Carl Isackson
Level 1 (9 points)
iTunes

Q: Can I reconstruct a playlist in iTunes from my iPod?

I don't know how this happened, but I have 35,000 songs in my iTunes library, of which about 2,500

were also in an "All The Best" playlist.  Somehow, someway, this 2,500 has been reduced to 440.

I know my way around iTunes pretty well, and I really don't know how or why this happened, but it did.

 

I have a couple of iPods that have the "All The Best" playlist in reasonably up to date form....2000+ songs.

How can I move all the songs from the iPod playlist version into the iTunes playlist version?  Can this be done?

 

I assume first some sort of iTunes auto-sync would have to be turned off, or else I'd end up with the reduced

"All My Best" playlist on the iPod.  Would just altering the "All The Best" playlist name in iTunes prevent this?

 

At any rate, once the iPod is hooked up, can I somehow get the 2,000 songs back into "All The Best" in my iTunes library?

Otherwise, I'll have to go thru the 35,000 songs one at a time and re-add the best songs to the "Best" playlist.  Ouch.

 

Thanks,

Carl

iPhone 3G

Posted on Apr 14, 2016 8:41 AM

Close
Carl Isackson

Q: Can I reconstruct a playlist in iTunes from my iPod?

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

  • by rockmyplimsoul,

    rockmyplimsoul rockmyplimsoul Apr 14, 2016 6:57 PM in response to Carl Isackson
    Level 5 (7,131 points)
    iTunes
    Apr 14, 2016 6:57 PM in response to Carl Isackson

    If you have a complete version of this playlist on another device, you may be able to duplicate that playlist right from the device.  When you create a new playlist on a device it should be saved in iTunes on the next sync.

     

    You mention having an iPod, if it is an iPod Touch with iOS 7 or later (I think that's the version) then you can create a new playlist right on the Touch and select your "All The Best" playlist to dump into it.  This new playlist should be saved in iTunes on the next sync.  However, if your "All The Best" is a smart playlist, only the contents would be saved, not the smart criteria.

     

    If you have an iPod Classic, I think you may be able to add all the songs in "All The Best" into the iPod's "On the Go" playlist, though I don't recall if OTG can be saved to iTunes via syncing.

     

    There are probably 3rd party software applications that could extract this playlist, though I don't have experience with them so can't recommend one.

  • by Limnos,

    Limnos Limnos Apr 15, 2016 6:12 AM in response to Carl Isackson
    Level 9 (53,695 points)
    Mac OS X
    Apr 15, 2016 6:12 AM in response to Carl Isackson

    Your i-device was not designed for unique storage of your media. It is not a backup device and media transfer was planned with you maintaining a master copy of your media on a computer which is itself independently backed up against loss.  To use a device with a different setup you transfer the old library from a computer or a backup directly to the new setup, not the device to the library. Media syncing is one way, computer to device, updating the device content to the content on the computer, not updating or restoring content on a computer. The exception is iTunes Store purchases which can be transferred to a computer.

     

    Redownload or transfer your iTunes Store purchases from an iPhone, iPad or iPod to a computer - https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201267 - "This feature works only for content bought from the iTunes Store." As of iOS9 it no longer does apps which now must be re-downloaded directly from the Store.

     

    For transferring other items from an i-device to a computer you will have to use third party commercial software.  See this document by turingtest2: Recovering your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device - https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3991  Even this method may not fully recover what you had in the library originally. For example if in order to save space when syncing you had converted music files to a lower bitrate, or photos to a lower resolution, it is those lower quality files you will recover.

     

    If you subscribe to Apple Music, tracks which are not part of content you have purchased or uploaded cannot be transferred and have to be downloaded directly from iCloud.