Applications that can run standalone from the iPod can be particularly useful when transferring music between different computers, some of which may not even have iTunes installed.Īs of this writing, there are still no third-party tools presently available that will recover the new “Skip Count” and “Last Skipped” metadata that was added in iTunes 7 in the fall of 2006. This is not intended to indicate if an application could be tweaked to run from the iPod, but rather if the application is designed specifically for this purpose, and can therefore be easily setup to do so. Standalone - Indicates if the application is designed to be run from the iPod itself, without requiring installation on the host computer or integration with an iTunes library.Last Played - Indicates if the application is capable of recovering the Last Played date and time for each track from the iPod and restoring them to the iTunes library.Play Counts - Indicates if the application is capable of recovering Play Counts for each track from the iPod and restoring them to the iTunes library.Ratings - Indicates if the application is capable of recovering ratings for each track from the iPod and restoring them to the iTunes library.Note that some applications do this in a single recovery step, while others require a separate process be run in order to do this.
Playlists - Indicates if the application is capable of recovering playlists and their content from the iPod and restoring them to the iTunes library.“Manual” indicates that the application in question does not perform the iTunes import directly, but instead creates an XML file that you can import manually using File, Import within iTunes. iTunes Import - This refers to the ability of the application to import recovered tracks directly into your iTunes library.Applications compatible with the 2007 iPod classic and iPod nano (video) are also compatible with all older models of iPod. Compatibility - This indicates which models of iPod the application supports.It is always recommended to confirm compatibility with the version of iTunes that you are using to ensure that a given third-party tool will work as expected.īelow is a summary of some of the third-party tools available to copy and/or recover music from an iPod (click for larger view):
#SHAREPOD FREE VS PAID SOFTWARE#
As of this writing, iTunes 7.3 has been out for less than two weeks, and although most third-party software authors have been relatively proactive about updating their software for iTunes 7.3, not all applications have yet been updated. Further, even incremental versions within the iTunes 7 family have made changes in this regard. One important thing to keep in mind is that as of iTunes 7, a number of changes have been made in how data is stored in the iTunes database itself and on the iPod. Others are primarily dedicated to the purpose of recovering data from the iPod back to your computer and/or iTunes library. Some of these applications also function as full-featured iPod management tools and can be used in place of iTunes for basic music management. Although some of these applications do little more than copy the music files from the iPod back to your computer, some of the more advanced options also provide the capability of recovering additional information from the iPod database such as playlists, ratings and play counts.
Third-Party Software-The More Sophisticated Optionsįor those who are not comfortable working within the depths of their iPod’s file system, there are fortunately a number of other more user-friendly solutions that can be used to accomplish the same thing in most cases.