Can I transfer music from my iPod onto my Mac?
I'm running iTunes v 4.9 on my Mac (running Mac OS X 10.2.8). I screwed up somehow and deleted my old music library trying to fix a diiferent problem. I learned my lesson on that. I have on older v 1.5 iPod with all my music on it. Can I transfer those songs into my library?
Dave's Answer:
This is actually easy once you know the secret of working with the iPod as a regular device, rather than as a special auto-synchronizing device. Of course, the sync feature is one reason the iPod is so popular, but just for a few minutes, let's disable it, okay?
Plug your iPod into the target computer and launch iTunes.
In addition to the usual "Library", "Podcasts", "Party Shuffle", etc,. you should also see your iPod on the left side. Click on it to select it.
Now, along the bottom right edge of the iTunes window are a bunch of little icons: click on the one that looks like a tiny iPod. It'll bring up this configuration window:
Notice here that I do not have either of the first two selected, but rather have "Manually manage songs and playlists". That's what you want to select too.
Now, close the preferences window and go back to the main iTunes window. You should still be looking at all the songs that are on your iPod. To copy them onto your new computer, simply select all the songs by using Edit --> Select All then drag them all onto the "Library" entry in the left column.
Give it a few minutes to copy everything and you should be set to go with a restored iTunes library. Phew!
Once that's all copied over, go back to the iTunes preferences and re-enable the autosync feature if you want.
Note: Since I don't have any music I've purchased from the iTunes Music Store, I am not sure what happens with registered music when you do this type of copy. My guess is that it'll just as for you to reauthorize your computer, but perhaps someone who has tried this copying technique with authorized music can share what happens?
Hope this gets you up and running again!
Update: 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 and the application Senuti. iPod music file transfer tools. If you can can't get the above directions to work, one of these should solve your problem!
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Categorized:
Mac OS X Help
(Article 4112,
Written by Dave Taylor)
Tagged:
apple ipod, ipod, mac os x, senuti, xpod
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Reader Comments To Date: 153
dave,
my ipod was synced to the itunes account on my mac but our mac crashed and everything was cleaared . now we have a new i tunes account i think and i can no longer put on or take any music off my ipod without clearing all my music off it ! please help ! thanks!
Dave,
I just bought a mac book, and with it came a brand new (and free!) ipod touch. i already have a 3g ipod video with years worth of music on it. this ipod video is authorized to a library on a pc, (which is still working and accessible) however the itunes library on the pc does not contain all of the music the ipod does, because it is probably the third library i've had to make. how do i get ALL of my music from that ipod onto my mac, or atleast onto my rad new ipod touch without screwing anything up????
Rebekah, you want to grab something like Senuti or similar and use that to copy the music from your iPod onto your computer, then, yes, you DO need to let iTunes erase your iPod and start over. Then you copy that music back (since Senuti will have already put it into your iTunes library).
Claire, I'll give you the same answer. You need to use some of these third-party tools to grab all of your music off your old iPod Video and get it into your iTunes library, then you can redo things.
hey how do i transfer all my macs info music and all into my macbook pro with mobile me..
Want to rip music from iPod to Mac? Lose your iTunes Library when Mac computer crashed? As you know, As iTunes keep us from transfer files from iPod to iTunes, we have to turn to a third party transfer software. I'd like to recommend this iPod Rip for Mac.
I recently got a windows running hp laptop for college, and I have my ipod that was programed to my mac computer that I can't access right now at home.
Is there any possible way to get all my music from my ipod onto my itunes on my new hp without blanking my ipod and ruining it?
With the Mac Powerbook G4 and iTunes 9 I cannot transfer my music from my ipod to the itunes libary.
I have the newest version of iTunes and the 2nd newest ipod version. I cannot find the buttons that you have said. Is there something wrong?
I used this program to rip the items from my ipod to my itunes on mac. http://thelittleappfactory.com/irip/ Download it and it rips it automatically after you open it!!! its great!!!
My boyfriends friend downloaded some music onto an ipod for him. I am now trying to download onto itunes put it's not showing up. Anything I can do.
Thanks
All you have to do is go on iTunes with your device plugged in -File-Transfer Purchases from "Name of iPod" and there you go!
When I used my iPod to move my music from a PC to my new Mac computer the playlists did not show up on the my new Mac, but all the music did show up. Anyone know why that may have happened? and any possible solutions?
I can't find the icon that looks like a little iPod on my iTunes. I've opened the iPod section on there, I just don't see any icons in the right corner or anywhere that look like an iPod. Will it work on the newer versions of iTunes?
hi, my old ipod wass toeln now i have a new one, i have a new computer and my ipod was stolen over a year ago. can i find the songs i had on my old itunes account or on my old ipod? if so how? i dont remeber any of my information that i logged onto my old itunes with.and i just created a new itunes account. please help!
Dave,
I connected my ipod and opened my Itunes but at the bottom right there's no icon like a tiny ipod. I can't do much without this, where can I find this little icon?
Hi
Today i plugged in my ipod touch and it says itunes cannot read the contents of the ipod. Go to the summary box and restore your ipod but i dont want to do that because all my data will be gone. Most of my songs are from my friends computers. If you could help it would be greatly appreciated.
You want to use something like iPodCopy or Senuti (depending on what OS you're running) to copy everything off your iPod onto your computer, then let iTunes reformat your iPod, then copy the music back on. Problem permanently solved.
I guess i have the new itunes software and i tried using your method listed above and i do not have all the buttons that you say to press. For example, i do not have the tiny ipod symbol in the bottom right corner. What do i do from there?
And also, how can i move songs that i didnt purchase from itunes onto my Mac Laptop. Because it is only letting me transfer my purchased songs but the majority of my songs werent purchased from itunes. PLEASE HELP!!! Thanks.
Hey Dave,
My computer recently crashed with my entire itunes library on it. My ipod has all my songs and I got a new Windows 7 laptop. How can I transfer the music from my ipod to windows. On the windows explorer I can't find the 'tools' tab when I plug my ipod in. Please help!
So I've read and re-read the original instructions, but I cannot for the life of me find the little tiny iPod icon. Has iTunes changed since the instructions were posted? What should I click on instead?
Thank you,
Sunshine
I wanted to clear out an old external hard drive so I unplugged my current one, plugged in the old one and performed the necessary work. However, when I plugged in the current hard drive, my computer doesn't recognise it any more as being the source of my musid etc. How can I solve this?
Thanks
Michael
hey....i tried a few downloads and none were doing what i wanted until i came across SENUTI.COM works extremely fast and transferred them straight to Itunes. Recommended completely and 5 out of 5 stars easily. All you have to do is hold down and select all your songs and click transfer and its done. DOWNLOAD IT!
If you're using itunes version 8 and you got your music from the itunes store theres an option under file called transfer purchases from "(name of your ipod)"
How do I send music from my Mac to my Ipod?
You have to use iTunes for that task, getting the music from your Mac to your IPod. Should be how you're already doing it, actually. I have lots of iPod help here, btw, just search for "iPod".
download pod to mac
it was installed on my mba
Wow, thanks for the original advice and the suggestion to use Senuti. I was terrified of losing my music from very old ipod after computer hard disc died. I nearly bought a new ipod just to have something to play new music on, leaviing old one as cd library. But now it's all in my itunes library! Yay.Thanks again.
Copy the iTunes folder which has all the data you need (music, album art, apps etc) and then paste it to User/Music/iTunes before launching iTunes for the first time, or you need to hit up Google and download a third-party utility. iPod Rip for Mac could help too.
Hi, my pc laptop broke a while ago and my whole music library is on my ipod. It wasn't backed up anywhere unfortunately. Anyhow, i wanted to put all of my music from my ipod onto my new mac's itunes, and i couldn't find the "ipod icon" at the bottom right of the itunes window that you referred to in your initial instructions. Any help would be really appreciated, thanks.
Everybody just use expod.
expod actually worked fast too, thanks Vannah
SENUTI did the trick!!! thank you
If you have a nano, there should be an ipod nano icon on your desktop when you connect it. There is a hidden folder called Ipod_Control in the root directory of your nano, and in that folder you'll find the music folder that you were looking for. I copied that to my desktop and imported it afterwards in itunes.
To show hidden files :
defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles YES
(write no instead of yes to turn it off)
Dave, A million thanks....I found an old ipod with classics and for the past couple of days was saddened to find out I couldn't easily transfer my old ipod to my new mac. Thanks for suggesting to download Senuti. Im soooo happy now. The transfer was successful and now i permanently have the program for $18 (one time fee). Now, Im going to upload my friends ipod and keep adding to my library......Much Thanks!!!!
Transfer songs from ipod to mac, go to this CNET address http://www.cnet.com/1990-7899_1-6488385-1.html, and follow the easiest steps, which is the basic Mac DOS code to view you ipod as a hard drive, which enables you to easily copy your songs from your ipod to the itunes music folder on your hard drive. Free and legal!
I didn't get very far. After waiting for the do not disconnect for half an hour, I forced quit itunes which was not responding, but now the macbook's itunes is empty
I couldn't get any of these tips on how to get it to work (including from other sites) so thought I'd give some of the programs a go that are advertised/suggested on here... So far 'IM TOO POD WORKS' does NOT work - after install, it recognised my iPod, but said it had no audio files on it, but that there was nearly 8GB of 'Other' files, which it supposedly couldn't read. It then spazzed out when my internet disconnected breifly, saying that for the program to work, it needs internet... suss, considering the program is taking files from an ipod to the computer, which shouldnt need internet access...
I'm still trying other programs, but thought I'd send out a warning!
If you bought the song from iTunes, then when you sync your ipod there is an option to "Transfer Purchases." I did this, and it worked fine, but only transferred those that I bought from iTunes.
Hi Dave
I have a video that i took from my ipod 4g cud u plz tell me how can i transfer into my mac or my iphone 4
Hey, some days ago I read somewhere that xPort (formerly a commercial app), to copy iPod music to Mac, is no available for free: http://www.copytrans.net/xport.php It doesn't support the iOS devices but seems to work great with older iPod models (it copied all music from my iPod nano 4G back to the Mac).
Dave - I have a ton of music on my DELL PC and my Nano. Most of which was not purchased from the itunes store, but downloaded off other sites, copied from my own cd collection, etc. I bought an iphone and was able to get all my music on that device as well. My DELL PC has since crashed and burned, and bought a new MAC. I have logged into my itunes acct, and of course i am missing a bunch of music. Am I able to take music off of my iPhone or my Nano and download into iTunes on my Mac?
Dave, THX :-). Works fine. And I get another transfer from my friend, iDeer iPod to Mac Transfer, it easy to work too, maybe you can try it (you can mail to them and ask for a free license key): http://www.ideerapp.com
Okay, I tried to do this but I can't find the music that's on my iPod touch in my mac computer (OS X 10.7). I have the iTunes library that is in sync with my iPod on another computer that I am not in possession of anymore. I have some new music on this computer which is not in my iPod, so what I want to do is to put the music on this computer into my iPod without removing what's already there. I am so confused! I've tried to fix this for a very long time and it's driving me nuts! If you can help me, please answer ASAP.
Amanda, you need to do this in the right order, it's not difficult.
1. Using a utility like Senuti, pull every song off your iPod and add it to your iTunes music library on your computer. (see this article for details on how to do that)
2. Once you've confirmed that worked select all the music in iTunes, including the old stuff and the new songs, then let iTunes erase your iPod. It'll wipe everything, but then it'll actually copy all the music back INCLUDING the new stuff.
3. Done.
Great website - what's the best free service / application for transferring from ipod to mac now.
I found iRip which charges as does Senuti - any other suggestions.
Thanks
how do you go from mac to iPod and not iPod to mac?
Hey Dave
You're very patient. I'm impressed. Good work.
I use copytoy to transfer music, videos, playlists and photos from ipod, iphone and ipad to mac and PC. More detail information at http://www.candysoft.com.
It doesn't let me copy and drag my itunes files to the library. I can select all and drag them but it will not allow me to drop the files from the ipod into itunes. Help!!
All this worked fine transferring iTunes registered tracks from a new Mac Air running iTunes 10.7 to my old iPod Classic. Simple drag and drop no probs, even with a new iTunes registration on the Mac! You would expect iTunes to block this but it just worked!.
Thanks Dave.
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dave,
my ipod was synced to the itunes account on my mac but our mac crashed and everything was cleaared . now we have a new i tunes account i think and i can no longer put on or take any music off my ipod without clearing all my music off it ! please help ! thanks!