Load music onto classic iPods — no iTunes, no Swinsian, no cloud.
Syncopation Pro is a native macOS app that syncs music straight onto iPods in disk mode. Plug in an iPod classic or nano, pick a folder, hit Sync — tracks appear on the device, with album art, ready to play the moment you eject.
This repository is the support and documentation home for Syncopation Pro. The application itself is proprietary and its source code is not published here. For the free, open-source edition, see the Syncopation Community Edition.
- Synco-Mode — one app, four modes: Music, ePUB/PDF, All Files, and iPod.
- iPod mode — detects any iPod in disk mode, identifies the exact model from a built-in table of every iPod ever made, and writes the device's native database directly (including the checksummed databases that classics and nanos require). Tracks play immediately after eject.
- FLAC → ALAC conversion — automatic, using macOS's built-in encoder. Output is 16-bit / 44.1–48 kHz, exactly what the devices were built to play; hi-res sources are downsampled correctly.
- Album artwork — covers are extracted from your files, rendered into the device's native thumbnail formats, and shown on the iPod.
- Interrupted syncs don't start over — the iPod's library is saved as the transfer runs, not once at the end. Knock the cable out an hour into a big sync and you keep everything transferred so far as a working, playable library; sync again and it carries on where it stopped.
- Reclaims wasted space — removing a track from an iPod normally leaves its audio file behind forever, invisible and unplayable. Syncopation finds these strays and clears them automatically. On a real 160 GB classic that recovered 33.8 GB — a fifth of the drive.
- Keeps your library tidy — tracks already on the iPod are recognized and never duplicated, even ones another app put there, and missing album art is filled in as you sync.
- Safe by design — existing music and playlists are always preserved, every database write keeps a backup on the device, and syncing only adds unless you explicitly ask it to match your source folder.
- Everything the free version does — one-way and two-way folder/SD-card sync with conflict handling, previews, and per-mode file filtering.
- macOS 13 (Ventura) or later — Intel or Apple Silicon. On macOS 26 and later the app uses the Liquid Glass appearance; on earlier systems it falls back to standard native controls automatically.
- An iPod in disk mode: iPod classic (all generations), iPod nano (through 4th gen), iPod video, mini, or photo. (iPod touch and iPhone use a different sync system and are not supported, nor is the iPod shuffle.)
- Questions and bug reports: open an issue in this repository.
- How it works under the hood: docs/TECHNICAL.md — the full technical reference for the iPod support: device detection, the iTunesDB format, checksums, and what these devices really play.
In active development, heading for the Mac App Store.
Working today on real hardware — an iPod classic (7th gen) and an iPod nano (3rd gen): device identification, FLAC → ALAC conversion, writing the iPod's native checksummed database, album artwork, checkpointed transfers that survive a disconnect, and automatic cleanup of files other software left stranded on the device.
Remaining before submission: moving audio conversion in-process (required by the App Store sandbox), a compatibility guard for the earliest iPods, and the usual store paperwork.
Pricing and availability to be announced.
Copyright © 2026 Eddie Hajek. All rights reserved. Syncopation Pro is proprietary software. iPod is a trademark of Apple Inc.; this product is not affiliated with or endorsed by Apple.