iPod from Windows to Mac, with a catch

[Blaq]

Hey Guys,

I finally, after a couple years of waiting/saving for the right computer, bought an iMac, to compliment the 3rd gen iPod I bought last year. I ran the iPod off my work laptop, which, unfortunately, is about to be formatted by my office, leaving me w/ the prospect of burning my gigs of music to CD.

Anyway, rather than waste time burning 8 or 10 cds, i downloaded one of those utilities that allows you to xfer music from your ipod to another computer.

It worked, but only for my mp3s, none of the aac (m4a) files that I ripped or purchased from the itunes music store appear for some reason... is there anything I can do about this, or do I have to create a bunch of CDs at work tomorrow to save myself from re-ripping dozens of CDs and losing all my purchased music?

Thanks, and its good to finally be a mac owner, instead of just talking like one!

Blaq

 

[StokeLee]

oh god my ipod

My new imac comes this week, hurrah, and I used my ipod on my xp laptop, now i know that when i start to use my imac with my ipod that its got to be reformatted etc etc, but all my music is on my laptop,, actually wait, ive had to reformat cuz it crashed, somat major,, wouldnt let me back up my music, now all my purchased music is on my ipod, ive not gone to try and put it back on my laptop yet. DO I just let itunes copy it back over, or is there something else i must do, and how do i get my music onto my mac?

I can see there is going to be one easy way to do this,,, or one really hard way. Please let it be easy

 

[mduser63]

iTunes WILL NOT let you copy music back from an iPod, only TO an iPod. I don't have much experience with software that lets you copy from your iPod, but there is a fair amount of it out there. I just wanted to warn you that iTunes will not copy music from you iPod, but it will happily erase everything on it if you tell it to (and it's easy enough to accidentally do).

 

[AliensAreFuzzy]

Easiest thing to do is to enable disk mode on the iPod and transfer the files onto the iPod then just put them on the iMac

 

[AliensAreFuzzy]

My new imac comes this week, hurrah, and I used my ipod on my xp laptop, now i know that when i start to use my imac with my ipod that its got to be reformatted etc etc, but all my music is on my laptop,, actually wait, ive had to reformat cuz it crashed, somat major,, wouldnt let me back up my music, now all my purchased music is on my ipod, ive not gone to try and put it back on my laptop yet. DO I just let itunes copy it back over, or is there something else i must do, and how do i get my music onto my mac?

I can see there is going to be one easy way to do this,,, or one really hard way. Please let it be easy

Something you may be able to do...
When the iPod is in disk mode, you can find all of your music in a hidden folder on the iPod, I think it's called IPOD_Control, You could just go into that, copy the contents onto your computer and import those.

 

[jdechko]

Something you may be able to do...
When the iPod is in disk mode, you can find all of your music in a hidden folder on the iPod, I think it's called IPOD_Control, You could just go into that, copy the contents onto your computer and import those.

The problem with this method is that the filenames are changed as the songs are copied for instance:

Green Day - Basketcase.mp3 (or .aac or whatever) is dropped (randomly) into one of ~40 folders and renamed into something different. So you lose the filename (but it does keep the tag info).

I suggest you do what AliensAreFuzzy said originally, which is to enable Disk Mode on your iPod, and copy your music in the same manner you would copy files across disks. Then you can transfer other files as well...

 

[James Philp]

I don't understand the problem!?
Get PodWorks for your iMac, and simply copy all your music over from your iPod - straight into iTunes - no finder involved.
A windows formatted iPod will also work with a Mac, no problems.

PodWorks also allows you to re-create playlists that you have on your iPod.

There's plenty of software out there that allows iPod>iTunes on the Mac, I use it to sync music between my two Macs. I find PodWorks the best, but it's not the only one!

EDIT: A new iMac should rip 10 cds in an hour or so.

 

[James Philp]

When you first plug your iPod into the iMac things will happen:
1. iTunes may start, if not, start it yourself
2. iTunes will come up with a dialogue box that says something like:
"This iPod (Name) is linked to another iTunes library, do you wish to pair it to this library?" - Click "No"
3. It also may offer you an upgrade to the iPod software - also click "no" (or not now or something"
4. Select the iPod in the iTunes list and click the little iPod symbol at the bottom to bring up the iPod preferences.
5. Make sure "Manually Manage Songs and Playlists" is enabled and "Enable iPod in disk mode" is too.
6. Launch Podworks or other software to transfer from the iPod to iTunes. (in podworks there is a simple menu item that says "transfer all songs to iTunes")
7. Once the music is on your iMac you can then decide whether you want to re-format your iPod for Mac use only, and update the software on it too.

 

[Blaq]

Hi James,

The problem is that I downloaded a utility from version tracker to do this (may well have been Podworks, I'm not on my mac right now), and it worked fine for my all mp3s, but the MP4/aac files have all disappeared, or are renamed from what someone else has said. In any case, I can't find them in iTunes, nor can I find them in the file folder I coppied all the muic off the iPod into.

I don't understand the problem!?
Get PodWorks for your iMac, and simply copy all your music over from your iPod - straight into iTunes - no finder involved.
A windows formatted iPod will also work with a Mac, no problems.

PodWorks also allows you to re-create playlists that you have on your iPod.

There's plenty of software out there that allows iPod>iTunes on the Mac, I use it to sync music between my two Macs. I find PodWorks the best, but it's not the only one!

EDIT: A new iMac should rip 10 cds in an hour or so.

 

[Sharewaredemon]

Why not just copy all of your songs onto the iPod as data then put them onto your iMac?

you might even be able to take the iTunes library file from your PC and put it on your mac...

Will this work?