iTunes Dilemma
Apologies for using Word Blog bandwidth on a personal plea but you guys are a helpful troupe.
My old rickety spare PC which I use for my iTunes and music storage has been totalled by a particularly nasty bit of spyware. I can't get into it to download and backup all of these files and strip it down and re-install the system hardware. Dell's helpline has been helpful but offer no hope of rescue for these. It's all my own fault - I should have looked after it better and kept the virus software current.
So, I'm left with a 20gb iPod full of lovely stuff which I'd rather not have to laboriously re-load. Is there any cunning way of loading iTunes software onto another PC but without my pod emptying itself?
Or am I a hopelessly naive poltroon?
I favour the latter. Feel free to confirm this for me but I'd be grateful for any help anyone can give.
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Just set the
iPod to manual syncing. It's only when you set it to autosync that it would destroy the stuff already on there.
Plus, see the below on how to get the stuff off the iPod and back into iToons.
http://www.macworld.com/article/42469/2005/01/2waystreet.html
Hooray!
Thank you very much.
I'm very much one who should RTFM
(Read The F*cking Manual)
Much obliged. You took your time though... :-)
What a great blog this is.
brilliant!
I hope I never need to do that (all my music is backed up onto an external drive, so I *should* be OK...) but that's a great link FraserM - thanks.
itunes is evil on this
It defaults to copying the hard drive contents to the ipod. I know people who have lost everything when the attach to their new PC. Partly its their own fault for not backing up but itunes just doesn't need to behave that way.
It worked!
Saints be praised. Thank you.
I owe you. You are truly a prince among men. As is the guy who wrote the article.
Phew. I won't let that happen again.
Also
If you download the free version of mediamonkey, it will show your ipod as a drive as part of the library structure. You can then highlight the tracks and send it to your hard drive.
Link -> http://www.mediamonkey.com/information/free/
Thanks Leedsboy
This is music to my ears. See what I did there?
If you're in the Foxy neck of the woods,
bring the dead Dell around to my foxhole this weekend and I'll get all your data off the dead PC onto an external drive; I've got one you can borrow for the purpose.
The foxhole is in South Gloucestershire.
Drop me a line if you're interested.
How very kind
A trip from Berkshire to South Gloucstershire may be feasible seeing as Mrs_B and I have family out west.
Thank you. I'll try the options given above and let you know how I do.
I think I owe several beers already.
There is also software
Free, which you can download, that will unload a Pod onto a pc. Pod-util? Something like that. It works too, as I discovered when my stepson wondered what "return to factory settings" might do to the computer, just after I had finished ripping all my vinyl to cd too, but after, thank the lord, after I had topped up the i-pod therewith. It would be no exaggeration to say it saved his life.........
This is of no help...
...and it sounds like I'm chastising, but anyway, I'll just say that you should keep back ups of all your music. I put it off for years but I think the piece of mind is worth the hassle. As I rip new music I also add the new files to my DVD/CD burner software so that when I reach the full DVD capacity I can then burn a data DVD with my recently ripped music on it.
Corrupted iPod
My iPod classic 80gb has become corrupted since I downloaded Apple's recent software upgrade. I now get a message saying " unable to sync because iPod is corrupted and files unreadable". I have reset it and also uninstalled and reinstalled itunes, but this hasn't solved the problem. I am a bit dubious about restoring to factory settings in case I lose all my songs and can't sync them back again. Does anybody know how I can solve this problem?
Music still playable via iTunes?
If all your songs are on your PC/Mac (and backed up elsewhere as per LOUDspeaker's comment above), and can still be played via iTunes, then you SHOULD be able to restore the iPod to factory settings without a problem. The first time you link your newly restored iPod to iTunes all your music files should transfer over to the iPod. I had to do this once before, several years ago, and it worked without a problem, though I had to leave the transfer running over-night due to the no. of tracks involved.
HOWEVER, I'm no expert and other opinions are available. The value of your music collection may go down as well as up. Based on an average return of 6%... etc. etc.
Thanks...
...I'll give it a whirl, all my music is backed up so I've nothing to lose.
Give up on synching your iPod
About two months ago I bought an iPod and I synched it to iTunes.
About a month later my computer switched itself off while I was using iTunes.
Switched my computer on again and iTunes was now empty. I still had all my music files, just not in iTunes. Now I couldn't synch my iPod so I started to manually manage it, just like I did for almost three years with my Creative Zen Touch.
Synching is over-rated. My advice is give up synching your iPod and instead just keep a sheet of paper beside your PC with notes of what you want to add, delete, swap, re-name, alter etc. Works for me. Metadata is still created as usual, just not on your PC.
Yes...
... that seems a better idea. I must say I have never had a single problem with my Creative Zen, it's only my iPod that gives me trouble. Thanks for the advice.
Even simpler
Every time I have something on the computer I want to upload to the iPod, I copy and paste it to a folder called, er, "upload to iPod". Then you just drag it over into iTunes and that's it. Delete the contents of the folder and start the cycle again. Works for me. (I've still got loads of space on the iPod, so deleting isn't anything I have to think about yet.)
One word.
Vinyl.
On a similar note..HELP!!
I've transfered my iTunes to an external hard drive (La Cie). I've been quite careful and always made sure the external drive was connected before synching up the ipod.
Until today. Bloody iphone. (Yes, I know, serves me right)
The upshot is I can't get my Mac to find the itunes folder on the external hard drive and synch the two up.My itunes on the mac is now empty.
Any advice on what to do?
I've not tried to resynch my ipod as I'm off on holiday soon and I don't want to spend time reloading etc 80gb of music.
Apologies if there's something I'm missing. I've tried all sorts of consolidating stuff but to no avail.
Any advice so so so gratefully appreciated.
excuse ignorance here leedsboy
only want to save purchased music - can i do this onto mediamonkey and then onto usb flashdrive ?as i tunes only wants to allow you to backup to disk ?
help would be appreciated.
I'm no expert
but I think so. MM will find the music when you tell it look wherever it is saved. It will then show it in your library and also show your computer on the same file tree. You can then either highlight the tracks you want to copy and send a copy ot any drive or playlist or drag them in the normal windows way.
many thanks
cheers for help - appreciated