MetaChat - iPod n00b questions

MetaChat is an informal place for MeFites to touch base and post, discuss and chatter about topics that may not belong on MetaFilter. Questions? Check the FAQ. Please note: This is important.

26 January 2008

iPod n00b questions -- Hope!→[More:]So my wife got a sweet 30GB iPod as a goodbye present from her last work. Before leaving she filled it to the brim with musical goodness from the shared cache of her colleagues. The environment was Mac.

Which is all well and good. But now (like, almost two years later) we're starting to want to replace the music on the 'pod with new stuff, and maybe even load it with videos etc. Which prompts questions:

1. Not wanting to loose all the musical goodness on there, is there any way to get the music off? In a way that will be playable everywhere (and hopefully in a Windoze environment)?

2. Answers to question 1 notwithstanding, how do we load new stuff onto the 'pod? Is iTunes the only way to go? My current music collection is almost all mp3s -- would they work on the iPod?

Sorry for the n00bery and thanks for the help!

post by: AwkwardPause at: 13:26 | 12 comments

Mp3s work fine on an ipod. You do have to use iTunes, though. There are several programs for Mac to download programs from your pod, so I'd have to suspect there's at least a few for Windows, too.

posted by doctor_negative 26 January | 13:35

er, ...download music from your ipod...

posted by doctor_negative 26 January | 13:42

ITunes is the easiest way to go for iPod loading -- it just works. And basically all you have to do to change what music loads on your iPod is to check songs on or off.

posted by me3dia 26 January | 13:42

There's a program called CopyPod I used once to suck things from my iPod onto my 'puter. Also there's a whole thread over on AskMe that has the link to CopyPod plus some free programs. (I think CopyPod is about $30.00.)

posted by Claudia_SF 26 January | 13:44

iTunes is definitely easiest. But, if for whatever reason, you don't want to use it, there are some options. For Windows, you can also use vPod, or Ephpod, or Anapod Explorer (hey, I didn't name the things). There used to be a Winamp plugin, but I think it's built in to the most recent versions. All that said--I was pretty anti-iTunes when I first got an iPod, and I tried most of these options. What do I use now? Mostly iTunes.

posted by box 26 January | 14:01

So ... I can still access the music that's already on there? For some reason I thought that you couldn't mevie music on iPods from the original 'feed' computer to others. But this is good news -- thanks!

posted by AwkwardPause 26 January | 14:04

Music on an iPod is stored in a hidden folder, but there's plenty of software than can retrieve it.

However. If the initial setup was done on a Mac, then the disk in it is likely to be HFS formatted, which means the iPod can't be accessed at all by Windows without special software, on top of the software you need to retrieve the music.

I'd recommend hooking it up to a Mac to retrieve your data. When you're finished, format the iPod as FAT32 (Windows) using Disk Utility on the Mac, which will let you can use it to transfer the music to your computer.

MP3 is a first-class citizen in the iTunes/iPod world. There shouldn't be any worries there.

posted by cillit bang 26 January | 14:10

I think some of the answers here are focused on *loading* new stuff on your iPod, and not *storing* the existing stuff.

My understanding is that the iTunes on your computer will override whatever's on the iPod from the coworker's computer. So you will need a program like CopyPod to move the material from the iPod to your computer for storage. This is the program you use when your hard drive crashes and you want to put your iPod contents on a new computer.

Anyway, I'm no expert, but the thread over at AskMe is really good.

On preview -- cillit bang seems to know the answer.

posted by Claudia_SF 26 January | 14:13

Are you using mac or PC? I used Xpod to pull stuff off my ipod, i'm using a mac.

if you search around you will be able to find something for PC for free, i'm sure...

posted by Schyler523 26 January | 14:55

Thanks for all the helpful advice, guys. I've been following the links and reading up on the issues a bit. The iPod was loaded in a Mac environment, so it sounds like I need to go hangout with my iBook owning friends to get the music off the iPod. Then format it for Windows and refill. But will the music currently on the iPod work on a PC? I think the songs might be in the Apple/iTunes format.

posted by AwkwardPause 26 January | 16:27

They're very likely to be either MP3 or AAC. AAC is the format iTunes rips CDs into by default, but is just as much a standard as MP3, it's just not as widely supported. But lots of programs for Windows, including iTunes, have no problem with it.

The worst possibility is that they're encrypted files bought from the iTunes Music Store, which makes them basically unplayable without the purchaser's account details.

posted by cillit bang 26 January | 17:15

Thanks cillit bang, that solves my final worry. I'm pretty sure that an overwhelming amount of the music is ripped from CDs. Now I just need to invite my friend Scott (and his PowerBook) for dinner, and talk him into installing a program on his computer :)

posted by AwkwardPause 26 January | 18:29

← I LOVE My Computer || Dammit that's so true! →

HOME || REGISTER || LOGIN