SaveTunes: The Hidden Gem For Backing Up Your iDevice Music Library
January 14, 2011
Alexander Buehler's SaveTunes may be an untapped gem in the iOS App Store. SaveTunes is an app designed to help you transfer your music from your iDevice to your computer, or even through email, in the event your computer hard drive fails or you just no longer have those files on your desktop or laptop.
How does this work? The app extracts the music track files from the hidden realms of your iDevice's file system to its own app "sandbox." As of iOS 4.0 and iTunes, iPhones and iPod touchs can use Apple's nifty File Sharing feature. This feature was primarily designed for easy transfer of documents to productivity apps, books to eBook readers, and other file manipulation programs, but isn't limited to that.
There are two main requirements for this app to work properly. Your iDevice needs enough free storage space to accommodate the duplicate music files and those files can't be DRM protected. Any CDs you've ripped and any songs you've purchased within the last couple years or so should go over perfectly fine. Older iTunes Store purchased tracks will still contain DRM if you haven't paid to upgrade them to iTunes Plus.
Let's quickly get into using this beauty. Launch SaveTunes on your iDevice, then tap on the iPod icon in the bottom-center of the screen. From here, navigate your music library and use the "+" sign to the right of songs to add them to the copy queue. Once you've chosen the songs you wish to transfer, you tap on Done in the top-right.
The next stage displays how many songs you selected and a little bit of an album cover preview. You should now see a new icon in the bottom-right. Tap this icon to copy these songs to SaveTunes's "sandbox" folder. After the copy, you can connect your iDevice and use the iTunes FIle Sharing feature to save them to your computer or use the File Manger within the app to email a single music track.
At the bottom-left of nearly every screen in SaveTunes is the File Manager button -- looks like a stack of papers. Dive into the hierarchy of artists and albums to reach the song level. Once there, you can tap on the email icon to the right of the song to attach it to an email message.
We've reached the iTunes File Sharing portion of this rundown. Connect your iDevice to your computer and wait for iTunes to mount your iDevice, then select it in the source list on the left side. Next, look near the top of the iTunes windows for the individual iDevice settings panes, click on Apps.
The File Sharing section, which lists supported apps and synchronized documents, is located at the very bottom. Click on SaveTunes to view your copied music files. To save these to your computer, select the albums and songs you want under the Documents list by clicking or holding the Shift key and clicking. The final step is to click on Save to.. under the Documents list, choose your destination, and click Confirm. Voila!
How does this work? The app extracts the music track files from the hidden realms of your iDevice's file system to its own app "sandbox." As of iOS 4.0 and iTunes, iPhones and iPod touchs can use Apple's nifty File Sharing feature. This feature was primarily designed for easy transfer of documents to productivity apps, books to eBook readers, and other file manipulation programs, but isn't limited to that.
There are two main requirements for this app to work properly. Your iDevice needs enough free storage space to accommodate the duplicate music files and those files can't be DRM protected. Any CDs you've ripped and any songs you've purchased within the last couple years or so should go over perfectly fine. Older iTunes Store purchased tracks will still contain DRM if you haven't paid to upgrade them to iTunes Plus.
Let's quickly get into using this beauty. Launch SaveTunes on your iDevice, then tap on the iPod icon in the bottom-center of the screen. From here, navigate your music library and use the "+" sign to the right of songs to add them to the copy queue. Once you've chosen the songs you wish to transfer, you tap on Done in the top-right.
The next stage displays how many songs you selected and a little bit of an album cover preview. You should now see a new icon in the bottom-right. Tap this icon to copy these songs to SaveTunes's "sandbox" folder. After the copy, you can connect your iDevice and use the iTunes FIle Sharing feature to save them to your computer or use the File Manger within the app to email a single music track.
At the bottom-left of nearly every screen in SaveTunes is the File Manager button -- looks like a stack of papers. Dive into the hierarchy of artists and albums to reach the song level. Once there, you can tap on the email icon to the right of the song to attach it to an email message.
We've reached the iTunes File Sharing portion of this rundown. Connect your iDevice to your computer and wait for iTunes to mount your iDevice, then select it in the source list on the left side. Next, look near the top of the iTunes windows for the individual iDevice settings panes, click on Apps.
The File Sharing section, which lists supported apps and synchronized documents, is located at the very bottom. Click on SaveTunes to view your copied music files. To save these to your computer, select the albums and songs you want under the Documents list by clicking or holding the Shift key and clicking. The final step is to click on Save to.. under the Documents list, choose your destination, and click Confirm. Voila!
