Alright, Dave. I’m darn frustrated. My husband and I both have Macs and he also has an iPod — that I bought him! — but when I plug his iPod into my Mac, I can see the music in iTunes and can even listen to it, but I can’t copy it into my own iTunes library. What’s wrong, and how do I fix it?
Actually, this is a common problem with iPods, believe it or not, even those where you buy a new computer and want to “pair” your iPod with your new computer: by design, Apple iPods bond with a single Macintosh or PC, and every other computer is then only granted “read only” access, just as you’ve found.
The fact that it’s your music and you probably have all the CDs sitting on the shelf (like we do) is irrelevant as far as Apple is concerned.
Fortunately, there are third-party workarounds for this copy protection design aspect of the otherwise splendid iPod players. If you were on a PC, I’d point you to a slick Windows application called iPodCopy, as I explain in my article How do I get songs off my iPod, but since you’re on a Mac, I’m going to recommend a different program, one that’s freeware, not shareware.
The program I use when trying to sync music between my iPods and computers (and, yes, my wife’s computer too) is Senuti. It’s free, which is splendid, but I nonetheless highly encourage you to donate a few bucks to support the developer if you find this app useful, as I’m sure you will.
Download the application, plug in your husband’s iPod, then launch. You’ll see something like this:
Notice that in this instance, I have a lot of audio books. Your list will doubtless differ. On the top left you’ll see that the iPod itself is shown as “Library” while the iTunes library on the computer is shown as “iTunes”. I found this a bit confusing and kinda wish that the iPod was listed by name, but it’s an easy oddity to get used to.
A much more important step with Senuti is that you must change the preferences in the program to behave as desired. For reasons I’m unclear about, the defaults aren’t close to what I would think people copying music from an iPod into iTunes would want. Here are the default settings:
and here are the changes I suggest you make:
Notice that I have also specified that copied music should be saved directly in the iTunes Music Library along with anything else ripped from CDs, so it’s all neat and organized.
Now it’s about as easy as it could be: pick the music you’d like to copy onto your computer and either just click the “Copy” button on the top right or drag it all onto the “iTunes” icon on the top left list and let Senuti do all the heavy lifting.
Here’s what it looked like partway through copying some of my Celtic music onto my wife’s computer:
At this point I found it easiest to simply quit iTunes and restart the program, so it saw all the new music in the library:
Very nice, simple and straightforward, once you adjust the preferences as needed.
I think that’ll help you and your husband more easily share music between your computers. Good luck!
Thank You,Thank You…Just used Senuti and it worked great…
Connect your iDevice to your Windows PC.
Open SharePod. (If you open SharePod prior to connecting your iDevice it will start looking for it immediately and may conclude nothing is connected.)
Choose the specific songs/files you want and click the large “Copy to computer” button in the upper lefthand corner of the SharePod window. Alternatively, if you want everything, click the “Backup iPod” button instead.
A window will pop up and ask you to choose a location. Decide where you want to transfer the music and how you want them to be organized. When you’ve made up your mind, click the “OK” button.
Hi Dave-
I am completely computer illiterate! I had a PC, got an iPod and used it with the PC. PC crashed and burned and no longer usable. Bought a MAC and tried to use the iPod.. I have found that I must re-format the iPod to the MAC and now reading your article I see how the music will transfer from my iPod to the new MAC. I am wondering now—- will I be able to use the iPod with the new MAC after this program you recommend or is there one more step?
I have read other articles of yours but I am still not confident on the steps I should take.
Thank you sincerely!
Elizabeth
Yes, you can switch “allegiance” with the iPod, Elizabeth, but I don’t think you’ll be able to get the music off the PC-format iPod onto your Mac system.
Hey! i was looking into this… will it work for my music since most of it is not purchased (like from itunes) but downloaded for free (like from limewire/frostwire)? thanks!!
Hi Dave!
On the site where I can download Senuti, it says ‘The free trial is the same software as the purchased version of Senuti, however, you will only be able to use the trial for 30 days or 1,000 songs (whichever comes first).’
So it’s kind of confusing, because I have 1405 songs and probably this would come first, so my question is if you can transfer 1000 songs through the 30 days or each day 1000? Purchasing would be ok, I know, but right now cannot do it.
Thanks,
B
Thanks Dave! Worked seamlessly for the not so tech savvy (me) for the old ipod a friend gave my daughter …
Cheers Dave, this was a great find 🙂
I am freaking out – i was using senuti to copy some audio books from my ipod to my itunes folder and also was burning a few cds in the background. Left for a few hours and came back to find my itunes folder is COMPLETELY EMPTY. Searching the actual itunes music files and i find there’s a few folders left with songs intact, but none show up in itunes. It didn’t affect my apps or videos/movies, just ALL my music – – – itunes 10 and 10.6.8
I have no idea what the hell happened, but I’m really pissed off and makes me think Senuti is some sort of sick virus program in disguise
THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR THE SUGGESTION FOR Senuti!!
After killing my Mac, and reinstalling I had lost some of my music that wasn’t properly backed up. But luckily it was still on my ipod! I’ve been searching for months for a way to get it off of my ipod back to my comp with no luck. Senuti pulled it off with no problem.
I had no idea I had this much music missing from my backup files! Me and my 8gigs of re-found music thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
Richard, i would suggest a used Mac Mini, actually. I have one with two 500GB drives as my file, music and print server in the house and it works great and with Screen Sharing enabled, I use my laptop as the display and keyboard from anywhere in the house. Check something like the Apple refurb list on the online Apple Store or even Craigslist to find a bargain.
what is the best Mac to purchase if I want to use the device primarily for music storage?
Yes! This worked to copy a Windows formatted iPod to copy music to a Mac. It batch copied over 500 songs at once. Thanks for the tips!
I am having the same problem as Meggie. Don’t know what to do?
I just did this and it worked beautifully! Thank you for posting easy to apply advice that works! I am thrilled!
Hi Dave,
Senuti will not recognise my iPod or iPhone when i connect. It flashes up with the songs and then vanishes going back to the screen saying “connect an iPod to get started”. Also, iTunes opens and seems to override it or something?
Thanks a bunch.
Meggie.
Kelsay, if the previous owner bought all their music from iTunes, then you’re out of luck. Just delete all their music and move along with your life. If it’s stuff they’ve ripped themselves, however, then you should be able to switch iTunes accounts and still listen to it all without a problem. Easy way to test: switch to your iTunes account then try to play something. If it says “not authorized”, you’re out of luck.
Here, this’ll be useful too:
https://www.askdavetaylor.com/how_to_change_itunes_store_password.html
It shows you how to change password and you’ll see how to change which account is associated with iTunes too.
Hello!
I recently bought my mac computer off of someone i knew. They had it for a short amount of time before i bought it but had put their itunes library on it and did not take it off, leaving me all their songs. Therefore, it is set up under his account. I just bought myself a new ipod and would like to set it up to my mac but im not sure how to do this with itunes being under him.
Is there still a way i can set it up under me and keep all of the songs?
Senuti doesn’t delete anything off the iPod, just copies it. “Transfer” is its jargon for that capability…
HI,
I tried to copy songs from my husbands ipod using Mac/Senuti the only options using Senuti is to “transfer”. I don’t want to delete the songs off my husbands Ipod I only want to copy a few if them. Where are the preferences located? All it shows at the top of screen is transfer & stop.
Thanks,
Chris
yo thanks a bunch man fixed my issue.
dude you rock!!!! thanks so much. even with the new version it was still super easy. thanks again bro!
I’ve never been so pleased with the results of trying to follow online techie tutorials. Thank you so much for helping me transfer my 801 bought-and-paid iPod songs onto our new Mac!
Hi Dave,
great piece of advice and thanks… One thing that is useful would be to let people know that as of Sept 2010 this piece of software is not free…. It is free for a limited time but then it needs to be purchased. I see some of the comments date back to four years ago.
I the price of US$18 is more than affordable for those many of us wanting to make this transfer after years of Apple (still) not accommodating this requirement.
I for one am now on my fifth Mac and have always bought Apple laptops, mini’s ipods and now iPad…
But this software which I will buy and try out IS something I think is worth the price and people need to understand that soemtimes we need to pay ..
Regards
Mal
THANK YOU DAVE TAYLOR!
Thank you so much….I did a manual transfer when I bought my mac but used the senuti to transfer my boyfriend’s itunes from his ipod to his new mac and it worked perfectly. So easy!! Thanks again.
right i had 198 songs on my ipod and i presed restore i now have 3 how do i get my songs back
Can I burn a disc of my purchased iTunes (on my PC) that will be playable on my CD players? I’ve tried, but the resulting disc is only playable on my PC.
Hey Dave!
This is awesome info, but I’m curious about one thing:
If I’m buying someone an ipod and use my PC to sync my original songs onto it as a gift, will she be able to copy my songs into her Mac itunes library, and from there transfer her NEW library (including both her songs and my songs) back onto the ipod?
basically, would this method still work if the man in the problem above were to have a PC?
I have a Bose Lifestyle 48 system. Is it possible to download my Music Library I have on this system to Itunes on my Macbook?
HI Dave. I have a Mac, and, i downloaded songs online and saved them in VLC software, now, i can’t transfer them to i tunes. how can i do that?, have been on it for ages now. the windows media player version is 9 ofcourse.
HELP ME DAVE
Thnaks so much for this Dave, sorted the problem in a tick.
WOW awesome, thank you so much. alot easier than i thought it would be, this is very helpful.
Thanks a lot Dave!!
I have both a Mac and PC.
With my PC, I use CopyTrans to copy my music off my iPhone 3G.
No glitch at all.
HI- I dowloaded and used senuti and it was great for about 2300 songs, but for some reason it refuses to copy the last 198 songs.
They vary from some I have on CD (no problem just time) to some I paid for in Itunes to some that I recorded with a mic on my ipod. Some of each of these types of items copied no problem. So now I am stuck…
I am especially concerned about the ones I recorded with a mic beccause they are not replaceable. I am a musician and these are either live performances, rehearsals, or new compositions I was working on…
Help
THANKS DAVE, THIS ADVICE WAS THE BEST!! I just got a new mac and my ipod was windows-formatted. i didnt know what to do until i came across your site.
I did use ipodcopy and it trnsferred my music to itunes but when I try to play music off of itunes the speaker shows it is playing but no sound is coming out . Any suggestions Thanks Rich
does this software still work if i copied my brother in law’s PC iTunes library and want to put the songs onto my MAC iTunes?
thanks,
shelly
I believe I have followed your directions, but I cannot select music to copy, it is all deselected and I am not able to highlight any songs on the itunes screen I’m trying to import to my mac. Any suggestions?
Bill
The Senuti link moved… its here now:
http://fadingred.org/senuti/
Thanks for the reviews
Every time I have asked a qestion involving electronics, from my iPod to my PSP, Dave has never failed me in explaining a solution. The pictures really help to.