Rip Songs Off Your iPod/iPhone & Back On To Your Mac [How To]

iPods are great nifty little devices that allow you to take music off of your computer and carry it around town with you inside a magical Apple electronic device. But what happens when you want to transfer the music that’s on your iPod and put it back on your Mac? Despite all of its friendliness, iTunes is unwilling to pry the music of your iPod or iPhone. In this walk-through we’ll show you how to reclaim your music from your iPod and get it back on your Mac.

Step 1: You’re going to need to download and install some software. There are a number of software applications that you can pay for to get the job done, but we like freeware, so we’ll be showing you how to do this using a program called ExPod. You can download the latest version of ExPod right HERE.

Step 2: Now that the app is installed plug-in your iPod or iPhone. You should now see your iPod and playlists in the left table, and all or your songs in the right table.

Step 3: Select all the songs that you would like to extract from your iPod, and then hit the Extract button.

Rip Songs Off Your iPod/iPhone & Back On To Your Mac [How To]

Step 4: Choose your Filename Template & where to extract your music to on your Mac. You can extract it straight into your iTunes folder if you like, or you can put it into a folder of your choosing and then add it to iTunes later.

Step 5: Hit Extract and watch the blue bar fill up across the screen as it transfers your files! If the ExPod detects that a duplicate file will be created it will alert you.

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Step 6: Drag and Drop your folders into iTunes and enjoy

Note: ExPod isn’t a perfect product, but I’ve tested it on my iPhone 4, iPod Nano 4G, iPod Classic, and 2G iPod Touch and had no problems. If you have any problems using ExPod please refer to the developer’s website http://expod.joynt.net/

If you’re looking for some cheap, reliable software with dedicated support I’d recommend Senuti 1.1.8 which you can learn more about at http://www.fadingred.com/senuti/

14 comments »

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Buster Heine heads Cult of Mac's Social Media presence as well as contributes posts as often as he gets around to it. Website: noolo.gy; Twitter: twitter.com/bst3r.

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Posted in How-To, iMac, iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3G S, iPhone 4, iPod, iPod Touch, iTunes, Mac, Mac mini, Mac Pro, Macbook, MacBook Pro, Music, News, Software, Tips & Tricks |

Jessica
Any idea how I can get music off my ipod touch onto my Windows desktop? Thanks

http://bust3r.com Buster Heine
Sure. Sell your Windows desktop & go get a beautiful new iMac. Just kidding with you (I am, but I’m not). Senuti works on PC’s as well. Last time I used a PC to do this years ago I utilized a program called iDump. I don’t use a PC though so I’m not much help on doing this on your desktop

Presto
nice walk through, but why do you have shaq’s music?

http://bust3r.com Buster Heine
@Presto because I was at Zia Records 3 years ago and I saw a used CD of his for sale and I thought “who else on the planet actually owns one of Shaq’s albums? this will make me either the coolest person in the world, or the world’s biggest loser.” So i bought it for 4 bucks.
@sold i think you’re missing something. None of the songs that I’ve ripped are on a playlist. Select the iPod not the playlists

sold
great tool, but you can only see the songs you currently have in a playlist! You can’t access the other songs or did I miss something?
@Jessica
take a look at this site
http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/how-to-get-music-video-and-photos-off-your-ipod-iphone-win/
Poppa
to rip music from your ipod/iphone with windows I use this free prog, Copytrans manager
http://www.copytrans.net/copytransmanager.php
charli
a little tip. Before you plug in your iThing, go into iTunes and turn off automatic syncing. Then there’s no risk that itunes will see your Thing, think you mean to delete everything and have at it
http://estebancs.wordpress.com Esteban
Nice, you should also give MusicRescue a try
http://www.headlightsoft.com/detune/ Steve
Hi, nice write up. I’m the developer of expod, and I thought you might like to know I’ve recently released a new app called DeTune – basically an upgraded version of expod with a better UI and new features. Check it out and download here:
http://www.headlightsoft.com/detune/
- steve
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=826305181 Zak Knudsen
I know this thread is old, but I just want to leave a note:
exPod has been retired and replaced by DeTune. It’s made by the same people, and works like a champ.
http://www.headlightsoft.com/detune/
(I’ve been looking for a free tool for this and this was the best thing I could find. Links in this article still point to the archive of exPod which is on the same site as DeTune.)
Danylle
I know this thread is old, but you just saved me a BUNCH of money! My mac crashed a few nights ago and I was pretty upset. But with this article I was able to get all my music back. Thank you!
Nickole
Thank you!!! Thank you!! Thank you!! Works like a champ. Didn’t see that there was a replacement DeTune until after I used Expod.
Big Boss00
my macbook got stolen, but thanks to you i could get back some of my music from my ipod, THANKS SO MUCH you really helped me out. thanks again your a life saver
Jakeyy77
didnt work ..