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)
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???
August 22nd, 2008 15:53
opay so i dont have an ipod, i have an enV phone but i have the samae problem. i thought if i loooked up “ipod to pc” the solution would be the same…but its not. do u have any idea how to help me with my phone? i cant move any of my songs frmo the phone to the computer, idk what to do! (just got a new laptop, all my music is on my old computer ahh)
August 16th, 2008 02:05
you also saved me sooo much time thank you. i just got one question, is there a way to get everything else back(ex. ratings, play count, equalizer). thanks again
August 14th, 2008 02:58
This is great but half of my songs have the four digit code. Can you help?
August 8th, 2008 13:27
thanks alot for ur help now i can copy all my song s from iPod to my Pc
August 8th, 2008 04:14
okay, i got up to ‘ipod control’, but when i clicked on it i got that message
“windows cannot open this file, in order for windows to open this file it needs to know which program to use, blablabla. then it says
-use the web service to find the correct program
-select a program from a list”
(you know the message)
when i click on use a web service i get a windows explorer cannot display page screen.
what program should i use?
i just got the computer today so its lacking a lot of programs. Its Windows Vista if it matters
hope you can help
Marcus
August 5th, 2008 02:27
thank you so much.
and a big thank you to rahul and jo for the vista advice.
no prolems except the time it takes to click on every single song to open it.
but there’s probably a much quicker way that i no doubt will discover soon.
thank you so so much! you have saved my music and money!
thank yoouuu! xD
August 4th, 2008 00:08
Thank you so much. My external hard drive died this morning along with all my files. Nothing irreplaceable, but I would have died without my music.
Also if you have these songs on iTunes already, just double click and it will play with the real file name. (assuming iTunes is default media player)
August 2nd, 2008 21:45
I’ve used this method twice now and it has worked great both times
I did find that i had to plug my ipod into the back of my computer for it to show up in the my computer area not the front usb ports.
Thankyou!!
July 27th, 2008 02:13
thaks a million.
was about to attempt a suicide,then happened to see your post.
you are indeed a life line
thanks again
btw ,i have vista.and it worked beautifully.
July 25th, 2008 22:56
J’ai trouv
July 25th, 2008 21:58
u saved me ur so good thank u soooo much
i was stumped forever!!!
July 25th, 2008 12:54
ok i saved the ipod control and everrything, and when i click add neww folder on itunes, i have to keep clicking until i get the just the files? do i have to do it one file at a time? help please
July 25th, 2008 06:20
The hidden folders thing is just too complicated for girls
. I tried Sue-Ann’s. This software rocks! I just recuperated all my iPhone music back to my new laptop.
July 24th, 2008 16:29
JJ of course there is a faster way of syncing your ipod with any itunes library, than doing it manually.
I use CopyTrans http://www.copytrans.net/ and I really like it because it protects your ipod from unwanted itunes syncing. Besides, it copies your iPod songs to your computer or iTunes, playlists, ratings, play count, last played, album artworks, videos, movies, TV shows, audiobooks and podcasts (incl. subscriptions)
It imports all that to iTunes in their right order and categories. It’s just so easy with it. I’m sure you’ll like it to.
July 22nd, 2008 11:00
ur the best … its so easy and fast to transfer ur the man…COMPUTER GENIUS!!!!
July 20th, 2008 19:45
OMG thank you soooo much it worked :O genius indeed
July 20th, 2008 07:19
oh my god you´re a freakin genius!! thanks soo much I LOVE YOU man
July 20th, 2008 04:07
I have a comment on step 9. Once I added the folders to iTunes, they still had 4-letter names in my documents folder. I thought I’d have to rename them all myself but iTunes will reorganize them for you if you check the box in the advanced tab in preferences.
July 12th, 2008 06:39
my ipod drive will not show up when i go to my computer please help
July 12th, 2008 05:17
is there a faster way to put the songs back into the library without instead of doing it one at a time? but other than that good directions
July 7th, 2008 08:20
you are of epic proportions my good sir
June 26th, 2008 19:11
U’RE THE MAAAAN!
June 2nd, 2008 11:40
thank a million, two poeple let me have there ipods now i wish i had known this before i deleted everything on the first one.