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You are here: MacNN Forums > Hardware - Troubleshooting and Discussion > iPhone, iPad & iPod > Transferring songs from iPod to iPod

Transferring songs from iPod to iPod
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ShotgunEd
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Aug 20, 2006, 06:20 AM
 
I've just purchased a 20GB iPod from eBay to give to my other half. I have a 20GB iPod myself.

I don't store any of the music on my iPod on my HD (I'm using a 15GB G3 iBook at the minute).

Can I transfer all the songs from iPod 1 to iPod 2 without copying them first to a computer? What are the technical and legal roadblocks I face?

I registered iPod.iTunes a while ago to allow me to copy songs from an iPod, but if i recall correctly, you can't mount 2 iPods at once in OSX. Is this true?

Any advice would be much appreciated.
     
Big Mac
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Aug 20, 2006, 06:37 AM
 
You can certainly mount two iPods at once, as long as you have enough ports (or a hub) and cables. Furthermore, you should be able to copy the invisible folder containing the iPod's music files over from your old iPod to your new one without a problem. The fastest way to do it would be through the Terminal.

"The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground." TJ
     
cms
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Aug 20, 2006, 06:44 AM
 
To answer your last question first, ou can certainly mount more than one iPod in OSX. I presently have my shuffle and my 60 GB viedo iPod mounted on my G5.

It is dead easy to rip songs off an iPod onto a computer but I've never heard of a program that will enable you to rip data from an iPod directly to another, completely bypassing the intermediary step of popping them onto the hard drive at least temporarily. I don't use iPod.iTunes myself, preferring iPod Rip instetad. This is a pretty good little app, which as well as enabling you to rip the data from your iPod directly into iTunes, will also let you download the iPod data from one into a neat little folder anywhere on your hard drive.

As for the legal implications of doing what you want to do, it's all rather murky, and nobody has ever been able to give me a satisfactory answer on what I can and can't do with music that I have purchased and therefore legally belongs to me. I do know that I would be violating copyright law by selling or otherwise profitting from passing on my music but if I do not really know if allowing my daughter to help herself to my music files from my iTunes library for use on her iPod is illegal or not. I'd be really interested, too, if anyone can shed some light on this!
     
cms
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Aug 20, 2006, 06:45 AM
 
Originally Posted by Big Mac
You can certainly mount two iPods at once, as long as you have enough ports (or a hub) and cables. Furthermore, you should be able to copy the invisible folder containing the iPod's music files over from your old iPod to your new one without a problem. The fastest way to do it would be through the Terminal.
Big Mac, care to share how exactly to do this? It sounds ideal, and is something I would dearly love to know....!
     
ShotgunEd  (op)
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Aug 20, 2006, 06:47 AM
 
Thanks for the quick replies guys.

Looks like I'll need me a firewire hub.

As regards the legalities, it'd be a little silly for my partner (who I live with) and I to own 2 copies of each CD, just so we can keep a copy of it on each of our iiPods.

But yeah, murky indeed.
     
Big Mac
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Aug 21, 2006, 12:35 PM
 
Originally Posted by cms
Big Mac, care to share how exactly to do this? It sounds ideal, and is something I would dearly love to know....!
I'll try to post some instructions later on today.

"The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground." TJ
     
cms
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Aug 21, 2006, 01:14 PM
 
Originally Posted by Big Mac
I'll try to post some instructions later on today.
Thanks, Big Mac. That would be great.
     
Big Mac
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Aug 22, 2006, 04:19 AM
 
Okay, since the Finder is preferable to the Terminal, let's see if we can accomplish this through the Finder. I can't really test this myself right now, so this may not work. For all I know, it may even render functionless the iPod you're attempting to copy the music to (so you cannot hold me responsible if something goes wrong), but that should not happen because we're just working with files here. Here are the steps:

1. In the Finder, double click the source iPod icon, then double click the destination iPod icon, so that you're looking at the root level of both iPods. (To do this, you'll need to have Disk Mode enabled in iTunes.)

2. Click to activate the window of the source iPod, then click the Go menu and select Go to Folder. . .

3. Type iPod_Control - the hidden iPod_Control folder should appear along with Calendars, Contacts and Notes.

4. Open the iPod_Control folder then again open the Go to Folder. . . sheet and type Music

5. Repeat steps 2-4 with the destination iPod.

6. Here's the big, untested step: Drag the Music folder from the source iPod window and drop it in the iPod_Control folder of the destination iPod. Then click the Replace button in the resultant dialog to replace the destination's Music folder with the source's Music folder.

That should, theoretically, be it. Let me know how it goes.

"The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground." TJ
     
analogika
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Aug 22, 2006, 04:31 AM
 
You could use iPodDisk to copy the music off one iPod to your hard drive and then just transfer it to the other through iTunes.

That will be slower, but might be less intimidating.
     
   
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