Clickwheel is a modern cross-platform iPod management API for .NET.

Installing

Clickwheel is available via NuGet.

Package Name	Version (NuGet)
Clickwheel

Usage

using Clickwheel;

var ipod = IPod.GetConnectedIPod();
var track = new NewTrack
{
    FilePath = "01 Run Away With Me.m4a",
    Album = "E•MO•TION",
    Artist = "Carly Rae Jepsen",
    AlbumArtist = "Carly Rae Jepsen",
    Title = "Run Away With Me",
    IsVideo = false,
    ArtworkFile = "album.jpg",
    Year = 2015,
    DiscNumber = 1,
    TotalDiscCount = 1,
    TrackNumber = 1,
    AlbumTrackCount = 12,
    Genre = "Pop",
};

var addedTrack = ipod.Tracks.Add(track);
addedTrack.Rating = new IPodRating(5);

var playlist = ipod.Playlists.Add("National Anthems");
playlist.AddTrack(addedTrack);

// Write changes to iPod
ipod.SaveChanges();

Compatibility

Family	Generation	Supported	Supported Firmware Version
iPod	1st	Supported
	2nd	Supported
	3rd	Supported
	4th	Supported	3.1.1 (Monochrome), 1.2.1 (Color)
	5th	Supported	1.3
	6th	Supported	1.1.2
iPod mini	1st	Supported
	2nd	Supported	1.4.1
iPod nano	1st	Supported	1.3.1
	2nd	Supported	1.1.3
	3rd	Supported	1.1.3
	4th	Supported	1.0.4
	5th	Supported	1.0.2
	6th	Not Supported1
	7th	Not Supported1
iPod shuffle	1st	Supported	1.1.5
	2nd	Supported	1.0.4
	3rd	Not Supported2
	4th	Not Supported2
iPod touch	All	Not Supported3

Extended SysInfo

iPods that support album artwork store some additional system attributes which are accessible via either a SCSI INQUIRY command or a USB Control Transfer (starting with the 6th generation iPod, the 3rd generation iPod nano, and the 3rd generation iPod shuffle). Clickwheel requires this data to be present in a file named SysInfoExtended in the iPod's iPod_Control/Device folder for proper album artwork support and database hashing. How this file is created depends on your operating system.

Windows

On Windows, you can use Clickwheel Device Helper to create the SysInfoExtended file for all attached iPods.

Linux

On Linux, you can use ipod-read-sysinfo-extended to obtain the SysInfoExtended file. This command is provided by the following packages:

Distro	Package
Arch	libgpod
Debian/Ubuntu	libgpod4
Fedora	libgpod
openSUSE	libgpod-tools

macOS

Unfortunately, modern versions of macOS do not support issuing SCSI INQUIRY requests to attached USB devices from userspace. If you're using an iPod that supports retrieving the extended SysInfo via a USB Control Transfer (any iPod released in 2007 or later), you can use this program to write the SysInfoExtended file. Otherwise, you'll need to use a Windows or Linux device.

HashAB

HashAB is the name given to the as-of-yet unbroken database hashing scheme used on the 6th and 7th generation iPod nanos. Clickwheel does not support devices that use HashAB.

Acknowledgements

Clickwheel is a modern update of sharepod-lib, originally written by Jeffrey Harris.

Footnotes

1. Uses HashAB ↩ ↩²

2. VoiceOver generation currently unsupported ↩ ↩²

3. Clickwheel doesn't support iOS devices ↩