Save the Ipod songs!

February 22, 2006 4:57 AM

IPod help for a friend.... Sorry if this was asked before, I looked but didn't see it... My friend has an IPod Nano and her laptop died. She lost her ITunes folders but still has all the music on the device. How can she get it back without having to re-purchase all the songs? She'd afraid that when she syncs again, everything will be gone.
posted by keep it tight to Technology (13 answers total)

Best answer: Check out versiontracker - there are a lot of programs out there that help download the songs back down to the computer. Same thing happened to me and I was able to get them (I have a Mac) using "Senuti". Good luck!
posted by cajo at 5:03 AM on February 22, 2006

On a PC, Winamp with the ml_ipod plugin will do the trick as well.
posted by antifuse at 5:18 AM on February 22, 2006

Best answer: Definitely don't sync with the laptop -- you will lose all your music that way.

ipod.itunes was by far the best application I've used. (But it's just for Mac).

For windows, try versiontracker.
posted by visual mechanic at 5:27 AM on February 22, 2006

Podutil does exactly what she needs.
posted by Optamystic at 5:59 AM on February 22, 2006

I've never actually had to use one of those programs, but I had EscapePod on my powerbook for a long time, just in case.

You said she purhcased the songs? She should be aware then that, if she purchased them through the iTunes Music Store, the songs can only be activated so many times.

...At least, unless they've changed it. I've had more than a few songs "expire" when I did dastardly things like play them at work and on a second computer.
posted by kaseijin at 6:25 AM on February 22, 2006

Previously.

I think it's also been asked at least once more; I seem to remember recommending EphPod (Windows/Linux).
posted by booksandlibretti at 6:27 AM on February 22, 2006

I use ipodtracks and love it. It adds an item to the itunes menu bar that's always there, and it's brainlessly easy.

As for purchased songs, i convert those to mp3s right inside itunes after buying them and then load the mp3s into a new playlist.
posted by amberglow at 7:26 AM on February 22, 2006

There is no need to download or purchase an application to do this!!

Open up explorer, change your settings to view hidden files and folders and then copy the contents of the now visible "ipod_control\music" folder on your ipod to a folder somewhere on your pc.

Then use the import folder function in iTunes to put it all back into the application.

The only downside to this is that if you don't allow iTunes to manage the storage of your music and copy the files to a dedicated folder/drive then the files won't be renamed and they'll stay in the original filename format.

Which may or may not be an issue for you.
posted by mr_silver at 7:28 AM on February 22, 2006

if she purchased them through the iTunes Music Store, the songs can only be activated so many times.

It's up to five computers simultaneously. Once you get up to five computers, it's now possible to log on to your iTunes account and de-authorize them all, even if you don't have one of the computers anymore. Then you simply re-authorize the computers you still do have.
posted by kindall at 9:15 AM on February 22, 2006

Of course, you can only mass-deauthorize machines once every 12 months.
posted by zztzed at 9:57 AM on February 22, 2006

I've used iPod Viewer 3.0 with great success from versiontracker.com. And it's free!
posted by tonyballinger at 1:02 PM on February 22, 2006

Since you say laptop, I'll assume windows. The best program I've found for the Nano on XP is Yamipod. With it she can freely copy her nano songs back to her laptop or any other computer, drag & drop easy. I prefer Ephpod for my 20gb ipod though.
posted by roboto at 2:40 PM on February 22, 2006

Also, obviously she should open itunes before connecting her nano and disable auto-sync.
posted by roboto at 2:42 PM on February 22, 2006