How to Copy Music OFF your iPod

So, you've got music on your iPod that you don't have on your computer?

It doesn't matter how you got in this predicament -- maybe you've lost a hard drive (or an entire computer), or you've accidently deleted just a little too much, and for one reason or another, you don't have the original source of the music.

If any of that sounds familiar, the time to fix it is now -- before you lose your iPod (and your music), or iTunes manages to get set to automatically sync your entire library (its default state, if you have to re-install it) and starts deleting all of the songs it doesn't know about.

Unfortunately, the standard tool for transferring music between your iPod and your computer (iTunes) is one-way -- it'll put music (or videos, etc.) onto your iPod, but it won't retrieve it back. Why? Uncle Steve wants it that way, I suppose.

Getting music off of your iPod -- the Windows Down & Dirty Method

Unusually enough, this is one place Windows users have an advantage over Mac users. If you have a Windows formatted iPod, Windows actually treats it as a removable drive, and you can go in and copy the files off if you know where to look.

Here's how:

1. Connect your iPod -- =Warning!= if iTunes loads when you plug in your iPod, and is set to automatically sync your entire library (erasing your iPod), you MUST stop it -- hit the little "X" in the upper right hand corner of the window.

2. Open your iPod -- It should show up on "My Computer" as a "Mobile Device"; right click and choose "Explore". Alternatively, go to the Control Panel, Portable Media Devices, and double-click your iPod.

3. Unhide the files -- By default, Windows hides hidden files and folders (thus the name). Go to Options (in the Tools menu), and on the View tab, check "Show Hidden Files and Folders".

4. Find the Music -- The music is stored (in current iPods) in the directory "\\iPod_Control\\Music". This may have a lot of odd looking stuff in it -- it doesn't matter; select everything and drag and drop them to a folder on your hard drive.

5. Configure iTunes -- Go into iTunes Preferences, and under the Advanced tab, check "Keep iTunes Music Folder Organized" and "Copy files to iTunes Music Folder when adding to the library" (settings move around a bit between versions of iTunes, but these settings will be there somewhere).

6. Add Your Files -- In iTunes, select File, Add Folder to Library, and select the folder where you copied the files from your iPod. Alternatively, just drag and drop this folder onto iTunes

Once you've done that, iTunes should sort out the files from the iPod folder structure, put the artist and album information back from the ID3 tags in the music files, and reorganize the whole thing in the iTunes library folder.

The one caveat with this is that what you won't get back is any "metadata" that isn't stored in the files themselves, such as ratings, play counts, last played and modified information, etc.

It's also very difficult to select individual files or groups of files doing this, as it's not terribly obvious which file is which just looking at them in the way the iPod stores them.

Last but not least, I've never seen (nor read about) this trick being tried with any of the "new" iTunes data types, such as pictures, video, games, etc., so I don't know how well it would work to retrieve that information, nor whether this will retrieve purchases from iTunes Music Store intact.

For more methods of copying data off of your iPod, including links to several free utilities that can copy all of your data, please see:

5 Ways to copy music OFF your iPod (Windows / Mac OS X)

About the Author

Chuck Lawson writes tips and reviews for technology and gadgets at Nonliteral: Metaphoric Engineering. Please visit Nonliteral for more information on this and other related topics.

Discover the Definition of Podcasting & Reasons Why You Have To Consider Podcasting!

The podcasting is one of the fastest growing technologies on the internet right now. As my investigations reveal that there are a several ways to earn extra money with podcasting. Also, I believe that earning extra money with podcasting is a new generation of making money with blogging. If you are familiar with earning extra money with blogging, I am sure that you should start earning extra money online with podcasting now.

However, before jumping into how to earn extra money with podcasting, I would like to give you the definition of podcasting. You'll discover the definition of podcasting in this article.

READ THIS: If you are interested in podcasting and looking for how to earn extra money with podcasting.

Even when blogging was still relatively new, audio blogging - and then video blogging -developed as alternative ways to post and deliver blog content.

However, audio and video blogs have never really hit the big time until late 2004, when RSS (stand for "Really Simple Syndication") technology started to be used to deliver audio content directly to people's iPods or other portable digital music players through a new technology called "podcasting."

Actually, podcasting became so popular that the New Oxford American Dictionary selected "podcast" as the Word of the Year for 2005. The word was chosen based upon the phenomenally rapid growth of podcasting, which rose from relative obscurity to become one of the hottest trends in media.

At its most basic level, the definition of podcasting is the delivery of audio files - typically MP3 audio files - to the Internet. Listeners can access the files using "reader" software, which lets them easily and automatically transfer the files to a digital MP3 player.

The process has become known as "podcasting" because the most popular MP3 player on the market is Apple's iPod. These MP3 players are so popular that, according to a recent Pew Internet survey, more than 22 million American adults now own an iPod or similar player!

But you know what! The podcasts do NOT have been played on a portable MP3 player such as an iPod - listeners can simply play the podcast on their home computer. Actually, the majority of podcasts are currently listened to directly on subscribers' computers and don't ever make it to a portable MP3 player. So don't think that people need to own an iPod to listen to podcasts - nothing could be further from the truth!

In my opinion, this can be a great way for internet entrepreneurs to earn extra money with podcasting. Some of them use podcasting technology to advertise their home based internet marketing business. Some of them use for be an outstanding among their competitors. Personally, if you are truly home based business owner, I highly encourage you to use podcasting technology to earn extra money and be outstanding among your competitors. It is NOT too soon to get started with earning extra money through podcasting technology!

However, what makes podcasting a unique marketing and communications tool is that it allows individuals or businesses to publish audio content that interested listeners can subscribe to via RSS "feeds." Before podcasting you could, of course, record an audio show and put it on your web site or blog. Now your listeners can automatically receive your audio broadcasts without having to go to your web site - the podcast is automatically delivered to their computer through RSS technology.

Listeners who subscribe to your podcast are essentially saying, "I want to hear your content on a regular basis." This gives you a direct line of communication or even marketing channel to your target market - making podcasting a very powerful marketing tool.

Finally, you will learn the definition of podcasting and reasons why you have to consider podcasting. My investigations reveal that earning extra money on podcasting technology is an alternative way for online business owners from now on. If you are familiar with earning extra money on your blogs, I strongly believe that earning extra money with podcasting is your next step. Podcasting is a next generation of blogging!

Read more articles about how to earn extra money online at home and discover a lot of golden homeworker business opportunities at: http://www.zMakeMoney.com/blog and http://www.zMillionDollars.com/blog.

About the Author

Siripong R. or zMillionDollars is a recognized authority on the subject of making money online from home through highly profitable & successful home based business. His websites, www.zMakeMoney.com and www.zMillionDollars.com, provide a wealth of informative articles and resources on everything you'll ever need to know about earning money online.