Apple’s iPod is the most popular media player on the planet and together with the iTunes software and music store command almost 90% of the market for digital music and music players.
With the amount of money at stake, it is not a surprise that Apple likes to maintain tight control over the iTunes/iPod ecosystem. For example, officially the only way to manage music on an iPod is to use the iTunes software. And even then music can only be copied from the computer to the iPod, not the other way round.
If your computer crashes or you happen to change your computer, you’re out of luck as far as your music is concerned, since iTunes won’t let you copy it back.
Unless you follow this guide and do as I tell you to.
There are two ways to go get all your music off your iPod. One method involves using third party software to get the data that you want and the second method involves using what you already have, Windows. We’ll be talking about the second method today.
If you want any of the two method to work, though, Click Cancel on the message that pops up as soon as you connect the iPod to the computer.
Now, select the iPod in iTunes and make sure that the “Manually Manage music and videos” and “Enable disk use” options are checked.
You should now be able to see your iPod as a removable disk in My Computer. If it doesn’t show up, you might have to manually eject and then reconnect the iPod to the computer.
Make sure you have enabled the option to view hidden files and folders on your computer. If you’re using Windows 7 or Windows Vista, the option is tucked under My Computer -> Organize -> Folder and Search Options. Look under the view tab.
Now, on the iPod, Browse over to the iPod_Control folder and you will see a folder named, well, Music. This is where iTunes stores all your music files, under the various folders that you see here.
The only problem with this scheme is that since iTunes likes to give all the media files encrypted names that only iTunes understands, you won’t be able to look at the files and find that one track that you were looking for.
But, the good thing is that the metadata is all there so if you’d copy these tracks back to your computer and import them back to iTunes, you’ll be able to recognize the songs easily.
How do you guys copy music off your iPods ?
Programmer, blogger and a geek making a living shifting bits around the Internet. Sharninder is the owner of Geeky Ninja
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yamipod
gtkpod
Does gtkpod work with the latest iPod firmware ? Last I read it didn’t, but then I haven’t been keeping track of iPod firmwares since a long time now.
I always had trouble getting music of my iPod. This should make things a lot easier. Thanks for sharing
Glad you found the post useful Julius. And thanks for stopping by.
I followed all of these directions, but my iTouch shows up under my computer as a digital camera under portable devises for some reason. when i click on it it goes to a folder that says “internal storage” but doesn’t show all of these folders. I’ve had to do this before with my old ipod and my old computer, but i now have an iTouch and a new computer with Windows 7. Do you know what I can do to fix this?
having the same issue,
have u had any luck yet
The iPod Touch is a very different beast so I’m not sure if these instructions will directly apply to it. Is your iPod touch jailbroken ? I don’t have an iPod Touch but I’d guess that you’ll need to jailbreak it to follow these instructions.
thank you sooo much! i was actually crying because i thought id lost all of my music! u saved my ipod!!!
hi, i did this but when i select the folder that i saved all the music from the ipod to and tell itunes to import music from that folder, nothing happens! any tips? thanks!
the process worked fine, but the music in my iTunes could not be played after my iPod was disconnected. suggestions?
Are you sure you copied the correct files ? They should all be regular MP3 files and iTunes should not have any problems playing them. Can you play them using another media player such as VLC ?
ok so i get my ipod connected and when i look in the my computer the ipod isnt showing up the only thing it says is the dvd drive? please help!
Which iPod do you have ? If its an iPod Touch, these instructions do not apply to it.
The new Zune browser is surprisingly good, but not as good as the iPod’s. It works well, but isn’t as fast as Safari, and has a clunkier interface. If you occasionally plan on using the web browser that’s not an issue, but if you’re planning to browse the web alot from your PMP then the iPod’s larger screen and better browser may be important.
Thanks so Much! All the other sites didnt have anything for windows 7! This is great!
=D
ok i cant get this to work at all ive got windows 7 and all that but i cant get it to transfer i plug it it in and hit cancel and then whenever i make it manually managa it kicks my device out of the “removable device” thing im super confused on how to get this to work?
so my laptop just crashed and all my music is on there.. i need my music and my trailerpark boys. so if i do what you said to do up there i will have all of my music and TPB and i can sync my ipod onto the new computer? correct?
It should. If my method doesn’t work, try the software mentioned by yamipod or gtkpod too.
thanks!! i’ll try this as soon as possible, and thanks for responding as quick as you did!
Just a update to this which is handy.
1. Open your iPod, navigate to that hidden Music folder.
2. Select all the folders F00-F99 etc,
3. Right-click -> Properties -> Uncheck “Hidden” and then “Apply to selected folder only”.
4. Go back one folder, select “Music” folder
5. Right-click -> Properties -> Uncheck “Hidden” and then “Apply to selected folder only”.
Now that these are unhidden, you can then go into iTunes -> Add Folder, then select this now visible Music folder. It will then add all the songs from your/friend’s iPod into your library.
(make sure in your iTunes library preferences, you have checked “copy when adding to library”)
Thank you for this. after struggling i tried this and bam! my music started playing even with the Ipod disconnected from the computer. Thanks for being nice enough to share this.
Thanks a lot you saved me putting over 400 albums back onto my computer :)
Thank you so much I tried something like this ages ago but had the problems of the weird file names but this has worked perfectly and the extra help for windows 7- fantastic!!
You’re a genius!!! Thank you thank you thank you!
Thanks. You’re too kind :-)
Helped a lot. Thanks
yeah it didnt work for me and i did everything but the ipod control folder is nowhere to be found.
screw my new laptop
ummmm ok ill try wht u said cause somebody gave me a ipod with a camera on it and im triing to learn how to do it.!!!
Thank you so much! the other website that i looked at was not for windows 7 but this one worked AMAZINGLY! thank you so much!