Hi All, I don't usually post about apps which have key unlabeled buttons, but this one seems useful for those of you who may need to get music tracks out of your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad music library back onto your computer. This app is designed to let you move song tracks from your iTunes music library to the downloads folder of a computer on the same Wi-Fi network. The name is "Song Exporter Pro", and it is free today at the following App Store URL: • Song Exporter Pro (free today, usually $0.99) by Rocha Software https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/song-exporter-pro/id421646421?mt=8
The interface is very simple, but the three buttons on the main screen are unlabeled. If you flick to them, they are, in order: Sharing (lets you select songs to share or stop sharing), Info (identifies current version, accesses detailed help info, and resumes sharing, along with display of other apps and a tell friend option), and Settings (lets you optionally specify a port or turn on authentication requirements). So you can sort out the labeling issues by simply flicking to each button in sequence, doing the two-finger double tap and hold gesture to custom label an element for VoiceOver, and then, after hearing the tri-tone and getting the "Label Element" dialogue to come up, just type in "Sharing" (or other label) and double tap the "Done" button on the keyboard (or navigate to the "Save" button in the dialogue window and activate it). This app can be useful in circumstances where you've had a computer failure and you no longer have access to your iTunes music library, because it provides a way to let you export some or all of your music library song tracks to the Downloads directory of another computer on the same Wi-Fi network. I'm posting this specifically in partial response to David Griffiths's comment of a couple of weeks ago that he couldn't recover music tracks purchased from the iTunes Store that are on his iPhone since the computer he syncs the device to had died. In fact, a few different replies outlined how he could recover past iTunes purchases (and not just music), but for those of you who want minimal interaction with iTunes in any form, this app may be a useful alternative. It is not designed to recover apps, or to allow you to backup your device, contacts, etc., or any other things you can do with iTunes or with dedicated recovery software. I checked that I was able to download song tracks from another iOS device this way, following the instructions under the "Help" information (one of the button options under the second button, that I labeled "Info"). You can also read most of this information at the developer's web site: http://www.rochasoftware.com/SongExporter/ Their instructions under "3) How can I transfer a large number of songs from my device to my computer (like, for instance, all the songs in my device), instead of downloading one by one?" worked for me, using Safari on my Mac, following the exact keyboard shortcuts to select all listed songs, copy the list, bring up the Safari Downloads window with Command-Option-L, and then paste the list into the window to start downloading. A couple of comments: when I selected all, copied, and pasted into the Downloads window following their instructions, VoiceOver did not update the information content in the Downloads window as the downloads proceeded. But if you open a Finder window to your Safari Downloads directory, all the songs show up. I didn't try this with a huge number of songs, so I don't know how long it takes. This process can transfer all songs, regardless of whether they were purchased from the iTunes Store (with or without DRM), or not. They just have to show up in your Music app as songs. It doesn't transfer other media types. However, since most recent iTunes purchases don't come with DRM, I could QuickLook the tracks (e.g., press space bar to start them playing from Finder) to check they came across correctly. It seems as though an advantage of this app is that you can transfer the music tracks to either a friend's computer, if you've completely crashed your own, or, if you are using a computer with more limited disk space (a MacBook Air), you can temporarily change your Safari Downloads folder location (under the "General" tab in Preferences; bring up Preferences for Safari with Command-comma, and focus should be on the General tab by default; you can set the location when you VO-space on the pop up menu button following "Save downloaded files to" and switch from "Downloads" to "Other…" point to an external drive that is attached, and use all the Finder shortcuts to choose the location in the dialogue window. Command-Shift-C shows all drives attached to your Computer, and you can navigate to a drive or its folders just as you can in Finder, or you can use the Command-Shift-G "Go to folder" shortcut to type in a specific path to a folder, including paths that include externally mounted hard drives). Note that this app just downloads the files via a browser interface to a computer on the same network. If you want to set these tracks up in iTunes on a new computer, you have to add them to that iTunes library. If the tracks had DRM on your iPhone they still have DRM; you have to log in with your Apple ID in iTunes to authorize that computer and play those tracks. This also doesn't work to transfer songs to the iTunes Music library of other iOS devices without using a computer. If someone is interested in playing more with this, be my guest. It should work with any computer operating system and browser, and the app is universal. I've tested that it works in iOS 7 and iOS 6, and from iPhone and iPad. But I'm not really interested in using this to move music from other devices to my computer. Hope this helps somebody. Also, remember that in order to paste into the Safari Downloads window (if you want to do bulk download transfers), you have to be able to display the Downloads window when you're in Safari. I think that means you either have to have the Safari Toolbar showing, or else use Safari in full screen mode. (I generally like to hide the toolbar, bookmarks menu, etc. if I don't need them, so I have to make sure I toggle the address bar back to being shown. Either use Command-Shift-Backslash for an English language keyboard, or select "Show Toolbar" from the View menu on the menu bar. Then Command-Option-L will bring up the Downloads window in Safari.) 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