Will there be a firmware to make the S9 compatible with Mac OS?

[ngrand]

This has been a while now, while Cowon keeps on advertising this product as compatible with Mac OS which is pure false advertising.

Anyone in the know, please let us know as this otherwise great product is currently unusable by Mac owners (unless you use "fusion" to upload files to the S9 which really defeats the purpose..)

[CrowdAds]

[morrislee]

What do you mean? I just tested on my hackintosh on my aspire one, it detects as a mass storage, I can just drag and drop the music just like in Windows, not exactly sure why you need "fusion" or whatever it is.

[cloudscapes]

I can use it on a Mac as mass storage just fine!
false advertisment? huh?

[steagle]

sure Mac OS will recognize it as a mass storage device and allow normal read/write access. the problem for most Mac users is once the S9 is disconnected, trying to access any music folder will result in the S9 locking up. it doesn't matter what type of formatting i do first - FAT32, NTFS, OS Extended, Extended Journaled - the S9 freezes after every Mac-based file transfer. the only thing that works for me is using, as the OP described, Fusion to load up a virtualized Windows environment and do the file transfer from there. which takes approximately double the time it would take in native Mac environment.

Cowon does NOT have any fix for this at the moment and doubtful one will ever come, as most manufacturers do not spend much time on Mac development - understandably so, as Apple does not exactly make it easy to work with their code.

[steagle]

btw, this problem seems most common with the 32GB S9 and Mac OS Leopard (10.5.1 - 10.5.8). most likely an issue with the lower quality flash memory used in the 32GB version versus the 16GB version and how it handles the Mac "trash" files which are placed on external drives during file transfers.

[Mavic]

When I first started using my S9 with my MacBook Pro, I saw the exact problem that you mentioned, steagle. After dragging and dropping files onto my S9, I would leave it plugged into the USB port to charge. Then after properly ejecting it, I got the lock up when trying to access music (and the clever Korean text when you show the favorites).

However, I think that I might have stumbled across a fix. I noticed that when I had problems, my MacBook had gone to "sleep". The Mac will power down the drives when this happens. I can only assume that affects the S9 plugged in at the time as well. So, I adjusted the power settings so that when my MacBook is plugged in, it will not go to sleep and I cleared the check box at the bottom to put the hard disks to sleep when possible. I have not had a problem since... or maybe I have just been lucky.

I would bet that these power settings are unique to the MacBook, so those using a desktop would probably not see the issue.

Give it a shot and let me know if it works for you.

[steagle]

hey Mavic, that's an interesting thought. unfortunately i had already set up my MacBook Pro to not go to sleep on its own (unless I physically close the LCD) or to turn off the hard drives. on top of that, the 4 or 5 times i tried to get these devices to work together, i was sitting in front of the laptop the whole time and watching the progress. the fact that changing power settings was the solution for you makes this whole Mac OS X issue even more frustrating for me, because i can't seem to find a pattern between all the Mac users i've talked to.

another interesting idea is that when you eject an external drive from a Mac, you need to wait a much longer time until you physically unplug it, because the Mac is still writing files to the disk. i heard a guy from one forum saying he waited ten full minutes before physically unplugging his S9, and it didn't lock up afterwards. i don't even feel like testing that theory but i guess i'm going to have to.

just for reference, here are the summary of issues and theories on what is going on with the Mac and S9 (I'm using your suggestion for #3)

1) The Mac writes "trash" files to external devices (.trashes, ds_store, etc) which causes the S9 to crash when accessing folders that were written to by Mac OS X. One solution that worked for some S9 users: Use the BlueHarvest application to prevent these files from being written to non-Mac disks.
2) The S9 needs to be formatted in Mac OS X using a universal Mac format.
3) The Mac is prematurely shutting off the S9 before files are completely written to it, resulting in an unsafe ejection of the drive. Solution: change power settings on the Mac to prevent automatic shut down of hard drives and turn off Sleep Mode.

unfortunately, i have tried all 3 suggestions above and nothing has prevented the S9 from locking up yet. the only solution has been to launch Windows via Boot Camp or Fusion and perform the file transfers from there. it is a major pain in the ass, so i'm hoping either i finally stumble onto a solution for my situation (MacBook Pro running OS 10.5.8) or Cowon nips this problem in the bud with a firmware update (not likely).

[steagle]

well, i guess i should eat my words because all of a sudden i got the S9 to work on Mac, now after several transfers. this time, I formatted in plain Mac OS Extended format (not Journaled) and waited about 30 seconds after ejecting the drive to unplug it. no problems. then, just to stress-test it, i plugged it back into the Mac and unplugged it without ejecting it... turned the device on and off a couple times... and still no playback problems with the files i transferred to it. also a note that I had BlueHarvest enabled in System Preferences, but that shouldn't make a difference because it really only applies to non-Mac formatted disks.

this is SO weird. i swear i formatted it the same way before, and it froze up. oh well, if the device locks up again in the future i'll post back here but for now, i'm going to use the Mac and cross my fingers that it keeps working...

[jakeroux]

Originally Posted by steagle

most likely an issue with the lower quality flash memory used in the 32GB version versus the 16GB version.

Huh?

New to the conversation and S9 ownership, but don't recall having seen anything about that when researching prior to purchasing my 32GB model.

[steagle]

as far as i researched, there is a different model flash drive inside the 32GB version. the opinion is Cowon used a cheaper brand to lower costs. can someone here verify this?

[tarkil]

Originally Posted by steagle

well, i guess i should eat my words because all of a sudden i got the S9 to work on Mac, now after several transfers. this time, I formatted in plain Mac OS Extended format (not Journaled) and waited about 30 seconds after ejecting the drive to unplug it. no problems. then, just to stress-test it, i plugged it back into the Mac and unplugged it without ejecting it... turned the device on and off a couple times... and still no playback problems with the files i transferred to it. also a note that I had BlueHarvest enabled in System Preferences, but that shouldn't make a difference because it really only applies to non-Mac formatted disks.

this is SO weird. i swear i formatted it the same way before, and it froze up. oh well, if the device locks up again in the future i'll post back here but for now, i'm going to use the Mac and cross my fingers that it keeps working...

Hello,

I'm not a MAC professional (AT ALL), my g/f has one, and she bought the J3 yesterday, which ended up bricked 30 minutes after unboxing due to the above described issues.

How are things with S9 on your side ?
Would you mind detail the steps you took to solve your issue if it worked please ?

Thanks so much if you could (or someone else who might have found a way).


Cheers