod Shuffle.
and if there were a file system specific to the touch that neither the PC nor Mac could read except through iTunes then why does Cyberduck work through SSH?
Cyberduck, Filezilla, and the other SSH apps treat the iPod Touch as an FTP server, and a program inside the Touch itself (either OpenSSH or DropBear, which is installed during the jailbreak) reads and writes the files (and, I assume, sends them via the FTP protocol). But the PC or Mac cannot directly write onto the iPod Touch (as you would with a flash drive).
that was what i thought.
wikipedia is not a reliable source for facts.
if anyone has what apple says i would be interested.
i think the first posters on this did not have the facts straight and that is why i questioned the source.
To the original posters question. The Touch runs a modified version of Apple's Mac OS X desktop operating system. It is all based on a Unix kernel. This was done years ago with speed and hardware advances in mind. It was a well thought out process.
