Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Transferring songs from iPod to iTunes. EASY PEASY!

I am proud of myself.  A few months ago, I transferred all my music and apps to my iTunes library.
Now besides the fact that I almost had a heart attack ("PREPARING TO SYNC?!?!?! CANCEL CANCEL! Oh wait."), it actually wasn't as hard as I thought it was.  And I'm so thankful I did!  I got my iPod touch for my 16th birthday and my dad had synced it on a computer at his work so I could be surprised.  The only problem was that my iTunes library was on another computer...the computer at the job he quit a few months later.  So I had become painfully aware that if I lost or damaged my iPod, that would be it.  My music, pictures, and apps would be gone.  But I was also really afraid that I would accidentally sync my iPod with my new computer and completely wipe my iPod's library.  I finally decided last night that regardless what happened, my iPod would probably quit working eventually, so I might as well try to save it and lose the information now than damage it and have no way of saving it then.  But nothing got lost! :D  I followed a lot of tutorials to help me transfer everything, but I thought I'd give you a run down of what I did.  I swear though, Apple has the WORST system ever.

This first step MUST BE COMPLETED BEFORE YOU PLUG IN YOUR IPOD TO YOUR COMPUTER!  If you didn't get that, here it is again.  DO NOT CONTINUE THIS STEP UNTIL YOUR IPOD IS UNPLUGGED FROM AND FAR FAR AWAY FROM YOUR COMPUTER.  Okay.  So after you have iTunes downloaded on your computer, go to Edit>Preferences>Devices.  Tick the box that says Prevent iPods, iPhones, and iPads from syncing automatically.  You do not want your iTunes library on your computer to replace everything on your iPod.  Because if your iTunes is empty or only has one song...than your iPod will be empty or only have one song on it.

Next you can plug in your iPod.  Now I had some window come up asking me if I wanted to register my iPod, but I just pressed "Register Later".  This took me to a screen that told about my iPod.  On the toolbar on the left, it should show your iPod's name.  Right click this and click "Transfer purchases".  You will see on your iPod that it says "Syncing in progress", but all it is doing is copying your music from your iPod to your iTunes.

After this, you can sync your apps manually.  You can sync your music, too, but I didn't because a window popped up that said something like "do you want to erase and sync your iPod?" and it freaked me out.  I just wanted a backup of my files on my iPod so that I wouldn't lose my purchases.  Being able to play my iPod's songs on iTunes and purchase from there is just a plus.

Here's some things I learned, by the way.  Firstly your music is being COPIED, not taken off your iPod.  Secondly, if you decide not to sync your iPod with your iTunes, buy your music off the iTunes on your computer.  That way you can manually just plug in your iPod and drag the song you want from your computer's library to you iPod.  Thirdly, for some reason some of the album art was lost off my iPod.  This didn't really matter that much to me, but there is a way you can add the album art through iTunes.  As an added bonus, your CDs can be put into the computer and iTunes will ask if you want to transfer your purchases. Then even your CDs can be put on your iPod! :D


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