How to transfer music from my iPod to my PC?
January 9, 2011 11:12 AM Subscribe
How can I transfer my music collection from my iPod to my computer and keep it all organized?
I have an iPod (5th generation, I think?) that I think will die pretty soon, and all my music is organized beautifully on that iPod. These are the types of files I have on there:
- music imported from CD's (some had correct info when imported into iTunes, some I had to rename from "Track 1" to "Actual Song Name")
- mp3 files copied from friend's computers (again, I had to rename a lot of the files in order to organize them)
- music downloaded from iTunes
It took me hours and hours to label all the songs on my iPod in iTunes. I still have most of the music scattered throughout a couple of external hard drives and tons of CD's, but it's not on my computer now.
I would like to save all the music from my iPod onto my computer, and leave it organized and named correctly, so I can easily transfer it in one shot to my next mp3 player, or maybe an iPhone if I get one. I would hate to have to import all the CDs again, and have to go through several external hard drives where my music is scattered, just to get them on my next mp3 player, and to have to re-name all those files!
Is there free or very cheap software that will let me do that on a PC? I saw the lifehacker link from another question, but I would like the music organized on my PC without having to put it back into iTunes first. Is there a way to do that? I also tried iRip, and it seemed to skip a lot of the artists (maybe it only chose to copy the songs that were downloaded legally?) What other options do I have?
I have an iPod (5th generation, I think?) that I think will die pretty soon, and all my music is organized beautifully on that iPod. These are the types of files I have on there:
- music imported from CD's (some had correct info when imported into iTunes, some I had to rename from "Track 1" to "Actual Song Name")
- mp3 files copied from friend's computers (again, I had to rename a lot of the files in order to organize them)
- music downloaded from iTunes
It took me hours and hours to label all the songs on my iPod in iTunes. I still have most of the music scattered throughout a couple of external hard drives and tons of CD's, but it's not on my computer now.
I would like to save all the music from my iPod onto my computer, and leave it organized and named correctly, so I can easily transfer it in one shot to my next mp3 player, or maybe an iPhone if I get one. I would hate to have to import all the CDs again, and have to go through several external hard drives where my music is scattered, just to get them on my next mp3 player, and to have to re-name all those files!
Is there free or very cheap software that will let me do that on a PC? I saw the lifehacker link from another question, but I would like the music organized on my PC without having to put it back into iTunes first. Is there a way to do that? I also tried iRip, and it seemed to skip a lot of the artists (maybe it only chose to copy the songs that were downloaded legally?) What other options do I have?
The Complete Guide to Copying Music from An iPod to Computer
I'd pull everything off the iPod and then drop in into iTunes letting it categorize the music for you. If you do this where it copies the music to your iTunes directory it will automatically create folders by artist and album. You then don't need to use iTunes.
posted by bitdamaged at 11:19 AM on January 9, 2011 [1 favorite]
I'd pull everything off the iPod and then drop in into iTunes letting it categorize the music for you. If you do this where it copies the music to your iTunes directory it will automatically create folders by artist and album. You then don't need to use iTunes.
posted by bitdamaged at 11:19 AM on January 9, 2011 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by griphus at 11:15 AM on January 9, 2011