Getting music off your iPod without third-party apps

I recently needed to get music off my iPod - something that should be easy to do, but isn't. Most How-to's suggest that you download a third-party, like iLinkPod. There's an easier way to do this on your Mac, no third-party app required.

First, plug in your iPod and make sure "Enable disk use" is checked under your iPod preferences in iTunes. If your iPod shows up on your desktop, then you're fine. Next, open up Terminal, and cd into your iPod (cd /Volumes/Ipod_name_here). You should see a directory called "iPod_Control." All your music is stored within that directory. cp to your heart's content.



If you're not comfortable with the terminal, you can easily view all your music in finder. Simply open the terminal and execute these two commands:

# defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
# killall Finder