Copy MP3 Files from IPOD to Computer

Question

Copy MP3 Files from IPOD to Computer

I have a small hard drive in my computer and most of my songs are in cds. I bought a 60 gb IPOD and I copy the songs from computer using Itunes after I copy it from cd.

My question is how do I copy songs from Ipod to my computer's harddrive. Can I copy any other files (DOC or txt) to my IPOD? If yes , how??

Posted on Oct 3, 2005 12:39 PM

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Answer 1

Oct 3, 2005 12:43 PM in response to Avijit Sikder

Avijit,

Welcome to Discussions!

The iPod appears to your computer as just another hard disk. You can access it by opening My Computer. You'll probably see it as your :/E drive. Double click it and you can see what's currently on it. You can drag files to it.

If you want to get songs that have been loaded to it from iTunes, you'll need a utility such as PodUtil to convert the music to mp3 files.

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Answer 2

Oct 3, 2005 12:47 PM in response to Avijit Sikder

Thanks Mike for the quick reply.
I am still not sure about the solution. My assumption is when in the IPod hard drive the files are in mp3 file itself(Does Ipod convert them into other format??).
When I double click in the :E as you said I see calendar and other folders. I dont see the songs.
Thanks

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Answer 3

MarkJones

Level 6

10,065 points

Oct 3, 2005 2:48 PM in response to Avijit Sikder

They're there, in original MP3 format (or whatever format you use). They're hidden files and folders under Windows, however. See this:

MacMuse, "Computer Crashed" #3, 11:48pm Feb 7, 2005 CDT

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Answer 4

Oct 3, 2005 4:30 PM in response to MarkJones

I believe you can change a setting on your PC so you can view invisible files.

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Answer 5

Oct 3, 2005 7:04 PM in response to Avijit Sikder

Thanks for the suggestions. I do see the hidden files and I can copy the Mp3 files from Ipod to my system.
However I dont understand why Apple Engineering team did these...
1. Why the files are organized in such a way in IPOD (f00,f01,f02...). The files are all mixed up. It would have been much more user friendly if they were store based on the album title , the way we store it in our computers.

2. Why The name of the MP3 files are shortened when they are copied in the Ipod. I have checked, the ID3 tags are
intact. Now its difficult to identify a particular song , unless I check the ID3 tag for each and every song.

Any input????

Thanks
-Avijit

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Answer 6

MarkJones

Level 6

10,065 points

Oct 3, 2005 7:15 PM in response to Avijit Sikder

Yes. The iPod was not designed for the user to copy music from the iPod, only to the iPod. And, it was designed so that you use iTunes to do this. This one-way copying of music was done to appease the recording industry and to discourage music piracy.

So, as far as functionality/ease of use is concerned, it really doesn't matter how the files or folders are named as long as iTunes knows where they are and what they mean.

By the way, third-party software such as iPod Agent also makes sense of this naming. It is a suggested automated way of copying your music from the iPod to the PC when you have a legitimate need to do so.

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Answer 7

Oct 13, 2005 9:49 AM in response to MarkJones

Does that mean that on Windows (and on OSX) I can mount iPod and copy everything from iPod disk to another disk (backup), then reformat iPod, and then copy back everything to iPod from my backup, and iPod will continue to work as if no reformatting has been done?

Thanks/Mikael

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Answer 8

Oct 13, 2005 6:51 PM in response to Mikael Hakman

Yes, that is so. It should work, barring any unforseen problems.

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Answer 9

Jeff--

Level 5

4,900 points

Nov 15, 2005 2:44 PM in response to Avijit Sikder

read the following 2 docs:

How to Stop the iPod from Autosyncing (and Deleting My Music)

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=797429&#797429

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