How to Move Music from Your iPod to iTunes Without Extra Software

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What happens when your computer crashes and you lose your entire iTunes library? How about if you're upgrading or setting up a new computer without a backup of your music? If your iPod has been synched with your iTunes library and has all (or most) of your music, you won't need to spend countless hours digging up the CDs to reimport them.

Here's a way to manually transfer your tunes from your iPod to iTunes without any special programs. This will only work on Windows PCs. Mac OSX does not allow you to view the music files in the Finder.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

Windows PC (Vista or XP)
iPod
iTunes

Step 1

Connect your iPod to a PC running Windows (XP or Vista are your best bets).
Step 2

Make sure you can see your hidden files.

In Vista, open any folder and click on the "Organize" button in the toolbar. Click on "Folders" and "Search Options," then select "Show Hidden Files and Folders".

In XP, open Windows Explorer (not the web browser), go to "Tools" on the toolbar and "Folder Options." Select the tab labeled "View" and under "Hidden Files and Folders" click on "Show Hidden Files and Folders."
Step 3

Go to "My Computer" in XP's Explorer or "Computer" in Vista's Explorer.
Step 4

Click on the iPod.
Step 5

Find the Music folder on the iPod by navigating to iPod_Control > Music.
Step 6

Copy and paste the entire Music folder & all of its contents on to your computer--make sure you remember the spot where you copied the Music Folder. In the file explorer, Vista will show all the file names, albums & songs, but XP or earlier versions will only show the filenames (like XXYPZ.mp3).
Step 7

Launch iTunes.
Step 8

Eject and disconnect the iPod. Just click the Eject button next to the iPod in iTunes.
Step 9

Go to File> "Add Folder to Library" in iTunes.
Step 10

Navigate to the place you copied the Music folder from the iPod.
Step 11

Hit the "OK" button. Your songs will be added to your iTunes Library. It may take a while if you have a lot of music, so be patient.

Comments

protes said

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on 3/19/2009 i could not import folder to library but i was able to import files (highlight all and import)! had to do it 48 times for each containing folder appx 245 songs! a total of over 13,000 songs! at least i did not have to do it file by file! thanks for the info.

sarah6516 said

on 2/17/2009 There is no picture of your ipod. When you go to "computer" or "my computer" it is listed as a drive...in my case, an "F" drive and it looks like a rounded rectangular box. Also, like someone mentioned earlier, I was only able to complete the final step of adding the files by manually copying all music files within each folder (F00 - F-49) and dragging them into the library section of the sections on the left hand side of itunes. It worked like a charm and I am so thankful!!!!!!!!!!!!!