How To Recover Your iTunes Library from Your iPod

September 2nd, 2007 | Published in Tech

If your computer crashes and all you have left of your iTunes collection are the files on your iPod, you can use these instructions (found on the Apple forums) to recover your entire iTunes library.

Recover your iTunes Library:

After getting your computer up and running again, re-install iTunes
Start with the iPod disconnected from the computer & open iTunes
Go into iTunes Preferences - this blocks iTunes from seeing an iPod connection; leave the preferences window up and running
Connect the iPod to the computer, wait about 15 seconds before continuing
Open "My Computer"
On the Tools menu, Folder Options, View tab, enable "show hidden files /folders"
Open the iPod icon in "My Computer"
Open the "iPod_Control" folder
Drag the folder called "Music" to somewhere on your computer’s hard drive
After the copy completes, right-click the new "Music" folder on your hard drive and select "Properties"
Clear the checkmark next to "Hidden"
Close that explorer window
Eject the iPod from the System tray "Safely Remove Hardware" icon. (This icon looks like a small gray rectangle with a green arrow floating above it.) Right-click & select ‘Safely remove..’, then click ‘Stop’ in the next window, OK in the next window, and then Close to complete the ejection.
Disconnect the iPod from the computer.
Go back to iTunes, cancel the preferences window
Go to the File menu, choose "Add folder to Library: and find that "Music" folder you copied over from the iPod to your PC
Your iTunes library should now be restored!

To recover your iTunes Playlists

Download this program: http://otto.homedns.org:8888/iTunes/iPodGetXML.zip
Put the iPod into Disk Mode or otherwise access the iPod as a drive.
Make sure you can see hidden files
Go to the drive and the iPod_Control folder and find the iTunesDB file.
Copy the file to your PC.
Put the copied iTunesDB file in the same directory as this program, then run the program. It’ll read the iTunesDB, get all the playlists, and create an XML file for each one.
Now just import those XML files into iTunes to recreate the playlists.