GlesgaKiss

Hi all

Is there a way to get music from an ipod onto a pc?

My problem is that I have a desktop and a laptop. I've had the desktop for years and don't use it for much any more. I used to sync the ipod to it, but now just add songs manually from itunes on my laptop, which means I can keep the songs from the last computer too.

What I'm wondering, is what happens when I this ipod dies? Some of the songs in my desktop's itunes are missing now, so if I synced to that pc I would presumably lose those songs?

It's taken me years to build up the collection I have on my ipod, so it'll be a bit annoying if I lose them.

Markus

Have a read of this

Gordo

You're half way there by not synching it.

1. Connect to PC
2. close iTunes (if it's open)
3. Open windows explorer / file manager
4. Go into options and make sure that you can see all folders (i.e. the 'hidden folders' box is not checked)
5. you'll see the iPod as an external drive - open the folder and keep drilling down until you stumble across a load of numbered folders, each of which will have 50-100 tracks in them. copy onto your PC and voila (you'll note that these tracks will all be a random gthdc.mp3 format - i.e. not named as such, but they'll open as normal in iTunes).
6. You can then re-load all of these files / link to iTunes
7. Check for duplicates in iTunes and delete as necessary
8. Synch your Ipod afresh such that it gets all the tracks on the PC, not just the ones on it now.

Sorted

GlesgaKiss

Cheers guys, that's exactly what I wanted to know.

GlesgaKiss

Well that has worked, but about a quarter of the file names are still in the 4 letter format, the way they were in the folder. Any ideas?

Markus

Do they need to have proper names? The ID3 tags within them should be ok and that is what iTunes will actually use to pick up the track name, artist, track number, etc...

I'm just having a little look at various options to see if I can work out if there is a way to fix this.

Markus

Ok, here is what you'll need to do:

1. Go into iTunes and select any playlists you have and use the export option to export their contents as what we will do will clear them.
   
2. Go into Windows Explorer and locate the folder where you put your music. You'll also need to find the iTunes Music folder too (My Document -> My Music -> iTunes -> iTunes Music. I think that is where it's located)
   
3. Drag the iTunes Music folder onto the desktop.
   
4. Select all the music in iTunes and press the delete key. It might ask if you want to delete multiple items, say yes. It should then ask if you wish to keep the files or move them to the trash. Click "Keep Files". This will preseve any music in the iTunes music folder (though there won't be any as we've moved the folder)
   
5. Go into iTunes preferences, then into the Advanced settings. Make sure the "Keep iTunes Music Folder Organised" and "Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to Library" options ARE checked/enabled. Click Ok.
   
6. Shrink the iTunes window a little. Go to windows explorer and Drag and drop the folder(s) containing the music onto the iTunes window (this is why we shrank it a little, so we could see Explorer and iTunes)
   
7. iTunes will copy the music from the folders into a new iTunes Music folder (so yes, you'll have duplicates on disk, so you will want to delete them later)
   
8. What iTunes should also do is create a folder structure in the iTunes Music folder that is based on artist, then inside album names for that artist and then inside those folders, the actual tracks. The key part is that the four lettered music files will actually now have proper names rather than the four letters.

I did try various combinations of the two options in the iTunes prefs, but only when both are enabled will it rename the four letter files to a proper name.

farmerwrx

this may help you, i had to do it about a fortnight ago and it worked fine

YouTube - farmersti's Channel
YouTube - farmersti's Channel

GlesgaKiss

Thanks for taking the time to do that, Markus. I've done everything there and more of songs have their proper names, but there are still about 20% of them with the 4 letter names. I can only assume that it's because they aren't proper iTunes downloads? So it looks like those ones could be a lost cause.

farmerwrx: Cheers for those. Again, they are helpful, but they show pretty much the same thing Markus described.

Markus

That they aren't from the iTunes Store should not make any difference at all. It could be the ID3 tags within the files are messing things up, though if that were the case I'd expect the files to not show proper information (artist, track name, album, etc...) in iTunes, which I am guessing is not the case.

GlesgaKiss

No, that's exactly the problem. About 20% of them don't have their correct names in iTunes. Just random 4 letter names... the same as they are in their folders.

A lot of them were downloaded on the likes of Limewire years ago, so it maybe is something to do with the ID3 tags? I think it could be a lost cause.

Markus

Ah, ok, if they are showing up in iTunes with the four letter names then you are spot on, it's the ID3 tags that are fecked up or non-existent, so it uses the filename as the track name.

Did the items have the correct names from wherever you originally copied them (iPod I presume?). Do you know if these files are the old ones or the new ones?

GlesgaKiss

Yes, they have the correct names on the iPod and obviously in the iTunes on my desktop. Although as I said, some of them are missing now, as I don't use that pc and have deleted files.

They are definitely the old ones, so it looks like that's exactly the problem.

Scoobychick

iTrader: (1)

Well this thread couldn't have appeared at a better time as the hard drive on my old PC died last week However, I had an inclination that it was going so copied all my music files onto my external hard drive. Phew.

The new PC turned up this week and I was then faced with the task of manually importing all my files over but losing all the playlists and other data. Then I saw Markus's post about this site: Copying Content from your iPod to your Computer - The Definitive Guide | iLounge Article and, as all my music is stored on my iPod decided to give one of the suggested programmes a go.

Using the info there I went for the easy option and downloaded CopyTrans 4 Transfer iPod to iTunes, copy iPod to PC and iPod to computer as it works with Windows 7 and the latest iTunes. I went for the paid option not the free trial which was $19.99, although by becoming a fan on Facebook I got a 10% discount to $17.99 which roughly converted was £11ish which I didn't think was too bad for the ease of use.

Lo and behold in a few simple clicks I now have everything from my iPod in my new iTunes on the PC including playlists, ratings and all the other guff so thanks Markus for the link and thanks to the OP for posting in the first place

Markus

Reads like a spam advert

Glad to be of help though