[Fabian43]

*I apologize if this is a known method to everyone else but I was under the impression you couldn't do this*

I have always been under the impression that since iTunes purchases songs are DRM (unless you recently upgraded and paid the extra per song fee for unprotected DRM songs) you cannot transfer them to the Storm and have them successfully play. After reading flashman's post about plugging it in via usb and just dragging and dropping the iTunes files to my Storm I have successfully managed to transfer my entire iTunes library along with the clip art that it came with from iTunes!!! The only down part is I have to do it manually and my iTunes playlists don't transfer over but those 2 things are no big deal considering I now have all my iTunes purchased songs and clip art on my Storm! It looks and sounds so good on the Storm! Just wanted to pass this along....sorry if this is a known feature to everyone else but me but if it's not then I'd thought I'd share. Thanks flashman for giving me the idea.

[flashman03]

I just think its cool that it worked. Glad it worked for you as well.

[ahern090]

i tried that but the drm files dont play on mine

[flashman03]

Im not sure what the difference would be. Weird that it works in the first place but it is. Sorry its not working for you.

[Fabian43]

i tried that but the drm files dont play on mine

i dont know why it worked on my Storm. I'm running .75 official OS. I have an iMac running Leopard and iTunes version 8. I did not pay extra to make the songs DRM free. All I did was plug Storm into Mac via usb and used it like a media device and opened up iTunes, highlighted the songs I wanted to transfer over, and dragged them to the music folder on my Storm and dropped them. When I play the music on my Storm the iTunes generated clip art appears along with the song and it plays perfect. I'll have to manually remake my playlists but no big deal.

[sikpupi]

What's the extension on the files you copied over to the Storm? DRM protected files are .M4P and those shouldn't play on the Storm.

[flashman03]

I cant find the extension. But when I click info on the songs I bought when DRM was still applied it says Protected AAC audio file. Where do you find the extension at so I can check that.

[Fabian43]

technical question that I dont know how to answer. I do remember the files on the say mp4 if that answers your question.

[Fabian43]

What's the extension on the files you copied over to the Storm? DRM protected files are .M4P and those shouldn't play on the Storm.

When I click on 'properties' for the song in the Storm it says .m4a

[jfridayjr]

My understanding is that if the song purchased from iTunes has a plus sign (+) next to the price it is not DRM protected and can be played on the storm.

If you view the "kind" attribute in the iTunes library it will tell you if the song is a "Protected AAC audio file" or a "Purchased AAC audio file" (right click the "Name" column heading and select "Kind" from the list). Protected audio files have an .m4p extension and will not play on the storm. Purchased audio files have an .m4a extension which will play.

[Fabian43]

ok here's an update: I must have transferred over close to 1000 songs (roughly 4gb or so) to the Storm's mem card. As I am now playing with it I am noticing that only 223 songs are showing even though my 8gb memory card show 7.5gb worth of data on it. I re-hooked it up to my iMac and there are almost 1000 songs showing. I'm wondering if it will take the Storm some time to fully recognize all the songs so that they will play. This happened to me on my Curve, whenever I would download a ton of songs they all wouldn't show up immediately...it took a few hours for all of them to show up. What do you think flashman?

[jfridayjr]

To view the extension of a song in your iTunes library just right click the song name, select Get Info, and look in the summary tab. The location of the song file with extension is listed at the bottom.

[flashman03]

My understanding is that if the song purchased from iTunes has a plus sign (+) next to the price it is not DRM protected and can be played on the storm.

If you view the "kind" attribute in the iTunes library it will tell you if the song is a "Protected AAC audio file" or a "Purchased AAC audio file" (right click the "Name" column heading and select "Kind" from the list). Protected audio files have an .m4p extension and will not play on the storm. Purchased audio files have an .m4a extension which will play.

Like I said, they play for me and that includes the protected AAC songs.

[Fabian43]

I did what you said and I think you are on to something. All of the songs (223) that are visible to play on my Storm are purchases AAC file. I am positive though that I did not pay an extra fee when I downloaded this songs from iTunes as I have heard they charge a premium for these unprotected songs. When I look up a song that is not visible to play on my Storm it says Protected AAC file. So, since they are protected that is why they are not showing up to play on the Storm! Damn!!!! But they still are on my memory card and taking up storage space even though they won't play. Now I will have to go through and manually delete all protected AAC files on my Storm's memory card.....damn.

[Fabian43]

it just seems so odd that iTunes would select certain songs to be protected and others to be purchased. There are even brand new singles that I downloaded today for .99cents that are purchased instead of protected. Does anyone know the rhyme or reason behind why Apple would make certain songs purchased and other protected?

[jfridayjr]

If you use Media Sync in the DM to add music to the storm the DRM protected music doesn't get added -- you actually get an error telling you that some music could not be loaded. Since you copied the music using the USB mass storage capabilities you don't get an error and music files are added to the media card, but can't be played.

[jfridayjr]

Not sure why some songs are protected while others aren't. Perhaps its up to the artist.

[flashman03]

Well it just depends on if you purchased through iTunes before or after the DRM rights went away. Now you can upgrade your library for .39 cents per song or more for vids. Also if you added music via CD it wont be protected. But I dont have an answer for what works and doesnt. I was just stating that it worked for me.

[Geos]

If it is in iTunes Plus, then they are not DRM protected. They do not charge any more for the + versions. You can tell if it's + if it has the plus sign next to the price.

[flashman03]

Yes I know they dont charge for iTunes plus. BUt iTunes plus is brand new as of last month or the beginning of this month. Everything purchased prior to that time is protected unless upgraded.

[Fabian43]

Thanks everyone for your help. It looks like we now know what and why it happened. I'm not willing to shell out $300 to upgrade rest of my protected songs just to move 'em over to my Storm. Now I have the daunting task of manually having to delete all of the protected songs from my Storm's memory card. I wonder if there is a way to filter all of 'purchased songs' in my iTunes library so that I can start over and just drag and drop those songs to my Storm? Anyone know?

[holtztwins]

I use a program called Tune Clone. what it does is make Itunes think you are burning songs onto a disc but using a virtual burner you are really burning them to a file that you can then transfer over to your storm and ALL of them play. I went through song by song and verified this

[Fabian43]

I use a program called Tune Clone. what it does is make Itunes think you are burning songs onto a disc but using a virtual burner you are really burning them to a file that you can then transfer over to your storm and ALL of them play. I went through song by song and verified this

how many songs did you have to go through "song by song". I'm working with 1200 songs and doing stuff manually can take forever. Also did the clip art from iTunes transfer over? Thanks.

[Fabian43]

looks like Tune Clone will only run on pc and not mac....damn!!!

[holtztwins]

I transferred over about 1000, I have 3 touch ipods with about 9000 songs in my itunes. at first I only used songs I know that I purchased to verify they worked and played. The program works really well and is easy to use. its worth the price, there is a trial but it only lets you convert 3 minutes of any song. check it out: Download TuneClone - Convert M4P,WMA and Any Other Music Format to MP3 via virtual CD Burning