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How to Transfer Music from an iPod to a Computer

Posted on March 12th, 2009 by Marck
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Say you’ve synced your iPod on a friend’s computer because he or she has a new collection of songs.  Come to think of it, the new songs you have on your iPod would add up to your growing collection of digital music files.  Here are some ways to help you transfer music from your iPod to your computer.

Security Features in the iPod

The iPod is a convenient high-capacity mobile storage device when used as an external disk, but Apple has designed many security features for the iPod when used as a music player.  To protect copyright, and for the internal software to quickly sift through and play music files, the iPod automatically renames songs to cryptic filenames made up of letters and numbers.  The filename structure makes it difficult and time-consuming to copy songs from an iPod to a computer, although it’s still possible to do so.

Tools

  • iPod (Classic, Nano, Shuffle, or Mini)
  • A computer with the latest version of iTunes
  • USB or FireWire port and cables

Steps

  1. Connect your iPod to your computer via the USB or FireWire port, and wait for iTunes to start.
  2. iTunes will prompt you to a small window that asks whether you want to associate the iPod with your computer.  Click “No;” if you do, you will lose your existing music library.  Go to the “Settings” tab beside the iPod’s summary pane and click “Enable Disk Use.”
  3. Launch Windows Explorer.  The iPod should then be detected as a removable media drive.
  4. Click on “Tools” on the Menu bar, go to “Folder Options,” click “View,” and enable “View Hidden Files.”
  5. Go to the “iPod Control” folder on the Explorer window, and go to “Music.”  Copy the files to the hard drive folder where you keep your music files.
  6. You may notice that the filenames are encoded in a mishmash of letters and numbers.  Hover the mouse cursor on the file, and you’ll see the original filename.  You can rename the files at this point; although you can opt not to rename the files at all, and you’ll still see the original filename of the songs in iTunes or any other media player software.

Transferring music from an iPod to a computer is a great way to build up your digital music collection.  Just make sure you have a lot of time and patience, and that you’re not violating copyright laws.

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