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)
February 7th, 2009 11:47
omg this is amazing it saves me so much time <3333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333
February 6th, 2009 23:31
Thank u it worked and i was well surprised. Brilliant would recomend
February 6th, 2009 23:30
BRILLILANT 5*
February 3rd, 2009 03:19
Good Stuff! Worked perfect! Thanks.
February 2nd, 2009 04:05
Great info, but one critical bit was missing. I had to “unhide” the folders before iTunes would import them. First I unhid them one at a time (right mouse button, properties, unchecked “Hide Folder”). Then I figured out that I could hide and then unhide the “iTunes Music” folder and everything in it in order to unhide these folders.
January 27th, 2009 09:41
it worked all the way up to the part where i had to imort it onto iTunes.
im still trying to figure that out
January 18th, 2009 09:06
Worked perfectly! Thank you!
January 16th, 2009 02:06
[...] CopyTrans can come to rescue, especially so if you don’t want to use the manual way to copy and transfer iPod and iPhone music and video to PC, as iTunes does not provide reverse-sync [...]
January 13th, 2009 04:03
Hi there. Just wanted to let you all know that you can go right on the apple website for instructions on how to do this. Since it is from apple, it is probably the safest way to go. I did it last night and it worked perfectly. You will get all of your songs, album covers, play counts, etc! The link is: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1329
Good luck!!
January 11th, 2009 11:19
before i try this… does this also get your plays counts, ratings and artwork too?
January 11th, 2009 09:42
that was AWESOME! The instructions were easy to follow and it worked great!
thanks a bunch 
January 9th, 2009 11:11
well im trying to find a site to delete songs of my ipod because whwn ever i try to it just keeps on flashing green and orange.
January 9th, 2009 11:10
This worked great after my PC crashed and my iPod too at one point!!! I’m so happy! Thanks a bunch!
January 7th, 2009 21:59
Hi again – I have worked it out and now have everything where I want it, thanks a million!!
January 7th, 2009 21:03
Hi – I have done everything suggested (I think), but when I try to copy to the itunes library nothing happens
Please help!
January 5th, 2009 05:08
Excellent work folks, thanks very much for that
January 4th, 2009 07:26
I have a two year old I-Pod Classic. Everything is loaded on my laptop computer…My company ownes the laptop and has restricted access to my I-Pod file (tunes, photos, etc.
How do I transfer the complete contents of my I-pod to my desktop? I understand there is (third) 3rd party programs/software that can do this…Can anyone help me or put me in the right direction?
Thanks
January 4th, 2009 06:55
I also have a laptop with Windows Vista and it isn’t even showing that my iPod is connected. Under “Devices with Removable Storage” it doesn’t show my iPod, only the CD I have in my computer. I am so angry and frustrated and if anyone can help me please let me know!
January 3rd, 2009 18:08
Michael
July 20th, 2007 09:24 49
I HAVE VISTA!!!!!!
here’s what you do.
1.) after you plug in your iPod you click on my computer, look for your iPod in “devices with removable storage”.
2.) after u open that u click ‘organize’ in the top left hand corner’ for a drop down menu. then click on folder and search options.
3.)select the tab ‘view’ and in the advanced setting selections. select ’show hidden files and folders.’ click ok.
4.) then follow the same directions as above =)
p.s. if your just wanting to upload music from your iPod to your iTunes, just go through a long process of opening the folders, then ’selecting all’ of the files in the folder and dragging it into itunes music.
You’re my hero since noone else would post how to do this with vista. Thanks XD
January 3rd, 2009 09:53
didnt work i got windows vista on my laptop and i cant get it to even aknowledge my ipod is plugged in
January 2nd, 2009 12:24
Sweet! Thanks for the info! Works perfectly.
December 30th, 2008 11:49
YOUR MY HERO!!!
that was so easy
now tell people how to get dvds on their ipod!!
that would be cool
December 30th, 2008 09:59
Thankyou for that, I lost one ipod by connecting it to my other laptop, now i can reload it with my other ipod’s music, saved the day. Cheers.
December 29th, 2008 12:44
well…thank you very very much!!!
December 29th, 2008 00:23
Fantsticc bit of info, i’ve been sittin for bout two hours trying to work thjis out!!!