iSavr

This application is written in C# 2005 and allows a user to save tracks off of their iPod to their local computer. This is functionality that is not built in to iTunes! It has a simple user interface that uses special variables to re-create filenames for the songs based on their ID3 information, stored in the iTunes database.

iSavr has been tested with version 1.2 of the iPod software for a 5g iPod Video, a 2nd generation iPod Nano and a 2nd generation iPod Shuffle. I do not guarantee that it will run on any other iPod versions and although it only opens the iTunes database as read only, I hold no responsibility if it breaks your iPod, crashes your computer or kills your cat.

Download (Binary)

iSavr is available for download now. Extract the zip file somewhere and run iSavr.exe! Copying the exe to your iPod so you can run it from another PC is recommended :-).

Download (Source)

The source for iSavr is available under the Creative Commons CC-GPL. You can download it here. Note that it is a Visual Studio 2005 project.

Usage

To start iSavr, simply double-click iSavr.exe. The first time you load the application a dialog will appear asking you to set the location of your iTunesDB. This will be in [iPodDriveLetter]\iPod_Control\iTunes. If you need to change the location of the iTunesDB at any time use the preferences window accessible by clicking the ”Preferences” button! Should you load without your iPod docked, a dialog will pop-up asking you to retry or cancel - clicking cancel will bring up a blank form and you should re-point the application to your iTunesDB file by using the preferences window.

The next step is to select some tracks from your iPod - use the top right of the application to filter for certain tracks and then sort, if required, by clicking one of the column headers. Once selected, press the Save button and select a Base Directory to save your tracks into. Next, enter the file/directory mask to be used to save files - use a \ to create directories. The application will automatically add the file extension. Don”t end the mask with a trailing slash.

Once ready, click the “save” button and watch the tracks save :-).

The following variables can be used for the file mask as of version 1:

• %a - Artist
• %A - Album
• %y - Year
• %N - Track Number (0-padded)
• %n - Track number (not 0-padded)
• %t - Track title
• %g - Genre

Example

An example file mask is ”%a-%A-%y\%N-%t” - this will save all tracks into a folder in the format Artist-Album-Year and then all tracks as TrackNum-Trackname.ext. e.g: KT Tunstall-Eye To The Telescope-2005\12-Through The Dark.mp3.

Credits

Thanks very much to: famfamfam.com for program icon and winterdrache.de for png2ico - an application I used to create the .ico file from famfamfam’’s pngs, in addition to the various google searches I did for BackgroundWorker, how to use the global application settings in C#, ipodlinux.org for the great iTunesDB specification and pepsi max for keeping me sane.

Future additions

I”d like to consider adding the following to the application at some stage:

• Proper support for Movies and Music Videos
• A small player to enable MP3s/videos to be played on a standalone application
• Support for the Creative Zen family of mp3 players (once I get my hands on one)

Version History

Version 1.1 (09 September 2006): Fixed bug where application hung when a sorted, filtered list was open when a new iTunesDB was selected.
Version 1.0 (September 2006): First release of the application with the ability to save tracks.