How to Get Music off an iPod
Apple designed iTunes to prevent users from treating their iPods as regular portable storage devices. The iPod was intended to only accept music from iTunes without uploading music back on to the computer. Under normal circumstances, the only way to remove a file from an iPod was to delete it. Users could only hope the song was still backed up in the iTunes Library. By tweaking some settings in iTunes and using the Folder Options in Windows 7, users can bypass the default limitations of iTunes and move music from their iPods to their computers.
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Instructions
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Connect the iPod to the computer and then run iTunes. The iPod will appear in the left-hand panel of iTunes when connected. Select the iPod under "DEVICES" to open its summary page. Select "Manually manage music and videos" and "Enable disk use" if they are not already active. By activating the two options, users can manually change files and view them through Windows.
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Press the Windows key to open the Start menu and then enter "folder options" into the "Search programs and files" field. Open Folder Options from the search results. Click the View tab and then select "Show hidden files, folders, and drives." The files on an iPod are treated as hidden files by Windows.
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Click the folder icon in the Windows taskbar to open a new Windows Explorer window. Click the iPod under "Computer" in the left-hand panel, open the iPod_Control folder and then open the Music folder. Open any of the folders labeled "F" followed by two numbers to find music and video stored on the iPod under nonsensical file names. The files can be deleted here or moved into a different directory on the computer.
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Tips & Warnings
Most media player software can play files off an iPod once the hidden files are revealed.
Holding the Shift and Control keys while connecting an iPod will prevent iTunes from automatically syncing with it.
While the file names are nonsensical, each file maintains its ID3 tags. Play the files in another media player to identify them.
Syncing an iPod after removing music from it can prompt iTunes to delete songs from the computer.
