Copy or Transfer Music and Songs from iPod to PC and Computer without iTunes
To protect the copyrights of the songs, musics and videos stored on iPod and reduce piracy, Apple has make it difficult to copy or transfer the songs, musics, audio, videos and files that stored on iPod to personal computer (PC) or laptop notebook computer, by scrambling the file names of the songs on the iPod and telling the operating system that the files should be invisible to normal users, without any encryption involved in this iPod anti-copying mechanism.
iTunes allows only one-way synchronization of musics from computer to iPod, so if for whatever reasons such as need to reload your library on local hard disk due to desktop hard disk failure or buying new computer, you can easily copy back the video, music and song library from iPod on a Windows PC by following steps:
- Insert your iPod to a Windows PC USB or FireWire port. (PC should runs Windows XP or other Windows operating system).
- If your Windows PC still doesn’t have iTunes installed, skip this step. If iTunes is already installed and prompt a message on whether if you’d like to associate this iPod with this computer and deleting its content, click No. Or else you will lose your only copy of library on iTunes. Beside, ensure that ‘Enable Disk Use’ is selected.
- Open My Computer or Windows Explorer, the iPod should be automatically detected as a portable hard drive.
- Click on the iPod icon or the iPod portable hard drive letter to open the contents of the drive.
- If you don’t see a folder called “iPod Control”, it’s hidden and invisible. To unhidden it so that it’s visible, go to Tools -> Folder Options -> View, and then check (enable) the option “Show hidden files and folders.”
- Open the “iPod Control” folder, and then the Music folder.
- The Music folder contains the iPod’s music and videos, divided into folders. Copy the library to local computer hard drive’s My Music folder.
- The files copied have unintelligible four-letter file names. To reveal the names of the songs and other data tags, add the files to the Windows Media Player or iTunes libraries or switch to “Tiles” view in Windows Explorer.
- Rename the file if necessary.
Beside above manual ways to copy and transfer song library from iPod to computer, or import into iTunes, there are several third party program or more commonly called iPod Manager that has the iPod copying function such as SharePod (freeware) or PodPlus (shareware).
Similarly, in Macintosh running MacOS X or MacOS 9, it’s harder to show hidden files and folders. So these third party utilities with iPod copying will be useful to transfer files and music from iPod to PC’s hard disk and iTunes library.
For MacOS X, try Broken Helix and Rob’s iPod Exporter. For MacOS 9, try escapePod and iProber. Other iPod Manager or iPod song transfer utility for Mac include Senuti, iPodRid, iPod.iTunes and PodWorks. For Linux, try GUIPod. PodUtil will be able to works on both Windows and Mac platform.
The transferred music will be playable without any restrictions if the songs are ripped from CDs. If the songs or videos are bought from the iTunes music store, they will play in iTunes after you have “authorize” the computer. To authorize, try playing a purchased file. It will prompt you for your iTunes username and password. Up to five computers can be authorized at any one time.
Share and contribute or get technical support and help at My Digital Life Forums.
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Entries (RSS)
October 12th, 2008 23:02
thank youso much, most of those programmes you can use only lets you upload like 100 songs,
p.s mike, its prob not coming up because youve ejected it on itunes.
what i did was got rid of itunes all together, uploaded the music and then put it back on.
October 10th, 2008 23:30
In my opinion, CopyTrans is the best bet to transfer music with playlists and ratings, videos, podcasts and subscriptions from iPod&iPhone to computer.
October 10th, 2008 16:44
Hello,
There are many iPod to computer transfer software now.’
Which make it easy to get iPod music to computer.
October 7th, 2008 15:08
Thanks!
I’m using but it only work on Windows.
October 7th, 2008 10:17
Thank you great info……
October 6th, 2008 06:22
Uhh… my computer keeps reading my iPod as a camera, so when I got into My Computer, the portable device says it’s a camera. Help..?
October 4th, 2008 10:56
I don’t see the folder call “Ipod Control” but I can’t “unhidden it so that it’s visible, go to Tools -> Folder Options -> View, and then check (enable) the option “Show hidden files and folders?” Where’d I find “Tools”?!? Please help! Thank you.
October 2nd, 2008 08:12
Thanks, This helped a lot.
October 2nd, 2008 00:53
thank you so much omg
October 1st, 2008 10:34
i have an itoch and in step 2 where u have to enable didk use, i dont have it as an option. wat do i do?? please reply
September 30th, 2008 11:47
how do i do this on vista? i cant find tools
September 30th, 2008 04:57
Thanks so much (:
Definitely saved me from deleting everything off my iPod, too, as well as not having to re-download everything or find the CDs.
September 14th, 2008 18:25
holy crap that was so easy.
thankyou so much.
September 8th, 2008 07:35
Thanks, even one is is technically handicapped like me can figure this out!
September 7th, 2008 02:43
THANK YOU SO MUCH!!
My stupid external hard drive crapped out with all my music on it. Literally, you saved my life.
September 3rd, 2008 23:14
Please help. I have no idea what’s wrong. I followed all the steps, however I do not have an “iPod control” folder. I have tried unhiding the folders and it has shown the hidden folders, but none that are “iPod Control”. I only have “Calendars”, “Contacts”, “Notes”, and “Photos”.
Please help.
September 3rd, 2008 13:01
THANK YOU!!!!!!
I have lost one of the albums that i very important to me and the only place I had it was in my nano.
THANK YOU!!!!!
September 1st, 2008 23:38
After finding ipod control and copying the file to my music, how do I get it to appear in the itunes library?
September 1st, 2008 16:10
THANKS! great help.
@ bob:
if u have vista right there, try to look at Organize->Folder and Search Options->View->Show hidden files and folders.
September 1st, 2008 15:49
Okay so I don’t have a tools button on “my computer”…..how can I enable the hidden folders?
August 30th, 2008 10:30
when i go to my computer and open up my ipod folders, i dont have a “tools” button? why do i not have that option?
August 27th, 2008 07:30
it’s not working for me!! the part that isn’t working is the part where the computer detects your iPod as a hard drive. my iPod doesn’t show up in My Computer OR the control panel. help???