My songs only exist on my iPod now...

I used iTunes between a Windows laptop and my 15 GB iPod.
Last week I dropped my laptop, sent it to Dell, and they told me that it arrived DOA.
So I just bought a brand new Windows laptop and installed iTunes.
When I connect my iPod iTunes states that my iPod is linked to another iTunes. It asks me if I want to change the link to the new laptop and *REPLACE ALL EXISTING SONGS* on my iPod with the music in iTunes (of course there is no music in iTunes on the PC - this is a new computer!).
If I say yes, is it going to erase all of my music on my iPod!?!?
If so, how the heck am I supposed to get all of my music off of my iPod and onto the computer?
Thanks!!
BT
G3 15 Windows XP Pro

DO NOT attach & sync your full iPod to an empty iTunes!!!
These links will give you several methods of recovering whatever songs remain on your iPod; some free, some third-party software, some more comprehensive for restoring Playlists, Ratings, Play Counts, etc. Read them and their associated links before deciding on a strategy that works for you. There are many various third-party software programs that will offer a more robust process, or an easier GUI. Do a Google search for them if the links below leave you wanting…
Don King Resurrected: Deleted files from hard drive (free user steps – music recovery only)
MacMuse: Computer Crashed (free user steps – music recovery only)
Copying music from iPod to computer (a primer on various methods and software)
Copying Songs from Your iPod to a Mac or PC (resource for 3rd party software)
iPodRip Software
PodUtil Software
YamiPod Software (Free: Mac & Windows)
PodPlus Software (Windows)
TuneJack Software (Windows)
Senuti (Mac OS X v10.3 or higher Recovery Utility)
XPlay (Windows software For Music Recovery &/or Cross-Platform Functionality)
XPlay Photo Browser (For recovering Photos)
Extremely Simple & Free Method: (just to recover the song files – may not work on a Mac)
1 - Open iTunes
2 - Edit=>Preferences=>’Advanced/General’ tab
2a --- Select ‘Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library’: checked
2b --- Select ‘Keep iTunes Music folder organized’: checked
2c --- Click OK to store changes
3 - Attach your iPod to the PC and hold down the ‘Shift+Ctrl’ keys until the iPod is fully recognized (this will defeat the auto-sync process)
4 - If you get a dialog box to link the Library, decline this option
5 - Within iTunes: Edit=>Preferences=>’iPod’ tab: switch iPod to manual transfer – click ‘OK’
6 – Eject iPod
7 – Close iTunes, then reopen iTunes and attach the iPod (it’s in manual sync now)
8 – File=>Add Folder
9 - Browse to and open ‘My Computer’ (click on the ‘+’) and select the iPod
10 - Click OK
-- The music files should start to transfer back into iTunes with its correct information
–-- This will take some time depending on your PC’s speed and the amount of songs on the iPod
No Playlists, or Ratings, Last Played, & Play Count attributes will be transferred from the iPod to iTunes using this method.
If you have problems with seeing the iPod within 'My Computer', try again switching your update method to 'manual', detach the iPod, then reconnect the iPod to the PC.
After recovering your Library, strongly consider developing a thorough and frequent backup strategy for just this type of situation (and many other potential disasters).
You need at least two full sets of your music, not including what is on the iPod:
-- One full set on the PC within iTunes (on internal HD or ExHD)
-- One full set on an separate external backup medium (CD/DVD/ExHD/other)
-- One (full or partial) set on the iPod
Music files on just the iPod and only one other medium is not considered having any backup.
If you cannot store your complete music files on the computer’s internal HD, then create and maintain at least two external sets (any multiple combinations of ExHDs, DVDs, CDs).
Backup both the music files and the Library database file (iTunes Library.itl). What are the iTunes Library files?
Here is a post on developing a thorough backup strategy:
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=1822938#1822938

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Music only exists on my ipod..itunes library shows up empty?

I open my itunes library and it shows about 15 songs, however it previously contained 2000+ songs. I have about 1500 on my ipod. How is this possible? Is it safe to try and sync?

is the music still on your computer? (try looking in your Music folder)

My pc has a virus I just downloaded song from pc to kids ipods now both ipods are not working correctly could the virus be in the ipods, if not why are both not working doing the same thing right after unplugging from pc.

Can an ipod get a virus from a pc that has a virus. After connecting two different ipods to my pc to download music they both are not working correctly, could the virus have transferred to the ipod, if not why would both ipods not work and be doing the same thing? When trying to click on a game it just stays on the main screen.

- I have not heard of a virus that can cause problem with an iDvice that has not been jailbroken.
- Try resetting the iPods. nothing will be lost.
Reset iPod touch: Hold down the On/Off button and the Home button at the same time for at
least ten seconds, until the Apple logo appears.
- Do you hve problems with one game? The same game on both iPods?
Other apps?

Tried playin my ipod nano 6th gen on my xbox 360. Everything was good till today when i was told how to get it to work. Then all of a suden all the files and songs were gone on my ipod. now my network connection cant find my ipod.

Does any body know how i possibly messed up my ipod. After i plugged it in today i think i uninstalled somthing i shouldnt have. None of the devices read it as an Ipod but a usb mass storage. Itunes cant even bring it up. Plz some help

From the OP: "My old computer got a virus and when that happened all my music was lost. "
They don't have the music on their computer so they cannot transfer the iTunes folder, from the computer to their iPod and then to the new computer. And if they try to enable disk use on the iPod it will erase all the music that is on it. The method you cited is moving the files in a data format using the iPod as a flash drive. It doesn't work if they are in music format. That is why I suggested Yamipod.

PC crash Music only exists on Ipod, have new Mac, need to transfer files

I recently bought a Macbook Pro after my PC crashed, during the crash I lost all of the music files that were on my PC. Now these files only exist on the ipod. Is there any way that i can get the music onto my MacBook?

Here is another link to an article I found very helpful.
Best,
M.
http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/copying-music-from-ipod-to-co mputer/P0/

Please help songs that were on my ipod not there

So I was switching from manually update to automatic update and it said it would add all songs in existing library to ipod so I clicked yes. So it took all the songs that were from somebody else's library on their computer and erased them. Is there any way to get these back? I't's over a thousand songs! Please help!
Dell dimension E310 Windows XP Pro
Dell Windows XP Pro

it said it would add all songs in existing library to ipod so I clicked yes
That's not quite what it said.
it took all the songs that were from somebody else's library on their computer and erased them. Is there any way to get these back?
You could purchase the music yourself an make the artists happy.
Please don't steal music.

TS3694 I have over 700 songs in my I tunes library - but when i go to sync the songs to my I pod, it only syncs 60 of these songs. how can I get my entire library to sync to my ipod. now some of these songs were built in my library under a different email

i have over 700 songs in my i tunes which are from 2 different emails --- when i go to sync my music it will only sync 60 songs. how can I get it to sync all my songs. I now have a different email that my ipod is under. does that make difference? I dont remember what my password was from my old i tunes email 3 years ago.???? i called apple and was on the phone with them for over 2 hours - no joke and they could not figure it out.
please, help! i want my songs on my ipod??

I have tried everything I have read on the Internet about sync issues and restore etc and not there isn't a single song on my iPad or iPod touch. All of the songs are listed in my iTunes but are all greyed out, some have the cloud symbol next to them but lots don't and some say waiting.
Long and short is nothing will save to my devices at all.....HELP !!!!!!!?

How, on the ipod touch 5th gen, can you get rid of songs in the songlist? I restored from a stolen ipod touch 4th gen, and now there is a bunch of crap that is not even mine on this thing. The songs only show up in the songs listing.

I had my last ipod stolen, when I got the 5th Gen I restored from my old ipod from itunes and now there is a bunch of crap on there that I don't want, but the songs only show up on the ipod so I can not delete them off of the ipod from itunes. Any quick fixes to remove the unwanted songs, or do I have to start over completely?

Do they play on the iPod?
If not then they are corrupted.
Connect the iPod to your computer and look at the storage used by the various categories as shown in the colored bargarph in iTunes.
Come back with the results.
What is the Other on my iPhone and How to Remove It
If the other is larger than about 1 1/2 GB that indicates corrupted file.

I first couldn't update my iPod, now all the songs are gone!

Hey guys thanks for the time to help, but heres the story.
Okay, it first said "Songs on the iPod 'admin's iPod' cannot be updated because all of the playlists selected for updating no longer exists." So then i clicked on "Automatically update all songs and playlists" under preferences, and then a popup said "the iPod 'admin's iPod' cannot be updated. An unknown error -(36) occured." Okay, so i was struggling with this problem for a long time, i even went to the iPod store and they dont even know.
So then my friend told me to UPDATE my iTunes, so i updated it to iTunes v. 6. NOWWWWW, i plugged in my iPod and then the same thing happens... "Songs on the iPod 'admin's iPod' cannot be updated because all of the playlists selected for updating no longer exists." then all my songs on "admin's iPod" got erased!! So i click automatically update songs again and a NEW pop up comes up saying: "Songs on the iPod 'admin's iPod' cannot be updated. The disk cannot be read or written to." So now, not only can i not update my iPod, but all of the songs r erased.
So the question is... How can i transfer the songs from my "admin's iPod" folder on iTunes back to my iPod!!!!!???

Check these out.
Error 36.
Playlists no longer exist.

Library Lost - Please HeIp I tried updating my old ipod & now all 10,000 songs in my library have an ! next to them and I get the error message "song " " could not be used because the original file could not be found" on every song I try to play

Please help - this morning I tried updating one of my old ipods for my wife (this ipod hasn't been updated in 2-3 years). I plugged it into my pc, it was recognized and the software updated. I created a new playlist and tied to sync the ipod. This ipod had never been used on this pc/itunes since the pc is only 2 years old. When I tried to sync the ipod it stated that it would have to erase all the old songs on the ipod prior to syncing. I clicked ok and it proceeded to wipe out the old ipod and sync the new playlist (~1000 songs). When the sync was complete there were only 6 songs from the new playlist (all purchased this morning from itunes) on the ipod and to my horror all ~10,000 song on my pc in itunes now have a ! next to them. Only my recent purchases from itunes do not. When I click on a song with the ! I get the error message "the song " " could not be used because the original file could not be found." How do I correct this issue - I am scared to hook my ipads or other ipods to my pc for fear of losing everything?!?!? I spent 100s of hours burning the 10,000 songs from my cd collection and do not want to have to do it again.
Any help is greatly appreciated.

This "original file cannot be found" thing happens if the file is no longer where iTunes expects to find it. Possible causes are that you or some third party tool has moved, renamed or deleted the file, or that the drive it lives on has had a change of drive letter. It is also possible that iTunes has changed from expecting the files to be in the pre-iTunes 9 layout to post-iTunes 9 layout,or vice-versa, and so is looking in slightly the wrong place.
Select a track with an exclamation mark, use Ctrl-I to get info, then cancel when asked to try to locate the track. Look on the summary tab for the location that iTunes thinks the file should be. Now take a look around your hard drive(s). Hopefully you can locate the track in question. If a section of your library has simply been moved, or a drive letter has changed, it should be possible to reverse the actions.
Alternatively, as long as you can find a location holding the missing files, then you should be able to use my FindTracks script to reconnect them to iTunes .
tt2

Some, but not all, podcasts existing on the iPod no longer appear in iTunes. Different podcasts have been affected at different times, after changes in the state of the iPod. Only podcasts are affected.

I have not seen this precise issue addressed anywhere. I don’t know if it’s an iTunes or an iPod problem:
- Some, but not all, podcasts existing on the iPod no longer appear in iTunes;
this, after normal behavior for more than a year since purchase of the iPod.
- Different podcasts have been affected at different times, after changes in the state of the iPod.
- Only podcasts are affected.
- This concerns an iPod nano 6th gen. and iTunes 11.0.2 (26) on System 10.6.8
- The only change to iTunes, the Mac, or the iPod is that just before this condition began
I’d begun syncing an iPhone via iTunes.
I sync manually (“manually manage music and videos”). The first time this happened, I wanted to delete seventeen podcast episodes (all belonging to one podcast) existing on the iPod — but they didn’t show up in iTunes. I tried re-downloading them and re-syncing, to see if the new versions would somehow “re-link” to iTunes. They didn’t. Only one — new — episode appeared in iTunes.
I ultimately reset the iPod and manually resynced all the podcasts I currently had on iTunes. That worked, though I had to painstakingly add in all the other content deleted by the reset.
So: after that reset and manual sync, all podcasts and episodes on the iPod were visible to iTunes and I was able to delete the podcast and its — now 18 — episodes I’d wanted to get rid of to begin with. But the next time I connected the iPod, only 8 podcast episodes out of 21 episodes total existing on the iPod were visible to iTunes. These are different podcasts; I’d deleted the original “invisible” ones.
By “visible,” I mean in the “Podcasts” list view under “[name]’s iPod” in the iTunes sidebar. If I select “[name]’s” iPod in the iTunes sidebar and the “Podcasts” tab, all podcasts and episodes are visible, though greyed out because I’m set to sync manually. It’s unclear to me if these are the podcasts on the iPod or those currently in iTunes, as they are currently the same. If I switch to syncing automatically, all content on the iPod will be lost again, so I’m not up to trying it at the moment.
As I said, this involves only podcasts. All other content on the iPod does appear in iTunes.

I have the same problem- i see my movies in the ipod section in itunes and they even show as mpeg4 in the 'kind' section but they dont have that small TV icon next to them. if i play these in itunes, they play fine- but try playing them on the ipod and all you hear is the sound and no picture. All videos that i manually transfer work fine in the beginning- its when i hook up the ipod to the comp again and start itunes- they start showing up without the 'tv' icon!! i have to again transfer them from the itunes library to activate them as videos.
Need Help!!!

Imported CD Songs Only Appear In iTunes, Not On iPod Nano

Hi,
I bought my first iPod Nano, downloaded the iTunes software, and tried to import 2 songs from a cd. I have 2 issues which I need help with:
1. These 2 songs imported perfectly into iTunes, just as the manual described. But these 2 songs don't appear in my iPod. Please offer help with how to import these 2 songs into my iPod instead of just having them appear on iTunes.
2. Many additional songs (about 30?) somehow appeared on iTunes and were supposedly imported into my iPod. I unchecked each song and now these songs are off of iTunes. Why did these songs appear on iTunes in the first place? None of these 30+ songs are on the cd from which I unsuccessfully tried to import the 2 songs mentioned in question 1.
Thanks for any help which anyone can provide!
~ Mic.

Was your iPod connected to the computer already before you tried to import the two songs? If so thats why the songs didn't show up because the songs will only appear onto the iPod if you connect it to the computer after adding the songs. Plus the 30 songs that you said that showed up that weren't on the cd are most likely songs that you have saved on your computer with windows media player.

When I hook my ipod up to my mac I used to get the Itunes has detected an ipod that appears to be corrupted error message. It would then sync all my song to the ipod but when I ejected it, none of the songs would be on the ipod. Now I hook it up and I get

When I hook my ipod up to my mac I used to get the Itunes has detected an ipod that appears to be corrupted error message. It would then sync all my song to the ipod but when I ejected it, none of the songs would be on the ipod. Now I hook it up and I get the Mac OS X can't repair the disk error message. Then the spinning colored pinwheel pops up and I can't use iTunes. Please HELP!!!!!!

Sounds like your iPod is broken. Take it to Apple or someone else who repairs iPods and see if you can get it fixed, or get it replaced.

I have 333 songs on my library but only 108 on my ipod...on the library there are ! in front of them and they wont copy to my Ipod..how can I fix this

Hello, I have 333 songs on my library list but only 108 on my ipod....on the library the songs that won't download to my Ipod have ! marks in front of them, how do I get rid of them so them may go on my ipod?

The ! usually means that the song file has been moved or deleted. If you can find the song file on your hard drive, you can remove the song from iTunes and put it back by using File>Open and navigating to the song file. There is also a location that iTunes will look for song files (I'm a Mac guy, so I don't know where it should be in Windows, but for me it's HD>Users>My User Name>Music>iTunes>iTunes Music and then there are various folders for different albums, podcasts, etc.), so I would keep them all there.

How can i add songs to a family members ipod without erasing existing songs

How can i add songs to a family members ipod without erasing her existing song list.

For future reference, since I came here for the same reason, I'd like to add to the solution. The link was not complete in explaining how to, but then again I'll just trying to attempt to fill in the gap.
After opening iTunes, on the upper left hand side is a small icon with an arrow pointing down. Click on the arrow and a menu pops out. Click on "Show Menu Bar." On the new bar(Older iTunes File, Edit, View, Controls, etc. bar at the top). Click on View and then Show Side Bar. There you can just click and drag new songs into your iDevice without any problems... hopefully...
Seriously, this helped me, so if Apple finds a way to not allow me to do this simple task of adding purchased songs into my idevices from another computer, I'll have to resort to other means.
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My songs only exist on my iPod now...

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