iPod erased everything - or did it? Please help!

[ftyfhgv]

Hi. Although I just joined macrumours, I have been browsing for a while and found it to be very helpful when I bought my Macbook a few weeks ago. In fact, I found this forum to be so helpful that it is the first place I'm looking to in order to resolve a problem I'm having with my iPod Classic.

My iPod was syncing with my Macbook, which was on my lap. I set it aside to get up, and when I came back there were two error messages. One said something about a failure of the connection, and when I clicked the "OK" acknowledgement to the message the other message closed as well, so I was unable to read it. To my absolute horror, upon checking my iPod I realized that everything was deleted (except for the 3 games that came with it that I never play). Now when I connect I get a message saying that "iTunes cannot connect to the iPod "Brian's iPod" and a recommendation that I restore my iPod. I fear that this will ruin any chance I have of getting my music back. I have disconnected and reconnected many times and it always says that I have no music, videos etc. This leads me to believe that it has reverted itself to the state it was in when I purchased it, but a few things have me wondering if this is true. Firstly, the play counts are intact on the games. Secondly, when I connect it simply says "iPod" in the left side of iTunes, whereas even a brand new iPod will have option to go to the music, movies, or tv shows library, even if there is nothing in it. Thirdly, while it connects simply as "iPod", on my Macbook desktop it is listed as "Brian's iPod". When I choose "Get Info" from "Brian's iPod", it recognizes that over 30 GB has been used out of the 74.31 GB capacity. This gives me hope that everything is still on my iPod.
Unfortunately, as my Macbook is new, I only have about 90 songs in it (compared to the 2500 or so on my iPod), so I can't simply load everything back on. I have transferred music from my iPod into the iTunes on my old PC laptop before, but I don't know how to find the folder "Control" on a macbook (I know it was hidden).

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Ps. Sorry if this question has been asked before, I searched the forum but couldn't find my question anywhere.

Thanks!

 

[guydude193]

Go ahead and restore it. As long as you bought all of your music off the iTunes store. You can call/email Apple's iTunes support and ask them to give you your iTunes library back. But you can only do this once.

 

[ftyfhgv]

Sorry, forgot to mention that I didn't buy anything off iTunes.

Thanks for replying so quickly.

 

[guydude193]

Oh... then you're in a bit of a situation.
Had you backed up your iTunes library before this happened?

 

[ftyfhgv]

No, that's the problem. The funny thing is that putting everything onto my mac was on my to-do list. I only have about 90 songs in iTunes, which means I can't just sync everything back on.

 

[guydude193]

You could just restore your iPod and then put the music back on. Do you still have the discs/files?

BTW, I don't condone illegal music downloading. :/

 

[ftyfhgv]

I have access to very little of it. BTW, downloading music is legal in Canada, so I'm in the clear for that

 

[ftyfhgv]

Sorry to bump, but I really need to know if there is anything I can do!

 

[Tumbleweed666]

Sorry to bump, but I really need to know if there is anything I can do!

Have you tried just connecting the iPod for disk use and seeing if you can see the files on it that way? Seems possible they are still there if iTunes reports 30Gb used.
If so there is an app (you'd have to google, cant recall the name) which will take the files off an iPod and put it back in iTunes.

 

[ftyfhgv]

It was already set up for disk use. When I connect to iTunes, under devices it simply says "iPod". The only options are to eject, open or restore. I know how to get the music off of an iPod on a PC, but I am new to Mac. I'll try looking for an app.

Thanks

 

[gatepc]

You could just restore your iPod and then put the music back on. Do you still have the discs/files?

BTW, I don't condone illegal music downloading. :/

You shouldn't accuse people for all you know he bought it off of amazon legally or ripped his own CD's. Sorry if I sound like an ass but I hate when people always accuse others of pirating.

I think this might help you http://www.floola.com/modules/wiwimod/

 

[ftyfhgv]

I've downloaded two third party apps and neither show any music, videos etc. in the library. I think this might have something to do with the message I get in iTunes when I connect saying that the contents of the iPod can't be read. Another thing - if I restore the iPod to its original settings, will it delete everything eg. lose the 30 or so GB that are on it?

 

[ftyfhgv]

Since none of the apps I am using can read the songs on my iPod, I'm wondering whether there is a way to manually copy the iPod library into iTunes. I did this with a PC, but I can't find the hidden folder "Control" that I had to use. I'm new to Macs, and I don't even know if there are hidden folders on them. Does anyone know a way to manually copy songs to a Mac?

Thanks

 

[Tumbleweed666]

It was already set up for disk use. When I connect to iTunes, under devices it simply says "iPod". The only options are to eject, open or restore. I know how to get the music off of an iPod on a PC, but I am new to Mac. I'll try looking for an app.

Thanks

What can you see when you look at it as a disk? Can you see any files at all?

 

[Fishrrman]

RE: iPod erased everything

RE:
"Since none of the apps I am using can read the songs on my iPod, I'm wondering whether there is a way to manually copy the iPod library into iTunes. I did this with a PC, but I can't find the hidden folder "Control" that I had to use. I'm new to Macs, and I don't even know if there are hidden folders on them. Does anyone know a way to manually copy songs to a Mac?"

You might try "YamiPod" or "Floola". Google them.

My guess is that iTunes has "wiped clean" your songs because it:
1. Saw your iPod attached
2. Compared what was on it to the iTunes music library on your computer
3. "Saw" that the two did not match, and then
4. "Synched" the iPod to the iTunes music database (essentially "wiping off" anything that did not match)

What have you done with the iPod since this happened? It's _possible_ the songs are still there, just as files are still on a hard drive after you "delete" them (i.e., the directory is wiped clean, but the data remains until new data is written over it).

I'm not sure if there are "recovery" apps that can restore the data on an iPod (as there are utilities to restore that data on hard drives).

This is why I will _never_ own an iPod, even though I've been a Mac user for 22 years.

I want to manage my own songs, and NOT have them "managed" by an application that has within it the power to wipe them out.

SUGGESTION:
If you _do_ get the iPod going again, do not - repeat, DO NOT - use iTunes to "manage" it. Instead, use YamiPod or floola.

There might even be a way to set up preferences in iTunes so that it ignores the iPod, though I've never bothered to look (again, because I will not use an iPod).

- John

 

[ftyfhgv]

I figured it out last night. None of the third party apps worked so I manually transferred everything off of the iPod via the hidden iPod folder "Control". Once everything was in iTunes, I figured I had nothing to lose by restoring the iPod. I now have recovered everything and have it in iTunes and my iPod works fine now. The only problem with the whole thing is that I lost playlists, play counts and rating. This is really annoying, because play counts and ratings were the best ways of sorting music, but it is a small price to pay to get everything back.

Thanks to everyone for their help!