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Comment by at_a_remove | Hacker News Reader

Someone local has some kind of i-device (iPod? iTouch? He doesn't remember) from which he would like to extract copies of the music on it. I'm not even sure what to do. I have heard so many horror stories of iTunes just trashing libraries ...

I'm not even sure what I would search for in terms of Windows software or what kind of cable I would need. And Apple's branding is so ... operationally overloaded, overlapping, whatever, I'm confused.

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Over the years, I've had success with both of these third-party apps on Macs and PCs to do exactly that:

Transfer Music from iPhone, iPad, & iPod to your Mac or PC https://macroplant.com/iexplorer/tutorials/how-to-transfer-m...

Transfer iPhone & iPod Music to your Computer or to iTunes https://imazing.com/iphone-music-transfer

This question seems a little dumb, perhaps less so in terms of our DRM world: by "transfer" does that mean move or copy? Because we're hoping to copy, not move.

The files are copied to the Mac or PC rather than moved; the originals on the iOS device remain there.

Whew, thank you!

I should probably get a similar device just to practice. This is an odd little operation I've been called upon to perform.

Apple's software won't let you do that, you'll need something third-party. If you're lucky, the device will be old enough to jailbreak to get full access to the file system.

> Apple's software won't let you do that…

I believe that's incorrect: https://support.apple.com/guide/itunes/transfer-files-itns32...

Also see: https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/transfer-music-ipod-computer/

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