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Rafael emailed in requesting assistance with transferring music off his iPod to copy back into iTunes. The following steps are great for times when your computer locks up deleting your music library or for times when you need to transfer music to another computer.

The first thing you need to do is to double check that “Disk Mode” is enabled for your iPod. If you’re unsure, plug your iPod into your computer and go into the iTunes Preferences > iPod [tab] and tick the box to enable disk mode. You may need to eject your iPod and plug it back in to get it to show up as an external HD.

The second step is to “Show hidden files and folders”. To do this, open ‘My Computer’. In the top menu bar, go to Tools > Folder Options > View [tab]. Make sure that “Show hidden files and folders” is ticked. Click ‘OK’. Double click your iPod drive. You should see a semi-transparent ‘iPod_Control‘ folder. The folder is semi-transparent because it is usually hidden. Within that folder you will find a hierarchal structure of folders containing all of the music on your iPod.

At first glance your files may look a little boinked. Don’t worry. When iTunes transfers music on to your iPod, it shortens filenames. I’ve heard a few different explanations but the one that makes the most sense is to improve indexing time. For example: 3 Doors Down – Away From the Sun may be shortened to AFTS.mp3. Once you drag that file back into iTunes, the ID3 tags which are stored within the file will display the track exactly as you had saved it.

Presto.. That’s it. If you happened to read through the whole tutorial before trying, I’ve decided to award you with a link to an application which makes the process oh so much easier. Download and keep a copy of SharePod on your iPod. SharePod is a small utility which you can run directly off your iPod on any computer you’re connected to. Select one or all of your tracks, choose a save path, and transfer.

Update 8.09.05: I removed the Sharepod link from the above story. I appologize to any users who followed the link only to find a barrage of porn windows popping up. I rarely check links using Internet Explorer and had no idea how much crap IE users are forced to view. And to the commentors who felt the need to relink the same spamming Sharepod link, I took the liberty to delete your posts. Worthless. Users still interested in downloading a copy of Sharepod can follow this link to Softpedia. I’ve personally checked the link with IE and it is free of obtrusive pop-ups.