iPod/iPhone/iPad Transfer & Backup Software Reviews

This Software reviews is about alternative software applications (besides iTunes) to manage iPod/iPhone/iPad contents. It includes the transferring of music, photos, videos, SMS, Contact ect. between iPod/iPhone/iPad and computer(PC or Mac). Although according to Apple, iTunes is supposed to be the primary manager of all iPods and iPhones, other software has been created that can be used to sync or update iPods and iPhones with different media, often to work around restrictions in iTunes - for example, if a user transfers music to an iPod using iTunes, they cannot transfer the music from the iPod to another computer (or even the same computer after reinstalling the operating system).

The worst limitation of iTunes is that it transfers data only from iTunes to iPod and iPhone, but not the other way around. Additionally, your iPhone is bound to one iTunes library and cannot be synchronized with another PC without deleting the iPhone's contents first. After a PC crash, data loss, or simply if you want to create a Backup of your iPod & iPhone it can be necessary to transfer music, videos and more from your iPod back to the PC.

To do so, you will need third party Backup Tools presented below.

Resource from:  comparison of iPod/iPhone/iPad transfer & backup software

iPhone Explorer - The File Manager & USB iPhone browser for PC and Mac

Free software iPhone Explorer is used for graphical file manager of iPhone, iPad, iPod and other Apple devices. Just connect USB to PC and Mac, and open it to use try.
iPhone Explorer lets you use an iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad as if it were in disk mode or a flash drive. iPhone Explorer is an iPhone browser for Mac & PC that lets you browse the files and folders on your iPhone as if it were a normal USB flash drive or pen drive. You can use the easy drag-and-drop methods to add or remove files and folders from the iPhone. Compatible with all iPhones and iPod Touches including the new iPhone 4 and iOS 4 firmware.

HomePage: http://www.macroplant.com/iphoneexplorer/

CopyTransManager – Manage Your iPod/iPhone Songs/Videos

CopyTransManager is used to manage your iPod/iPhone sudio and video files. It can add music and video files to iPod/iPhone,edit songs playlists and support to play iPod/iPhone music in PC without iTunes  (need K-Lite Codec Pack  supported)。

CopyTransManager is prefessional to replace iTunes with user-friendly interface and quick transferring speed.Its uncompressed file is about 3M, which can be described as slim body compared to iTunes 100M size. After starting iTunes, although it will do many things, the efficiency is very slow in the Windows.

In CopyTransManager a row of buttons above , the second button in the left is for update . Add audio files by using CopyTransManager (the third  button in the left), click on the update button to sync audio files to iPod / iPhone, and this time will be blocked sometimes, but it is okay and you just wait a moment.

iTunes is large and slow, if you're not used it to update Podcast, install the iPod Touch / iPhone applications, and backup system files, and CopyTransManager is enough for your needs.

Download: Home page (3.18MB)

How to transfer or copy songs from computer to iPod easily?

Some friends just came over and ask me how to transfer some songs from my computer to the ipod.

iPod offers three ways to transfer songs from your computer. You can select one of the following update modes from the iPod Preferences menu in iTunes:

1.You need to install itunes 1st.

    From there you can basically drag and drop songs from your music folder/directory into itunes.

   Plug your ipod into a suitable usb port and drag the songs from the itunes directory into your ipod (within itunes).

That is probably the simplest method.

2. Automatically update all songs and playlists. This is the default mode, in which your entire music library, including playlists, is automatically synched to your iPod. If the music library on your computer exceeds the iPod storage capacity, iTunes will offer to choose a selection of songs to sync to iPod.

3. Automatically update selected playlists. With this option, iTunes automatically copies only the playlists you have selected to iPod when you connect it to the computer. This option can be selected by accessing the Music tab of the iPod settings.

4. Manually manage music. You can also choose to transfer music to iPod manually. This allows you to drag and drop individual songs and playlists from iTunes to iPod. You can find this option by accessing the Summary tab of the iPod settings.

If the number of songs on your computer exceeds the capacity of the iPod, Apple's "AutoFill" feature within iTunes will select the number of songs, audiobooks, and podcasts that fit on the iPod as directed by the user or at random.

You can also configure your iPod to appear as a hard drive on the desktop -- with the exception of the iPod touch models (although third-party software is available) -- and manually drag files of any type to the iPod. Music files copied to the iPod in this way won't play on the iPod, without first copying them to a computer and importing them into iTunes, but this is useful for backing up or transporting any type of file. Please refer to "Using Your iPod as a Storage Drive" and "Putting iPod Into Disk Mode" from the Apple Support Site for more information.