iPodFolderOpener

NOTE: There are other products out there for easily copying your songs off of your iPod to your computer. If you're looking for a sophisticated program start looking here. iPodFolderOpener is a dumber version of these programs that I am busy coding for my own use. If you hate it and think it's stupid, don't use it. These scripts should work fine on any OS X computer, but I am not offering support for them. Feel free to hack away at them. This post will serve as the permanent page where I will update information regarding this software.

Click here to download iPodFolderOpener 1.0 (38KB, zipped DMG file).

Donationware: If you like these scripts and use them, visit my site (http://www.sampletheweb.com) and click on the PayPal button (underneath my picture in the sidebar) to make a donation of your choosing.

History:

• 
  Version 1.0—Initial release: messily opens as Finder windows all the invisible folders inside the Music folder of a user's iPod / iPod mini / iPod Shuffle; February 7th, 2005.
  

What it is:
iPodFolderOpener is an AppleScript standalone app that can be placed anywhere (I recommend your Applications folder) or script (which should be placed in either /Library/Scripts/ or ~/Library/Scripts/).



What it does:
iPodFolderOpener opens Finder windows of some or all (per your choosing) of the invisible folders containing music on your iPod, iPod mini, or iPod Shuffle. Once they are open, you can easily drag and drop the files to other locations on your computer and / or add them to your iTunes Library.



How to use it:
First, make sure that your iPod is plugged into your Mac and mounted as a hard drive in the Finder. Then, simply click on iPodFolderOpener to launch it (or if you have placed the script in the Scripts folder, simply use your script menu in the menu bar to access iPodFolderOpener). A dialog box will open asking you for the name of the iPod / iPod Shuffle / iPod mini from which you want to remove songs. If your iPod's name contains any special characters, like ' or " you should probably change it first. Spaces are okay, but if your iPod's name is "My iPod" you will need to enter a backslash before the space: "My iPod". After you enter your iPod's name, click "Okay" and another dialog box will open with three buttons: Cancel, ALL, and PICK. If you click ALL then all of the invisible folders inside your Music folder will open. If you have an almost full 40GB iPod, this will be a lot of folders, so considered yourself warned (and remember, you can always go to Finder-->File and hold down the Option key to change the Close Window function to Close All Windows). If you click on PICK another dialog will open where you must enter the name of the folder you want to open. You can do this to browse through your iPod's music a folder at a time. The folders begin with folder F00, then continue on to F01, F02, F03, etc. If you put in a folder name that doesn't exist, the script will end in an error.



Why did you write this script?:
For fame and fortune, of course. ;-) Actually, I wanted an easy way to Autofill my new iPod Shuffle from my 40GB iPod (as I tend to keep my music on my iPod, but not on my laptop's internal harddrive). iPodFolderOpener simply automates some work that you can do via the Terminal, which is the first step in accomplishing this. I am currently working on a variant of the script which will actually automate the entire process.



THE SOURCE CODE:

--iPod Opener
--Open this script in a new Script Editor window.
property your_iPod_name : missing value
property userchoice : "All"

--set the iPod name once:
set your_iPod_name to text returned of (display dialog "Enter your iPod's name:" & return & "(If your iPod's name has any spaces in it, enter a backslash before the space)" default answer "" buttons {"Cancel", "OK"} default button 2 with icon 1)

--open some or all folders inside Music:
set userchoice to button returned of (display dialog "What do you want to do?" buttons {"Cancel", "ALL", "PICK"} default button userchoice with icon 1)
if userchoice = "ALL" then
set theNumber to "F**"
else
set theNumber to text returned of (display dialog "Enter a random folder name:" & return & "(i.e., F00, F01, F02, etc.)" & return & "If nothing happens, then there is no such folder." default answer "" buttons {"Cancel", "OK"} default button 2 with icon 1)
end if

do shell script "open /Volumes/" & your_iPod_name & "/iPod_Control/Music/" & theNumber & "/"

display dialog "Done!" buttons {"Okay! Thanks!"}

Listed on Versiontracker.