I have close to 17,000 songs in my ipod classic. I got most of them from transferring my CD's. I use sites like limewire for individual songs and for whole albums I use the torrents.
There is actually a way to hack your ipod to copy all of your music files onto your hard drive. So if you have a friend that has a ipod that is full of music you like you can transfer his music onto a hard drive and move it from your hard drive into your ipod.
There is actually a way to hack your ipod to copy all of your music files onto your hard drive. So if you have a friend that has a ipod that is full of music you like you can transfer his music onto a hard drive and move it from your hard drive into your ipod.
Listen up!!!
Ghostly protection
For those who aren’t hip to the current state of affairs, I should explain that in order to deter music piracy, iTunes and the iPod were originally designed so that music would travel in one direction only—from the computer to the iPod. This has now changed somewhat. With iTunes 7, when you attach an iPod you own to a computer authorized with your Apple ID, iTunes will offer to copy protected content from the iPod to your computer. But that remains the only Apple-blessed way to move music from the iPod to your computer. When you double-click on an iPod mounted on a computer, you’ll find no folder within that holds the device’s music. Yet the music has to be there somewhere.
It is. It’s invisible.
Invisible?
Yes. When Apple designed the iPod’s copy-protection scheme it did so understanding one of the fundamental laws of this new millennium: That which can be locked will be unlocked (by a 12-year-old boy).
Rather than dump millions of dollars into a complicated copy-protection scheme—which would almost immediately be broken by one of these wily 12-year-olds—the company did the wise thing and protected the iPod in such a way that honest folks wouldn’t be tempted to pilfer music off another’s iPod. The company’s engineers did so by doing nothing more than making the iPod’s music folder invisible. Therefore, the trick to getting the music off the iPod is accessing this invisible folder.
Brute force techniques
Though fairly graceless, one of the easiest ways to recover your music from an iPod is to make the iPod’s music folder visible and then drag it over to your computer’s desktop. Once there, simply add that folder (and the music within) to iTunes by dragging the folder into iTunes’ main window or using the program’s Add to Library command (found in the File menu). Here’s how to do this on either a Mac or a Windows PC.
Macintosh The Mac doesn’t include a utility for making invisible files visible so you must download one. My favorite tool for this job is Marcel Bresink’s free TinkerTool. Once you’ve downloaded TinkerTool, follow these steps:
Plug in the iPod.
If iTunes doesn’t launch automatically, launch it.
If the music library on your iPod is not linked to iTunes’ music library (as would be the case when you’re restoring your music library from your iPod to a fresh copy of iTunes installed on a reformatted drive), iTunes will ask if you’d like to sync the contents of the iPod with the contents of the iTunes library. Click Cancel. Select the iPod in iTunes’ Source list and make sure the Summary tab in iTunes 7’s main window is selected.
Enable the Manually Manage Music option as well as the Enable Disk Use option.
Launch TinkerTool and click the Finder tab.
Enable the Show Hidden and System Files option.
Click Relaunch Finder.
Move to the Finder and double-click on the iPod’s icon on the Desktop.
You’ll discover that several more items now appear in the iPod window. Among them is a folder called <tt>iPod_Control.</tt> Double-click the iPod_Control folder.
Inside the iPod_Control folder you’ll find a variety of folders. The one you care about is the Music folder. Drag the Music folder to your Mac’s Desktop to copy it to your computer. As the name implies, this is where music is stored on the iPod.
In earlier versions of iTunes you could simply drag this Music folder to iTunes’ main window and the music within it would be copied to iTunes’ music library. This is no longer the case. You must now open the Music folder, open the the folders within (these folders all begin with the letter F), and then drag the contents of the folders into the Library entry in iTunes’ Source list.
The songs you copied from the iPod will be added to iTunes. If you’re a tidy type, before copying those files to iTunes, open iTunes’ preferences, click the Advanced tab, and make sure the Keep iTunes Music Folder Organized and Copy File to iTunes Music Folder When Adding to Library options are enabled. Enabling these options will organize your iTunes library in the way iTunes prefers.
Windows At the risk of making my Windows readers feel like second-class citizens, please follow the first four steps outlined in the instructions for Mac users. Once you’ve done that:
Double-click on the My Computer icon on the Desktop.
Locate your iPod in the window that appears and select it.
Choose Folder Options from the Tools menu in the My Computer window.
Click the View tab in the Folder Options window that appears.
Look for the Hidden Files and Folders entry. Below this entry enable the Show Hidden Files and Folders option and click Apply to reveal the hidden files.
Dismiss the Folder Options windows by clicking the OK button.
Double-click the iPod’s icon in the My Computer window.
Sorry about the return to second-class citizen status, but please follow steps 8 through 10 in the Macintosh instructions above.
Once the Music folder is on the Desktop, right-click on the folder, select Properties from the contextual menu, uncheck the Hidden option in the Attributes area of the General tab, and click Apply. In the Confirm Attributes Change window that appears make sure the Apply Changes to This Folder, Subfolders, and Files option is checked and click OK.
The folder and all the items in it are now visible and can be dragged into the iTunes library.
Note that although the music files bear a seemingly incomprehensible four-letter title (AHLK.m4a, for example) when viewed outside of iTunes, their titles will appear properly once you’ve brought them into iTunes.
Though fairly graceless, one of the easiest ways to recover your music from an iPod is to make the iPod’s music folder visible and then drag it over to your computer’s desktop. Once there, simply add that folder (and the music within) to iTunes by dragging the folder into iTunes’ main window or using the program’s Add to Library command (found in the File menu). Here’s how to do this on either a Mac or a Windows PC.
Macintosh The Mac doesn’t include a utility for making invisible files visible so you must download one. My favorite tool for this job is Marcel Bresink’s free TinkerTool. Once you’ve downloaded TinkerTool, follow these steps:
Plug in the iPod.
If iTunes doesn’t launch automatically, launch it.
If the music library on your iPod is not linked to iTunes’ music library (as would be the case when you’re restoring your music library from your iPod to a fresh copy of iTunes installed on a reformatted drive), iTunes will ask if you’d like to sync the contents of the iPod with the contents of the iTunes library. Click Cancel. Select the iPod in iTunes’ Source list and make sure the Summary tab in iTunes 7’s main window is selected.
Enable the Manually Manage Music option as well as the Enable Disk Use option.
Launch TinkerTool and click the Finder tab.
Enable the Show Hidden and System Files option.
Click Relaunch Finder.
Move to the Finder and double-click on the iPod’s icon on the Desktop.
You’ll discover that several more items now appear in the iPod window. Among them is a folder called <tt>iPod_Control.</tt> Double-click the iPod_Control folder.
Inside the iPod_Control folder you’ll find a variety of folders. The one you care about is the Music folder. Drag the Music folder to your Mac’s Desktop to copy it to your computer. As the name implies, this is where music is stored on the iPod.
In earlier versions of iTunes you could simply drag this Music folder to iTunes’ main window and the music within it would be copied to iTunes’ music library. This is no longer the case. You must now open the Music folder, open the the folders within (these folders all begin with the letter F), and then drag the contents of the folders into the Library entry in iTunes’ Source list.
The songs you copied from the iPod will be added to iTunes. If you’re a tidy type, before copying those files to iTunes, open iTunes’ preferences, click the Advanced tab, and make sure the Keep iTunes Music Folder Organized and Copy File to iTunes Music Folder When Adding to Library options are enabled. Enabling these options will organize your iTunes library in the way iTunes prefers.
Windows At the risk of making my Windows readers feel like second-class citizens, please follow the first four steps outlined in the instructions for Mac users. Once you’ve done that:
Double-click on the My Computer icon on the Desktop.
Locate your iPod in the window that appears and select it.
Choose Folder Options from the Tools menu in the My Computer window.
Click the View tab in the Folder Options window that appears.
Look for the Hidden Files and Folders entry. Below this entry enable the Show Hidden Files and Folders option and click Apply to reveal the hidden files.
Dismiss the Folder Options windows by clicking the OK button.
Double-click the iPod’s icon in the My Computer window.
Sorry about the return to second-class citizen status, but please follow steps 8 through 10 in the Macintosh instructions above.
Once the Music folder is on the Desktop, right-click on the folder, select Properties from the contextual menu, uncheck the Hidden option in the Attributes area of the General tab, and click Apply. In the Confirm Attributes Change window that appears make sure the Apply Changes to This Folder, Subfolders, and Files option is checked and click OK.
The folder and all the items in it are now visible and can be dragged into the iTunes library.
Note that although the music files bear a seemingly incomprehensible four-letter title (AHLK.m4a, for example) when viewed outside of iTunes, their titles will appear properly once you’ve brought them into iTunes.
When trying to transfer the music from one Ipod to another it is an all or nothing hack. Because the music files are thrown into your ipod in random folders in no particular order (one folder can contain half of one album and another folder could contain the other half). It is best to save and clear out the itunes or ipod that you will be transfering the music into first so you don't have a bunch of duplicate songs.
This hack will grab your music, videos, movies and podcasts and transfer it onto a hard drive. I am not sure about photos though.
With all of the music I have I wouldn't mind donating the files of my 17,000+ songs for free with a $100.00 labor charge. You coud either send me a portable hard drive that can hold minimum 80GB or ship me your ipod and I can fill you up. I listen to every kind of music except country and have nothing but full albums in my ipod with maybe 1000-2000 of misc. songs. You name it I got it.
This hack will grab your music, videos, movies and podcasts and transfer it onto a hard drive. I am not sure about photos though.
With all of the music I have I wouldn't mind donating the files of my 17,000+ songs for free with a $100.00 labor charge. You coud either send me a portable hard drive that can hold minimum 80GB or ship me your ipod and I can fill you up. I listen to every kind of music except country and have nothing but full albums in my ipod with maybe 1000-2000 of misc. songs. You name it I got it.
