Music to iPod Classic: Transfer Both Ways with iMazing 3.6

iMazing 3.6 adds music transfer for any legacy iPod model. Transferring music from iPods back to the computer has been part of our story from the beginning; adding music to the classic, nano, and other non-iOS ones is new. With this release, transfers finally work both ways for all.

Probably Our Oldest Feature Request

TuneAid, our first product, was built to transfer music from iPods and iPhones back to the computer, and it supported every iPod ever made, the classic included.

TuneAid showed that managing an iPod could be simpler than wrestling with iTunes. Once people had seen that, adding music the same way, selectively, with a straightforward drag and drop, felt like the natural next step. iTunes could do it, but too often it came with the threat of a sync that would remove anything not already in the computer's library. iMazing later made two-way music transfers possible for iOS devices, but the classic and its relatives remained the exception.

For a while, that mattered less. Fewer people were using classics, and music listening moved almost entirely to streaming. Then the iPod classic began showing up in pockets again.

The Classic Is Back

Apple discontinued the iPod classic in 2014, but the device never quite disappeared. In fact, demand is now growing again. eBay searches were up 25 percent year over year in 2025, and resale prices have risen 60 percent since 2023. Part of the appeal is a finite, offline library, a way of listening The Atlantic recently profiled and which Tony Fadell, the iPod's original lead, described as "convenient, but not connected". There is also a practical reason: with smartphones now banned in many schools worldwide, a music-only device is often what students may still carry.

Loading Music in 2026

In 2026, the official path is narrower than it used to be. iTunes left the Mac in 2019, and owners of iPods classic report connection and sync problems on recent macOS versions. On Windows, iTunes and the Apple Devices app still handle legacy iPods, but updates have repeatedly broken device recognition before later patches restored it. Rockbox is a free, remarkable community project that keeps iPods alive by replacing Apple’s firmware. iMazing 3.6 takes another route: free music transfer while preserving the classic’s original interface and accessory compatibility.

What’s Changing in iMazing 3.6

iMazing 3.6 lets anyone add music to an iPod classic for free, directly from a Mac or PC, with no iTunes and no sync to configure. Support covers nearly the entire iPod line: classic, mini, nano, and touch, and even shuffle on Windows. The device itself stays exactly as Apple shipped it, with the original firmware, click wheel interface, and accessory compatibility intact.

iPod classic music transfer is only one part of iMazing 3.6. The release also introduces Unified Logs, brings iMazing Configurator to Windows, and includes several fixes and workflow refinements.

Read more about iMazing 3.6 and everything it brings in this dedicated blog post.

Update to 3.6 Today

iMazing 3.6 is available now as a free update for all iMazing 3 users.