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PodWorks2.9.6a

Name: PodWorks
Price: 8.00 $
Rating: 4.15 (3 reviews)

26 September 2009

Unique iPod song copier.

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Overview

PodWorks is a Mac OS X application that compensates for the iPod's only downside: Apple only allows you to copy songs to your iPod. If you have two Macs and want to use your iPod to transfer music from one to the other, or you only store your music and videos on your iPod and need to copy them back onto your hard drive after a disk failure, you are out of luck!

This is where PodWorks comes in: it allows you to copy songs and videos from any iPod or iPhone to any Mac running OS X 10.4 or higher. Its important features include:

iPhone support: PodWorks is the first (and currently only) iPod song transfer app for the Mac to recognize and allow transfers from the iPhone.
Superior performance: Many other standalone iPod song transfer utilities work by reading song data out of every song on the iPod--a slow process. PodWorks, by contrast, reads its data directly from the iPod's internal database, resulting in nearly instantaneous display of your song list.
More metadata: Since PodWorks can read from the iPod's internal database, it can also display and sort by song "metadata" not available through ID3 (including Date Added, Play Count, and Star Rating).
iTunes integration: In addition to copying songs to the Finder, PodWorks can send songs, playlists (registered version only), and metadata (star ratings, play counts, track numbers, etc.) directly to iTunes. It can also filter its song list to show you only the songs on the iPod that are not present in your iTunes library.
Playlists: PodWorks recognizes your iPod's playlists. Entire playlists can be copied to your computer with a single drag (registered version only).
Song Playback: PodWorks allows you to preview songs before you copy them by playing them directly off the iPod (not yet available for iPhone).
Strong organizational capabilities: Copying large numbers of files can get messy, so PodWorks can automatically sort transferred files into directories and change their filenames according to your preferences.
Portability: PodWorks can be placed on your iPod for convenient access away from your home computer. It will work when run off the iPod, and will remember its registration information even when connected to a previously unknown machine.

What's new in PodWorks

Version 2.9.6a:

Minor fixes for Snow Leopard compatibility.

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47 Reviews of PodWorks

why does this software not automatically skip errors and continue it's work??? Does the developer really expect us to babysit the application for several hours 9 so far for 60GB of music?? It also does not seem to transfer movies well every second one creates an error message and manual intervention to continue the progress is needed :-(

(1)

This WAS a good app, but hasn't been updated in more than two years and simply does not work at all for me with iTunes 10.5 under Snow Leopard. A shame, because it was fine when it worked...

(0)

Shock-J

21 March 2011

Version: 2.9.6a

Have owned this product for years and through various iPod models. Has always been at the top of it's class, but it looks like it's been abandoned. No updates in 18 months. I store/backup all my ripped music on my 80G iPod classic. I got a new Mac Mini and went to "restore" all my music to it. Podworks worked fine less the fact that the artwork didn't copy through for about 10% of my music (approx 800 tracks). I know it's there, I see it (embedded in tracks) on my computer at work and on the iPod itself. Somehow it's getting left behind/omitted in the transfer. Wish this app was still getting updated. Haven't found an alternative as good yet. Oh well, I guess the search continues.

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Not working with the current nano video ipods. Dev has known about this for some time but chooses not to address the problem. It's nearly a year since the last update and I'm beginning to think this is a dead app.

(1)

PodWorks it's probably the best tool for extract the songs (and movies) from an iPod. I have used it for years with several generations of iPods. For some reason I have think it doesn't will work with the touches. I was wrong. It works fine. It's quick, stable, cute and it cost less than the half than others apps that does the same, but are clearly inferiors, costs.

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Unfortunately, this once-useful app is broken and looking like abandonware again. With an iPhone or iPod touch, the device shows up, but the app is plagued with problems that make it very frustrating to use. - Selecting a playlist does not show its contents (the list shows all songs on the iPod no matter which playlist is selected). - When selecting multiple songs, the copy function usually doesn't work. No error message or any other feedback is given…it simply does nothing. Sometimes it works if you try selecting fewer songs at once, but the only reliable way to copy songs is to do so one-at-a-time. This is so tedious it's often not even worth the trouble. - After making a selection, if the list is re-sorted, the selection is lost. This makes it difficult or impossible to select multiple songs based on more than one criterion. - Playlists show up in the wrong order. It's a minor issue if you only have a few playlists, but annoying if you have as many as I do. At this point I strongly recommend NOT using this app and looking elsewhere for a solution.

(1)

Just to completely contradict the last review, I synchronised 16,000 songs from an iPod to a newly rebuilt Mac (OS X 10.6.1, iTunes 9.0.1) with only one trivial error; a Composer field was not brought across in half a dozen tracks. There were a couple of problems, although I suspect they are down to iTunes rather than PodWorks: 1. The sync took a few attempts to get going - it froze after 20 or 30 songs the first couple of times; 2. Once the sync had completed, iTunes decided to recognise the iPod it had just received the files from as a "new iPod" and synchronised everything back to it! I cannot fault PodWorks really; synchronising seems to be a difficult problem to crack in general and handling 16,000 files almost flawlessly is impressive. I tried a couple of similar applications, but they both froze repeatedly at the same place and could not be coaxed into continuing.

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I have used Podworks and was disappointed with it. It is okay for copying a handful of tracks at a time (e.g. one album) but I found it VERY frustrating when copying lots of tracks at a time. If the hard disk on your iPod has suffered some damage (which is a VERY common problem with hard`disk based iPods), PodWorks will report an "Filesystem error". You must click OKAY to continue EACH time. This is insane!! Podworks should log the error and automatically continue. At the end of the copying, Podworks should report that errors occurred and offer you to look at the error log report. It does not!! In one of the menus, you can ask Podworks to show any "transfer errors". But when you do, you do NOT see any of these "filesystem errors". This looks like a bug. Some of the tracks that Podworks copied were also corrupt (even though they play just fine on the iPod or within Podworks). I really wish the developer had included an option to VERIFY that the transfer was good. I know that would slow down the copying (but I could live with the extra time to prevent data corruption in my iTunes). In other words, if you are copying a handful of tracks from your iPod to iTunes, Podworks is fine (but you may want to look at FREE alternatives). If you want to copy lots of tracks (or ALL the tracks off your iPod), I would recommend you pass on Podworks. It may take you HOURS especially if you have to manually click OK for EACH "filesystem error" that Podworks encounters when reading from an iPod with a damaged hard disk (which is a common problem).

(0)

Link doesn't work. Tries to link to version 2.9.7, but 2.9.6 is current with the listed updates. Either access the software through the author's website, or change the link in your url to: http://www.macupdate.com/download.php/10273/PodWorks_2.9.6.zip Great software. Worked great for me when I needed it several years ago...

(0)

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if you're a PodWorks user and saw it stop working when you updated your iPhone or iPod Touch to the 3.0 software, never fear...the developer has a compatible version in beta that will be released shortly.

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LDANDERSEN Just a note from the developer to let everyone know that with the release of PodWorks 2.9, PodWorks development is back on track and I believe all of the outstanding issues mentioned below have been resolved. I promise PodWorks won't go a year and a half without an update again, and I'm very much looking forward to "thinking outside the box" a bit with PodWorks 3.0 now. Thanks for your patience and continuing support--I look forward to serving your iPod management needs for a long time :-). So it has been already over a year and a half since this pledge was made. Apparently, this software project has been abandoned.

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It has crashed more than 15 times to be able to take back my 8000 songs from my iPod !! Not a very good performance for this. But it is the only which has been to recover all the songs without duplicating a lot of them, only 40. So it only get 3 stars thanks to this. To get more resolve for your really serious unstbility problems ! So the pricing remaining always to much high for something that will not work correctly.

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I've been using PodWorks since about April 2004 if memory serves. Despite the lack of an update in over a year, it's always been useful to me and has never failed. I don't think I've ever come across a single programme that has given me more than this.

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I DO NOT suggest this program! My computer was stolen, so the only music I had was left on my ipod. I just downloaded this program in hopes it would allow me to put my music on my new computer. Instead, it started to transfer my music to itunes. When I played my music back, it wouldn't play the songs back for longer than 10 seconds. Then, my itunes freaked out because my ipod was connected to two programs and not synched, so it deleted EVERYTHING on my ipod. I now have nothing. Thank for ruining my life PodWorks. Do Not Use This Program...unless you are a computer star and can work it properly...then just maybe. p.s. why werent there directions or warnings?!

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Just a note from the developer to let everyone know that with the release of PodWorks 2.9, PodWorks development is back on track and I believe all of the outstanding issues mentioned below have been resolved. I promise PodWorks won't go a year and a half without an update again, and I'm very much looking forward to "thinking outside the box" a bit with PodWorks 3.0 now. Thanks for your patience and continuing support--I look forward to serving your iPod management needs for a long time :-).

(0)

I bought this application a few years back. Think it's great. But it hasn't been updated in over a year. Are we going to get a UB version of this anytime soon, or ever. There are a lot of alternatives that ARE being updated.

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Show comment (1)

So nice, I bought it twice :) It's a great piece of software, simple, rock-solid, and I forget I have it, till I need it. And boy, does it payoff every time I have to use it. Buzz is very responsive in answering questions too.. A real mac gem.

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My hard drive failed and I was faced with the dismal prospect of having to load sme 300 CD's worth of music back onto my laptop. Then I stumbled across PodWorks. It's the best $8 I have ever spent. Installation and use was a breeze. Everyhting works great again!!

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This program crashes right after launching it. I looked at my crash log and it was filled with song information from my iTunes library. BEWARE of this version until the deveoloper fixes it. I only hope it has not damaged my iTunes database.

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great app! only one problem: i tried to copy podworks on my shuffle - and failed. some parts couldn´t be copied... would be great if anyone has a tip, podworks could be the solution to the only-one-mac-per-shuttle problem :D

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AWESOME!!!!!! this version is even better. I've been using this since I got my 2G iPod about 2 years ago. It's gotten better with each release. Like the iPod. 8 bucks well worth it. Probably the best 8 bucks I've ever spent on ANYTHING!!!

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WOW!!!! EXCELLENT product!! It far surpassed my expectations. It's so easy to use, and it copies playlists intact -- complete with all the file info. You can also copy individual songs or the entire contents of your iPod. Seamless integration with iTunes, and incredibly fast, to boot. Well worth purchasing.

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KILLER!!! WOW! Everything you need is here for only $8.00! I would have happily paid more for this program! BUY IT NOW! It works great!

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This little app is THE BEST app for transferring songs from your iPod to your Mac. It's constantly updated and is simple to use. Used it for 5 mins and paid the shareware fee right away. Been using it for almost a year now.

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Strange. No new features. No mention of the update on the website.

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Oh god, it actually works. After trying unsuccessfully to find a program that transferred files from iPod to my Mac, I stumbled across this little jewel. Download it now. You won't be sorry. Just drag and drop.

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An absolute treasure and necessity for anyone with 2 or more Macs and an iPod. At first I was worried that my Powerbook would fill up with music and there would be no way to transfer songs to my iMac at home. Nothing could be easier than this piece of software which identifies the songs that are in the iPod and not in the iMac (and vice-versa.) I use PodWorks every week and I have yet to fully explore all the features. It does exactly what I bought it to do. When I was looking for a program to share bought songs from the Apple Music Store I did a search on MacUpdate and the definition for this program perfectly matched my desire. For the little money it costs, PodWorks is worth so much more.

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Outstanding program, responsive developer. A steal at only 8 bucks. The satisfaction of my desperation alone was worth the 8 bucks! --Jim

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Amazing application. It really works much better than most iPod -> Machine utilities. I didn't think that it would be faster, but it was at least 3-4x faster than iPodViewer, and worked way more effectively, plus playlists.

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I was looking for a utility to play back songs on my g3 ibook speakers. okay, i know that i am not going to get the best sound quality, but when i am in a hotel room it's better than always having to wear headphones. since i have only a 10gig harddrive, i also didn't want to copy any songs from my larger ipod drive. I purchased both podworks 2.6 and ipodrip 2.5.2. both have their good points and bad points. pw 2.6+: Stability!!! hasn't crashed one time; looks and ease of use - nice looking and easy to use interface; purchasing the program was simple and i received my license immediately. pw2.6-: from what i can tell, you can't choose to play more than one song in a row - for what i am using this for, this is a serious drawback for my use, right now, i think pw 2.6 and ir2.5.2 are close to even. if they add the feature to playback more than one song in a row, my preference would be pw 2.6.

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As wonderful as any mac lover will say os X is how about a windows version too. Just cuz we have pc's doesn't mean that we don't listen to music. Not to mention it would be a huge sector of the market that hasn't been utilized for this type of app...

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This is the best iPod tool in my digital belt. Very easy way to extract songs from my iPod onto my iBook when I head home for a weekend. :-D

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Good app but not as good as iPod Rip. I highly recommend getting iPod Rip as it has the itunes look and feel which everyone is used to.

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Ive test every single application to copy songs from my iPod looking for an utilty that works fine, it's secure and looks good. This is the best application I found and I had happily purchased. What's also cool is that I can kkep it and run it from the iPOD!!

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By far the best, all other ipod to desktop apps are put to shame against this far superior app, have been with podworks through each new version and it just keeps on getting easier and better. zero crashes, zero problems, can choose mutiple tracks using shift key even with 10.2.6. well worth the intial cost, as free to upgrade to this and each version so far. GET PODWORKS NOW. GET PODWORKS NOW. GET PODWORKS NOW. GET PODWORKS NOW.

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Great software and badly needed!! However in Mac OS 10.2.6 the multiple selection didn't work either using shift of the command key.

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Best thing about it.....no problems. The others with similar features didn't live up to the hype when I tried them, this did. Add to that the fact that is seems to have lots of good features (I havn't taken an in depth look yet).

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forget all the other iPod transfer utils and give this man your $6. It is, BY FAR, the best amongst the cluttered field. It's ridiculously fast and responsive. Buzz has done and is still doing great work. I wish the rating system went past 5, because that's how great this is. Support shareware!

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