How to transfer songs from iPhone to the computer
Having an iPod or iPhone is great because you can carry your favorite music anywhere. The problem comes when you want to copy any of those songs from the Apple device onto your computer: iTunes simply doesn’t let you do it.
So here I was, with tons of cool music from my home PC loaded into my brand new iPhone and totally unable to save it to the office PC! I was sure there had to be some way round this absurd limitation… and yes, there is one! After doing some Google research I finally came up with a solution to transfer songs from iPod Touch or iPhone to the computer and viceversa. It’s fast, easy and best of all, free.
This trick works with Winamp, but requires you to have iTunes on your system as well because it installs a special USB driver that enables communication between the iPhone and the computer. Once you have both apps installed, download and install the ml_iPod plugin for Winamp too and follow these simple steps:
- Close iTunes – if it’s running – and launch Winamp.
- Plug your iPhone to the computer with the USB cable.
- Winamp will show a small window saying “Transfer of metadata”. When this window closes, the iPhone music library will appear on the Winamp Media Library under “Devices”.
- Now you can freely copy songs from the iPhone to the computer by selecting those files on the iPhone list and choosing “Copy to Hard Drive” in the context menu. Syncing also works the other way round: select files on your local media library and transfer them to the iPhone by selecting the “Send to” option in the context menu.
- When you’re done, eject the iPhone from Winamp. Now you’ll have to force the iPhone to reload the song database (otherwise it would use a cached one). Simply launch the iPod application and then press the Home button for about five seconds until you return to the home screen. Then launch the iPod tool again and your newly transferred songs will be right there. Enjoy!
Posted at 10:20 am on Mar 5th
softonik makin ngetop
Posted at 5:02 am on Mar 7th
My hard drive crashed. Thank you for this!!!
Posted at 3:27 am on Mar 28th
where does the music go after you copy the songs to the hard drive?
Posted at 8:43 am on Mar 28th
Hi Christina! They’re saved in the folder you specify in Winamp’s preferences. Open the Preferences menu by pressing Ctrl+P in Winamp and go to iPod Support > Transfers. Then click on the Download tab and there you’ll be able to set a destination folder for the songs you copy from the iPhone to the hard drive.
Posted at 7:35 pm on Apr 27th
supwer
Posted at 5:34 pm on Jul 3rd
That was awesome .. Thnx so much!
Posted at 1:31 pm on Aug 5th
This destroys 2.0/3G iPhones - beware!
Posted at 1:55 pm on Aug 5th
Hi The Captain! I’m not sure what you mean by “destroys”. I’ve used this trick with my first generation iPhone updated with the 2.0 firmware and it works perfectly well.
Posted at 12:28 pm on Aug 7th
Watch out!
You should change the preferences before you ripp any music off otherwise by default it will fill your C: drive with loads of folders, one for each artist you’re copying.
Posted at 12:21 pm on Aug 8th
Another word of advice:
All the music and videos on my phone were wipped out after I used this sofware. It’s not really a big deal as they are all backed up on my computer, but it was a bit of a pain to have to re-format the phone and restore it to the latest saved backup.
I think Apple must have done something in the latest patch to stop this plug-in from working. I’m using a 3G, version 2.0.1
Posted at 2:29 pm on Aug 8th
what the hell why did my ipod song list albaphetical order mess up, now the order is p,z,.,n,.,123,etc. help me
Posted at 7:14 pm on Aug 28th
how do you transfer songs/videos/pictures from computer to iphone?
Posted at 2:57 am on Aug 31st
[…] source: - Onsoftware - Downloadatoz Published August 31, 2008 in Apple, […]
Posted at 7:55 am on Sep 1st
arghie: it’s as easy as synchronizing that content with iTunes.
Posted at 3:59 am on Dec 21st
this doesnt work at all. winamp doesnt detect my iphone at all. winamp doesnt even have the ipod controlls it says it has. somebody tell me what the hell is wrong?
Posted at 9:13 am on Dec 29th
Hi Ben,
did you install the ml_iPod plug-in for Winamp as explained in the post?
Posted at 2:51 am on Jan 8th
Yeah, this method doesn’t work with 3g iPhones.
Posted at 6:57 pm on Jan 31st
thank you very much that really helped me
Posted at 9:45 pm on Jan 31st
Thank you so much! This is way easier than using SSH, or any of the other things
now my transfer to my new computer is fast and easy!
Posted at 6:38 pm on Feb 7th
Whauwwww, it works!!!
I have recover all songs from my iphone to my new PC.
Thanks for hint.
Posted at 10:53 am on Feb 27th
[…] source: - Onsoftware - […]
Posted at 9:39 pm on Feb 27th
This worked great for getting the song off my iphone 3G and back onto my computer, but when I tried to synch the phone with itunes after it returned an error message saying, “iTunes cannot read the contents of the iPhone”. I was required to restore to factory defaults.
In my paticular case it wasn’t a big deal as I was doing this right before swapping phones for a dead pixel and my most recent synch was recent - nothing lost, but I would recommend that others make sure they are ready to perform a restore before following these instructions.
Posted at 11:10 am on Mar 6th
Hi Elena,
I also have a first generation Iphone upgraded to 2.2 jailbroken and unlocked. I installed the ml plugin for my winamp 5.5.5.
I see and can do everything you said is required. My problem is that when I select all my songs and click ‘copy to hard drive’ it finds either errors for all my files and skips some songs.
What 2 do? Please help me out, thanks in advance.
Posted at 11:16 am on Mar 6th
Elena never mind I think I solved the problem.
Restarting my pc was the trick
Thanks a lot. This means that I can make Winamp my preferred music player by choise now, in stead of being obligated to use iTunes.
Thank you again!!
Posted at 11:26 am on Mar 6th
Hey Josh,
You’re welcome! I’m glad you could solve it
Posted at 8:44 pm on Mar 20th
hi i can’t download the ipod thingy after winamp?? it comes up as a blank link..
Posted at 9:56 pm on Apr 3rd
Thanks, this was a real help. Although, the “copy to hard drive” instruction confuzzled me for a while (I didn’t know where to look for it, untill I accidently right clicked, lmao). Maybe include some pictures next time? It would help
<3, Scourge.
Posted at 2:37 am on Apr 11th
ahh thannnk you so much. i was looking for that for month.
well. im still not sure how i really copy my songs from teh hard drive to itunes cuz now my songs are all over the place and i dont wanna click on every song to copy it into itunes
Posted at 1:05 pm on Apr 16th
hey! my hard disc crashed a few days ago and i don’t want to select every single song that i chose for my iphone i tried your tip but i couldn’t find anything named “devices” on winamp(i’m using ver.5.551) is there any way i can do it?!?!?!
Posted at 1:07 am on Apr 28th
with my iPhone 3G worked perfectly! Thank u so much
Posted at 5:08 am on May 6th
Dear Elena Santos,
Does ipod support ml 3.08 for winamp supports jailbroken & upgraded iphone (2.2.1) to transfer music files to computer?
Will anything be spoilt after that? I still need my itunes for downloading applications…
Posted at 1:31 am on May 11th
Thanks….took a while too figure out since the instructions arent that clear and alot of stuff is never explained
had to search around a lot
but thanks either way
Posted at 4:45 am on May 17th
works great for music i’m sure, but is there any way to get my pictures from my iphone (along with music, ringtones, apps, etc.) to my new computer?
Posted at 8:35 am on May 20th
Thanks worked with my 3G too. Only thing is that you have a folder for every artist, but no problem. Thanks for the great program.
Posted at 10:41 am on May 24th
Thanks really helped me
Posted at 1:26 am on May 27th
so i got winamp and the ipod support ml 3.08…but everytime i plus in my iphone it goes “transfer of metadata 1/6-5/6 then winamp crashes so far out of 10 attempts ive gotten 6/6 once…..why is that any wasy to make it more consistent….
Anways say i get it to work again…. how do i transfer the songs to my comp… i did as written”……those files on the iPhone list and choosing “Copy to Hard Drive” in the context menu” but all i get is folders with no music inside……
Posted at 9:08 am on Jun 11th
Hey
Thanks a ton this was really helpful and it really works.
Posted at 5:29 pm on Jun 12th
Worked perfectly… awesome… pretty easy too!!!! thanks for this!!!
Posted at 7:32 pm on Jun 16th
This is great! My computer had just crashed and I’m spending my summer abroad! this is exactly what I needed before unlocking my phone… perfeeect
Posted at 5:39 pm on Jul 1st
Thank you so much! This just saved me!!