How do I backup my songs on my IPOD Classic?

@the fiend, @turingtest2

I think you guys are missing the point and not thinking about some simple day-to-day situations.

What happens if your iPod is intact, but you library goes away with your broken computer?

What happens if your in a hurry, your library is in a very slow booting computer?

What happens if your library is in a laptop, the battery is dead and the charger is nowhere to be found?

And turingtest2: not all music obtained legally is through iTunes. What about CDs? Am I not allowed to make digital copies of the songs in them? Am I forced to do it in my own computer? What if I own a laptop without a DVD-ROM? Can't I use another computer, mine or someone else's?

Sync must be really nice, I'm sure of that. But I never got the time to fully undestand how it worked, how it didn't.

I use my iTunes to listen to songs, not as a "library", as a musical hub. And manual sync works fine for me (and a lot of people).

@the fiend

I think you're "preaching" in favour of automatic sync like it is the "right" way to deal with your music files.

It is not the "right way" - it's just one way, simple as that.

And you can choose to use it or not - and you won't be right or wrong.

I'm not trying to pick a fight here - just making my point that manual sync is as good as any other method to transfer music to your iPod - and every method has it's characteristics, its advantages and flaws.

The way I deal with my music files, manual sync works perfectly for me. It's just a matter of mantaining my "iPod backup" - with its songs and playlists.

In case something bad happens - the iPod brakes, the computer fries, iTunes looses its library - I'll just use that. No need to keep all playlist in iTunes, all the files, or to backup the iTunes library - specially the latter, since it is not a simple task to most people.

Manual management may be as good a way to get your content onto your device, if you ignore the drawbacks that updates to media in the library aren't reflected on the device, and that play counts and ratings don't sync between the two, and that if you ever have to restore the device you have to make the selections all over again, however the principle advantage is that you can add media from any library that happens to be handy. If you don't need that feature then automatic syncing can be just as simple, just as flexible, and more powerful than manual management.

I'm not sure what you mean by your "iPod backup" but the take home point that I think we are trying to get across is that too many people load up their devices with their content and then free up space on their computers by deleting the original copies of the media file, only to run into trouble later when their device, holding the only copy of some precious files, is lost, stolen, damaged, or needs restoring. It is often too late to look to the device to recover that media at which point the decision to free up space rather than buy a bigger drive becomes obviously short sighted. And because computer hard drives can get fried too that library also needs to be backed up.

Just because backing up your data requires a little effort that doesn't make it a bad thing to do. And it really isn't that hard. See Backup your iTunes for Windows library with SyncToy for a suggested method.

tt2

ogrodafloresta wrote:

And that's a great way to use automatic sync.

I had to buy another external HD this week. The one I'd been using as a backup drive on my main computer seems to have some unidentifiable problem and I've replaced it before something bad happens. So, I'm gonna use this old one as a temp HD, with music and videos from two computers, to view content on my Samsung HDTV or someone else's computer;

Think I'm gonna try to use automatic sync and this backed up library on this external HD. But first, I gotta have one single library in all my iTunes at home (main CPU, laptop, mom's laptop), right?

Any tutorial you can recomend to do it?

These links should give you all the tools you might need:

Make a split library portable

Backup your iTunes for Windows library with SyncToy

Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device

Re: How to delete multiple duplicates on 12.0.1.26

tt2

ogrodafloresta wrote:

@the fiend, @turingtest2 Not everyone uses automatic sync to transfer songs to an iPod. A lot of people transfer songs manually, and not all of them are in their iTunes library.

You're missing the point of iTunes. iTunes is simply a catalogue of the music that you own. Music is not "in iTunes", all iTunes is doing is keeping a list of the music you have on your computer, and then copying it to your iDevice.

As tt2 mentioned, I'm too am aware that not everyone uses Sync, but I believe that Sync is the better way to manage an iPod. A Sync does the housework that none of us want to do.

1. You have music on your computer
2. You add it to iTunes (in other words, you tell iTunes where the music is located) and iTunes simply puts it onto its list, so that it (iTunes) knows where to find the music in the future
3. You manage your Library (of music) by creating and modifying Playlists, editing typing errors in a song's tags and so on. In other words, you set up your music in iTunes so that a Sync can then copy what you want (and how you want it) onto an iPod, iPad or iPhone.
4. Having done all of the above, you then use Sync to put your music onto your device
5. Crucially, at the Sync time, information on the iPod is transferred back to your iTunes Library: such as: i.) Play Count; ii.) changes top song ratings; iii.) transfer of On-The-Go Playlists (created on the device) back to iTunes

Why would anyone not want to do it that way?

AH! Because, as you mentioned, not all your music is on your computer. Why not? If you have obtained it legitimately, then it should be on your computer. Any music obtained from friends etc, and classed as not legitimate (and not legal) isn't yours to keep.

And as tt2 mentioned, your device is not a suitable back up of your computer. It's the other way round, the computer's copy of the Library is the back up for your device, but a further back up of the computer is also sensible.

I realise that you will probably not want to hear what I have to say. I don't say it for your benefit, but for the benefit of anyone else who stumbles across this thread. I wouldn't want them to get the wrong impression, after all.

ogrodafloresta wrote:

...

What happens if your iPod is intact, but you library goes away with your broken computer?

What happens if your in a hurry, your library is in a very slow booting computer?

What happens if your library is in a laptop, the battery is dead and the charger is nowhere to be found?

So you've managed all three of these scenarios in one go have you?

1. (previously answered, but nevertheless...) that's why you back up your computer.
2. learn patience
3. that's not really Apple's (iTunes) fault, is it.

Okay, this discussion is going nowhere.

The obvious has been stated and tt2 has pointed you towards software that will do precisely what you asked, which was: "How do I backup my 552 songs on my Classic IPOD? so there really isn't much more to be said.

It's unfortunate that you have found yourself in this position, but what are you hoping to achieve by asking more questions and providing all this new information?

Are the songs on your iPod not in your iTunes Library - the one you used to put them onto the iPod Classic in the first place?

That Library is the back up for your iPod. Then in turn, you should back up the content of the library (on the computer) onto an external hard drive.

@the fiend, @turingtest2 Not everyone uses automatic sync to transfer songs to an iPod. A lot of people transfer songs manually, and not all of them are in their iTunes library.

I use an old version of a software called SharePod. First, you have to connect your iPod to your computer and then open iTunes. Close it, then open Sharepod. Backup whatever you want. It will transfer all the songs from your device to your computer (including artwork). You can configure it to create folders and name the files in many different ways. It used to be totally free, now I don't know anymore.

ogrodafloresta wrote:

@the fiend, @turingtest2 Not everyone uses automatic sync to transfer songs to an iPod. A lot of people transfer songs manually, and not all of them are in their iTunes library.

Yes, we know. But that is a poor decision to make. Third party tools can help you recover local copies of your media as long as your device still works properly. They are no use at all if your device is lost, stolen, damaged or requires restoring.

I'm not sure a publisher's site for SharePod exists any more, but some of the shareware sites appear to have copies. Any way that works is great, but better not to need to resort to such measures in the first place.

tt2

Thanks, @turingtest2, for being reasonable and for taking time to understand my pont of view.

I don't use iTunes as a music library. I use it as a music player and music transfer application to my iDevices. And that's fine by me.

With automatic sync, you're only "allowed" to sync your iPod in ONE SINGLE COMPUTER (or library, whatever...). For me, that's more traumatic than making a regular backup of the iPod from time to time (using SharePod, keeping songs in a separate folder, exporting playlists, etc).

Since we've had more than one computer at home - with one booting always a lot faster than the other, for me, manual sync is the logical and least traumatic way to go.

If my desktop was booting slowly (I live in Brazil, everything here is expensive, I can't just walk into a store and buy a brand new computer if mine isn't fast enough ...), I used my mom's laptop. Then I got my own laptop, and it was as fast as the wind for a while. Then it's not so fast anymore, but I got a new desktop that boots fast. And my mom got a brand new laptop, even faster than my new desktop. And they all have iTunes.

I like to listen to a lot of different songs, and I use my iPods (I have a 8 gb 2G and a 16 Gb 5G) primarally while driving or running.

Since I'm always late, when it comes to my mind to listen to a certain kind of song, I can't be bound to a single computer.

I've researched automatic sync since this "discussion" started - never had the patience to do it - and undestood how to do it properly, how it worked (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrqAuxR3xUg), but this "bound to one computer" thing is a dealbreaker for me.

The one computer limitation isn't quite accurate, you're actually limited to syncing with one library, or rather any library with the same internal identifier. I have set people up with their entire library in a self-contained portable layout on a small host powered USB drive. They can take that drive to any computer, access the library on it, and update their devices. Ideally they will also keep a separate clone on their main computer. For myself I have three copies of my library, one at work, one at home, and a portable hard drive I take between both locations and use to keep everything in sync.

tt2

And that's a great way to use automatic sync.

I had to buy another external HD this week. The one I'd been using as a backup drive on my main computer seems to have some unidentifiable problem and I've replaced it before something bad happens. So, I'm gonna use this old one as a temp HD, with music and videos from two computers, to view content on my Samsung HDTV or someone else's computer;

Think I'm gonna try to use automatic sync and this backed up library on this external HD. But first, I gotta have one single library in all my iTunes at home (main CPU, laptop, mom's laptop), right?

Any tutorial you can recomend to do it?

See Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device.

tt2

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