Downloading, streaming, or encoding music and movies.
Media
How can I undelete my music files?
Episode 1587
Kevin fromKevin has lost over 100GB of music off his laptop. He used torrents to send out his music. Now they've disappeared. The program he used must've deleted the files, thinking he was deleting the torrents when he was done. What can he do? Leo says it wouldn't be unusual for a client to delete seed files when you're done. But how can he get them back? The good news is that Kevin has an old backup, so he only needs the most recent files. When you delete a file, it isn't really deleted. It's just marked available for reuse.
How can I Back Up Recordings to Listen on my Phone?
Episode 1582
Maria fromMaria wants to know how to back up her recordings on her computer, so she can see them on her phone. Rich says that Dropbox is probably the best option. She can drag it into a folder on her desktop and it will appear on the Dropbox app on her phone. She can also do it with Google Drive or iTunes. If she is fine with paying money, WALTR is a decent alternative.
How Can I Get my Music Off my Old iPhone?
Episode 1581
Patty fromPatty wants to know about an app called iMazing for transferring her music from her phone to her Mac. But when she tried to use it, she lost all her music from her phone. Leo says Patty should have backed up her iPhone with iTunes before doing it. Anything non-standard can cause problems like this. She could check to see if she has a backup of her music on iCloud.
Which Personal Locator Beacon Should I Buy?
Episode 1580
Don fromDon is interested in Personal Locator Beacons and Wireless Trail Cameras. Leo says that while he has no experience with PLBs, he does know that there are competing networks with various benefits. Here's a great article on the difference between PLBs and Satellite Messengers.
How Can I Backup All my Music?
Episode 1579
John fromJohn wants to know what's a good way to clean up his iTunes and back them up to the cloud. Leo says that iTunes Match is great because users get 256kb aac copies placed in the cloud and they can replace those old MP3s with much better versions. What can he do with all the songs named "Track 1?" Leo says the file name isn't as important as the metadata, and iTunes Match needs to know the metadata of the song to match it, but there are several programs that can replace that "track 1" with the title.
Why is Peloton Being Sued?
Episode 1577
Laura fromLaura hears that there's a lawsuit against Peloton for not having the license of music they play for their spin classes. Chances are, they have the wrong license, and they need a worldwide synchronization license to play music in a video format over the internet. They're being sued for $150 million, and it's probably a ploy just to get more money out of Peloton.
Why is my 64GB Thumb Drive Only 32GB?
Episode 1573
Mark fromMark uses thumb drives to transfer data and then format them. But when using 64GB drives, when he formats them, it formats to 32GB. What gives? Leo says it's probably either a counterfeit drive or a faulty drive that's losing sectors. Even if he bought it on Amazon, he could end up getting a counterfeit drive if not careful. But when formatting, the OS can decide to write off bad or unreliable sectors as well.
Can I Convert my CDs and not Lose Quality?
Episode 1571
Mark fromMark wants to know how he can convert his CDs and have them sound as good. Leo says that digital music records differently by using sampling. 44100 is CD-quality sound. 16-bit resolution is CD quality. But he can buy higher resolution samples like 24 bit. However, the files get large as a result, which is why compression has come into play. MP3, AAC, etc. Lossless is also possible with FLAC and Apple Lossless. Google Pixel XL can play back those lossless files with the right application.
How can I keep my music safe on my phone?
Episode 1568
Diane fromDiane is worried that if she has to reinstall the Samsung music player on her Android phone, that she'll lose all 4000 of her songs. Leo says that Android is designed to have music in a single folder accessible by any music app. So she should just use a different app. Leo likes Doubletwist. Can she back it up to her laptop? Leo says DEFINITELY YES! Before she does anything else, she should plug in her phone and drag those songs over to a computer or a backup hard drive. It would also be a good idea to backup her phone to the cloud.
Why won't my Walkman play?
Episode 1565
Peter fromPeter has an old Walkman, which is about 40 years old. But when he presses play, the cassette plays for one note and stops. Leo has a hunch that the motor in the walkman is probably worn out. If it can play other cassettes, that would point to the cassette that's gone bad. It could be fixed, but Leo suggests digitizing his entire cassette collection because the older they get, the more likely they will start peeling off the oxide coating and he'll lose his music. He should get a Crosley Cassette player and digitize them.
