iPod Nano 5G not recognized as iPod

[Jozer99]

I have been using Musicbee for about a year now and love it!

I recently was given an Apple iPod Nano 5g (the one with the camera), and I would like to sync it with Musicbee.  This is replacing my iPod Nano 3g, which has worked fine with Musicbee from day 1. 

I used iTunes 9.2.1 and restored the Nano on a separate Windows PC. 

I plug the Nano in, and it mounts as a drive on my PC, and Musicbee sees it and allows me to sync music to it.  However, Musicbee seems to see it as some sort of mass storage device instead of an iPod, unlike my old Nano 3G.  It will stick MP3 files on there, but it doesn't do anything to update the file database on the iPod, so the music doesn't show up.  In the device settings in Musicbee, the serial number, manufacturer, and model show up as unknown.  The syncing options it gives are pretty generic, whereas my Nano 3G's option page has a number of options that seem to be iPod specific (i.e. "copy artwork to the iPod database", etc.)  Is there a way to fix this?

[hiccup]

If you do a forum (or MusicBee wikia) search, you'll find that apple products and software are not officially supported by MusicBee, and up from a certain ios version broke any compatibility completely.

[boroda]

http://musicbee.wikia.com/wiki/FAQ#Can_I_sync_my_iPod_.2F_iPhone_.2F_iPad_with_MusicBee.3F

[Jozer99]

The FAQ seems to be talking mainly about iOS devices, whereas this is a plain old iPod running whatever the non-touch iPod OS is called.  Plus the forum is full of people syncing iPod Nanos, including some people who seem to have 5th generation Nanos syncing correctly.  I'm wondering what is different

[hiccup]

Indeed your ipod is not running an official ios version.
Still it is running under an os (firmware might be a better name here) which might also be updated by apple. (through itunes I would assume)

Have you tried if you could get it to work through boroda74's plugin?
http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=10634.0

[Jozer99]

I'm not super interested in using MusicBee as an interface to iTunes.  If I have to do that, I might as well just skip MusicBee and use iTunes by itself.  My iPod 3G seems to work fine natively in MusicBee, is the 5G really that different?  I know the iPhone and iPod touch use a very different syncing system, but shouldn't the classic non-touch iPods all use a similar sync interface?

Is there anyone else out there using a 5G nano who can chime in on whether or not the iTunes plugin is necessary?

[Steven]

if the native MB ipod handling doesnt work and you want to keep using MB then your only choice is to try the plugin.
I wont spend any time on the native MB ipod handling.

[phred]

I recently was given an Apple iPod Nano 5g (the one with the camera), and I would like to sync it with Musicbee.  This is replacing my iPod Nano 3g, which has worked fine with Musicbee from day 1. 

I suggest you hang on to that third generation nano as it was the last version to be supported directly by MB.  No nano since has worked directly.  Try the plugin Steven refers to for your 5g, but if that doesn't work, then you're out of luck.
http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=10634.0