Moving iPod Playlists without the music.

December 12, 2005 12:37 PM

How do I get a Playlist off my iPod and into iTunes? I know how to get music on and off my iPod, but how can I transfer just the Playlist not the music files?

Sometimes I plug my iPod into my work machine and make Playlists, but I want to transfer them to my home version of iTunes, so I can use them there too. Dragging and dropping doesn't work, and I can't seem to find the actual playlist file on the iPod itself. Is this even possible? I'm using Windows XP in both locations, if there's a shareware solution.

posted by FreezBoy to Computers & Internet (9 answers total)

Assuming you already have the music itself in your itunes, he playlist should show up in itunes when you synchronize your ipod. On my PC, it shows up as "On The Go 1".
posted by kdern at 12:40 PM on December 12, 2005

Best answer: Doing a quick search on VersionTracker, I found a few tools that can do this for you. iPod.iTunes and PodUtil look like good bets.

If you're asking for a Windows tool, VersionTracker lists these.
posted by lunarboy at 12:45 PM on December 12, 2005

Response by poster: kdern - they're not actually On the Go playlists. I'm using iTunes at work to make them. I wonder what would happen if I named the playlist On The Go.

Thanks Lunarboy, I use PodUtil to transfer music files, but I've never been able to get it to move just the playlist. The other ones you list seem to be able to import m3u playlists, but don't seem to mention iTunes playlists themselves. I'll have to do some further research.

Thanks so far, though.
posted by FreezBoy at 1:06 PM on December 12, 2005

iPodRip from thelittleappfactory.com - for Windows or Mac - can copy playlists (and songs with playcounts/ratings/last played info intact) directly from an iPod to iTunes.

It had some issues with the video iPod when I tried it, but then again, every time Apple releases new hardware it takes a couple of weeks for independent software to catch up.
posted by helios at 2:26 PM on December 12, 2005

Response by poster: Helios - that seems to be the closest so far, but there doesn't seem to be a way in the Windows version to copy the playlist without also copying the tracks over.
posted by FreezBoy at 3:11 PM on December 12, 2005

Best answer: That might have to do with the way the playlists are stored - if they simply consist of pointers to songs in the database, then it would be very difficult to copy the playlist without copying the referenced songs. The utility would have to be really smart and search your existing library for the song and adjust the playlist pointer if necessary. And if the song on your iPod is slightly different than the one in your library for some reason, it would have to prompt you or make a judgement call.

You can try an alternate method of making playlists - just 'tag' the songs by entering keywords in the comments field, and make smart playlists that look for those keywords. Then it's significantly easier to replicate those playlists, although there's the issue of 1) not being able to choose play order and 2) synchronizing the keywords between your iPod and iTunes (which I believe will happen automatically if you have iTunes set up to autosync your iPod).
posted by helios at 3:40 PM on December 12, 2005

Best answer: I've been looking for this same ability for ages (I dropped my external drive with all my music, and had to re-make my libraray off my iPod), and could never find anything that worked qute right. Turns out one of the programs in the list lunarboy linked to works exactly right: Yami-Pod

It lets you specify a directory on your computer where your current music is, then looks through these songs to make the list. It takes a little while (esp. if you have a large library), but is well worth it!
posted by BevosAngryGhost at 4:29 PM on December 12, 2005

On post-view: thanks a ton Lunarboy...I only found this out by trying the programs in your link.
posted by BevosAngryGhost at 4:30 PM on December 12, 2005

Response by poster: Whoohoo! Thanks Lunarboy and thanks BevosAngryGhost. Yami-Pod is going to do exactly what I need.

Thank you too Helios, you gave me some great ideas that I'm going to use as well.
posted by FreezBoy at 6:10 PM on December 12, 2005