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iPod transferring songs from PC formatted iPod to iMac

T

tonybot

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 29, 2005
4
0
I have an old PC with very little hard drive space, so I've been ripping CD's, loading songs onto my iPod, and then deleting the songs from the computer. So the only place my music exists digitally is on the iPod.

I bought an iMac today and would like to copy the songs back from the iPod to the Mac. I've been researching and found something called PodUtil that's sounds like what I'm looking for. What I don't know is if it will work with a PC formatted iPod on a Mac. Does anyone know, or have any other ideas? I can always re-rip everything, but I have almost 700 CD's, and would like to avoid that if possible. Thanks for your help.
 
moria - I tried podutil and it was sort of working, but I kept getting errors and it froze on me. But what I figured out after I gave up on podutil is that when I opened the iPod from the desktop (I had disk use enabled), I had access to all my songs. So I ended up just copying my music folder over, and then dragging it into my library in iTunes. Which is strange, because I thought I read somewhere that the music folder on an iPod is supposed to be invisible and can't be accessed that way. Maybe it has something to do with the it being a Windows formatted iPod (?).

Anyway, mad jew and munkle, thanks for your help.
 
tonybot said:
Maybe it has something to do with the it being a Windows formatted iPod (?).
Click to expand...


No, I think it's probably more to do with Podutil because when my iPod is formatted for Windows, the music files remain invisible.
 
tonybot said:
Which is strange, because I thought I read somewhere that the music folder on an iPod is supposed to be invisible and can't be accessed that way.Maybe it has something to do with the it being a Windows formatted iPod (?).
Click to expand...

Yeah, it's meant to be hidden, but you can unhide hidden folders on XP so you can see it. I can't remember which folder it's in though.


So I can just do it the same way on a Mac then?
 
a windows formatted ipod will work on both windows pcs and macs.

a mac formatted ipod will only work on macs.

I regularly connect my windows formatted 3rd gen ipod to both my pc and imac...I have a program on each to transfer files off my ipod if I need to, but i forget what each of them are called (and I'm at work right now so I can't check...).
 
you sure can

I have a PC formatted iPod and have transferred all my music files over to my external HFS+ drive and I've used the program you mentioned but now I use Senuti to copy smaller batches(cd at a time deal). It's one of those things though that when you do it just leave your computer alone for a while because it's gonna take some time.

Cheers.
 
You don't need any special programs. I did this 3 days ago. Enable your ipod for data transfer and then your pc based computer will recognize it as an additional drive in "My Computer". Drag and drop your files into it. Then you can plug it into your mac and use "Finder" to drag and drop the files into your mac music folder. Very simple to do. I was amazed. Your ipod is simply an external harddrive that plays music too. You can transfer all of your files that way (docs, pics, etc.).
 
wdschrank said:
You don't need any special programs. I did this 3 days ago. Enable your ipod for data transfer and then your pc based computer will recognize it as an additional drive in "My Computer". Drag and drop your files into it. Then you can plug it into your mac and use "Finder" to drag and drop the files into your mac music folder. Very simple to do. I was amazed. Your ipod is simply an external harddrive that plays music too. You can transfer all of your files that way (docs, pics, etc.).
Click to expand...
He doesn't have the music files on his PC! - Read the post!?

I use Podworks too. It's generally great, being able to transfer large numbers of songg and re-create playlists on the iPod too.
 
Still not working for me

I am having the same problem, (I switched over to Mac from the dark side) and my ipod is currently formatted for windows. However, when I look at my iPod in the Finder on my new powerbook, my music folder is not showing up. I have calendar, contacts, notes and thats it. I have about 11 gig of songs and only still have access to about half of those so I really dont want to lose em. Do I have to use a program or should this work and I am just doing something wrong? :confused:
 
WeRASkitzzo - I'm not sure how I got it to work. When I open the iPod in Finder now, the music folder isn't there anymore - same as you.

The only explanation I can think of is that it was the first time the iPod was connected to a Mac, and I didn't let it link up with iTunes (my iMac was literally right out of the box, and when iTunes opened automatically, I let it sit with the license agreement window open). Maybe the iPod doesn't know that it's not supposed to show me the music folder until iTunes tells it to (???). Who knows. I'm completely guessing at this point. I noticed that after I let the iPod and iTunes link for the first time, my settings defaulted (annoying clicking noise turned back on). So maybe iTunes does do something to the iPod.
 
I dont know if thats the case or not... I had the problem the first time I hooked it up to the new comp. It sounds like I am going to have to result to using some program... I am just a little weary that they are gonna glitch or something and I will lose all my songs...
 
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