iPod: The Missing Manual, 7th Edition

Copy Your Music From iPod to iTunes

To prevent rampant piracy across the seven seas of Musicdom, the data transfer between iTunes and the iPod was originally designed as a one-way trip—you could copy music to a connected iPod, but not from it to the computer. This is still pretty much Apple's way, although you can now copy iTunes Store purchases from the iPod to iTunes; Chapter 7 has the details for this handy trick.

But there are times when perfectly honest people need to get their songs off the iPod—like when your computer dies and takes its iTunes library with it.

The Web is full of tips and tricks for harvesting content off an iPod and getting it back into iTunes, often by fiddling with system settings in Windows or Mac OS X. These methods can vary based on which iPod and which version of the operating system are involved. Thankfully, there's also The Shareware Option. Several helpful folks have developed free or inexpensive programs to copy content on your iPod back to the computer:

• TouchCopy. The program costs $25 but it works with Mac OS X and Windows—and all iPod models. (www.wideanglesoftware.com/touchcopy)

• YamiPod. A free program that can run off the iPod itself and exports music back to Windows, Mac, and Linux systems. (www.yamipod.com)

• SharePod. This freeware program for Windows can copy music and videos back to the PC and also edit playlists, artwork, and song tags (labels) as well. (www.getsharepod.com)

• iPodAccess. This one works with all iPods and is available for $20 in ...