Using The Apple iPod Shuffle Without iTunes

Posted September 23, 2008 at 9:57 AM

I don't like iTunes. Never have. I use it only when I have to update my iPhone or put some music on my iPod, but I try to use it as little as possible. None of the updates to it ever seem to make it more usable; it's a clunky, slow piece of software with an unresponsive interface.

That aside, I wanted to find a way to use my iPod shuffle without iTunes; I wanted to be able to put music on it without having to use my iTunes library. As it turns out, there is a really simple, awesome application that allows you to do this - iShuffle:

Here's what you have to do:

1. Download the iShuffle ZIP.
2. Unzip it and copy the "iShuffle.exe" application to the root of your iPod Shuffle (%IPOD_ROOT%/iShuffle.ext).
3. Copy and paste your desired MP3s into the Music folder in the root of your iPod Shuffle (%IPOD_ROOT%/Music/).
4. Run iShuffle.exe (located in the root of your iPod Shuffle).

When you run the application, it looks at the music in your Music folder and creates the appropriate play lists on the iPod Shuffle. You will have to run this little app every time you update the music on the iPod Shuffle. I used my iPod Shuffle for the first time in a while last night and I had this up and running in seconds.

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Reader Comments

I still don't get what you hate about iTunes. It is awesome! I never experience it being clunky. Maybe it is because you are on Vista :-)

Have you checked out the genius feature? I didn't think it would be any use but it has reminded me about all the other music i have on my machine.

@Simon,

I am on XP now home slice :) ... and it's still slow. The scrolling feels very heavy and non-responsive. Plus, clicking in the application only take effect if the application is "focused" first, which often requires tripple clicking.

You may ask yourself, "but how could this be an issue?"... think about this subtle effect amortized over thousands of interactions - I starts to wear down your patience, and you might not even know why.

@Ben,

You know that you can set itunes to be the mini player and always be on top, right? its an awesome feature!

Welcome back to XP! it's the next best thing to being on a mac!

Ha ha ha :) Who knows. My mom keeps trying to get me to move to mac (so I can teacher her how to use it).

Sweet, then she will stop calling me :-)

I hate iTunes as well, so I use the latest WinAmp with my iPod Mini, and it works great! I can create my playlists, set up my iPod to "autofill" based on the criteria I set (I have it set up to not play any songs I've listened to in the last two weeks so I can get a nice mix of my playlist).

If you're looking for something a bit more full-featured, I'd suggest checking it out.

Seconded on iTunes. I hate it. I don't need an MP3 player that installs 3 system services and chews up more than 50MB of RAM just to talk to a glorified USB stick. Slowly.

I hadn't seen iShuffle. I used MediaMonkey for a time, but it breaks with each firmware update.

My favorite "feature" for the Shuffle? The fact that iTunes won't let you add music to it from a second computer. Load it up at home and when you get to work you have 2 options: erase and start over, or pretend it's not plugged in. I thought my iTunes was broken until I went into an Apple store and asked -- it's intentional. wtf? Seriously.

@Greg,

I used to use WinAmp with the iPod plugin, but after I moved to a new computer, I figured I'd give iTunes a try. Lately, however, I have been using Pandora.com so much that I hardly listen to my mp3 library. Of course, it begs the question - if it was easier to listen to my mp3s, would I do it more (probably).

@Rick,

Word up to that - I had to erase my Shuffle on the new computer. Lame. At least now I can use it independently of the computer.

iTunes blows.

Just FYI Ben, if you use WinAMP at all, then you can transfer files from your computer to your iPod with no extra plugins required.

WinAMP software has it built in. It's super simple. You just select a song (or songs), right click on them, and select "send to Ben's Mom's iPod".

Simon...thanks for the bday greetings by the way. That was very nice of you.

@Andy,

WinAMP was my player of choice for years. Maybe I'll just move back there. I love that fact that it's really a file-based player, rather than a library based player. Yes, it does have a library, but it feels much more lightweight than the iTunes library.

Of course, I think for AudioBooks and Video transfer, the iTunes just keeps things a bit more organized for the file transfer. I think when I used WinAMP to transfer Audio books, it went directly into the Music section, not the Audio books... but, it's been a while.

You can use the built-in plug-in for iPod support on WinAmp, but I actually use ml_ipod (http://mlipod.sourceforge.net/) that is a bit more full featured, and has functionality to support last.fm APIs, which I find entertaining, if not useful (they power a BlogCFC pod I created to display album covers for recently played tracks).

@Greg,

I guess it's been a while. I was using the ml_ipod plug-in, but I didn't even realize that there was a built-in plugin :)

I bypass the problem altogether...I use my MP3s without an iPod. ;)

@Jake,

mp3's work with out involving an ipod? wow, news to me :-)

What? No mention of Mediamonkey and its awesomeness?

http://www.mediamonkey.com/

@Todd,

Does MediaMonkey play nice with iPods?

I haven't had an issue yet. Not sure why Mediamonkey supposedly breaks with each firmware update as Rick O. mentions. I haven't seen that. When you sync ipod with mediamonkey, make sure you turn on "Ipod folders" - otherwise, iPod won't see the music.

I spent a long time seeking an alternative to iTunes/WMPlayer. Found Mediamonkey and I'm not going back.

@Todd,

Sounds cool. I'll have to check it out.

My program of choice is Floola (www.floola.com) - an awesome free iPod manager and music player (jus one .exe file).
You can put on your iPod and always have with you.
It supports all versions of iPod as far as i know, and lets you manage photos and videos as well!
Transfering files (individually, full albums, playlists or folders) to/from iPod is a simple drag-and-drop.
It has an updater built-in and will automatically check for new versions.
Give it a try - you won't look back at anything else!

I am frustrated today because I have some AAC files that used to work on my old computer with WMP. But now, WMP wont play them, iTunes wont' play them, not even this MediaMonkey will play them! What happened to them?!?

@Azadi,

That looks pretty awesome too. I'll check it out.

The more than one computer limitation - has to do with copyright issues, I would think.

I never bought into the iPod thing. I use Coby sticks as an MP3. Low tech and not much status, but they work great. At $19 each, I can scatter them about the office, car and home and always have a nice variety of my selected tunes at hand.

Jillian

Funny story... I read this post on the plane (using Google Reader with Gears) on my way back from a conference where I was given an iPod Shuffle, my first ever piece of Apple hardware. I was wondering what I was gonna do with it because I REFUSE to install iTunes on my PC.

I ended up going with MediaMonkey and it seems pretty good so far. The iPod is a nice piece of hardware but I don't really see what all the fuss is about, my $30 Phillips MP3 player does everything this iPod does and more (radio, voice recording) and is only a bit bigger. Meh :)

@Kay,

I recently downloaded MediaMonkey as well based on some comment feedback I've gotten recently. I haven't used it for iPod updates yet, but it seems like a nice app.

I hear you re: the fuss over iPod. The one thing that I liked about it was that it was basically a huge hard drive that that I could port files from home to office and back. But, since I haven't done that much lately, I haven't had much extra use for it.

heeey
people who have "iShuffle" say its really good they don't have to use iTune thats a good thing
but i don't seem to understand I downloaded this ishuffle my self i have even followd the instructions but for some reason when i start iShuffle it say's Music folder was not found, but there is a music folder there!
please help me =(

the problem can be banged. Xilisoft iPod rip is a perfect iPod copy, iPod ripping software to rip and copy photos, music, songs, video, movie, podcast and TV program from iPod to PC, iPod to iTunes. The iPod copy software supports iPod to iTunes transfer. http://www.ipodwithoutitunes.com

@Sazzy,

You have to make sure the iShuffle.exe is actually inside the iPod shuffle. I fist tried to run it from my Program Files or something and it told me the music folder didn't exist. I didn't realize that it actually had to be run *from* the iPod Shuffle.

I want an iPod touch but I'm annoyed that I have to use iTunes to send my mp3's to it. I don't want to use iTunes, I have a Creative USB mp3 player now and it's cool in that I can copy whatever to it easily (but isn't basically a PDA like the touch). I have my music organized like I want it and I don't want iTunes messing around with it.

I also want to develop applications for it but you can't use the SDK unless you have a Mac which I don't have the cash to buy. ;P

I recently won an iPod Shuffle at work. I didn't want iTunes either so I found iShuffle. It most works, but for some reason it doesn't play all the files in the Music folder - I have about 140 tracks in that folder. I get to hear about 40-50 of those.

Even though some of the files are from the same disc, it will not play all the songs. I even run iShuffle.eve every time, sometimes twice.

Anyone have any idea why?

Thanks, bg

@BG,

Sorry to hear that. I only have like 30 songs, so I have not run into that issue yet.

i used this ishuffle . but when i run it the message appears thay the music folder was not found. what can i do now

@Mano,

Are you running this ON the iPod Shuffle?

Woww..i totally love this iShufflel,its not complicated like iTunes..I havent used my iPod since i had it coz i was kinda feel so lazy to download iTunes..but finally today i found this iShuffel..thanx so much for ya who hve made this iSuffle!

this is really a superb software..i don like itunes it very complicated..this software is really very easy to use..thanks a lot for providing this software..

Hi,

How do you install the ishuffle .exe inside the iPod root directory.

Please help!!!!!!!!!!

Gotcha..... thanks guys for this freeware... this really awesome!!!

thanks! I really never liked iTunes. My computer crashes every time I try to use it.

can u tell me steps how add ishuffle at root directorty

I use winrar 3.8 I just deleted all folders on my shuffle... the I copy "iShuffle-Without-iTunes.zip" to the root of the suffle... then I right click on the rar file and select "Extract Here".... it will expand and create the files/folders the way they need to be... then I open up the new Music folder and copy all the music I want there... then I go back to the root of the shuffle and run the iShuffle.exe it takes all but a few secs ( depending on the amount of music you put on it..)

I use the expand here way becouse there is a weird file link/info thing that messes up if you exp. on your HD then copy over...

hope this helps all that are having problems..

sorry about the bad grammer and spelling...

kc7wzl

Great article!

For the other iPod model (but iPod Shuffle too) you can use CopyTrans Manager!

It's a light and free iTunes alternative to manager the iPod without iTunes.

here you go: http://www.copytrans.net/copytransmanager.php

I've been used this manager since I got my iPod http://ipod-tool.com/ipod-software/joboshare-ipod-rip.html

It can fast copy, transfer and manage your music, videos, photos, podcasts and TV Shows between iPod/iPhone and computer even without iTunes.

So if you've had iTunes installed, it's compatible, too. It is extremely helpful when you need to retrieve music or other stuff from your iPod/iPhone back to your iTunes.

It's a life saver.

thanks men it really works...

say goodbye to itunes......

ahahaha =p

How do you organize your songs using ishuffle? I put my songs in the ipod, but once I unplug it, the ishuffle reorders the songs (alphabetically?) Any ideas how I can keep the songs in the order I want for playback?

@Scott,

I am not sure you can control the order other than alphabetically. To be honest, since it's a "shuffle", I never actually tried to order them.

what I do when I put my songs in my shuffle is I put all songs I want on my shuffle in a temp folder first then I go throug and change the name IE. myfave song - author.mp3 will be 00001 myfave song - author.mp3 .... my other fave song - auther.mp3 will be 00002 my other fave song - auther.mp3.... etc.. etc..

hope this helps... but yes it does store and list alfa numeric and then betic order... I use that system for years to keep track and order of song on a kareoke computer that had 6000+ songs... I had people just give me the # to the song and the quick search I had set up would find the song faast.. and name - auther part of the name would appear as well to help comfirm it was the song wanted... so a old system reused

good luck and enjoy a Itune free life

kc7wzl

@kc7wzl,

Yeah, it's a pain in the butt, but that's probably the best solution.

ishuffle!!!!!!superb man >>>>>>>>>>i just love how the way it works......thanx dude

Thanks for that Ben. This works great! I extracted the files from the zip file in a temporary folder on my pc. I only put the "ishuffle.exe" file in the root folder of the shuffle, and ran it off that same root folder. It created a file named "ishuffle.log" in the same folder. A co-worker of mine won the shuffle at work, but he's not too computer literate. With this executable stored ON the shuffle itself, he would not need to run any separate software ! It's great.

@Anil_trinidad,

Fantastic! Glad to help out.

I just got an 8 gig ipod touch for free when I bought a macbook pro, and I am about ready to go try to shove it down Jobs' throat. I don't get the point of this. Why do you need software at all?

Every mp3 player I've ever owned can just go right into the hard drive and paste in what I want. It's so simple that way. I hate itunes and refuse to use it, even on the mac. I want direct and full control over what I buy, not Apple and their BS.

Thank god I have a friend interested in buying it off of me, because unless I can find a way to paste in my music directly then even for free it's not worth the aggravation.

@Philip,

I feel your pain!

hey i cant find any %IPOD_ROOT% directory in my ipod... itunes sucks... pls respond to ths comment... send a reply to my id... sos

ps:my email id is chidhu_1993@yahoo.in

@Chid,

That was just supposed to be a variable for the root director of your ipod shuffle.

Is there a way to wipe an ipod and just have a folder tree, a player and the codecs like the old iRivers did? That was the bomb.

cheers man, I may even buy a shuffle now, stupid itunes what a waste of time it is.

Guys - I have a problem. After successfully using iShuffle on two other iPod shuffles previously, I am trying to use it on a friend's that had iTunes on it before. I removed the iTunes folder, and the iTunes setup file from the root. I saved the mp3 files in the Music folder, copied iShuffle.exe into the root - but when I try to run it, it tells me "The iPod_Control\iTunes" folder was not found" . So I created an iTunes folder, and it still gives me the error. Any suggestions? I like the convenience of this neat little app. Or should I try something else that works in a similar way? Thanks.

Ok - Ignore that last entry. I had the iTunes folder in the Root folder Doh! So I moved it to the iPod_control folder, and it ran fine.

At last.
Kind thanks from someone who completely agrees tha iTunes is crap music tool. Otherwise Apple's is pretty cool.
:-)LD

whoops...
I hate looking a a comment I've posted before checking it for typos.

At last the solution to a problem that has been bugging me for a loooong time.

Kind thanks from someone who completely agrees that iTunes is a crap music tool.

Otherwise Apple's stuff is usually is pretty cool.

:-)LD

@Larry,

Yeah, I've been loving this tool for my iPod Shuffle. Just keeps things really lightweight. The bad thing is that I have to re-run this every time I plug the shuffle in. The second the iTunes helper app gets involved, it seems to erase the playlist (but NOT the music thankfully).

@Anil_trinidad,

Glad you got it working.

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