Transferring Music From An iPod
Well one of the small tasks that I’ve wanted to do recently is program a small application that will read the music files on my iPod Nano, copy them to a place on the hard drive and relabeling them. As a lot of iPod users know Apple really doesn’t want you to move your music off your iPod even if you own the song! But I don’t believe that is right, I paid for the music I put onto the iPod why can’t I do what I want with it?
If you’ve ever ‘explored’ your iPod on a windows machine you know that Apple only renames the file but keeps the ID3 tags all intact. The image shows that E:\iPod_Control\Music\F00 is one location where the music is kept (yours might be a bit different). The iPod_Control and Music directories are hidden and you’ll need to change the folder options to view them.
As you can also see in the image is that the files have weird names such as AAGG.mp3, AFQR.mp3 etc. The manual way to get your music is to drag your music from these folders into another folder somewhere on your computer. If you keep the View of the folder to Details you will be able to see the ID3 Tag information and you can rename your files to your liking that way.
That is how I do it. But what I am working on now, like I mentioned above, is a small program that does all this for you. All you need to do is point it to your Music directory on your iPod and it will copy and rename the files itself. The only program I am having with the program is that I cannot read the AAC (.m4p) files properly. The AAC format is what Apple uses for their iTunes store music. It is the MPEG4 audio file that has protection with it (sort of like licensing). The thing about that is the IDE3 tags is stored differently and I have not yet been able to figure out what part of the file the information is kept or I am unable to process any of the music I’ve bought via the iTunes store.
So for now if I ever need to transfer music off my iPod Nano I’ll have to do it manually and rename the files in the way I like; artist-title.mp3
I refuse to conform! I have thus far avoided buying an iPod, would consider an MP3 player of another brand but my cell phone holds over 1GB of music, videos, etc. So there isn’t much need right now.
I thought about getting one of those Sony-Ericsson phones that can hold the mini memory stick, but I’d have to renew my cell phone contract and I didn’t want to do that.
I’ve liked the iPods due to their bright screens and the way the menus work. Sure it’s similar to other devices but.. *shrug*
There are a load of mp3 renamers that will grab the tag info and rename accordingly. I yoinked all my files from my ipod and renamed them in about 2 minutes. Sorry I can’t remember the name of the program I used, but a quick search should yield what you’re looking for.
Yea on my search to find ID3 specifications and AAC specifications I did come across a bunch. Though I was doing it more for the fun of learning and trying out code really.
It would of been a nice small program to back it up by just clicking a single button really. My search will continue!
Thanks!
There is a fantastic program for the PC Window’s-based computer called iRepo. I am a software collector and a computer repair professional by trade and this prorgram is the best of it’s kind.