98. Copy Your Music from the iPod Back to iTunes  BEFORE YOU BEGIN 42 Transfer Your Music to Your iPod
 SEE ALSO 94 Back Up Your Music to CD or DVD 80 Use Your ipod as an External Hard Disk
So that Apple could convince the record labels that iTunes and the iPod are not merely tools designed to help people steal music, the company had to engineer them in such a way that they couldn't be used for nefarious purposesor, at least, not easily used for such schemes. Within the officially supported feature set of the iPod, you can copy music only from iTunes to the iPod, not the other way around. This arrangement prevents people from loading up an iPod with a diskful of tunes, sauntering to someone else's computer, and offloading fresh copies of all that music to someone who didn't pay for it. We all know that a resourceful thief can find ways around that missing feature, and such a thief won't be put off by the "Don't steal music" label that Apple rather optimistically puts on every new iPod. But by making it at least marginally inconvenient, Apple has ensured that the record labels will treat the iPod as part of a new and emerging legitimate market before they consider it a threat to their business. However, theft isn't the only reason you might want to get music from your iPod onto your computer. The most obvious is as a backup; if your computer's hard disk crashes, and you've synchronized your music with the iPod, why worry? You've got a perfect mirror of your entire music collection on the iPod, complete with star ratings and playlists and all the rest of the personalized information on which you've come to depend. So why can't you just copy the music back onto your computer? Apple doesn't support this kind of data transfer, but don't worrythird-party developers have stepped up to the plate to provide it where Apple can't. Small, dedicated utilities for low prices exist for both Windows and the Mac that let you copy your iPod's music right back into iTunes: iPod.iTunes for the Mac (  29.90, about $38), and CopyPod for Windows ($19.90). Steps 14 in this task cover the use of iPod.iTunes for Mac users, and steps 510 describe the use of CopyPod for Windows users.  98. Copy Your Music from the iPod Back to iTunes 
 NOTES If you're starting over with a new computer or a fresh installation of iTunes, and you connect the iPod to your computer, iTunes might try to establish a new "link" with the iPodwhich means that it will delete all the music from the iPod and replace it with whatever is in the new iTunes Library . Always select the No option when presented with a dialog box offering to change the link and replace the iPod's contents (at least until you've successfully restored your iTunes Library )! Naturally, restoring your music from the iPod won't recover any files that couldn't be copied to the iPod in the first place, such as MIDI files, QuickTime movies, or Internet Radio channels.
| 1. | Mac: Download or Purchase iPod.iTunes
Go to http://www.crispsofties.com, home of the iPod.iTunes software. Follow the Download or Purchase links. Note that if you are trying to restore all your music from the iPod, the free trial version is not suitable because it deliberately skips copying about half the tracks from your iPod to iTunes. To copy your complete iPod, purchase the full version of iPod.iTunes, either as part of the initial download or after downloading the trial version by installing an activation code.
| | 2. | Mac: Connect Your iPod
Connect your iPod to the computer using the Dock or cable. When iTunes launches, it might warn you that the iPod is "linked" to another computer and offer to change the link to this computer and replace the iPod's contents with its own. Click No .
| | 3. | Mac: Enable the iPod as an External Hard Disk
Open the iTunes Preferences window (choose iTunes, Preferences ); click the iPod tab, and then click the Music tab within the window. Select the Enable disk use check box. Dismiss the dialog box that warns you about unmounting the iPod and click OK .
| | 4. | Mac: Synchronize the iPod's Music in iPod.iTunes Launch iPod.iTunes. This application is designed to operate in conjunction with iTunes, which runs in the background. iPod.iTunes quits and relaunches iTunes several times and creates some temporary playlists that it uses while copying the music. It's important that you not work with iTunes or quit it while iPod.iTunes restores your music. Just let iPod.iTunes do its job. The Start button appears if conditions are correct for transfer. Click Start to begin the process. First iPod.iTunes reads the iPod's contents and the iTunes Library to determine how many tracks on the iPod don't exist in iTunes; then it copies those tracks into iTunes, complete with star ratings and other external data (such as the Last Played and Equalizer info tags ). Finally it copies the iPod's playlists into iTunes, prefixed with the generic From Mom's iPod (which you can change in the Settings tab). This process can take a long time, up to or exceeding an hour depending on the size of your music collection. NOTE Smart Playlists copied from the iPod back into iTunes become regular playlists because the iPod can't distinguish between the two in its own database. Quit iPod.iTunes; go back into the iTunes Preferences window and deselect the Enable disk use check box. You can now begin reorganizing your recovered music if necessaryfix up your playlists, browse the newly imported tracks, and so on. When you synchronize your iPod again in the normal way, you can allow iTunes to establish its link with the iPod and copy its music back to the iPod's disk. | | 5. | Windows: Download or Purchase CopyPod
Go to http://www.copypod.net, home of the CopyPod software. Follow the Download or Purchase links. The trial version is time-limited to 14 days; if you need to restore your music on a one-time basis, the trial version might suffice for your needs. (It's good to support software developers who produce useful software by paying for a registered copy, though, so if CopyPod helps you, please consider registering it anyway!)
| | 6. | Windows: Configure the iPod Not to Keep iTunes Music Folder Organized
Open the iTunes Preferences window (choose Edit, Preferences ); click the Advanced tab. Disable the Keep iTunes Music folder organized check box to prevent iTunes from automatically naming folders and interfering with the restore process. Click OK .
| | 7. | Windows: Force Detection of Your iPod in CopyPod Launch CopyPod. In the main window, click the Force iPod Detection button. This command prevents iTunes from launching and taking control of the iPod when you connect it. NOTE The Force iPod Detection button kills a background process that iTunes uses to detect when you connect the iPod; if you restart your computer, iTunes' iPod-detecting function is restored. | | 8. | Windows: Connect Your iPod Connect your iPod to the computer using the Dock or cable. CopyPod detects the iPod and asks if you want to list the songs on its disk; click Yes . TIP If CopyPod doesn't automatically detect your iPod, try selecting it from the Select iPod drop-down menu in the upper left corner of the CopyPod window. | | 9. | Windows: Synchronize the iPod's Music in CopyPod
Select all the songs on the iPod by pressing Ctrl+A , or select only certain songs by navigating through the Artists, Albums , and PlayLists boxes and sorting the songs using the column headers as you would in iTunes. When you've selected all the songs you want to transfer from the iPod into iTunes, click the iTunes button under the Backup To label.
| | 10. | Windows: Import the Copied Files into iTunes
CopyPod creates two files on your Desktop, called iPodBackupLibrary_1.xml (which contains your song file information) and iPodBackupLibrary_2.xml (which contains your playlists).
Launch iTunes; choose File, Import . This command lets you select a catalog file in XML format and import the song files and other information it describes. Choose XML files (*.xml) from the Files of type drop-down list and then select the iPodBackupLibrary_1.xml file on the Desktop. Click Open . iTunes imports all the recovered files back into its library, reorganizing them into the proper folders.
Using the same method, import the iPodBackupLibrary_2.xml file; this file restores all your playlists.
| NOTE Smart Playlists copied from the iPod back into iTunes become regular playlists because the iPod can't distinguish between the two in its own database.
You can now go back to the Advanced pane of the iTunes Preferences window and enable the Keep iTunes Music folder organized option (if you had had it enabled before restoring your music with this procedure). You're now back in business. You should restart your computer to restore iTunes' iPod-detection capability, and then you can sync your music back to the iPod in the normal way, this time allowing iTunes to establish its link with the iPod. |
