Developer/Publisher
WindSolutions
Version
1.02
Works With
All iPods
The Good
Very easy to use
Makes iPod copies and backups simple
Affordable
Transfer metadata like play counts
The Bad
Doesn't transfer all album art
Platform
Windows
The Price
US$19.90
Apple built iTunes to not include features that would let you copy music from your iPod to another computer. They did this to ease music industry concerns about copyright infringement and unauthorized sharing of music via the iPod.
In doing this, though, they also cut off some legitimate uses of this technique. For instance, if you buy a new computer, the easiest and fastest way to transfer your iTunes library to the new machine is to copy your iPod library. Also, you might want a backup of your iPod library in case your computer's hard drive is damaged.
Luckily, a number of third-party developers have created programs that let you copy iPod libraries, backup iPod libraries, or transfer iPod libraries to other PCs. CopyTrans, formerly known as CopyPod, is one such program.
CopyTrans is a Windows-only program that scans your iPod library, extracts it, and then can either archive it or import it into a new iTunes library.
The process is simple: connect your iPod, wait for CopyTrans to scan the iPod, choose your transfer settings, and then sit back and wait for CopyTrans to do its thing (read a how-to guide).
Though the process does take a while (it took about 95 minutes for my 6400 songs and videos to get extracted from the iPod and then imported into iTunes), it works very well. CopyTrans handled all operations for me and at the end of the process almost everything had gone smoothly. My music and videos played fine and even data like playlists, play counts, and last-played date came through fine. Some album art that I had downloaded was missing, but iTunes' album art fetcher makes getting that back pretty easy.
CopyTrans offers nice features like selective transfers from the iPod (you can choose to transfer files based on certain criteria or just move individual items), incremental backups (next time you back up, the program only backs up new files), and repair to damaged iPod databases.
All in all, CopyTrans is a great option for people who need to transfer or backup their iPod libraries. Though there are some small flaws like the album art problem, the powerful features, great automation (copying the iPod library to iTunes is very easy), and simplicity make CopyTrans a terrific choice for copying iPod libraries to new computers.
