Using Palm's LifeDrive Mobile Manager with iTunes

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It is a manual set-up process, but it was only a few steps. Here are the instructions assuming that you have LifeDrive manager installed plus iTunes installed and set-up with some podcasts subscribed already.

1/ Find the folder where iTunes stores your podcasts.

In my case C:\Documents and Settings\rik\My Documents\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music\

To find out for sure, run iTunes and go to the Edit menu. Select preferences, then select the Advanced tab.

If you go to that directory in explorer you should see a subdirectory called Podcasts

2/ Drag the Podcasts folder onto LifeDrive Manager

Open LifeDrive Manager. Ensure your LifeDrive is plugged into the PC and switched on.

Drag and drop the Podcasts folder show above on top of the LifeDrive Manager window. Drop the item directly onto the LifeDrive icon.

You should see the following

Click Keep Synchronized. The folder will be copied to your LifeDrive and you should then see a report:

3/ Folder settings

I’ve only just learned this step, but the following should ensure that if you delete a podcast episode from your device it will be deleted from the PC next time you synchronize your podcasts folder.

In LifeDrive Manager, right click the Podcasts folder and select properties

On the dialog that comes up select the Synchronize tab and choose the Delete files on your PC… option

If you don’t do this then you must manually delete the listened to podcasts both from your LifeDrive and from your PC. If you don’t delete them from the PC they keep getting re-copied back to the lifedrive. This is a big pain.

Again, not verified that this step is working, but I assume it does, a guy from Palm, Inc told me to do this and he wrote LifeDrive Manager.

4/ Run Synchronization

This is the step that you must do every day (or week depending on your podcast subscriptions and how often those files change!)

i) Sync your iTunes podcasts: Click the Update button in the top right

ii) Wait a while as Apple downloads the updated feeds

iii) Sync your LifeDrive contents: click the Sync All Now button in the top right

iv) Wait a while as the podcasts are transferred to the lifedrive.

5/ Go walk your dog

Now you have a LifeDrive full of fresh content you can go do something useful, like walk your dog, and listen to your content!

Podcasting, it’s the future of entertainment J

Also, there’s a site out there that goes through the process with iPodder. I must confess, I didn’t read the site, but did bookmark it.

http://www.jelm.nl/guide/palmone_lifedrive_podcast_videocast_guide.html