IPOD CLASSIC 160GB

1. Recover your media: See Recover media from an iPod to extract media or playlists on your device but not in your library
2. Restore your device: See Restore your iPhone, iPad, or iPod to factory settings - Apple Support
3. Reload your device: See iTunes for Windows: Sync iPod, iPhone, or iPad

tt2

Music tracks and playlists work the same on an iPod classic, iPod touch, and in iTunes. The link I have posted includes a tool for extracting playlists from an iPod (or other Apple device) into the iTunes Library even if it wasn't the same library used to copy the files to the device originally. Read the user tip Recover media from an iPod carefully. The answers to your questions are there. Once a playlist is in the iTunes library it, as well as the music files it relies on to play, can be copied to any of your Apple devices.

tt2

Try downloading another of my scripts, GetInfo.vbs. You need to find a track that you recognize in your iTunes library that is missing details, run the GetInfo script, then locate the same track on your iPod and run the script again. Arrange the two dialog boxes side by side just like this image and take a screenshot.

The original version/first pass of the script matches tracks on PersistentID, which in the case is the same for both tracks since my library was used to load up this track. The current version of SyncStatsPlus is trying to match on file size, which, from what you have said, ought to be same for the recovered tracks and those still on the device. Date modified might be another value which would match although sometimes time zone corrections can affect one value but not the other. Seeing the different values would also help me map out another other properties that need fixing other than Name (Title).

It may be that this just isn't possible to fix with this approach and you will simply have to play through the library working out what corrections to make by hand.

tt2

Do you mean there are playlists in your iTunes library that aren't copied to your device, or that there are playlists you can see on your device when viewing it though iTunes that don't show in its own menus?

tt2

The four letter codes for the imported files suggest that the source files were either untagged or in .wav format which never carries a tag. How many tracks are we talking about? Are they all in .wav format or is something else going on? I have some scripts that can import metadata from a device which I might be able to modify to capture the lost information.

tt2

Open iTunes.

Connect iPod.

Expand iPod in sidebar to reveal the Music playlist in it.

Select a track that you know isn't currently listed properly in your library.

Run the script by double-clicking it.

The first prompt will look like this:

Click No so that you can preview each proposed change.

Because the library on your computer isn't the same library used to put tracks on the device the first pass will fail to match tracks on the device with tracks in the library leading to this second prompt:

You should click Yes this time to allow the script to catalog the contents of the library.

Next, all things being well, there ought to be a prompt like this one:

Click Yes to update iTunes with the details from the iPod.

Assuming it works with one track it should work with many. The only thing I cannot really predict is whether the key I'm using will be unique for each track in the library/device. At this point I've haven't had a chance to think too hard about how the script will behave if it isn't but at the very least it would be useful to know if you can import details for one track, and if the script recovers all of the details that you want that it is possible to copy? I can easily expand for more properties once we've established that the general principle works. Thinking about it now I realise I've forgotten all the sort fields for example.

There is also a chance that when meeting your data that the script will crash because of something I've overlooked when it tries to work with missing properties. If so please post back the error message so I can work on a fix.

tt2

In the iTunes Song view there should be a column called Name. This is the same thing that Windows Explorer calls Title. You can right click on the column headings to enable more columns. When you look at the Music playlist on your iPod through iTunes do you see Names for all tracks or are some of them blank? My script isn't going to help you recover data that isn't there.

tt2

Have you updated information on the imported tracks since they were recovered? This would have updated the tags and changed the file sizes making a match between device and library impossible.

tt2

Are they all .wav files or are there some in other formats? If I'm going to try updating my code I need an idea of what factors I might be able to use to link the imported file in iTunes back to the right track on the device so it can copy over those missing details. Unfortunately the script cannot read the four letter names that are used on the device or it would be really easy. For importing stats I've been using details such as song and album name, track & disc nos. etc, but if those aren't the same in both places I will need to use details that should always be the same such as file size and duration, however in a large library these might not always be unique.

tt2

Alright. So somehow the files were stripped of their tags. It doesn't really matter how or what format they are in. Leave it with me a few days. I'm short on free time at the moment but I should be able to create a similar set up and find a way to copy back the details. It is either that or you manually play and update the tracks one at a time. Nudge me if I've not posted back by Saturday.

tt2