Transferring music from an iPod to an iTunes library has been a desire for many people, even though they may have previously downloaded music from the iTunes store or personal cds to their iPod. Though Apple should have expected this to be a valuable characteristic, it determined that iTunes should not assist in allowing this to happen.

Some people suspect that Apple took these steps to protect music from being illegally traded. But think about it this wayyou get a new computer so you install iTunes and want to put your iPod songs on that new computer. This isn’t wrong or illegal!

Therefore, transferring songs from your iPod to your laptop or your computer at work is probably out of the question as well.

Sadly, iTunes on your new computer has been set to instinctively replace your current iTunes library. Because of this, an unused, empty iTunes library will take the place of all of your music in your present iPod library. This is crazy!

Needless to say, people quickly figured out how to bypass this bad situation. You need to choose ‘no’ when you’re asked if you want to ‘auto-sync’ your iTunes and your iPod.

To transfer music from your iPod back to your computer, a complicated series of steps is necessary, from deleting files from your iTunes folder, revealing hidden files, copying the iPod Control folder, creating a new folder and putting your songs somewhere else for safety. It’s even more complicated than that, but you see the idea.

Third-party software designers created programs that did all of this for you and allowed the user to skip past the overcomplicated techniques that were being used to avoid losing music.

Three programs that were created to aid you in easily transferring your iPod music to your iTunes library are iPod 2 iTunes, PodMaxx, and Tune Tools.

You can also copy playlists and videos to your computer from your iPod, for a small cost. Each of these programs includes features that iTunes hasn’t yet included in their own software. These programs cost around $25 to $30, which is much cheaper than finding that your iPod library has been deleted!