How to Get Songs Off an iPod Without iTunes

IPods are great for storing and playing large volumes of music and videos. However, when you want to move songs from your iPod to your computer, you're usually out of luck, unless you bought them all through iTunes. Fortunately, despite Apple's best efforts to the contrary, there's a relatively quick and easy way to get songs off of your iPod and onto your PC.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. Connect your iPod to your PC and enable its disk mode. You'll need to open iTunes and check the appropriate box on your iPod's main control window to do this.

2. Open "Computer" and double-click your iPod's icon.

3. Select "Tools" from the menu bar at the top of the window. If the menu bar is not available, click the "Organize" button and select "Menu Bar" from the "Layout" menu.

4. Switch to the "View" tab of the Folder Options control panel. Then, click the radio button next to the option reading "Show hidden files and folders."

5. Head back to your iPod's main folder and look for the grayed-out folder named "iPod_Control." Double-click it.

6. Look in the "Music" folder and you'll find a bunch of folders labeled with a capital letter "F" followed by a two-digit number. Each of these folders contains about 50 or so songs from your iPod.

7. Drag and drop the songs you want to transfer into a folder on your PC. When you're finished, close the iPod's main window and disable disk mode using iTunes.