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.
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Entries (RSS)
May 29th, 2008 06:17
Thank-you! Now I have no problems, you saved me money, and my medicine—-MUSIC
lol
May 24th, 2008 16:08
Hey, I was just trying to figure out how to do this… There is also another way… which is really similar to this way.. Instead of un hidding the folder you can right click on the main folder, like when you find it in my computer and click search. Then click on music and search the letter “m” and it will show all of your music again in the un-readable format. I figured it out and then decied to search in on the internet wasnt really smart :s lol But this is great that it is alreay posted on the internet.
May 23rd, 2008 01:17
For Vista users, click organize, folder and search options, and then view. It will be under the hidden files and folders option.
May 20th, 2008 12:54
your a champ.
May 20th, 2008 03:33
Please someone help…., I have found the music though this easy guide explained, but i can’t do the last step and transfer it in2 my itunes library how do I do this????
May 16th, 2008 01:29
omg THANKS FOR THIS IT HELPED SOO MUCH!
May 7th, 2008 02:33
I agree, he should run for president
May 6th, 2008 22:35
I have vista it was super easy. This guy should be running for president.
May 6th, 2008 15:41
Why don’t use TuneAid. For me this is the best. He works for PC and Mac and retrieve all data (playlists, ratings, playcounts) from iPods and iPhones etc..
May 6th, 2008 15:27
Why don’t use ? For me this is the best. He works for PC and Mac and retrieve all data from iPods and iPhones like playlists, ratings, playcounts etc..
May 6th, 2008 08:15
ty sooooo much
May 5th, 2008 07:27
Oh, and I forgot to mention, I have Windows Vista, and already tried someone else’s suggestion to get the ipod control to show up and it still doesnt work.
May 5th, 2008 07:21
Hey, for some reason my ipod wont show up in my computer when connected. I already clicked the ’show hidden files or folders’ option, but still no luck. I tried plugging in my digital camera just to see if it comes up in my computer and it does. Does this mean something is wrong with my ipod? What should I do now?
May 3rd, 2008 10:52
OMG !!! THANKU SOOOOOOOO MUCH !!! WHO EVER WROTE ALL THIS IS CONSIDERED AS A GENIUS IN MY DICTIONARY !!!! THANKU ONCE AGAIN !!! = )
May 3rd, 2008 03:06
Thnx a ton man!!! it worked out man gret job!!!
April 28th, 2008 07:12
i have a vista i cant find the tool button
April 20th, 2008 08:46
So glad I kept searching. My computer stopped working and I just bought a new one. Thanks for the help!
April 18th, 2008 07:44
if you are having problems getting music to copy that you purchased on itunes, all you have to do is log onto you itunes account on a different computer and you should be able to access all the music you have purchased
April 16th, 2008 20:04
THANK YOU!!!
April 12th, 2008 18:18
fair enough it does the job, but renaming a 16 gig touch with 4000 songs, gonna take too long….respect though
April 8th, 2008 00:07
Thank you so so so so much! You have totally saved my library! Have some eternal gratitude!
April 2nd, 2008 17:36
Good Work guys
el|te !!!
April 2nd, 2008 10:59
THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!! I lost all my music to a virus, had to reinstal everything, and now thanks to you, I have it all back, THANK YOU
God Bless
March 29th, 2008 05:01
Thank you so much. 30 gigs of music was alot to transfer the first time. I’m estatic you were able save me from that again.
March 25th, 2008 08:17
Thanks so much for this easy-to-follow guide, I’d been going demented since my laptop was stolen! Now I’ve recovered all my music off my iPod, brilliant