How To Copy songs from your iPod to your hard drive

[musicfanlh]

When I cracked my iPod I thought I would die!!!Luckily I sent it away to IPODMODS and they fixed my baby and not 1 song was missing!!!!! On top of that my PC somehow got sick with a bad case of worms and I had to Reinstall Windows!!!!

Luckily I found this Website.

I found iPod Agent very very easy to use.

Some ppl use other software and they know how to find drives and move this and that but everyones computer is different. I Dont like like moving files because As you know having an iPod is hard work and I would hate to accidently lose all of my songs!!!!

As you know if you connect you ipod to you computer it will erase you songs. But you have this option:

1. Uninstall itunes then install ipod agent. This is the safest way to do it. Then if you follow the direction that ipod agent gives it will tell you exactly what to do. Its very very easy. Make sure you read the prompts they give you and you can even select what you want to keep (ex: contacts, calendar, horoscopes,etc)

After that just reinstall Itunes and an option will come up asking you do you want to sync with itunes and............................................... ...........Whala!!!


You just transfered your songs

GOOD LUCK

[EricScott]

Thanks musicfan. Actually discovered iPod Agent last night and it worked like a charm. All of my music is safe and sound on a backup harddrive. When I get my new drive I'll just transfer it and import to iTunes.

[helo0klikeam]

is there a way to copy music to the ipod without itunes what other programs do the same as itunes.i hate itunes

[Parrothead Phan]

Originally posted by helo0klikeam
is there a way to copy music to the ipod without itunes what other programs do the same as itunes.i hate itunes

I really like Anapod Explorer by RedChair Software. This application also supports adding album art to your tags as well. It's not free, but it's well worth the $.

[Macpilot]

How about getting songs off an iPod that is formatted for a different OS?

Like if I sell my Mac-formatted iPod (with a bunch of music on it) to somebody that uses Windows? Is there a way for them to extract the music from the iPod before formatting the iPod for Windows?

Thanks!

[jilliebean]

My old computer's harddrive died, and it's basically gone. I got a new computer, and I'm looking for a way to transfer the music from my iPod to it. I have a PC, and it runs XP. I have a few questions.

Will EphPod or PodUtil do the job for me? Or, should I try the method where you take the files from the iPod in My Computer? Before I do either of those, should I install the iPod disk? Right now I have iTunes with an empty library, I'm concerned about it automatically sync-ing and deleting the music off my iPod. Should I uninstall iTunes first?

[LikeAFox]

Originally posted by jilliebean
My old computer's harddrive died, and it's basically gone. I got a new computer, and I'm looking for a way to transfer the music from my iPod to it. I have a PC, and it runs XP. I have a few questions.

Will EphPod or PodUtil do the job for me? Or, should I try the method where you take the files from the iPod in My Computer? Before I do either of those, should I install the iPod disk? Right now I have iTunes with an empty library, I'm concerned about it automatically sync-ing and deleting the music off my iPod. Should I uninstall iTunes first?

Personally, I think the easiest way to do this would be the following. It doesn't require you to install any 3rd party software, and because you have a PC, it should work.

1. Mount your iPod onto your computer. (If iTunes starts and asks if you want to sync it with the music library and erase your music, make sure you click "no". At this point, make sure that "Disk Use" is enabled on your iPod. Then quit iTunes.)

2. Make sure that you can see the hidden files and folders on your iPod. (If you need to turn this on, it would be under the preferences checklist in Windows Explorer.)

3. Open up iTunes. Click "no" to the iPod sync message.

4. Go into iTunes preferences. Click the "Advanced" button. Make sure that both "Keep iTunes Music folder organized" and "Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library" are checked in this dialog. Close iTunes preferences.

5. Go File>Add to library...

6. When the Add to library box comes up, navigate to your iPod on your computer and select the main folder which stores all your music. Then "Choose" this folder to add to your iTunes library.

7. It should begin importing all your music into your library and copying it onto your hard drive in your My Music>iTunes>iTunes Music folder.

Let me know if this works/doesn't work and if you have any questions or problems. Good luck!

[jilliebean]

Just to double check that I'm not going to screw up anything...

I mount the iPod without installing the drivers? And...when do I install the disk?

[LikeAFox]

There should be no drivers to install for Windows XP in order to use the iPod. Also, what do you mean by "install the disk"? I'm not quite sure what you mean by these two things.

[jilliebean]

Oh, okay, I didn't know about the drivers...and by "install the disk," I mean put in the CD that came with the iPod.

[LikeAFox]

No, you shouldn't ever have to install the disk on the computer.

[chinle1]

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 <URL not allowed by iLounge>, which will restore playlists, ratings and playcounts, or <URL not allowed by iLounge> which will rebuild your playlists.

The posts in this thread have been so informative! The solution above seems to be ideal for my case, since it doesn't involve any downloading of any further additional software. However, I do have a further question: does all of this also work with MusicMatch? Where do I put all the copied music? How will Music Match find it? Any help would be appreciated.

(As background: I'm moving to a new laptop and my only files are on the iPod. I bought the iPod at a time when only Music Match was available for Windows, so my music was all converted with Music Match. What I assume is that I have to first of all transfer everything to MusicMatch on the new laptop before even considering moving everything to iTunes ...)

[jilliebean]

Originally posted by LikeAFox

Let me know if this works/doesn't work and if you have any questions or problems. Good luck!

I uninstalled iTunes just to be sure that it wouldn't auto-sync. Then I reinstalled it and followed your steps, and it worked. Thanks!

[Vincent2]

Ok, my friend from germany gave me his ipod for one day so i have to hurry. His ipod is in german and formatted in MAC, I have a pc and when i plug in his ipod and go to my computer and click on the ipod it tells me it needs to format it. I dont want to do this because i dont know if he will looses his music. can someone help me please!!!!!

Thanks!
-Vince

[LikeAFox]

If I'm not mistaken, the only way you can access a Mac formatted iPod through a PC is via software called MacDrive. Link is below.

http://www.mediafour.com/products/macdrive6/