Amarok refuses to play M4a Files located on an Ipod (intrepid)

This is an offshoot of https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/amarok/+question/52494. I have broken it out into its own seperate question because the question I had asked turned out to have nothing to do with the actual problem.

Here's the Problem:
Amarok refuses to play M4a files which are located on an Ipod. This error only applies to M4a files, MP3 files on my Ipod work flawlessly. Mp4 files in my home folder also work flawlessly. Amarok is able to build a list of the songs on my Ipod, but when I attempt to ask Amarok to play the files or copy them to my collection, I get the following message in the lower left corner of the application:

"Some media could not be loaded (not playable)"

Clicking for more information brings up:
These media could not be loaded into the playlist:
file:///media/KIMI'S IPOD/iPod_Control/Music/F25/PFCJ.m4a
file:///media/KIMI'S IPOD/iPod_Control/Music/F34/TQWB.m4a
file:///media/KIMI'S IPOD/iPod_Control/Music/F11/XGVB.m4a
file:///media/KIMI'S IPOD/iPod_Control/Music/F02/HQUU.m4a
file:///media/KIMI'S IPOD/iPod_Control/Music/F05/KNVW.m4a
Plus 6 more

If I open gtkpod, I can use it's 'enqueue' functionality (I had to change its default configuration, which tries to invoke xmms to amarok; I believe this to be a simple system call to 'amarok -e <filename>' , but typing this at a bash prompt doesn't work...) then Amarok will play the M4a files enqueued this way, but no others. However, Amarok's behavior does change when I use the 'enqueue' option from gtkpod: Now, until the next time I quit out of the program, i can successfully add songs to the play list, but when I try to play them I get the following error message:

"Local file does not exist"

Also, if I try to add songs within amarok which have been previously queued using gtkpod, these songs will not play, even if a working entry for that same song is already in the playlist. So far as I can tell, the entries are identical, they have the same directory, track length, etc...

Lastly, I can say that this failure only occurs on the computer which I installed Intrepid on fresh, from a clean disk; I have another, older, computer which was upgraded to intrepid after getting my Ipod working in Hardy, and it works flawlessly. Both machines have all the latest updates installed, and should have similar sets of multimedia packages installed.