How to Get music OFF your iPod
Published on August 25th, 2008 by: admin in: iPod
So now your Computers Hard drive is broken, your music folder is lost and now you found out that on a different or new computer iTunes will not let you download your music from your iPod!
Usually there is no need for an iPod owner to access the mp3 music files on the iPod. But this can change when there is trouble with the original music files on the computer and hard drive.
The other day I wanted to play a song in iTunes, but it wasnt found on my hard drive. I did do a complete search for the file, but it was gone. I dont know where it went or what exactly happened to it, and I figured that this wasnt very bad since I have all my music on my iPod.
So I connected the iPod to my computer, started iTunes, selected my iPod, and then searched for the song. I found it. Now I tried to drag it to my music folder, but without success. The file would not move at all. I first thought that I did something wrong. But no matter how much I tried to get the file copied or exported, it wouldnt do.
I looked around on the Internet and found out that iTunes does not allow for music to be copied from the iPod back onto a computer. I guess that this must be some kind of Copyright issue, to avoid that users of iPods share their files with other people.
Ok, I can understand that issue. Nevertheless, what if one day my old hard drive on the home computer stops working or I have to format and reinstall for whatever reason?
Will I loose all my music? I mean, Ive worked for 3 weeks to rip all my cds to iTunes.
So I started a long investigation on the Internet to find out if there were any ways or programs to retrieve the music from my iPod.
Here is the list of programs that will do the job. Some are free, some youll have to pay for:
TuneJack Windows solamente
iPod2PC Windows solamente
iGadget Windows solamente
iDump Windows solamente
SharePod Windows solamente
iPodRip Mac y Windows
YamiPod Mac y Windows
Music rescue Mac y Windows
iPodCopy Mac y Windows
iRepo Mac y Windows (iPhone iPod touchscreen compatible)
iPod Access Mac y Windows (iPhone iPod touchscreen compatible)
Ive choosen SharePod for Windows. It is absolutely free, no need for a licence or registration. It is extremely easy to install, just copy to a folder on your hard drive and create a shortcut to the program.
How to copy music tracks from your iPod to your PC using SharePod:
Plugin your iPod, then run SharePod. It will come up with the main screen showing all your songs sorted by Artist.
You can now select one or multiple music files just like on Windows Explorer.
For those of you who are not sure on how to make multiple selections here some explanations:
Multiple selection: Click on the first song you want to download. Scroll to the last song you want to download. Hold down Shift and click on the last song.
Deselect certain files: Hold down the Control Key and click on the songs you wish to unselect.
Once you have selected all the music files that you want to copy to your computer, click on Copy to PC.
The new window will tell you the amount of tracks which will be copied as well as the drive and folder they will be copied to. You can change these options by clicking on the button on the right side of the Copy tracks to this folder field.
Below this you will see optional filing structures which you can choose from. Select the one that suits you best and observe the way the MP3 files will be saved as.
A nice option here is the Custom field. This field allows you to generate your own filing system. Here you can choose from Title, Artist, Album, Track Number, Genre, Composer, Album Artist or Disc Number.
Once you have chosen all your options click on Ok. The Copy Finished Window will pop up and if everything has gone well, you will see this.
Now you can click on the Go to my copied files button to open the folder where you have copied your tracks to. That is all. You are done.
I do not use the Copy to iPod function. I prefer to use iTunes to maintain my Directory Structure organized.
SharePod allows you further to make a backup of your iPod. To do this just click on Backup iPod and follow the instructions.
The search iPod option is very helpful for those who have a lot of songs on the iPod. Once you click on the Search iPod button a row of search fields will pop up above the song list. These fields allow you to search for specific files very fast. You can search for Title, Artist, Album or Genre. The fields allow for partial strings. This means that for example if you are looking for a song that has a 9 in the songs name, the artists name has a d in it and the album an s, you can just add these values and your song will be searched for.
The SharePod options allow you to set the default folder where to copy your songs to. You can change the fonts here. The default number of backups to keep is set to 10.
In the Grid Columns tab you can choose the columns you want to be displayed by SharePod.
The Restore iPod tab allows you to restore your iPod in case something didnt work out the way it should.
All in all, SharePod is a great program, especially considering that it is absolutely free.
Enjoy iPoding
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Tags: backup, get music off ipod, iPod, recover
February 28th, 2009 at 6:17 pm
great help, i was desperate after my hard drive stopped working, and thanks to you I’ve been able to restore my music from my ipod to the new hard drive
good work