Copy Songs From an iPod onto a Computer
How to Copy Songs From an iPod onto a Computer
So, you finish copying all your music over onto your iPod and suddenly the computer crashes. The hard drive is dead, and you've lost your precious music collection! The only backup is on your iPod, but it seems as though you can't copy your music over... Or does it?
Fear not, because with this short and simple guide, you'll have your music back in no time, and usually with full file names and the whole nine yards.
So, what do?
First, you want to plug your iPod into your computer, and make sure that disc use is enabled. This can be switched on in iTunes, by ticking the following button.
Next, open up My Computer, and find your iPod.
Double click to browse inside your files and folders on your iPod. Now, you're going to want to search the iPod. This might be a little different when using Windows XP, but Vista and 7 have a handy little search bar at the top. In this search bar, type ".mp3" (assuming you listen to mp3 files. If your music is in AAC or any other format, search for this too). This should begin searching through all the files on your iPod, and display all the .mp3 files on there!
You may notice that the filenames at this point are a complete mess, in the form of a random 4 letter mash-up. Don't worry - all the information such as the song title, artist etc is all stored inside tags in the actual .mp3 file. If you don't understand, look at this screenshot. This window shows the information which is stored INSIDE the .mp3 file. The 4 letter filename mash-up we saw earlier has no effect on these tags!
All that's left to do now is to copy all of your music back onto your hard disk. Simply highlight all the songs, copy them, and paste them into an appropriate folder. On my computer, I keep all my music in one folder, which is linked to in my iTunes. iTunes then sorts this folder out automatically, keeping the correct folder structure etc.
The final step is to drag all this music back into iTunes! The library will sort itself out, displaying the correct tracknames and artists!
So, you finish copying all your music over onto your iPod and suddenly the computer crashes. The hard drive is dead, and you've lost your precious music collection! The only backup is on your iPod, but it seems as though you can't copy your music over... Or does it?
Fear not, because with this short and simple guide, you'll have your music back in no time, and usually with full file names and the whole nine yards.
So, what do?
First, you want to plug your iPod into your computer, and make sure that disc use is enabled. This can be switched on in iTunes, by ticking the following button.
Next, open up My Computer, and find your iPod.
Double click to browse inside your files and folders on your iPod. Now, you're going to want to search the iPod. This might be a little different when using Windows XP, but Vista and 7 have a handy little search bar at the top. In this search bar, type ".mp3" (assuming you listen to mp3 files. If your music is in AAC or any other format, search for this too). This should begin searching through all the files on your iPod, and display all the .mp3 files on there!
You may notice that the filenames at this point are a complete mess, in the form of a random 4 letter mash-up. Don't worry - all the information such as the song title, artist etc is all stored inside tags in the actual .mp3 file. If you don't understand, look at this screenshot. This window shows the information which is stored INSIDE the .mp3 file. The 4 letter filename mash-up we saw earlier has no effect on these tags!
All that's left to do now is to copy all of your music back onto your hard disk. Simply highlight all the songs, copy them, and paste them into an appropriate folder. On my computer, I keep all my music in one folder, which is linked to in my iTunes. iTunes then sorts this folder out automatically, keeping the correct folder structure etc.
The final step is to drag all this music back into iTunes! The library will sort itself out, displaying the correct tracknames and artists!
Comments
Read this: http://www.reddit.com/r/howto/comments/d8smu/howto_copy_songs_from_an_ipod_onto_a_computer/
Some users are asking about how to do this on Ipad as well.