Access iPod MP3 files directly in the Finder

Jul 01, '02 08:46:25AM

Contributed by: Anonymous

To see the hidden MP3 files on your iPod, you can use the Terminal or the Finder. To do this using the Terminal, open a new Terminal window and then type cd and a space, and then drag the icon of your iPod into the Terminal window. Type ls to see the directories present within your iPod. Note the one titled "iPod_Control" -- this is where you're going next. Type cd iPod_Control to switch to this directory. Take a look at the directories present in the iPod_Control directory. You want to switch to the directory titled "Music" with cd Music.

You should now see a number of directories, probably with a letter and numbers naming each folder. You can navigate to any of the directories using the "cd" command in the Terminal. Once in a directory, to open a new window showing that directory's contents in the Finder, simply type open . -- note the trailing period!

Read the rest of the article for isntructions on using the Finder directly to view these files...

Once you know the directory names on the iPod, you can access them directly from the Finder. Open a Finder window by double-clicking on your iPod icon on the desktop. Hold down the Command (Open-Apple) and Tilde (~) keys. A navigation bar will appear with the title "Go to the folder:". Enter the directory to which you want to navigate into the input box, beginning with:

/Volumes/iPod_name/iPod_Control/Music/F##/"
The ## stands for the numbers of the directory's name in your iPod. For example, mine might look like this:
/Volumes/Babbit III/iPod_Control/Music/F00/
Babbitt III is the name of my iPod, and the first directory listed in the Music directory of my iPod is F00. You can now access your MP3 files directly -- just don't use this hint to pirate!

[Editor's note: A previous hint covered how to use OmniWeb or IE to view the files on your iPod...]

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