Can I transfer music from my iPod onto my Mac?

This method does not work. Did you even try it?

Can't imagine why it doesn't work for you. I use it to copy music between my main desktop Mac and my PowerBook...

If you find that this doesn't work for you, by the way, then the alternative solution is to open up the Terminal (Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal) and type in the following;

$ cd /Volumes
$ ls

This will show you the iPod; change into that directory. On my system, the iPod's called Zephyr:

$ cd Zephyr
$ cd iPod_Control/Music

You can then find specific songs by looking for a snippet of the song name. For example, Bill Joel's Allentown;

$ ls */*llentown*
F49/18 Allentown.mp3

that's the file you'd want to copy - just move it to your Desktop, say, then you can drag and drop it into your iTunes properly:

$ cp */*Allentown* ~/Desktop

By using 'cp' you make sure that you don't harm any of the songs on your iPod. A bit tedious, yes, but it should work for you if the simpler strategy outlined above doesn't.

how can I send music that is in i-tunes to a friend via email?

Re: Transferring iPod music back to computer. I changed Macs and my new iMac won't recognize my iPod shuffle because it is linked to the old computer. Apple says I'm SOL and can never retrieve the music. Do you have any ideas for this? Thanks.

George, see the "Update" section in my original posting. I'm sure one of those shareware apps would do what you want!

Dave,
The Music store allows you to put the purchased music on up to 5 machines. I have redone it on one machine twice(only counts as one) and now have put it on a second machine. The store gave me the message that I could put it on 3 more.

Dave,

I had iTunes installed in my old computer which I dont have anymore. So I installed Itunes to my new computer with the disk I had. I was able to download all of my songs from my ipod to my new computer. However I cant upload them now to Itunes in my new computer.

Help me out.

Hi Dave,
I have an iPod shuffle,i accidently deleted the old songs i had on it. I try putting on new songs but it doesn't work. What do i have to do?

hey, is there any programme that can do the same on windows?

Hello Dave! I lived in the DR, Dominican reoublidc, I bought my ipod in the states and i have a little problem with it, my itunes got update and all my library disappeared completely from itunes, i still have it on my ipod, how do i copy my library to my itunes on pc? would you please show me?

Hey dave i have a question you make think its stupid but my i pod nano brand new for christmas will not download the songs i have on my playlist im gettin frustrated with my nano i have a play list which has ruffly 160 songs the nano carrys 1,000 what do i do to get the songs from my computer i tunes to my i pod nano can you please help me

Sincerly Your Friend
- Jake

Another tip about iPod copying. I'm at work using my Windows "computer" so I don't have the details, which are at home, but you probably know them.
There is a Finder option one can change using Terminal => write defaults Finder something or other
(please help, Dave!) which causes the Finder to display all files including "invisible" ones. Do this and you will see all your music (with, probably, indecipherable folder names) in iPod/Control/Music or reasonable facsimile. These may then be dragged and dropped into the iTunes library.
Note: "solve the equation" -- the first time it was 24+18=, I answered "The meaning of life and everything ...", but your site appeared not to accept this obviously correct answer.

Dave,
My Dell computer's hard drive crashed and I had to install a new one. When I tried to download a song to my iPod Nano, it asked if I wanted to replace my existing library. I said no, but how do I continue adding songs to my Nano without replacing the tons of songs I already have on it? Plus, is there any way to pull them from the Nano to the PC for backup? Thanks for your expert help!
Pam W.

HI, I HAVE A MACINTOSH AND RECENTLY WAS GIVEN A PSP FOR MY BDAY , HOW CAN I GET MUSIC ON THE PSP???? WITHOUT BUYING A SOFTWARE, I WENT TO THE MEMORYSTICK.COM SITE AND WASNT ALLOWED TO DOWNLOAD THE ESSENTIAL SOFTWARE. , THANKS

Pam, you can copy songs from your iPod back to your PC by using an ipod sync program. Go to http://www.download.com/ and search for "ipod sync" and you'll see some of the many choices out there.

Louie, you can definitely transfer music to your PSP without using any Sony software. See:

http://www.askdavetaylor.com/about_psp_music.html

how do you fix that when your ipod shuffle is in the USB port in your computer and you go to itunes and you icon is not there

Matt, Hmmm.... that's an odd one. Are you sure that your iPod is *turned on* and that your USB port is active? Are you plugging it into your keyboard USB port or directly into your computer? Does the shuffle work on other computers when you plug it in?

Update to my note about making the Finder display all files, even hidden ones (useful for iPod thrashing and lots of other stuff, too):
The following AppleScript does it. To undo it, make another script which is identical except change "yes" to "no" in the long line. Note that the line 'do script ...' through 'exit"' is a single line. Note also that the double-quotes are important and must be as shown below. Finally, note that you will then see lots of files with odd names which you are encouraged to beware of modifying casually.

tell application "Finder"
quit
end tell
tell application "Terminal"
do script "nohup defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -bool yes 1>/dev/null;exit"
end tell
tell application "Finder"
activate
end tell
tell application "Terminal"
quit
end tell

When switching computers (Windows) I used Podutil - a programme that allows you to upload music from an ipod to itunes. You can buy it for 5 euros, or use the trial version that gives you pop-ups telling you to buy the real one. I'm sure there is also a Mac version. It works great and saves a LOT of time so you don't have to delve into the inner workings of your ipod.

Dear Dave,

My sister's powerbook crashed and she had to go to the apple store's genuis bar and erase all the contents of her computer. I found your site on the internet & when I tried to upload her ipod songs onto her (new) itunes library.....all her songs from her ipod erased. Is there any way I could upload my Ipod songs, to her computer, without erasing my ipod songs?

ay can u put songs on ur ipod on another computer without deleting your old files?

Yes. You can't use iTunes, however: you need to use Senuti or similar. Check out:

http://www.askdavetaylor.com/about_senuti.html

My boyfriend got an ipod for Christmas last year from a family member and there were 1300 songs already downloaded onto it. The family member erased the itunes off of his computer after he downloaded the songs. Is there any way that I can somehow find a device that will allow me to download the songs onto my computer so that certain songs can be deleted and new songs can be added (without erasing everything)? I have been searching everywhere and have asked the employees at Apple and the guy was reluctant about telling me but said that there is some way that you can manually put songs onto a computer without erasing all of the existing songs. Any help would be great!
Thanks.

HELP!

A large chunk of my music disappeared from my Itunes on my Mac, with no warning. My list is there from A-E and evrything is there but is grey and cannot be found (if I click on it or search for it in my folders it says the file does not exist but I can see it there on my playlists). We're talking about hundreds of songs.

Any ideas on how I can it back to normal without having to reload evrything as suggested by the Mac store?

I understand that the i-tunes library is an 'exact replica' of your songs on the ipod, but what if i wanted to add a playlist to my Nano without taking the songs i already have in it out? note:im using my friends library, thus i do not want to lose my songs in the process -PLEASE & THANK YOU!!!

I have the same problem as below. And XPOD's link doesn not work, Any other options? Thanks. --Mia

>>>: in some situations this won't work because iTunes won't let you drag and drop tracks from the iPod onto your Library folder, that is, copy music back onto your Mac. Fortunately, software authors have come up with some slick solutions for this problem, notably the freeware Xpod iPod music file transfer tool. If you can't get the earlier suggestion to work, then Xpod could be just what you need.... <<<

I'm running 10.4.8

That was horrible advice. Thanks for deleting my 4000 songs. now I have 4. Thanks for costing me music and photos I don't have backed up. When I plugged it in it deleted all my stuff automatically, and I can't change the preferences w/o the ipod being plugged in. Thanks, you ruined my week.

Tell me exactly what happened, l17: I have tested these directions extensively and as far as I have experienced, there's no way that iTunes would step on your library unless you clicked on the dialog box that says "sync" or "reformat", both of which have a warning about erasing the contents of your system.

Any music that you bought from the iTunes Store you can download again for free too, by the way. Hopefully you can do that without too much hassle.

Sorry for any problems you've had: if there are errors in my directions, I definitely want to know about it so I can fix them.

Oh dear ... I'll tell you exactly what happened with l17, and that is that they were not "fortunate" enough to be installing onto a new computer (if I've got my wits about me today). You'll only get those warning messages if you're plugging the iPod into a new or "new" computer. (Who just had to put a new hard drive into her computer? I just had to put a new hard drive into my computer. Who hates using USD as euros? ...)

You cannot cannot CANNOT set the iPod to manual-sync on a computer/iTunes which is set to auto-sync it IF the songs don't match anymore (without losing all music not on the computer), without being a little tricky. As has been pointed out, those options are usually impossible to change UNLESS you plug the iPod in. But once you plug it in, it'll sync, and you're toast.

You can stop it from doing this, I'm guessing, in a number of ways; one of them is outlined here (http://www.engadget.com/2004/11/02/how-to-get-music-off-your-ipod/comments/729631/). (If you're comfortable playing with hidden folders the rest could be useful, too, and certainly cheaper than non-free programs.)

I imagine, though I'm not 100% positive, that creating a new account while you fidget with your iPod should work, too. Once you've got it sorted out, you can toss the files into the drop folder for your main account and pull them into iTunes from there.

And while I recognize that hindsight is 20/20, it is indeed always a good idea to have your music and photos in at least two places. Easier said than done, though.

It is worth noting, too, that I believe that this drag-and-drop functionality has been totally screwed since you wrote this original post. Which is rather a bummer.

okay soooo i used to have windows computer and i got a new mac book. uhmmm so all my song files got deleted from my windows so now all i have is my ipod with all my songs on it. i bought some thing called ipod copy and it says i need to reconfigure my ipod with a mac...something like that...so i was going to and erase all of my songs...and then i found this website...and both directions were similar and I CANNOT DO THEM....its like go to preferences and click on the ipod tab....i do not have an ipod tab...I HATTTTTTTTTTTTTTEEEEE Itunes!! HELLPP!! please :)

Dave,
I was searching for an answer and my question came up on your web site but I couldn't seem to find where you answered it. The question has to do with whether or not it is possible to send a song from iTunes to a friend via email.
Thanks

I'm still trying to get my music from my iPod to my PC. I downloaded a program that put the music in "My Music" folder on my PC, but I can't get that into the iPod Library.

I also tried your steps outlined above to copy music to the Library folder -- didn't work...
Help!

Hi, Dave ... I had my mac laptop stolen on the VERY DAY I bought a hard drive to back it up. Sadly, it was stolen pre-backup. I now have a PC that I'd like to get my ipod contents onto, so I can use them again in itunes. I've tried to download a number of ripper software, but none recognized my ipod, although my computer sees it and mounts it as a drive (not one it recognizes as formatted, though). Can I get my ipod recognized on my pc or do I need to borrow a friend's mac to ripe the itunes?
Thanks SO SO SO much,
Melissa

I think you're going to need to borrow a Mac, and *be careful* when you plug it in: iTunes will start up and want to reformat the iPod. Leave the iTunes warning message up and switch to Senuti so you can (hopefully) grab everything beforehand. Let us know how it goes.

I'd like to know how to put musics from the ipod to the computer without having a mac computer...
because senuti requires a mac computer..
thanks.

I'd like to know how to put musics from the ipod to the computer without having a mac computer...
because senuti requires a mac computer..
thanks.

u suck cuz i still dont understand and u made me more confused than i already am!!!! and worst of all my ipod dosnt have any music on it so tell me what the hell 2 do about it!!!!!

How do I get my iPod playlist (of a 2+yrs 4GB system) from my brother's Dell laptop on to my newly purchased 4GB iPod Nano and an eMac without losing any information and/or spending any more money?

what about for a 7.0 i tunes library?

I have been trying to transfer my ipod music onto a new macbook using senuti. Senuti initially recognizes the songs on the ipod, but before I can do anything it goes blank and basically ejects the ipod. Any theories?

My I pod video has all the songs on it, but the videos got deleted when i updated i tunes.... Now the i tunes has no songs, videos or anything in its library or anywhere, how can i safely put at least the 700 songs back onto my computer (fortunately, i still have my vids saved somewhere).

I dont have a mac.... no wonder NOTHING in that huge list worked..

I have an iPod Nano. A friend set it up on her Mac, but I have a PC. Am I able to reset my iPod Nano and set it up on my PC? If so, could you please advise how I do this? Thanks a million for your help.

I have a big problem.
HELP!!!!
i downloaded all my songs from a MAC computer on my ipod. my ipods screen busted and i cant see my music
ALL I WANT BACK ARE MY SONGS!!!! i got them all from different people (on mac computers)
I HAVE A Dell Pc! is there ANY POSSSIBLE way i can put the songs on my ipod into my itunes on my pc?

Hi dave i had about 2000 songs on my ipod accidently deleted when i plugged it into my friends itunes how do i find them and get them back onto my ipod

Hi,please help me,
I have the original Ipod Nano, and the problem is that the bottom half of the screen is entirely white, and I can't see it. Then I tried reseting it, letting it die, but it still wont go away. Then I removed all the songs, and now it will not allow me to add any at all. So now my nano is empty and half white...help?!?

Hello dave Senuti app works great between my imac and my macbook pro but sometimes im not with my laptop and im in another place with someone else computer a mac, so i dont have the installer with me or a internet connection to download it, so i checked your terminal method and is good but i dont see the files like with their default names i just see folders F00 F01 F02... and the names of the files is also like that. so i was wondering what is the command to copy all that folders inside Ipod_Control? to the desktop i tried but it says usage: cp [-R [-H | -L | -P]] [-f | -i | -n] [-pv] src target
cp [-R [-H | -L | -P]] [-f | -i | -n] [-pv] src1 ... srcN directory

thanxs a lot. wait for your response

Hi Dave. My ipod (4GB) was stolen a few weeks ago. I'm wondering if/how I can transfer my old library to a new ipod? Thanks!

I have the same problem as 117 (Jan 23 2007) in that the only way I can bring up the menus mentioned is by pluging in my i-pod (to a 4 year old e-mac) which automatically starts to sync before any of the icons appear. It is impossible to switch this off without plugging the ipod in, so is a bit of a catch 22. Had a practice (fortunately) with a spare ipod and unplugging it as soon as the sync starts wipes the whole ipod so DON'T ANYBODY ELSE TRY THAT! As only 90 of my 2000 songs are left on the library and the music file (required by senuti) won't transfer to the desktop either I'm thinking I may be re-burning all my CDs from now until Christmas (2008!)unless there are any other suggestions you might have. Many thanks Cazz

Oh My GOD! Thanks SOOOOOO much for the info on Senuti! It's the best thing that could have ever happened to a guy whose HD and Logic Board died 2 days ago and has to DJ a wedding on a new computer at the end of the month!

What a wicked program!

Thanks!

Dear Dave,
I had a Dell computer that ran on Windows. It crashed the other day and I bought a new Mac. I lost my Library on my Dell. How can I transfer the songs from my Ipod(windows format) to my new Mac? I really don't want to lose anything!

I have followed all of the steps that you wrote down and everything is good until you say to drag the selected items to the Left column where the library is. It dosen't seem to want to drag over into the library. Why is it doing that?

Hello Dave. I am trying to upgrade my parents computer to Leopard, from mac 3.9. I was trying to check the health of the hard drive by doing a disk utility check (on line I saw that you are supposed to do a "Disk Repair". Their computer would not allow me to to do this; I did, however, run a "repair disk permissions" and a "verify disk permissions". After running the repair and verify disk permissions it seems I uninstalled their microsoft office suite and in the process lost their entourage address book, some word documents and itunes music? Is there anyway to recover this stuff? And, sadly, little of it is backed up. P.S. I have not yet installed leopard.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks Much!

Dave

Hi Dave. I downloaded Senuti on my new mac - my goal was to load my music and videos from my ipod onto my new mac. I couldn't seem to get this program to say what you said it would do. It wouldn't open up. Can you assist me. I really appreicate your willing to assist computer-challenged people like me with our issues.

ok so i followed ur directions at the top and the problem is that my itunes wont let me select the "select all" button or Ctrl A button, so i dont know how i can get my music from my ipod onto this new computer with a blank library....can u help me?

Hi Dave,
I have a Mac integrated iPod. The problem is the mac I was using is now 100 miles away. I've read countless time that you cant transfer a Mac iPod to Windows...is this true...if not what free ware is available to help me with this transfer?

hi , please please help ! , i have a computer and a laptop , recently my computer totally screwed up and is no lomnger working , is there a way i can put all the songs i have on my ipod onto my laptop? i have thousands and i really dont fancy having to upload them all over again. please give me a step by step as im useless at this stuff
thank you so much for your help!

this doesn't work with new macbooks

If this doesn't work, then the latest beta of Senuti (as I've written about elsewhere on my blog) definitely lets you copy from your iPod or even iPhone onto your new Macbook. And yes, I've tested it on my Macbook Air too. :-)

hey dave, i have a ipod with all my old music on it but most of it wasn't purchased in itunes is there anyway to get this music on to a new mac?

Thanks Xpod didnt work but the other one did. Your a life saver.

Hi Dave,
My PC completely died, and I am trying to get my itunes library retrieved.

I bought a Macbook, and would like to now transfer my songs onto the library... to at least salvage some of the money I've spent over the years on music!

Can I use my ipod which I was using on a PC, on a Mac? Can I transfer all my songs without losing everything?? the ones I bought on Itunes? the ones I downloaded?
ANY HELP WHATSOEVER WILL BE GREATLY APPRECIATED!!!!

Hey, I accidentally deleted my songs from my Ipod, by doing sych. Is it possible to get it back?