iPod to Mac transfer problem. M4a file problem

Again, I am sorry for being naive. All 50 F01 type file folders contain over 300 random 4 letter song files. There are no albums that they show.

I've downloaded Picard, clicked on the directions, and find it difficult to understand. It seems they just want me to drag albums into it? I don't know, sorry?

I guess, I need a software program to find these song names, Picard or other?

Picard's job is easier, for example, if it knows that a set of 10 tracks come from the same album. That said I recall it working with individual songs as well. Again, years since I used it for a similar project of recovering untagged media but I remember it being useful. Drag in a few tracks and see what it can do with them.

tt2

Thanks for your reply!

When my hard drive crashed. I noticed my iTunes library songs and artists, etc, were still on my iTunes. But, they would not play music. I deleted all 17,000 song names, etc from iTunes. Remember, I downloaded all my songs back to my desktop from my iPod, but as 4 letter file names. Does that have anything to do with why my 4 letter files remain as 4 letters when I drag them from my desktop to my iTunes?

Is there a way to retrieve the info. that my iTunes used to have?

And, if I do get my hard drive info restored from a private company.....will those music files show up as 4 letters?

The four letter file names are used in the hidden folders on the device. This is an anti-piracy measure designed to stop you from connecting a friend's iPod to your computer and quickly scanning the folders for files that you want to copy. In most cases recovering files from an iPod relies on the fact that the files also contain tags with the details such as artist, album, song name, track #, etc. that you don't see in the path, but if you've used the option when syncing to the device to Sync higher bitrate songs to ###k AAC then the files that are placed on the device are generated without any tags. On import iTunes uses the only bit of information it has, the filename, as a song name. I have a Windows script that given a working library on the iPod can read its database and match up tracks in the library on the basis of unique file size, and if such a match is found it can then copy over any other details that can be read from the device and are missing in the main library. I think we've established that you don't have a valid database on the device so that line of attack won't work. If your files can be recovered from your original hard drive they should include metadata and be stored with conventional paths and filenames that reflect their properties.

tt2

thanks again!

Did I screw things up when I deleted all my iTunes song names after the hard drive crash? Can they be found in any trash? I didn't think they were important? Is this why the SLKS files have no names when dragged in?

Please, I am wondering if all the file names are still in my iPod. It still shows 80 gigs being used but shows, 'No Music'. What is all this space for? Can I get my iPod going again? I just put my Mac on sleep and left my iPod plugged in to charge.

thank you,

Thanks for your detailed reply!

I'm confused. You're saying that if I pay a lot of money for a company to get my iTunes files off of my crashed hard drive...that, when I drag them to iTunes, those file will be the same 4 letter files? Or will they contain all the music info. for iTunes to show?

I'l also sorry to ask again, but I am confused as to what happened to my perfectly good iPod when I plugged it into my Mac Pro and left it overnight to charge. I had just dragged all the files off of it, onto my desktop and was going to do more work the next day. I put my Mac to sleep and left my iPod plugged in.

thank you for your time!

The files from the old hard drive will contain metadata, unless they are in .wav format.

I don't know why the library on the device was corrupted. It is somewhat unfortunate that you had two failures at the same time.

tt2

If I did have Windows access from a friend, what do you recommend for my 2 problems?