How to transfer music back from iPhone to Mac?

[Replies From View]

Hey peeps.  Just a quick question for those of you who've used Apple stuff for a while.  I recently got the iPhone 4S after having an Android phone that packed up because of some malware shite.  With the Android phone, it was fairly easy to transfer files, because plugged into my Macbook Pro it became like a USB memory stick.  All music, photos etc could be easily copied over, back and forth, even if the interface wasn't as handy as iTunes.

Now, with the iPhone, I'm blowed if I can figure out how to transfer a song that's on my iPhone back onto my Mac.  To get it onto the phone, I simply dragged it from the folder on my computer into the phone's iTunes list.  But this method doesn't seem to work in reverse.  Any ideas?  It just seems bonkers to fill up my computer with music and I'd rather not have to synch it all up automatically; transfer over and delete from the computer is my preferred method, until I want to get the odd song back.

[Consignia]

It's tricky because you certainly can do it through iTunes[nb]or couldn't in the past[/nb] and because of the way the way you can't easily access the file system, you can't directly move the actual files. I had the same problem with an iPod touch whilst losing my computer, and gave up. I have since plugged it into my linux box, and I can get stuff of it through a program called Rhythmbox, so it might be possible now.

Have a google for some alternative programs that let you manage iPods/Phones, and see if they'll do you any good.

Sorry I can't be much help than saying google it though.

[madhair60]

Grasp the iPhone firmly in your hand, holding it outwards in your palm, and smash it through the monitor while screaming "WRRRYYYYYYYYY"

[Zetetic]

Any ideas?

Yes

It just seems bonkers to fill up my computer with music and I'd rather not have to synch it all up automatically; transfer over and delete from the computer is my preferred method, until I want to get the odd song back.

These are the things that need fixing. Everything will work to against you not having the iPhone deriving your music from the computer. (A position that Apple attempts to force you on with good reason.)

Frankly, it seems insane to me that your preferred arrangement is to keep your selection of music - which you've presumably spent considerable effort and time building - stored only on a single device which you could lose very easily (or indeed suffer the end of by various other means, such as 'malware shite'). I really think that's not a sensible arrangement.

Of course, if you're set on this course of action there are things like Senuti (which part of me is sure used to be free but my memory is terrible).

[Replies From View]

These are the things that need fixing.

This isn't helpful!  I don't have that much free hard drive space and this shouldn't be a requirement!  This isn't something unreasonably obscure I'm asking for; why should Apple want to prevent even this iota of user control?  And how can Apple users take this lying down?

Thanks everybody else; I've done some googling but no luck as yet.  Unbelievably all the solutions seem to be software downloads that you need to pay about £30 for.  If anybody else can help out I'd appreciate it; otherwise I'll admit defeat and smash my iPhone through my laptop screen as suggested!


Edit:  sorry Zetetic!  You've edited your post since I replied, and I appreciate your response!

[Zetetic]

I realise that I'm being a bit dickish there, so it's fine! Bah, I don't mind Apple making choices like this - if anything, the guiding hand is why I'm an OS X user by choice on my laptop (and a Windows user by necessity and a Debian and OpenIndiana user elsewhere).

(Um, having said that, being a bit fucked off by the degree of lock-down is why I've got an Android phone.)

The other, free, way is jailbreaking and SFTP/SSH. That's not utterly trivial, but it's not horribly complex by any stretch. I'm not up-to-date on the exact methods for jailbreaking though, but it should still be a piece of piss. Google it, I guess, unless someone's going to walk you through it here.

[Replies From View]

The thing is that my laptop is a 2006 model 15" Macbook Pro and it only came with 150GB of storage.  Many iPods are bigger than that now, and it's unreasonable for Apple to make it so difficult to keep the two devices entirely separate.  I carry around a limited selection of tracks on my 32GB iPhone which are generally free podcast downloads and .mp3s copied from CDs I own.  If I need to, I haven't made it impossible to get things back either by recopying my CDs or by downloading again; it'd just save a lot of time if I could just transfer them directly from the iPhone to the computer as I thought it'd be perfectly easy to do.

It just strikes me as an unnecessary limitation really.  I've had this with most of the Apple software I use - operations that I take to be standard are for some reason limited.  For example, on Soundtrack Pro it's very easy to alter the pitch of a piece of music, or alter its speed, but only separately from one another.  If you want to adjust them both at the same time, as if you were slowing down or speeding up an analogue tape, and as I used to be able to do very easily with my old PC laptop, well no it turns out that's seemingly impossible.  Again, not obscure things; in fact adjusting them separately ought to be the bigger challenge really.

[Zetetic]

I think that there is a significant difference to the Soundtrack example - which I would categorize a missing feature that should be added. The arrangement of the iTunes ecosystem is quite deliberate and, personally, I think generally very much in users' best interest.

But, fair enough, it's pain in the arse for you now. To add to my list of obvious and unhelpful suggestions (particularly given it's a laptop) sort out that storage situation when you can (and while you're at it sort out backups[nb]If it helps make me seem less annoying, I'm speaking from unhelpful experience.[/nb]).

Returning to the jailbreak suggestion - that might not work as well as I'd hoped, because I suspect that the directory structure will be odd and finding a particular song or album might be quite difficult.

[buntyman]

Replies's problem is exactly the reason why I've avoided Ipods (and pretty much anything else that mentions 'syncing'). I have a portable hard drive full of music I have either downloaded or ripped from CDs. My computer only has a 250gb hard drive so I mainly use it from transfers of music and video between it and either my portable playing device or portable hard drive and try to keep space on my computer so that it runs as fast as possible. I know 'drag and drop' is a bit more laborious from some people but I much prefer the level of control.

[Replies From View]

I think that there is a significant difference to the Soundtrack example - which I would categorize a missing feature that should be added. The arrangement of the iTunes ecosystem is quite deliberate and, personally, I think generally very much in users' best interest.

But, fair enough, it's pain in the arse for you now. To add to my list of obvious and unhelpful suggestions (particularly given it's a laptop) sort out that storage situation when you can (and while you're at it sort out backups).

Returning to the jailbreak suggestion - that might not work as well as I'd hoped, because I suspect that the directory structure will be odd and finding a particular song or album might be quite difficult.

Thanks Zetetic, but for the moment I don't intend to jailbreak my phone, nor do I have the ability to clear that much space off my laptop for duplicating music that I mostly won't be listening to away from my iPhone.  I do actually have an Apple Time Capsule in another location, so it's not so much that I don't have backup storage[nb]Although it too is limited, and as space runs out I've tended to delete my mp3 copies of CDs and things like that, as in the bigger scheme of things they're not essential.[/nb]; it's just that when I only have my laptop and phone with me, which is a lot of the time, there are occasions when I want to transfer specific items from the phone to the laptop and for reasons that I don't think I'll ever appreciate the system is preventing me.

[falafel]

The arrangement of the iTunes ecosystem is quite deliberate and, personally, I think generally very much in users' best interest.

Hmm. I'd like to understand the rationale for not allowing it AT ALL, rather than having it tucked away as an option somewhere. It certainly wasn't in my best interest.

So often with Apple it feels like you're being punished for wanting to do something different, which is ironic considering all Jobs's iconoclastic bullshit.

[Replies From View]

Hmm. I'd like to understand the rationale for not allowing it AT ALL, rather than having it tucked away as an option somewhere. It certainly wasn't in my best interest.

So often with Apple it feels like you're being punished for wanting to do something different, which is ironic considering all Jobs's iconoclastic bullshit.

Agreed.  And these aren't even things that are very different, either.  They seem to me like they'd be the most obvious solutions for anyone who's been using computers since the 1980s.  In the Soundtrack Pro example above, I couldn't do something that anyone would take for granted if they'd grown up with cassette tapes, or record decks or whatever.  Apple software is supposed to be so intuitive with its interface etc, but to be honest with all the hurdles they put in the way of you doing what you did decades ago on analogue equipment or with previous computer systems, the resulting package is about as intuitive as tackling yoghurt with a fork.

[Ignatius_S]

...Thanks everybody else; I've done some googling but no luck as yet.  Unbelievably all the solutions seem to be software downloads that you need to pay about £30 for.....

There are rather a lot that are either freeware or cost next to nothing. One of the ones I think I had/have was iPhone Explorer, which I think has rebranded itself as is fine. However, for this kind of thing, I really would ask at somewhere like MacRumors as there will be more than a few who can really advise...

... If I need to, I haven't made it impossible to get things back either by recopying my CDs or by downloading again;...

Alternatively, you would be able to access the songs by subscribing to iTunes Match - not suggesting you do that, but it's an option.

...So often with Apple it feels like you're being punished for wanting to do something different, which is ironic considering all Jobs's iconoclastic bullshit.

Eh? Jobs always fought to keep things incredibly locked down.

[MojoJojo]

Do you remember that bit in Monkey Island where you use the navigators head to guide you through the catacombs? You need to do that, except with Steve Job's head. You might have to slap it around a bit to stop him being a dick though.

_{hmmm, I'm in a bit of a shitty mood, I think.}

[Replies From View]

Do you remember that bit in Monkey Island where you use the navigators head to guide you through the catacombs?

That's right.  And you think you must be doing something wrong because it seems to go on forever with loads of repetition happening and no apparent progress.

[falafel]

Eh? Jobs always fought to keep things incredibly locked down.

Yeah - but that's exactly what I'm getting at.



Geddit?

[Replies From View]

Yeah - but that's exactly what I'm getting at.



Geddit?

Think without adverbs.  Think different.

[falafel]

Think "different".

When you grow up you tend to get told the world is the way it is and your life is just to live your life inside the world. Try not to bash into the walls too much. Try to have a nice family life, have fun, save a little money.
That's a very limited life. Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact, and that is - everything around you that you call life, was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use.
The minute that you understand that you can poke life and actually something will, you know if you push in, something will pop out the other side, that you can change it, you can mold it. That's maybe the most important thing. It's to shake off this erroneous notion that life is there and you're just gonna live in it, versus embrace it, change it, improve it, make your mark upon it.
I think that's very important and however you learn that, once you learn it, you'll want to change life and make it better, cause it's kind of messed up, in a lot of ways. Once you learn that, you'll never be the same again

Try not to change the settings too much.

[Crabwalk]

Senuti does the job, as stated above. Used to be free, but now $18.99:

www.fadingred.com/senuti/purchase/

[Replies From View]

Think "different".

Try not to change the settings too much.

Nice quote; thanks for that.  He definitely changed his tune somewhere along the line.

[Replies From View]

Senuti does the job, as stated above. Used to be free, but now $18.99:

www.fadingred.com/senuti/purchase/

Thanks for this, but I can't be spending money (especially not that much) on something like transferring a file from one device to another.  It's barmy.

[Zetetic]

Nice quote; thanks for that.  He definitely changed his tune somewhere along the line.

I'm really not sure that he did, at least not the way that you're suggesting. I think as far as Jobs was concerned, and this did become increasingly the case, being prepared to fuck off choice - to fuck off giving people what they think they want in favour of giving them something better - was the daring option.

Now, that does mean that if you aren't in a position to submit to his particular view of how the tasks should be done, that you're fucked. I do rather question then why you've gone for an all-Apple ecosystem in this case. For example, I don't want to use Time Machine (because I'd rather have the flexibility of ZFS' snapshoting abilities and storage and transfer that's vaguely efficient[nb]although you might argue that this is actually just because Apple really fucked up on implementing the backend of Time Machine.[/nb]) so I can't use any of Apple's software or hardware built around this. (Which does irritate me a bit, because I'd like to be able to hook into the UI they built.)

I think you have to acknowledge that Apple attempts to cater for users in a very particular way. It's aiming to produce something that gets out of the way for the vast majority of people. But they don't give a toss about flexibility, and that's the expectation I think you have to have of them.

There's an extent to which this has become more prominent by virtue of Apple's increasing push into walled gardens and consumer electronics. I don't think that's been wholly driven by profiteering (although that's undeniably a massive factor), but as a decision it's also tended to shutdown alternatives. So where Apple might have made a limiting decisions with regards to OS X, there were usually plenty of third party solutions (aided somewhat by it being a UNIX underneath and hence being compatible with a lot of existing code from elsewhere); that's clearly less the case with the iDevices.

I suppose I'm a bit surprised at the... surprise in this thread. I see this throughout Apple's products, sometimes for better and sometimes for worse, but for a good half-a-decade at this point. I also see plenty of people whose approach to their data and their processes with it have been made much less obtrusive and much more sensible in various ways. Personally, I'm not now very sure I'll ever buy an Apple product ever again, because I'm slightly reticent about how lax things are liable to go on the OS X side in the next few years; on the other hand, this leaves me with Windows (less hateful in recent years, although 3rd party developers try their best to make it an unbearable experience) or a Linux DE of some flavour (which I really, really can't be fucked with).

Edit: I'm really not being very clear; I'm really very tired. I'm not trying to have a go as much as I seem; I'm probably in a bit of poor mood.

Thanks for this, but I can't be spending money (especially not that much) on something like transferring a file from one device to another.  It's barmy.

Why would you rather not jailbreak your iPhone? I'm interested.

[Crabwalk]

Thanks for this, but I can't be spending money (especially not that much) on something like transferring a file from one device to another.  It's barmy.

You've chosen the most expensive phone available that isn't fit for your designated purpose. You can either jailbreak it for free or buy some software that'll solve your problem for a tenner (is that roughly what $18 comes to these days?).

It's annoying that it isn't built into iTunes of course, but you're looking for results, right?

[Replies From View]

I suppose I'm a bit surprised at the... surprise in this thread.

To be honest I feel like I'm very much in the minority here.  It's a fairly straightforward thing I want to do and I'm surprised that so few think it's nuts that the solutions are either to jailbreak my phone (which as I understand it voids the warranty or causes other such problems; tell me if I'm wrong though) or to buy a piece of software for around a tenner or more.

I don't know; I guess it's a difference of realities going on.  I think to you guys it must be like I'm complaining because I can't make a football work as a tennis ball.  To me I have a USB device that's being unreasonably stubborn.  I accepted other limitations before getting the device, but this one seems particularly picky and I wasn't expecting it, to be honest. 

As a reasonable comparison:  the Apple Time Capsule will do automatic back-ups which can be accessed not only through the "Time Machine" interface but by going into the file system and clicking around if I prefer.  I can also drag and drop files into and out of it as per any other external storage drive.  I really didn't expect the iPhone to be such a different beast.

[Replies From View]

you're looking for results, right?

It's less of a problem than what this thread has developed into would suggest.  I have my answer now, which is that I can't do what I want to do through iTunes, and that I haven't missed something crucial and obvious.

Thanks for your help, all.

Grasp the iPhone firmly in your hand, holding it outwards in your palm, and smash it through the monitor while screaming "WRRRYYYYYYYYY"

*does this*

WONGA!

[falafel]

No worries.

(yes, I am aware that I didn't help)

Zetetic, you're being perfectly reasonable. I think I just don't want the Apple way to be THE way, and it looks like that might be how it goes. The cloistered, hand-holding thing is fine for a niche but the problem is that it's designed for people who are happy to be told what they want and how to get it. That just isn't for me - I know my needs better than Apple does, I am not the acerage consumer. Abd it baffles me that Apple don't just hide functionality, they do away with it altogether. For me, and I suspect many others as well, that doesn't constitute a good user experience.

[Delete Delete Delete]

For my old ipod i use the ipod plugin for foobar. I've no idea if more recent ipods/iphones are able to use this plugin?

[Eis Nein]

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/business-tech/120125/apple-earnings-quarterly-profits-hit-record-territory-thanks-soar

[SetToStun]

I seem to remember that when I was transferring some music to my son's iPod a few years ago, I found an option hidden away somewhere in iTunes - a checkbox called something like "Use iTunes to manage my device". I cleared that and ended up being able to do exactly what the OP wants to do - no connection at all between the music on my PC and what was on his iPod. I don't know if the option's still there in later versions, but it certainly worked for me.

[Hank Venture]

Did you pirate the music? If so, pirate one of the programmes that can transfer it back.

Did you buy the music? If so, buy one of the programmes that can transfer it. Or find one that's limited free or completely free. Ask Google or a Mac forum or something, I can't remember what I used last time. Not really helpful, but that's what I've got.