How To Copy songs from your iPod to your hard drive

What if the iPod I am copying FROM is not formatted with MC 9 (a friend who still uses MusicMatch...sucker)?

Is there any way to get the files from his iPod onto my computer without deleting them/messing up his iPod?

Thanks...

Following the instructions to copy files from the iPOF to the PC, and using Ephod I get a windows message saying that the system can not find the specified route. What should I do next ?

How come when I look into the folders named f02 and f03, I dont see anything?

It goes to all folders but whenever I look into them there isnt anything in them.

thanks this really helped!

How do I copy playlists from my iPod to my computer?

Thanks!

Originally posted by slashjunior
Okay. I have set the iPOD to disk mode in MM, and opened up the iPOD I:\ in My Computer, I have set the folder to display hidden files. However, in the music folder it has folders F00 to F19, each folder has music in it (not sure how it is arranged).

I'm hoping to get MC9. But will I just beable to copy all the MP3 in the Fxx folders into one folder on the hardisc. Format the iPOD with MC9. And copy all my MP3 into the music library in MC9. However would all the tags I've created in MM be used in MC9 or would I have to create all the tags again?

I recently lost my HDD on my windows Desktop. And, luckily for my iPod, I have a backup of my songs. However, what I suspect you have really lost, is your playlists. So I Dragged and dropped the entire Music directory, containing the M00 M01 subs into a music directory on my machine. From here, I will rebuild all of my Playlists. Have fun rebuilding your playlists! The old ones you had needed to be refreshed anyway! :-)

If I am wrong about the playlist loss, I would love to hear about it!

Regards,

GreatScot!

I'm using iTunes for Windows now...how can I copy songs from my iPod to my computer?...which I had to reformat due to a fatal window error.

I'm thinking of doing the 2.1 firmware upgrade, and read that it wipes out your iPod...so I'm thinking I should copy all my songs to HD...Can I then bring everything back to the upgraded iPod and maintain all my info, e.g. artist, album, etc?

Hi folks!

I've been searching around the forums for a few days now and have tried pretty much the 3 main software(xplay, eph, MC) to copy songs off my ipod to the pc. But all my songs on the ipod are Asian songs and contain some kind of Asian language encoded in the song titles. When the software attempts to put them in a folder, some songs either get left out (gives error) or gets a number and placed outside of the folder.

When I originally upload songs to my ipod I would make a folder, put all the songs I want in it. Make a playlist using the software, then upload the songs...and I would use the playlist on the ipod to replay those songs. I never sorted the songs by album, artist, etc. to play my music...only used the playlists that i've created.

So what i'm really hoping for is a method that can just create a folder on my pc labeled as the playlist...and then just copy the songs I had originally picked for this playlist into that playlist named folder.

Sorry if i've missed this topic if it's been brought up before, but i can't seem to find it in the forums or on google. Please let me know or give a link to the topic. Thanks in advance for any advice. By the way, my 10gig ipod is totally full...thats why i really need this method, otherwise i'll be sorting all the songs copied off my ipod for a long long time. Thanks! Cheers!

I'd like to backup my hard drive onto my Ipod. (Why not, it's big enough!) How can I do this? (I know this can be done, it's just a hard drive afterall.)

Serendipitous1 : If you can see your Ipod as a hard disk in My computer, then the chances are that any other program will be able to as well.
I would recommend either Drive Image 7, or Ghost. Drive Image 7 will allow you to make compressed images of your drives, browse the image after its been created to extract single files or multiple files and also create backup jobs that will automatically backup the files you tell it too or that have changed at regular intervals.

Ghost on the other hand simply lets you make images of the drive as it was at the time you make the image.

Depending on the operating system your using, Win2000 and WinXP for example both have a built in backup utility too.

Otherwise if there are just certain files you want to backup, just drag them onto your ipod.

Hope this helps

if you just want to copy the entire contents of your ipod over (for example, if you want the files on two computers), just pop open windows find, choose the drive your PC reads the ipod as, and search for *.mp3

turn on hidden files & folders and if you're in XP, tell it to include those in its searches. It'll give you all the mp3 files on your ipod, which you can then copy elsewhere. The filenames usually suck, but if you're using itunes that doesn't matter.

Repeat as needed for AAC, AIFF, etc. I copied all my stuff from my home PC to my work PC without too much difficulty (other than the work PC having only USB 1.1)

Far as I know you can still only sync your ipod to one computer, but in windows at least there's nothing preventing you from copying the files off to your hard drive, and you certainly don't need any third party software to do it.

okay, I managed to get ephpod to transfer the songs...the problem was the naming convention, you can't use a / in the filename (which ephpod puts in by default), I changed the '/' to '-' and it works.
Problem now is I'm getting the old tag names on my hard drive!!

I just used Podutil to copy my iPod to another hard drive, and it works perfectly. You have to be careful how you do it, however, as you can end up with folders with just one artist and one song, as from a complilation CD. Otherwise, it is the tool I would recommend, and it's free!

Linky:

http://www.kennettnet.co.uk/software/

i guess by reading alot of these replies, i must be the only one using musicmatch. my problem is that i have songs on my ipod that do not play, but they still show up on my ipod. i was told to save my songs and then reset my ipod. i have no clue how to save my songs using musicmatch. i have tried it before and i failed misserably. does anyone know how to either transfer my songs so i can reset my ipod, or know another way to delete the songs? thanks

Yes. Send all of your music from your library to your play list (drag and drop). Then, select the burn button. Your will need SmartSplit and you should save them as data files...

Originally posted by cardinalbj
i guess by reading alot of these replies, i must be the only one using musicmatch. my problem is that i have songs on my ipod that do not play, but they still show up on my ipod. i was told to save my songs and then reset my ipod. i have no clue how to save my songs using musicmatch. i have tried it before and i failed misserably. does anyone know how to either transfer my songs so i can reset my ipod, or know another way to delete the songs? thanks

Bill:

Perhaps I have missed something, but it appears that I have done exactly what you state iTunes is incapable of. I royally screwed up my library and was forced to start over. Rather than weed through 3000+ files placed across dozens of folders, I decided to copy all of the MP3?s from my iPod. What I simply did was copy all the folders from the iPod_Control folder. I am not sure if this is essential, but I never place my MP3?s in the iTunes folder.

Anyway, I re-imported all the music in the iTunes library, and all seems well. I am in the process of burning all 3000+ files through Roxio. I will report back?

Originally posted by SouthsideIrish
Using iTunes
This feature is not supported in iTunes

Bill McNair

Originally posted by jhansman
I just used Podutil to copy my iPod to another hard drive, and it works perfectly. You have to be careful how you do it, however, as you can end up with folders with just one artist and one song, as from a complilation CD. Otherwise, it is the tool I would recommend, and it's free!

Linky:

http://www.kennettnet.co.uk/software/

I'd agree with that, I've used it a bit and have found it useful. Another tip - as Podutil doesn't need to be installed, you can simply store a copy on the iPod and run it from there instead of having to have separate copies on work/home PCs, etc.

Can I use iTunes and one of the above programs with my iPod?

ok - stupid question - if i use this, do I have to go to my c drive or will and extrnal drive work?

also, can i get these back to iTunes using rhe usual "add file to library" functions?

Originally posted by wjake
But what if you're the poor sucker who uses Music match? My computer mysteriously deleted an entire genre of music (and my biggest one, unfortunately) and I need to get it back... Help!

yeah, musicmatch just does that. i lost the vast majority of my song ratings the same way. that's why you really, truly, genuinely, sincerely, honestly, have to stop using it and just install iTunes. i was a skeptic before i tried it, myself. but, it's WAY better than musicmatch, and in no little part because it doesn't randomly delete stuff you spent hours setting up.

I had to reofrmat my PC. I have 1086 songs on my iPod. I had to create a new iTunes folder, and now I can't get the songs off my iPod or add new songd to it. Please help me.

Question:::
How do i drop song off my iPod to my HD and have it bring the song coding with it (artist name, album, genre, etc)?

I transferred some songs from my iPod to my HD using Ephpod as described above, but the songs that are on my HD do not have any ID3 info! The artist name/album name etc are on the ipod but not coded in each song on my HD.

Anyone know what happened or more importantly how to do it?

My dad just got a new computer with enough space to hold all the mp3s on his iPod, so he wants to transfer them all over there. The problem is that his iPod is formatted to my Mac. Is there some kind of freeware/shareware program (I know about MacOpener but don't want to shell out 50 bucks) that can recognize Mac-formatted iPods on a PC? I'd really rather not reformat the whole thing and be forced to go through my 35 gig library of mp3s to find then 10 GB of songs he wants.

I've posted the following question (and subsequent exchange) in other locations of the iPodlounge, but I thought posting it here might also be beneficial. All of you seem to be very knowledgeable about the iPod -- I'm a beginner -- and I'm hoping one of you might know how I can solve my problem (see below).

Transferring playlists from iPod to iTunes?

Well, here's my iPod dilemma... Dell technical support suggested I reformat my C: drive to get rid of some really difficult problems that were making my laptop go crazy. Before the reformat, I backed up (duplicated, in fact) my entire C: drive to an external hard drive, F:

Now when it came time to retrieve my iPod tunes, transferring the Library to a newly downloaded version of iTunes was no problem. All 9 gigs of music were present and accounted for. And the full library of music played fine through my laptop speakers on the new C: drive. But there were no playlists.

At the time, I had no idea that something so simple as copying the backed up .xml document and the other database file to the new iTunes folder on my reformatted C: drive was all that I needed to do. So, I called Apple tech support (I've purchased AppleCare) and even THEY said they really didn't know how to retrieve my playlists. So they suggested a few things (including deleting those crucial playlist files that I had backed up in my F: drive!!!!!) and, of course, none of their suggestions retrieved my playlists.

Now the only remaining evidence of my playlists is on my iPod. As you can appreciate, I worked hard creating those playlists. (I count on them for parties, church dances, company picnics, etc.)

So, is there anyway I can transfer the playlists on my iPod over to my iTunes? Is there shareware, freeware, anything I can use? I'm really kinda desperate!!

Many thanks,
ipodinsd


04-09-2004 11:35 AM



ashawley
Recalcitrant Moderator

Registered: Aug 2002
Location: Napa, California
Posts: 7560

As of today, there isn't any software that does this that I'm aware of. Because the playlists are just values in the iPod's database, they aren't files stored anywhere.

But it's would certainly be technically possible to do it--it's just that no one has.

I can't believe Apple didn't know how to fix this. Simply clicking on File>Import and selecting your old .xml file would have done the trick. Unbelievable. And you're sure you deleted that XML file?

Adam

------------------------

04-09-2004 04:58 PM



ipodinsd
Junior Member

Registered: Apr 2004
Location: San Diego, CA
Posts: 3

Thanks for responding! Much appreciated.

Yes, I'm positively, utterly, and tragically sure that I erased that .xml file.

"sigh"

I had a bad feeling about it even when the Apple techie expressly asked me to go in there and delete it. Let me tell you, I'm just sick that I didn't listen to my own instincts. UGH!!!

Well, as you said, someone writing a simple program that could transfer the playlists to my iTunes would be incredible. I wonder if there's anyone I might be able to pay to create the software? Any ideas?

Using MyPodPlayer [yes an app I made :P] it reads playlists, and saves them as m3u's in a temp folder. I can modify this to store some sort of text file or xml file in future releases so you can improt them as playlists...

Ok, I have not seen this question even remotely addressed. Sorry if I missed it, but I cant believe that no-one has wanted to do this.

Scenario :
2 computers and 1 ipod.
One computer at work, one at home.
Computer 1 (at home) has song x and y on it.

So you sync your ipod and download x and y to the ipod.
You go to work and upload x and y using one of the free tools available.

While at work you purchase or download a new song using your favorite method. So while at work you use itunes and ADD song Z to the ipod.

Now you go home and you want to upload ONLY song Z to your home library. Possible ?

Yes, I am aware you can copy only that song off of the ipod, however, consider the case where you have an EXTENSIVE library in both places where thousands of songs overlap, and hundreds do not.

So i guess my ultimate question is, will any of the freeware programs copy ONLY the songs that are different ? i.e. " compare" what is on the ipod to what is in the library and copy only those songs that do not already exist in the itunes library ?

Hope that was clear !

Reading through here i didnt see iPod Agent anywhere...

www.ipodagent.com, music, e-mail, weather and more.

/shameless self promotion

no it doesnt sync music as that is what hundreds of other programs do.

Originally posted by zipforia
I'm using iTunes for Windows now...how can I copy songs from my iPod to my computer?...which I had to reformat due to a fatal window error.

Try this utility and it's free http://www.ipodsoft.com/ipodagent.aspx

Richard

Originally posted by gabe90
I want someone to address Skip's question about a Mac ipod that needs to be backed up onto a PC. I'm having that same problem right now (just moved back home from college), and its driving me crazy. Is there a solution anyone can think of? I don't know anyone here that has a Mac, so coppying my files to a mac and transfering isn't really an option. Thanks.
If I understand you correctly, you had a Mac at college that you used to load music onto your iPod. If that's true, then chances are your iPod is Mac-formatted and thus will not be readable on a PC without a third-party application. MacOpener is the only one that I'm aware of:
http://www.dataviz.com/products/macopener/

Looking at this page on their site...
http://www.dataviz.com/products/macopener/mo_ephpod.html?redirect=mo_ephpod_info
...it mentions that "EphPod download includes a 15 day free trial of MacOpener". I'm not sure if it's fully-functional for those 15 days or not, but this might be a solution for you to get the music off your iPod and onto your PC without actually purchasing MacOpener.

First, download some 3rd party software like iPod Agent 0.7.0 (www.ipodsoft.com/ipodagent.aspx) to remove the songs from your iPod back to your computer. After transfer, you can download iTunes and transfer the songs into the library. Do not download iTunes first, it has a default setting to auto sync the iPod and that will delete all of your music off of the iPod.

maybe im imagining things but im sure i read somthing that said that if you load it as a firewire drive (by pressing <<- and ->> buttons down) you can copy music to your hd
maybe just me tho :confused:

Originally posted by podio
i used podutil and it shows i have 798 songs but in the my music folder i copy them too theres only 655?whats up?
I'm having that same sort of problem too. I have 947 songs on my iPod. iPodAgent only exported 799. :mad:

ok here we go, I'll post the events in chronological order:
1. I live in England but I went to see my aunt and uncle in America last July.
2. Whilst I was over there I bought a brand new 4G 20GB ipod with the click wheel.
3. I downloaded the itunes software on my uncle's computer in America.
4. I downloaded about 60 songs for about $55 so I had something to listen to on the plane ride home.
5. Today, my new computer arrived and I installed itunes on it and re-registered my ipod.
6. I looked on this thread and saw that podutil would allow me to put the tracks already on my ipod onto my hard drive.
7. I downloaded podutil with itunes open and my ipod plugged in.
8. After I installed podutil, I opened the program and have since discovered that all of the files which I downloaded from itunes in america onto my uncle's computer in America have now gone.

At which point in the above did my song files get erased from my ipod. They are not on my computer as I have tried a windows search for some of the artists.

So what can I do, if I get my uncle to burn a cd of the song files which are still on his computer can I reload them onto my ipod?

Is there anyway I can retrieve them from my ipod?

I am completely stuck and, as you can imagine, pretty ####ed off that I have lost $55 worth of song files. Please help I'm begging you, thanks Ed

Not the news I wanted. Thanks for giving it to me straight

What does mounting and unmounting the iPod mean?

Originally posted by Rossco
What does mounting and unmounting the iPod mean?
Mount = have the iPod appear on the desktop as a volume (i.e., a hard drive).

Unmount = "eject" the volume from the computer.

Windows - I have moved ITunes to an external drive "F" from the original "C". I think at one time this drive came up as "E". Anyway I am not sure that the "Library" and the "iPod" are in sync as I occasionally get a "song can't be found" in the library when I try to play it.

Is there a way to check the "syncronization" and see if every song on the iPod is in Library and vice versa?

Stu

Hello Fellow iPod'ers...

I've been browsing through this post tonight; found these boards finally, yet I think I'm faced with an issue that I don't see on here (yet maybe it's already been covered):

I'm in Windows XP, I own a 20 gig click wheel pod. All of my music is on my iPod; none is on my hard drive. I've been wanting to take select albums and artists and make CD's for personal use yet I cannot do this. I have Ephod and a trial version of XPlay, where I have successfully been able to transfer my songs to my hard drive--but a huge problem remains. Ephod and XPlay both put select songs into different formats that my CD burning software cannot recognize, such as MP4's, corrupt MP3's and some "locked" (protected) ones. Some of the music turns out ok, but as for the unusal ones--they can't be written to a CD! This is very frustrating...I am certainly able to play all of my music on my ipod, as well as in iTunes, but I can't brun any of it to CD-R's.

Does anyone follow what I'm talking about? Has anyone experienced this problem? Help would be greatly appreciated!

People in here arent replying!! I'm posting elseware on these boards...

PodUtil says it works with Windows 2000 and XP. Any idea of a similar utility for Windows 98SE?

Thanks.

wen i use podutil does it keep the album art also? or am i going to have to reinsert that too?

http://www.ipodcopy.com

Hey people! I have a 4g 20gb IPOD arriving by the end of this week hopefully :-)
I want to use the ipod as a backup to my laptop (for music files). I have 14gb of mp3's and im very protective over them.
Im looking for software that if (heaven forbid!!) anything happend to my laptop, that I can just connect the ipod to the new pc and rebuild my database exactly how it was before, with playlists, ratings etc straight back into itunes!
Im thinking of anapod?
Thanks people an answer would really be appreciated!

~Gaz

ps: 1st post!

i just read through this entire thread and it doesnt seem to fix my problem. i can't access my ipod at all when it's plugged in because it tells me the ipod needs to be reformatted. even if i try to update the software it doesnt give me the update option, only the restore option. and i cant access it though my computer because it tells me the same thing. is there any way around this without having to wipe the ipod clean?

Originally posted by ghosts_cloak
Hey people! I have a 4g 20gb IPOD arriving by the end of this week hopefully :-)
I want to use the ipod as a backup to my laptop (for music files). I have 14gb of mp3's and im very protective over them.
Im looking for software that if (heaven forbid!!) anything happend to my laptop, that I can just connect the ipod to the new pc and rebuild my database exactly how it was before, with playlists, ratings etc straight back into itunes!
Im thinking of anapod?
Thanks people an answer would really be appreciated!

~Gaz

ps: 1st post!

Welcome to the lounge. To answer your question, you can use YamiPod (http://www.yamipod.com). With this app you can manage the iPod from the iPod HD to transfer music to and from the iPod. I haven't had any problems with it so far and I have it on my iPod HD.

The playlists, ratings etc will not copy from the iPod so you will need to back that info up. An external HD is best so that you can transfer the iTunes files where that info is kept.

ALL PROGRAMS LISTED ARE FREEWARE OR OFFER A FREE TRIAL

Some good software to copy songs from the iPod to the computer.

This application goes onto the iPod hard drive and the iPod can be managed from it and it's for Windows & Mac users:

YamiPod (http://www.yamipod.com) it supports:

Windows XP, 2000, 2003, ME, 98SE
Mac OS 10.2 & 10.3

Features
-stand alone program, no installation required
-iPod is auto recognized
-mp3 & AAC files can be copied to and from iPod
-read/write access to mp3 id3 and AAC infos
-lyrics support (with internet auto search)
-playlist support (On-the-go included)
-playlists import (PLS, M3U)
-full unicode support
-auto-download new ersions
-advanced song import/export settings
-2 restore features
-built in music player
-iPod informations
-remove duplicated tracks
-find lost music files
-easy ratings edit
-PC to iPod synchronization
-create and edit notes
-automatically update song playcounts
-news RSS and podcasts to iPod
-Now supports trasnferring videos and podcasts back to your computer.
You will need to check the box for videos and podcasts under preferences>other tab.


iPod Agent now iGadget For Windows Only
http://www.ipodsoft.com/site/pmwiki.php?n=igadget.Homepage

-Transfers songs from your iPod to your PC
-Transfers Outlook mail to your iPod
-Transfers Outlook appointments to your iPod
-Transfers Outlook contacts to your iPod
-Transfers Outlook notes to your iPod
-Fetches weather forecasts from the web and puts it on your iPod
-Fetches RSS news feeds from the internet an dmkes them available on you iPod
-Fetches local movie showtimes from the internet an dmakes them available on you iPod
-Transfer the contents of any folder on you PC to your iPod
-Copy any text file to your iPod - iPod Agent will automatically break these up into 4k size pages if necessary (the iPod has a limit of 4k size notes).
-Create listings of songs

SharePod - For Windows Only (http://www.sturm.net.nz/website.php?Section=iPod+Programs&Page=SharePod)

This application is stored and run from the iPod hard drive. No installation needed. It will allow you to play your iPod from any computer and transfer music from the iPod to any computer.

PodPlayer - For Windows Only
(http://www.ipodsoft.com/software.aspx)

-You can extract music from the iPod and add it back to the computer
-Play music from the iPod
-view songs that are on the iPod as you would in itunes by (artist, album, playlist, etc.
-you can check for duplicates
-you can play your music on any computer when your iPod is connected without the meed to install any programs such as iTunes.

Senuti - Mac Only
http://wbyoung.ambitiouslemon.com/senuti

For Mac OS X 10.3
Freeware that tranfers music as well as playlists back to the computer.

PodUtil - for both Mac & Windows
http://www.kennettnet.co.uk/software/podutil.php

Introduction - PodUtil is an easy-to-use utility for viewing the songs on your iPod and copying them in a customisable organised manner to your computer. Once copied, PodUtil can add your songs back to iTunes and rebuild your playlists. PodUtil 3.0.2 is compatible with Mac OS X, Windows 2000 and Windows XP.
Powerful Track Selection - With PodUtil, you can choose what music you'd like to copy quickly and easily. The "Quick Ruleset..." feature lets you quickly queue a batch of songs based on a single piece of information. If you'd like a little more control, the Ruleset Builder gives you just that:
iTunes Integration - PodUtil can scan your iTunes Library on startup. This lets you compare your iPod's music library to your iTunes library - PodUtil will tell you if a song is in your iTunes library or not, and will even show tracks that are similar.
Copying - PodUtil has a powerful but easy to use editor that lets you specify exactly how you'd like your songs to be copied to your computer - simply drag and drop tags to set up how your songs organised and named. For more information on Copy Settings Tags, see the Copy Settings Tag Reference. (http://forum.kennettnet.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=462)
Portability - When you're on the move, it can be a pain to keep your settings and registration details current on each computer you use. As of version 3.0, PodUtil solves this problem by introducing iPod Profiles. Each iPod you use with PodUtil gets it's own profile, which stores settings on a per-iPod basis. If "Allow Roaming Profile" is enabled, these settings will be stored on the iPod and picked up by any copy of PodUtil 3.0 or higher you connect your iPod to. You can take this a step further by purchasing a PodUtil Anywhere license - your registration will then be stored in your iPod's Roaming profile and used by any compuer you connect it to. You can even install PodUtil onto your iPod (http://forum.kennettnet.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=461) so you don't have to install it on every computer you use.

PodUtil Help Section (http://www.kennettnet.co.uk/software/podutilhelp/)

iPod Access - for Windows & Mac
http://www.findleydesigns.com/

-Tiger (OS X 10.4) Support
-Support for Windows 2000 and Win XP
-Works with all PC formatted iPod and iPod mini models
-Playlist Support
-Playlist Cloning into iTunes
-Add songs directly to the iTunes Library
-AAC file support (including iTunes Music store songs)
-Audible.com support
-Song Navigation by Artist/Album or Composer/Album
-Copy songs organized by Artist/Album or Composer/Album
-Single button sequential backups
-Attempts to recover songs from iPods with a damaged database.
-Will also transfer videos and podcasts from iPod back to your computer.[/url]

[b]Sveta Portable Audio - Windows Shareware w/30 day free full use trial offer.
http://www.dbpoweramp.com/sveta-portable-audio.htm

-Rip Audio CDs straight to your player no need to store them on your PC,
-On the Fly conversions have WMA files but your player only plays mp3? Sveta can convert whilst sending,
-Smart Conversions, tell Sveta which audio types should be recompressed or sent 'as is' (files below a certain bitrate),
-Simplicity sending Audio files, from within Windows Explorer right click on an Audio File >> Convert To >> [your portable]
-Sveta Explorer simple to use full screen device explorer, sort tracks by Artist, Album or Year
-Edit ID Tags, Star rate tracks & Playlist Support **
-Copy Audio back to PC and arrange (order into folders) as required **
-Two way Audio Synchronize, with dBpowerAMP Audio Player synchronize newly ripped audio files,
-Integration with dBpowerAMP family, dBpowerAMP the must have audio program - Sveta integrates seamlessly.

iDump - Windows Freeware -Windows 2k, XP & ME
http://www.softpedia.com/get/IPOD-TOOLS/Multimedia-IPOD-tools/iDump.shtml

iDump will allow you transfer your songs off your iPod to a PC, iDump does come wrapped in installer but you can simply drop the .exe in the root directory on your iPod and run it from there.

CopyPod
http://www.copypod.net/

CopyPod v8.60 Features
- iTunes 7.0, Nano and 5G Video iPod fully compatible.
- Direct import of playlists and ratings into iTunes.
- Songs order in playlists
preserved.
- Back up of videos from 5G iPods too !

Typical uses

If you experience a computer or hard drive crash, upgrade to a new computer or iPod, got your computer stolen or lost, this method will let you repopulate your iTunes library from your iPod.

Advantages

- Restoration of all music content of your iPod:Songs,Playlists,Ratings, Playcounts, Date last played, Date added, etc.

- One click direct import of all your iPod music content into iTunes.

See this page (http://www.copypod.net/gettingstarted.php) for instructions and PDF link at bottom of the page.

I have a stupid followup question -- so let's say you've completed all the steps. So you're left with:

an iTunes with all your music that you retrieved off your iPod
your original iPod with your music still on it

What next? What happens when you hit "syncronize" in iTunes? Will it recognize that your iPod has a complete copy of your music library already even though you haven't synced it yet? Will it try to copy over everything, creating duplicates?

PS - In my case, using Windows XP

Hey, I have had my iPod for a long time, formatted for windows. I now just bought a new Powerbook G4 and would like to know how I could transfer my music from my windows iPod to my mac. My PC crashed a few months ago and of course all the music was deleted. So I need to get the windows formatted songs off my iPod and onto my PB. What would be the best way to do this? Take the songs off the iPod onto my PC first and then transfer? Or can I use a program like Ephpod right onto my mac, or would that delete all my music? Thanks for the help.

Could I use any of these programs aformentioned, such as "yamipod?" The only one you mentioned was the one that one has to pay for. Is there any way to transfer the songs from my PC to my PB without paying for a program? Thanks.

Originally posted by jhollington
If you want to restore your entire library, there is a 100% free solution that requires NO additional software.

Look for the \iPod_Control\Music directory on your iPod (when accessing it in Disk Mode -- ie, as a drive letter).

The \iPod_Control directory is hidden, so you may need to turn on the display of hidden files and folder in Windows Explorer (go to Tools->Folder Options->View).

This directory contains all of your music files, in their original form, complete with proper tags and filenames. The only downside is that they aren't organized into very logical folders (there is no album/artist folder organization). This can make it difficult to find a specific file, or especially to recover an entire artist or album (since they will be scattered throughout different subdirectories).

However, when restoring the entire music library, you can just copy this entire \iPod_Control\Music directory to your hard drive. This will include ALL of your music files.

If you then subsequently import that directory into iTunes, with the "Keep Music Folder Organized" option turned on (see Edit->Preferences->Advanced in iTunes), then iTunes will not only bring that music back into your library, but will reorganize it into subdirectories by album/artist.

The only information that this will not restore is the playlists, ratings, and playcounts, since these aren't stored in the physical music files themselves, but rather in the iPod's database. Most third-party utilities won't restore this information either, although there are a couple that will, such as CopyPod (http://www.copypod.net), which will restore playlists, ratings and playcounts, or PodUtil (http://www.kennettnet.co.uk/software/podutil.php) which will rebuild your playlists.

Thanks for posting this - and I have been reasonably successful. I have followed your instrunctions and have copied the Hidden Music folder to my desktop. Then I have opened iTunes and when I select Import and go to the folder it is looking for files rather than folders to import but there appears to be nothing in the folders as it will only allow selection of .txt, .m3u and another file format. When I look in the folders in the music folder on the desktop the mp4 (the specific iTunes type file) are all there. Can you advise me where I am going wrong? I have already selected the "Keep Music Folder Organized" box. Thanks!

Thanks for this - I will try it tonight when I get home and let you know how it goes tomorrow. Cheers!!

as with many people here, i bought my iPod before an external HD. now that i've got both, i'd like to back up my songs. i've used podutil, which is fine if a bit slow for transfering 5500+ songs.

except: sometimes it freaks out and thinks that a song has already been transfered. it asks me to select one of three options: skip song, overwrite or rename as new. since i'm not really sure why this is coming up in the first place (there are no other similarly-named songs on my HD at the time) i've been going for rename.

so: is there a transfer program besides podutil that won't do this? anyone with yamipod or ipodagent have this problem?

also: is there a way to import the songs into iTunes without having them duplicate the ones on the HD?

hoverphonic - If the songs are on the CD then import it onto the PC then onto the iPod. You can't burn a CD to the iPod.

raziel - see the freeware link in my sig for software to do the transfer. There isn't a way to import the songs from the iPod to iTunes or the PC w/o dups unless you only transfer the songs off of the iPod that you need too. Also read the documentation of the YamiPod site because I think it has a duplicate finding feature.

I'm having a weird problem transferring songs from my iPod to my PC...when I connect my iPod to my computer and open up a transferring program (IpodUtil or iPod Agent), the program gives me a list of the songs on my iPod, but the list is incomplete. I know that I have over 2000 songs on my iPod, but the list that the program gives me says it is transferring around 1000 songs. When I try to transfer songs by accessing the iPod_Control directory and doing a manual copy of the iPod's music folder directly to my hard drive, I get random "parameter incorrect" messages. My computer just crashed, so all my song backups got deleted, and the songs on my iPod are the only copies I have. Can anyone help me out?

u can just drag the songs on to a folder on the desktop, right? just make new folder on desktop and click and drag songs to folder.

i accidently deleted all muic files on my pc i have a program that allows me to load my music from my ipod back to my pc however as soon as i plug my ipod in it will automaticly connect to i tunes which will automatically update it meaning it will erase all the tunes in ipod so how do i use podutil ?

how do i hook my ipod up to the pc without activating i tunes

under the pod tab in preferences the message reads no pod connected and doesnt give any options i am admittedly a computer idiot im sure im missing something obvious but ? im sure i can do it once i can get my pod to connect without opening i tunes

I downloaded pod util and encountered problems. See about 10 posts up. Followed the advice of people saying you could just copy the files across.

It works!

Much quicker than the painful pod util.

Lost my playlists but thats a minor matter for me.

Thanks to any and all who helped me throughout this thread.

grrrr im so mad... whenever i try to copy the songs from my iPod to computer it ALWAYS ALWAYS freezes. i've tried like 7 programs... grrrr cause i accidentally let iTunes organize my songs and then all my files in My Music folder got all crapped up and i hate it now.. they are ALL in separate folders.. if anyone knows how to fix this and revert to my original way, or to fix my freezing iPod, please help!!!!! im desperate it took me ages to tag all my songs!

Can you transfer the songs into iTunes?

I think this topic may help my problem, but I just want to make sure...

I have a client who has put together a rather large iTunes Library consisting of about 90% music that he has ripped from CDs and about 10% purchased music. He currently uses a 20GB iPod on a Windows XP Tablet PC. He would like to be able to have me move his iTunes Library to two other computers - one belonging to his wife, the other to his daughter. This would initially "populate" the iTunes Libraries on both of those PCs so that they have access to a large amount of music without having to go through all the work that he performed...

If I use podUtil to just "suck" the contents of his iPod to the two different PCs, will iTunes on these other two machines be able to find the files? If not, where should I save the files on the PCs so that iTunes will be able to use them?

THANKS!

I just download IpodUtil and transfered 2650 songs into iTunes with no problem. I would definitely recommend this program.

There is a program called Sharepod that is freeware that allows you to copy songs from your Ipod to a PC. The best software Ive seen is called Anapod Explorer. Windows Explorer interface, drop and drag, playlists, notes, etc. It costs 20 dollars and works better than Itunes in my opinion.

snackeycakes239

Hi, I was just wondering, is there a way to save songs from the Ipod to my PC using Real Player 10?

Originally posted by jhollington
If you want to restore your entire library, there is a 100% free solution that requires NO additional software.

Look for the \iPod_Control\Music directory on your iPod (when accessing it in Disk Mode -- ie, as a drive letter).

The \iPod_Control directory is hidden, so you may need to turn on the display of hidden files and folder in Windows Explorer (go to Tools->Folder Options->View).

This directory contains all of your music files, in their original form, complete with proper tags and filenames. The only downside is that they aren't organized into very logical folders (there is no album/artist folder organization). This can make it difficult to find a specific file, or especially to recover an entire artist or album (since they will be scattered throughout different subdirectories).

However, when restoring the entire music library, you can just copy this entire \iPod_Control\Music directory to your hard drive. This will include ALL of your music files.

If you then subsequently import that directory into iTunes, with the "Keep Music Folder Organized" option turned on (see Edit->Preferences->Advanced in iTunes), then iTunes will not only bring that music back into your library, but will reorganize it into subdirectories by album/artist.

The only information that this will not restore is the playlists, ratings, and playcounts, since these aren't stored in the physical music files themselves, but rather in the iPod's database. Most third-party utilities won't restore this information either, altho