Transferring songs from iPod to iTunes

It has been almost a week since the hard drive crashed on my Mac, and now I'm in the process of rebuilding my files and getting things adjusted on the new laptop. One of the things that is presenting a challenge is the fact that my iTunes library got wiped out on the old laptop, and Apple doesn't allow you to transfer all of your data from the iPod to the iTunes library. If you're not careful, the empty iTunes library on the new computer will overwrite your iPod and wipe everything out. Not good.

Fortunately, I have a newer iPod (an iTouch) so it didn't automatically sync when I plugged it into the new laptop. I was able to change the option in "Summary" to "Manually manage songs" so that, for the time being, I don't have to worry about losing the stuff on my iPod.

Apple makes it easy to transfer over your iTunes purchases, but because of the restricted format that iTunes used to use for songs, I purchased most of them through Amazon. It also doesn't allow you to transfer over any songs you've burned off of discs that you own. I understand that they're blocking this transfer from iPod to computer because they want to prevent piracy...otherwise, you could take a friend's iPod, hook it up to your computer, and download all of their stuff for free.

Of course, this doesn't help someone like me, who is just trying to do a data recovery due to a hard drive mishap.

Fortunately, there are several third-party programs available for purchase that can solve the problem. There's a list of them here on the Apple support website: Transferring Music from iPod to Computer. I'm going to scroll through them and see which one does what I need it to do, and then give it a try.

They certainly don't make things easy, do they?


UPDATE: I purchased the iPodRip software for $19.95, and it was money well spent. It didn't transfer over my photos and apps, but I had those backed up anyway. It transferred over all of my music, playlists, and movies. Best twenty bucks I ever spent!