OH BUGGER! Your PC has crashed and you've lost all your mp3 files and the only place they are is on your iPod! How do you get them back???

So you've got all your mp3 files on your iPod but they aren't on your PC. Maybe you've reformatted your harddrive without backing up or maybe you've just bought a new PC. This guide will show you how you can transfer your music back from your iPod to your PC

Follow the steps below to transfer your music from your iPod to your PC:

  1. The first step is to make sure you have the most up to date iTunes. This will allow you to get your purchased music off your iPod easily.
  2. Now connect your iPod to your PC. iTunes will start up. If you have auto sync on you have to close iTunes before it begins to erase your iPod and delete all your songs. If you don't have auto sync on then you simply press cancel instead of the 'Erase and Sync' button.
  3. The next step is to recover all the purchased music you have on your iPod. This can be done by using iTunes.
  4. Simply go to 'Authorise Computer' on the 'Store menu' as seen below and then enter the iTunes Apple ID and password which you used to buy the music with.

    Authorise computer

  5. Then go to the 'file' menu and then click 'Transfer Purchases from yourname's iPod'

    Transfer purchases in iTunes

  6. Then click 'Transfer Purchases' on the next popup window. All purchased content found on the iPod will now transfer from your iPod to your PC and iTunes.
  7. So now you want to transfer songs which you didn't purchase. To do this you have to either do it manually or use some software to do it for you.
  8. First I will go through it manually. To start with you have to make your iPod act as a disk. Click on your iPod on the list on the left and then click "Enable Disk Use"

    Enable iPod Disk Use

  9. Now go to 'My Computer' and then by 'Devices with Removable Storage" should be your iPod. Double click on that. You should see a list of folders. If you cannot see one called 'iPod_control' then click on 'Tools' then 'Folder options' then click 'View' then scroll down to 'Show hidden files and folders'
  10. Now click on 'iPod_Control' and then go to 'Music' and then you will see folders which contain your music files. Simply drag the files into where you want to store them on your PC. You can even just add the whole folder using the iTunes and then going to 'File' and then 'Add folder to Library'. (you must make folder unhidden first by right clicking 'iPod control' going to properties and then unchecking the hidden check. They will not have the correct names until you add them to iTunes. iTunes should then rename the files correctly.
If you do it this way you may not be able to get your playlists, ratings, play counts, last played details etc. back. I would reccommend you using a 3rd party software to tranfer the files as you will then be able to get some playlists back. I would reccommend trying iDump. It is a simple free piece of software which will automatically find and transfer the files to your PC from your iPod. Click here to visit the website to download it Other great software to try out : I hope this article has helped you. It's a simplified version of one found on iLounge. This version has extra software to help you out and also a few extra tips. With games on your iPod, you can simply transfer using the 'purchases' technique.