« A week of missed appointments? | Main | Fixing the time zone for Mac OS X »
January 26, 2006
Answering the iPod's forbidden question
Here is the question you apparently mustn’t ask, if you’re an iPod owner: “How do I transfer the songs on my iPod to a PC or a Mac?”
We can’t find this prohibition in the End User Licence Agreement, but it must be there somewhere, because two of our friends – one a Windows iPod owner, the other a Mac-based user, recently asked precisely that question in Apple dealerships in Sydney and Melbourne, and were treated like master criminals.
“You can’t do it,” they were told, with noticeable firmness. “It isn’t possible.” That, at any rate, is an approximate version of the response.
The only reason we can think of for this vehement, and unfortunately completely wrong advice, is that in the world of Apple, there’s a pervasive view that people who ask that question are intent on music piracy.
Here at the Bleeding Edge Centre for the Examination of Intentions, we’re totally convinced, however, that most of them have far more honourable motives. They simply want to know how to recover their music collection – possibly representing an investment of thousands of dollars, and vast amount of time – in the event, or the actuality, of a catastrophic failure of their computer hard drive. Alternatively, they might want to back up their music collection to a different computer. They ought to be made aware of the fact that it’s quite easy to do so.
While we don’t have a high opinion of the technical knowledge of the average computer salesman, anyone working in an Apple Centre should surely be aware of the fact that the iPod is in fact a miniature hard drive, and it contains a complete copy of the entire iTunes music library.
It’s all there, in a file called iTunesDB. Unfortunately, both the Mac and Windows versions of iTunes won’t show you that file. In a somewhat rudimentary approach to rights management, the developers made it invisible to the operating system. In our view, it’s a wise approach, given the certainty that some young hacker would break any protection they could put together.
And it’s very handy for users. All you have to do is make the file visible.
You can do that on the Mac with a very handy free program called TinkerTool, which gives you access to additional preferences in Mac OS X. The one you’d use in this case, is an option to show hidden and system files.
It’s a little easier with Windows. In the Windows Explorer Tools menu, choose Folder Options/View/Show Hidden Files and Folders, and click on Apply.
In both cases, it’s then a simple matter of clicking on the iPod icon and finding the Music folder (in the iPod-Control folder) and dragging it across to your computer desktop.
That’s the inelegant way. It’s far better, in our view, to download one of a small flotilla of programs for both Windows and Mac OS X that have been specifically designed for the task, and use that. Quite how these clever people have kept all those Apple Centre salesmen in the dark, we’ll never know.
Before you use any of these programs, you need to remember two things. First, make sure the "Enable disk use" option is checked in iTunes’ iPod Preferences. And – this is critical - when you insert an unknown iPod into your computer (you will have lost your original iTunes settings, remember) iTunes will ask you if you want it to associate that particular iPod with that computer. Choosing to do so will obliterate all the music on the iPod. The correct answer is “ABSOLUTELY NOT”.
We found PodUtil was simple to use on both platforms, and surprisingly fast. There’s a help file here. If you pay 10 pounds to register it, you get access to advanced features, which allow you to create templates for directory structures and file formats. It also frees you from an irritating nag screen which pops up after every 10 tracks.
Before you do any copying you might also explore the programs Copy Settings menu, which you can use to have PodUtil create separate subdirectories for each artist and album in your collection, and to turn on the iTunes features that will add the copied songs to your library, and recreate your iTunes playlists.
If you don’t want to pay, there’s a free program for the Mac, called Senuti, which is almost as powerful, and equally simple to use.
An alternative in the Windows world is CopyPod (copypod.net), where you’ll also find a version that backs up images on an iPod Photo.
But whatever you choose, don’t tell anyone who sells iPods. It will only frighten them.
Posted by cw at January 26, 2006 02:22 PM
Comments
If you use a Windows PC with your iPod, check out "Anapod". http://www.redchairsoftware.com/anapod/index.php
It fully integrates your iPod into Windows Explorer, and does all the things that Apple says you can't, and even some things that Apple probably hasn't even thought of (such as streaming music from your iPod to your PC).
You can download a free trial, but at $30 (USD) for use with an unlimited number of iPods on an unlimited number of PCs, it is a bargain!
Paul
Posted by: Paul at January 27, 2006 01:54 PM
Another great resource for using an iPod in this manner and other useful but legal ways that Apple trys to discourage is www.ilounge.com (formerly ipodlounge). Check out the tutorials under the "help" menu on the website. It tells you how to do this and other useful things.
Posted by: Kyle McDonald at January 28, 2006 07:53 PM