Apple's iTunes software makes it dead simple to copy music onto your iPod, but when it comes to moving files in the opposite direction--from the iPod to your computer--there's no obvious solution. I get an email on this topic at least once a week, usually from someone who's had his laptop stolen or watched helplessly as his hard drive crashed. After an incident like that, it can be a relief to know your music collection (or at least part of it) is backed up on an iPod.
Of course, relief can quickly turn to frustration when you plug that iPod into a new computer and can't figure out how to grab those files. Worse yet, iTunes will sometimes prompt you to erase the iPod if it's not recognized. Saying yes will end only in tears.
There are two very useful applications out there that will transfer the rest of your music, videos, playlists, and metadata off your iPod and back to your computer. In truth, there are dozens of programs that can accomplish the same thing, but for the sake of simplicity, we'll stick with these two since they're easy to use, and work with all models of iPods and iPhones.
Using iTunes
1: One of the first steps you can take is to connect your iPod to your computer, open up iTunes, and locate the "Transfer Purchases..." option in the iTunes File menu. By doing this, iTunes will locate any content on the iPod that has been purchased using iTunes and will pull those purchases back into your computer's iTunes library.)
2: After using iTunes to transfer your purchased content, you'll need a third-party application to grab any other music, videos, playlists, photos, and song data.
Depending on the type of computer you're transferring to, we recommend downloading Pod to Mac 12 or Pod to PC 2.6. The applications are free and work identically to make it easy to transfer music, playlists, and videos from your iPod to your computer.
For US$9.95, an iPhone OS 3.0-compatible version of the Pod to PC software (version 3.2) is also available. Tags: Apple iPhone, Laptop Computer, Apple iPod, File Menu, video
