How To Copy Songs And Tunes From Sony iPods To PC?

Do you want to copy tunes from your Sony iPods to your PC but don’t know where to begin? It’s really quite simple, if you have a CD or DVD burner, an external hard drive or even a network drive at work that you can use.

You can drop off your music collection and then copy it to your new computer, that’s probably your best bet. If you don’t have any of those available to you at work (or you don’t feel comfortable putting your music collection on an office drive) - you’re in luck. Your Sony iPods is an external hard drive in and of itself.

You can’t copy songs from your Sony iPods through iTunes, but there are a few free or shareware programs that can do it for you.

Here’s a quick rundown of some options to copy songs from Sony iPods:

• PodUtil works on Mac or PC, and is shareware which you can download and use for free if you can endure little pop ups that bug you to pay for a full license at 10£. PodUtil is a shareware utility for copying songs from your Sony iPods to your computer. PodUtil is compatible with Mac OS X and 9.x, and Windows XP and 2000.
• IPod Agent is free, Windows only, and requires Microsoft’s free but big .NET framework installed to work. IPod Agent is a utility for managing contacts, appointments, mail, notes, tasks, RSS feeds, weather and more. It is not a music manager but works alongside iTunes to enable you to transfer songs from your Sony iPods to a PC. IPod Agent requires Windows XP, 2000, or 98 and Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1.
• EphPod for Windows or Linux works well. EphPod is free and has been in development some time now.

Install one of those programs on your current computer and make sure it works for you and your Sony iPods. Then, when you get your new work computer, set it up and get copying. It doesn’t get much easier than that!

The options are a bit different depending on your operating system. All you have to do is find what works with yours according the list below. Voila!

Mac OS and Windows compatible:

IPod Rip supports recovering your songs and playlists, playback of audio files and much more. IPod Rip is compatible with Mac OS X 10.2 and later and Windows XP and 2000.

IPod Rip is shareware and will run without limitation for 10 sessions before registration is required. This way you get a free trial period of sorts.

The Sony iPods Music Liberator is a full-featured music-management utility that allows you to copy music from your Sony iPods to a Mac or PC.

It supports Mac OS X and Windows XP, 2000, NT and 98. IPod Access lets you copy music from your Sony iPods to a Mac or PC. It supports Mac OS X 10.1 or later and Windows XP or 2000.

Mac OS only:

Pod Works allows you to copy songs from any Mac iPod to any Mac running OS X 10.2 or later. A free trial version (30 day time limit, 250 song copy limit) is available.

Senuti reads the playlists on your Sony iPods and allows you to transfer them back to your computer. Senuti is donation ware and requires OS X 10.3 or later.

Windows PC only:

The free version of Ana pod Explorer allows you to view your Sony iPods and copy files to it as a device in Windows Explorer.

The full version allows you to transfer files from your Sony iPods to a PC. Ana pod Explorer requires a PC-formatted iPod and Windows XP, 2000, ME or 98SE.

A program called CopyPod enables you to transfer your music library from your Sony iPods to your PC without losing ratings and playlists. CopyPod requires Windows XP or 2000.

XPlay provides a powerful Explorer-integrated drag-and-drop interface that makes transferring music to and from the Sony iPods quick and simple. XPlay enables Windows users to use both Windows- and Mac-formatted iPods. XPlay requires Windows XP, 2000, ME or 98SE.

SharePod is a free utility that is stored and run from your Sony iPods – just plug your iPod into a PC and run SharePod.exe. SharePod reads your iPod database and allows you to extract music files to your hard drive, either individually or by playlist. Supported iPods or Windows OS versions not listed.