Ra5pu7in's Journal: Export and Import with iPod / iTunes

My kids both have iPods at this point and having recently set up a couple new computers for them (one at their house and one at mine), I have a question for those of you more familiar with iPods and iTunes.

How do you export all the music files off an iPod onto a computer / into iTunes?

I resorted to showing hidden files, finding folders and files with obscure names (F00, F01, MG3GS), copying them wholesale to the computer, then choosing to load folders (worked on one computer) or files (only way on the other computer). I swear there has got to be an easier way. These are all songs from CDs that one or the other of them has (bought legitimately). Admittedly these are on Windows computers - not Apple - so maybe that's part of my trouble.

sadly if you're using the 'itunes' integration..

[kesuki]

there is no built in 'export' however, if you simply drag the folder of mps over to the ipod directly, you can do the same to copy it onto other computers. i'm 99% sure that the ipod can recognize these mp3s and play them.

I do not own an ipod, however. Remember that the ipod is a usb2/firewire mass sotrage class device (hard drive) itunes is just a music jukebox, and the 'features' it supports are meant to enable 'content' to be digitally protected, via DRM.

fair use allows you to make copies, even for 'frie

Re:sadly if you're using the 'itunes' integration.

[Ra5pu7in]

That might work if I had the original files on the computer. I don't - that computer is what I recently bought one to replace (it completely fried - lost hard drive and everything). Nor are the files stored on the iPod mp3s. I don't know much about what format Apple uses or how they have the files stored.

Anyway, there's no issue with legality here. Every song is from a CD bought by one of us - my children, their uncle or myself. Unfortunately, quite a few are since scratched, broken, lost or stolen. S

Lots of programs to do this

[sielwolf]

That will recreate the %user%/Music/Artist/Album/*.aac|mp3 filestructure. Anapod used to be good but now it'll run you $25 bucks. I found this too [gold-software.com].

Of course the way I would do it is by using Winamp and the iPod plug-in for it (which is all free). Just install both, open up Winamp, open up its Media Library, the iPod will show up as a Device. You can then click on each album and have its files transferred into the above file structure. I even think there might be a button in Preferences|IPod to do all o

Re:Lots of programs to do this

[Ra5pu7in]

Thanks. That's pretty much what I was looking for. I use Winamp myself and prefer my Sony mp3 player to their iPods. Didn't know Winamp had a plugin for the iPod - not even something I would have thought to look for.

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Re:Why go through all that crap?

[Ra5pu7in]

The synchronization between your iPod and your computer is always one way: from iTunes to iPod.

If you've erased the music library on your computer, there's no way to use the Finder or My Computer to copy the songs from your iPod to reconstitute the library on your computer. One solution is to encode the songs from your CD collection again, then sync your new library with iPod. If you purchased songs from the iTunes Music Store and didn't back them up, there's no way to download them again. You'll have to bu

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