When you’re not a frequent iTunes user, and recycle computer systems, then every once in a while you will get you in to a situation where you have Music on your iPod, but not on your PC any more.
Whereas iTunes is great at putting music on an iPod, it cannot get it back.
There are numerous paid tools to get the music from your iPod, but doing it manually is not that hard. Below are a few links to get you started, but they all come down to this:
- Your iPod has a hidden folder called iPod_Control in the root
- Inside the iPod_Control folder is a folder called Music
- Inside the Music folder, there are folders named with letters and numbers like F00
- Each numbered folder has media (music, video or even photos!) files with a strangely encoded name like B00N.mp3 or 3DUN.m4v with supported media extensions including mp3 m4a m4p jpg gif tif m4v mov.
- The media files contain meta data with song, artist, album, etc.
The steps to copy them back
- Do not erase your iPod when opening it in iTunes!
- Ensure you can mount your iPod as a disk (the “enable disk use” option in iTunes)
- Mount your iPod as a disk in Mac or PC
- Ensure you can view the hidden files
- Copy the Music folder including all subfolders to your Mac or PC
- Unhide the Music folder and all
MusicandMusic/F*folders inside it using thischflagstrick from Unhiding Unix Directories | Apple Support Communities:chflags nohidden Musicchflags nohidden Music/F*
- Add these to your iTunes library and have iTunes re-generate the correct filenames from the meta-data
Some links explaining this in more detail:
- copy from iPod to iTunes – Google Search.
- backup – Restoring an iPod from just copied files – Super User.
- HOW TO: Copy Music and Movies Off Your iPod, iPad or iPhone [tutorial].
- How to transfer music from my old iPod Touch to computer? « How-To Geek Forums.
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- Part 1: introduction; Copying Content from your iPod to your Computer – The Definitive Guide | iLounge Article.
- Part 2: manual; Copying Content from your iPod to your Computer – The Definitive Guide | iLounge Article.
- Part 3: 3rd party; Copying Content from your iPod to your Computer – The Definitive Guide | iLounge Article.
- Part 4: photos; Copying Content from your iPod to your Computer – The Definitive Guide | iLounge Article.
- A New Way for Transferring iPod Music – iMobie Guide. (has great screenshots for Mac OS X)
- How To Recover Your iTunes Music Library. (covers various Mac OS X and iTunes versions, great steps and screenshots)
- How to Copy Songs from your iPod to your Computer: 7 Steps. (has good screenshots for Windows)
- Do It Scared! » Blog Archive Transfer Music From One iPod To Another – Do It Scared!. (explains the “enable disk use” step)
- Syncing to a “New” Computer or replacing a “crashed” hard drive… | Apple Support Communities.
- iPod 101: Which Files Work With iPod and iTunes. Probably mp3 m4a m4p jpg gif tif m4v mov aac aa aiff wav psd bmp tiff jpeg.
–jeroen
The Wiert Corner - irregular stream of stuff 