How to move your music from your iPod to a computer
Apple iPods used in conjunction with iTunes do not support copying files from your ipod to your computer. The intent is that you’d put your music on your computer and only transfer it to your ipod, never the way around. This is one way Apple tries to restrict people from pirating music and sharing whole iPods across different machines.
But not being able to copy music from your ipod has some problems associated with it:
- What if you get a new computer?
- What if you delete your files accidentally from your computer, and want to restore them from your ipod?
Fortunately, there are two free tools out there that help you move files from your ipod to a computer.
IPodUtil
http://www.kennettnet.co.uk/software/podutil.php
YamiPod
http://www.yamipod.com/main/modules/home/
Here’s how you do it:
Go to one of these sites (I recommend the first, iPodutil) and download the program. Save it to your desktop. Make sure that if you are using Windows, you get the windows installer version. Vice versa for Mac.
Install this application onto your machine. Simply double click on the installer should work. Follow a few steps until it is fully installed. You may be asked to restart your machine (if so, do it).
Plug in your iPod to your computer. (If this is the first time you’ve plugged your ipod into this machine you may have to associated this ipod with this machine. If so, follow directions on the screen.)
Run the iPodUtil program. It should be in the Start menu, or maybe as a shortcut on your desktop.
You should see a window on your machine that lists the contents of your ipod. I think you can drag and drop the files onto the machine. Otherwise, you might have to select them a look for a command called “copy files” or something.
Once you’ve copied all the files, you can quit iPodUTIL. You can also eject your iPod. Unless you copied files to your ipod, it should remain unchanged.
Start up iTunes, and look to “Add to Library”… Select the newly copied files from your machine and add them to iTunes.
You’re done!
Note that if the music you are moving was originally purchased online from a store like iTunes, it probably contains DRM (Digital Rights Management) which restricts where and how you use it. You can “authorize” a computer to play those tracks, but with some restrictions (iTunes, for example, only allows a track to be authorized on a maximum of 5 computers).
Music that was copied from a purchased CD won’t (usually) be subject to DRM restrictions, and can be shared across computers/devices/formats with less restrictions, provided your intended use falls under “Fair Use” Intellectual Property Law.
For more information on DRM and Fair Use, see Wikipedia:
4 Comments
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Good to know. If I purchase another standalone mp3 player it will likely be an iPod. There’s enough hacks around that I feel more comfortable that I can control it instead of being at the whim of vagary, one of the perennial issues I have with Apple products.
Brilliant - thank you for this article.
My old PC is in another country, I had no idea I had to do a backup of my iPod before I left the country - only found that out after looking at Apple’s support documentation post-move!
Anyway, I’ve downloaded the software as suggested, and it’s copied all my stuff over in minutes. Thought I was going to have to re-format or go thru’ something a lot more complex, so thrilled with this solution. Thank you!
Ro
In regards to step #7, I have over 2,000 songs to add to my library - do I have to do this manually?!?!?!?! How to I add all of my songs to my iTunes Library without having to add 2,000+ individual files?
@Matt:
You shouldn’t have to add each song individually, if that’s what you are asking. Instead, you can tell itunes to look at a folder and add the contents of that folder. Look for “Add to Folder” or something similar. You’ll know you’ve done it right when itunes displays a popup with a rapidly changing list of tracks as it adds them to your library. Note that it may take awhile. Be patient and let it work.