iPod users will know that getting music off your iPod and onto any random computer is not allowed per se. On the surface, there is no apparent way to make such a transfer. This “limitation” has naturally been engineered into iTunes and the iPod to prevent mass music piracy. So without further ado, I’ll list my preferred workarounds.
Mac:
iPodDisk. There are several freeware options available (Senuti is a good choice) but iPodDisk is my favorite (and, I feel, easiest to use). There is no installation, just unzip and the app is there. Plug in your iPod (make sure disk use is enabled), launch iPodDisk and take a look at your Finder window. Below the usual iPod drive, you’ll see a new one that iPodDisk brings up. Navigate to it and behold all your music in its glory ready for drag and drop to your friend’s box. How simple is that? I carry the app on my Shuffle so I can use it if necessary on a friend’s Mac. There used to be a dedicated website but it looks like it’s all hosted at Google Code now. It does require you to install a beta version of MacFUSE to work. I did and haven’t run into any problems since.
PC:
SharePod. Since I no longer use a PC (my desktop is still back in Fla) I can’t check how well this works but user reviews seem positive. It appears easy to use and a nice feature is that it doesn’t need to be installed on the target computer. Rather the app is carried in the iPod (naturally disk use must be enabled) which is quite clever. If someone gives this a go, let me know how it works out.
UPDATE:
Reader Dagsy mentions another couple of workarounds for the PC. The simplest being:
1) Set Windows Explorer to display hidden files
2) Plug in iPod
3) Navigate to iPod in Windows Explorer
4) Navigate to iPod Control/Music
5) Copy contents to local folder on hard drive
This method is simple and works well. One caveat though. Apple were clever in that not only did they hide the music folder on the iPod, they also changed the file names to random values. So you wouldn’t know which file is which song. I believe if you add the songs to iTunes, the information displays correctly. If you wanted to get a particular song off the iPod though, this wouldn’t be ideal.
Second is to use Ephpod. There’s a multitude of software that will work, so if the ones listed here don’t, do a search or let me know. Thanks Dagsy!
Popularity: 52% [?]
