Xtremelust

Q: I want all my songs back!

I loaded all of my songs, mostly mp3s (way over 1000) from my computer onto my ipod touch 6. Thinking my music was all safely backed up I reformatted my hard drive. Now I can't seem to recover any of my songs... only the few I purchased from iTunes. Is there any way to recover all of my songs from my ipod or are they locked up forever?

iPod touch, iOS 6.1.6, iTunes on a PC

Posted on Feb 4, 2015 10:17 PM

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Q: I want all my songs back!

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  • by lllaass,

    lllaass lllaass Feb 5, 2015 1:33 AM in response to Xtremelust
    Level 10 (190,672 points)
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    Feb 5, 2015 1:33 AM in response to Xtremelust
  • by SuzanWayWest,

    SuzanWayWest SuzanWayWest Feb 5, 2015 2:28 AM in response to Xtremelust
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 5, 2015 2:28 AM in response to Xtremelust

    Question for you: did you purchase the songs under your own Apple ID? Or were they borrowed?  They only work with the original buyer and the number of devices is limited to 5. If you have the buyers permission and password, it'll unlock all of them.

  • by lllaass,

    lllaass lllaass Feb 5, 2015 2:48 AM in response to SuzanWayWest
    Level 10 (190,672 points)
    Apple Watch
    Feb 5, 2015 2:48 AM in response to SuzanWayWest

    You can associate your Apple ID with up to 10 devices, with a maximum of 5 computers at any time. Each computer must also be authorized using the same Apple ID. You don't need to authorize your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.


    Manage your associated devices in iTunes - Apple Support

    SuzanWayWest wrote:

     

    Question for you: did you purchase the songs under your own Apple ID? Or were they borrowed?  They only work with the original buyer and the number of devices is limited to 5. If you have the buyers permission and password, it'll unlock all of them.

  • by Xtremelust,

    Xtremelust Xtremelust Feb 5, 2015 8:07 AM in response to lllaass
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    Feb 5, 2015 8:07 AM in response to lllaass

    lllass, will this link help me recover non-itunes songs? Most of my mp3s I have had for years, before itunes existed. Most of the songs I got from friends, some burned from my cds. Only a very few were actually purchased.

  • by lllaass,

    lllaass lllaass Feb 5, 2015 8:19 AM in response to Xtremelust
    Level 10 (190,672 points)
    Apple Watch
    Feb 5, 2015 8:19 AM in response to Xtremelust

    If they are not on your iPod (you can play them) or on your computer (you can play them) then your CD music is gone.

  • by ChrisJ4203,

    ChrisJ4203 ChrisJ4203 Feb 5, 2015 8:21 AM in response to Xtremelust
    Level 9 (59,759 points)
    iPhone
    Feb 5, 2015 8:21 AM in response to Xtremelust

    There are 3rd party solutions as indicated in the link that Illaass provided you earlier. I can vouch for Touchcopy, I have used it before and it works very well. While there is a cost involved, it does more than just handle music. You can recover other things from the iDevice, including voicemail, text messages, etc.

  • by Xtremelust,

    Xtremelust Xtremelust Feb 5, 2015 8:14 PM in response to ChrisJ4203
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 5, 2015 8:14 PM in response to ChrisJ4203

    Thank you Chris, I may have to make that purchase and hope it works. lllaass, all of my songs ARE on my iPod but when I try to navigate to them on my hard drive they seem to be hidden. I imagine this is Apple's doing. Under "View" I checked "View hidden items" but when I try to open it up this is what I get: Internal Storage/DCIM/8600KMZO/ then nothing but a few dumb selfies I took. Even if I could access the songs I'm not sure what format Apple would have converted them to.

  • by Xtremelust,

    Xtremelust Xtremelust Feb 5, 2015 8:18 PM in response to lllaass
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 5, 2015 8:18 PM in response to lllaass

    Also lllass, when I try to drag the songs from my ipod in my iTunes folder to my hard drive it won't let me do it. It's crazy because they're all right there and with any normal storage device you can just drag and drop. My iPod was a gift but I'm thinking I should've just chucked it into the garbage.

  • by ChrisJ4203,

    ChrisJ4203 ChrisJ4203 Feb 5, 2015 8:23 PM in response to Xtremelust
    Level 9 (59,759 points)
    iPhone
    Feb 5, 2015 8:23 PM in response to Xtremelust

    That is because the iPod is not a storage device. It is not a backup device. By putting all of the music on the iPod, all you did was make sure the iPod had it. You would have needed to backup your iTunes library. Did you have a backup of the computer before you reformatted the drive? The sync from iTunes is one way, iTunes to iDevice. The only way to get it back the other way is the information you were provided earlier. If you formatted the hard drive on your computer, then you erased everything, and that would include your music. Nothing would be on the drive. If all of your music is on the iPod, then you can recover it via the 3rd party solution mentioned earlier.

  • by lllaass,

    lllaass lllaass Feb 6, 2015 1:29 AM in response to Xtremelust
    Level 10 (190,672 points)
    Apple Watch
    Feb 6, 2015 1:29 AM in response to Xtremelust

    You need a third-party app to copy non-iTunes purchases from the iPod to a copmuter. If the songs do not play on the iPod then they are corrupted and are lost

    Xtremelust wrote:

     

    Also lllass, when I try to drag the songs from my ipod in my iTunes folder to my hard drive it won't let me do it. It's crazy because they're all right there and with any normal storage device you can just drag and drop. My iPod was a gift but I'm thinking I should've just chucked it into the garbage.

  • by CroMagnum,

    CroMagnum CroMagnum Feb 6, 2015 7:44 AM in response to Xtremelust
    Level 1 (79 points)
    iLife
    Feb 6, 2015 7:44 AM in response to Xtremelust

    Are you checking the desktop list, or a connected iPod or iPad device?

    There is that separate little frame that addresses added by 'dragging to iPod’ that showed up in a recent cut of the software.

     

    fwiw: Yes the last couple of changes to iTunes makes it really inconvenient to display stuff that wasn’t purchased via iTunes. That being the music you added off your owned CDs. It really feels like iTunes has turned into a point-of-sales storefront only, as a result & affects the user experience.

     

    You can try creating a custom playlist of all tunes added which were not purchased from iTunes directly, to help manage your music.

  • by Xtremelust,

    Xtremelust Xtremelust Feb 7, 2015 9:39 PM in response to CroMagnum
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 7, 2015 9:39 PM in response to CroMagnum

    Thanks to EVERYONE who pitched in to help me. And thanks to TouchCopy I had all of my 2000 songs back from my iPod in a matter of just a few minutes, well worth my $25 spent!