Copying MP3s from iPod - TinkerTool question

Posted:
in iPod + iTunes + AppleTV edited January 2014
I had read somewhere that you can use Tinkertool? or other such utility app to make invisible files visible, thereby allowing you to "see" the MP3s on the iPod when mounted as a HD, and ultimately allowing you to bypass Apples "security" and copy them back off the iPod. Well, I got Tinkertool, and it does indeed allow you to copy songs back off.



However, I was only able to see the MP3s that I had actually played on the iPod. For example, if I encode an entire album, upload to the iPod, play tracks 1-3 on the iPod, then connect it back to my Mac and look at the"invisible" files, only tracks 1-3 actually show up. They can be copied back, but I can't seem to find the entire list of MP3s, only those previously accessed. I know if I really wanted to, I could just play there first few seconds of all the songs on my iPod and they should all show up. But with 600 songs and growing, it's kind of a pain. Any thoughts/suggestions?



FYI - The songs I can see on the iPod are organized in folders by the date/time that they were accessed - I'm guessing for use with Apple's "favorites/Top 25" lists by which they allow you to organize songs.



As a side note:



I guess I understand why Apple keeps you from directly copying files back and forth - to help prevent piracy. But once the files are on my iPod - which I do manually as opposed to auto syning with iTunes - I don't really have a reason to keep them on my computer - I have CDs that I can play if wanted, plus they take up a lot of space. At the same time, that's not to say that I might not want those files back on my Mac at some point, and why re-encode them when they're already done? There's obviously at least one fairly easy workaround, albeit a little inconvenient, but it's not like they're really stopping anyone who wants to mass copy anyway.



Guess it could just be a PR move with the record labels...



Anyway, help with the earlier issue is much appreciated.



Thanks



fish

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 7
    newnew Posts: 3,244member
    I use a little program called podmaster (running of my ipod) to transfer my music from my ipod to my other macs. There are probably better solutions out there. But this works great for my limited need...
  • Reply 2 of 7
  • Reply 3 of 7
    I just set my ipod up as a hd and do a search for a certian song on the ipod and it will find it. I dont know if anyone else has tried this yet but it works fine for me.
  • Reply 4 of 7
    [quote]Originally posted by Anamelie:

    <strong>I just set my ipod up as a hd and do a search for a certian song on the ipod and it will find it. I dont know if anyone else has tried this yet but it works fine for me.</strong><hr></blockquote>



    Hey Anamelie - I tried your suggestion, and in OS 9.2.2 (haven't tried it in X yet) Sherlock did indeed locate the song on the iPod. But when I tried to drag it from the Sherlock window to another local disk to copy it (which works fine with any other file), I just got a text clipping of the name of the file - i.e. the MP3 didn't copy. Thoughts/Comments?



    Incidentally, the programs mentioned earlier do exactly what I wanted, so the Sherlock method isn't really a priority for me - just curious.



    Thanks

    fish
  • Reply 5 of 7
    PodUtil is a nice solution for OS 9, and you can try iPod Viewer for OS 10 (the latter works great to transfer files between your computers at home too, if you are not networked).



    And did anyone remember to say 'happy birthday' to the iPod this week?
  • Reply 6 of 7
    aquaticaquatic Posts: 5,602member
    I have yet to see anything rival PodMaster's simplicity, my proverbial hat goes off to the creator of this app. Just wish it was more stable.



    However, it would be even cooler is someone hacked iTunes so we could just drag a track out of the window in iTunes to copy the song. That's probably a tall order, but still... wouldn't it be cool?
  • Reply 7 of 7
    I dont know about OS9 but in X I just do a search and then double click on the file that the song is located in. Then you just drag and drop where you want it. Try that and see what happens
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