gdgt

I do the same thing, and nothing has even been wrong it it. *shrugs*

I'm on my 2nd Zune and have never had any issues with simply disconnecting it. I use a dock and usually just leave the Zune in there and let it sync wirelessly.

I do the same thing. Never had any problems.

I owned my Zune long before my iPhone (never had a iPod), and am baffled why Apple requires me to eject the iPhone from iTunes. I thought USB means you just unplug it.

Supposedly, it's about not damaging the file system or firmware if there's a transfer in progress, but if it's not doing anything it should be fine if you just unplug it.

I wonder if a sort of immunity of this could be built into USB 4.0 or Lightpeak, or another emerging next-gen standard?

@mgam Err, I don't understand why you're "baffled." I already said that there's an option in iTunes to have it automatically eject the iPod after syncing so you don't have to do it manually. This issue is the same thing with ANY USB mass storage device, where you have to "eject" it before disconnecting it.

My issue is that MS didn't make it clear for the Zune. There's no mention of this in the software settings. The USB connectivity icon is there on the system tray, having the option to eject the Zune. However, I assume that disconnecting it after it's done syncing without manually ejecting it is not a problem as I thought that was part of the MTP protocol. My issue is that the Zune software doesn't seem to recognize the Zune anymore afterwards without restarting the software (no errors/problems with the hardware itself).

Try asking on the Zune.net forums. You'll get a better answer, and even the Zune team members post replies to questions.