General Question

peedub's avatar

I think I just mistakenly erased my whole iTunes library, however, I have it all backed up on an iPod. Is there a way to transfer it all back into iTunes?

Asked by peedub (8708points) April 5th, 2008

Virtually none of it was purchased through iTunes, so a simple transfer is not going to work. I was told of the possibility of 3rd party software that would make this possible. Please help!

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10 Answers

Randy's avatar

I’ve never heard of that software, so as far as I know, it can’t be done. Man, that really sucks. Sorry to hear that. If you figure out a way to do it, you should let me know just for future reference.

sndfreQ's avatar

A plethora of apps out there for Mac OS and Windows. My two faves are SENUTI and iPodRip. These apps transfer the music from the iPod to your CPU’s hard drive. As for rebuilding your iTunes Library, that will have to be done manually (importing the files, naming and tagging, and rebuilding playlists, etc.)

As to the legality of transferring copywritten content, you’re on your own, as most of the developers of this type of app will point out…just an FYI. The apps are not illegal, but the process of using them may violate copyright law-so use at your own risk.

whatthefluther's avatar

look for the program called iPod Copy. It is reasonably priced and saved me when my computer self destructed. I’ll get you more info in a bit.

chad's avatar

Yes I had to do this exact thing when I purchased a new laptop for school. All of my songs had been on my previous computer. The program is freeware, but they also have a version that you can pay to get, which saves you about 2 minutes. Unless they have made huge changes to the software, the free version should work just fine for you. It lets you import songs back to your computer 50 songs at a time. After the first 50, a message pops up, and you just click “continue” and the transfer continues onto the next 50, and so on.

peedub's avatar

Thanks everyone. I was freaking out! I got yours too late Chad, but free (for 50 songs at a time) sounds better than 30 bucks for ‘xilisoft’, but whatever it’s working. Some of the free versions looked like I would have to do it manually after some point, and that might take forever. Fluther is amazing.

whatthefluther's avatar

Hello again. Sorry about the delay in getting back to you. Here’s the link to iPod Copy: http://www.ipod-copy.com/showproduct.aspx?t=b . Best of luck to you.

vanelokz's avatar

So which program did you use peedub??

peedub's avatar

I took sndfreQ’s advice and went with iPodRip. It works amazingly! All of the music on my iPod was restored to my computer, while not extracting anything from the iPod. I should have had it all backed up on an external hard drive, but whatever. If this should happen to anyone, it’s a life saver. I know that if one’s songs are purchased from iTunes then they can be transferred back without a program, but mine are ripped from CDs I no longer have and in this case 3rd party software is need.

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