Change itunes from PC to Mac with external drive

Been using a Dell with itunes for my music system in mt home. I installed an additional 80G that i've maxed out with tunes. This is in addition to the 30G that came with the system. I have a Mini and just purchased a 500G Western digital external drive. I want to transfer all the music on the 80G (PC/Windows)to the 500G(which is not yet formatted)and set the Mini up as the music system. Could use some pointers on the best way to do this.
Many thanks

First, make sure that the hard drive is formatted for FAT32; then it can be used by either the PC or the Mac.
Then the easiest way will be to just drag the entire iTunes folder to the external hard drive (the one actually titled "iTunes", containing the iTunes Music folder and the iTunes library files). Then connect the drive to the Mac, hold down the Option key and launch iTunes. You'll get a dialog box offering to either create a new iTunes library or use an existing one. Choose the "use existing" option and select the iTunes folder on the external drive. Then just make sure the drive is connected and mounted on the Mac before you launch iTunes (otherwise it will reset back to the default location on the internal drive).
Hope this helps.

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I've read the numerous articles on transferring one's itunes library from a windows machine to a mac and I *think* I've got the details sorted (have itunes copy everything and then organize my library, then copy whole folder to external drive). I only have one itunes account but it my full library and itunes account is used across different windows user accounts.
My mac is setup with multiple user accounts and I'd like to have a single library and single itunes account (same apps, etc.,). I'm not quite sure how to migrate the library from windows and then set it up on the mac such that all mac user accounts are sharing the same library and itunes account. Any guidance?
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See these support documents:
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Moving iTunes from PC to Mac with another itunes already on it!

I have a click wheel ipod (approx 2 years old) and it has died on me. I'm going to get a new ipod but I want to know how I move my itunes from my PC to my boyfriend's Mac. He already has itunes (and a photo ipod) on his mac but we want to dedicate his computer to music and have both of our ipods (his current one and my new one) associated with his mac.
How do I do this without losing either one of our itunes libraries?
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This page may be of some help: How to move an iTunes library from a PC to Mac (and back)

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I recently switched from PC (Dell Inspiron) to Mac (MacBook) and am having some serious difficulties getting my iTunes to cooperate.
I used an external drive as my main iTunes library on my PC. I would like to continue doing this with my new Mac because my library is quite large. I know it is not as simple as pointing to the folder on the external HD from within the Mac. I have read all the posts out there and none of the address my issue specifically.
To reiterate, I currently am using an external HD with my PC that contains my iTunes library. I am now using my Macbook as my main computer and want to continue using the same external drive because my library is too large to import to the internal HD. How do I get the iTunes on my MacBook to read (point to?) the external drive where all of my media (music, podcasts, TV, Movies, Games, etc) reside without losing any information and/or files?
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I pretty much did the same thing (switched from PC to Mac) and had the same issue and this is how I set it:
go to preferences then click on the advanced tab, then on general
then for the folder just click 'change' and set it to be what your folder with all your music is on (on the external). I unchecked the 'copy files to itunes music folder...' as well (not sure this is needed, but didn't want to experiment it copying everything again)
then I went to File > Add to Library, selected the same folder and done. It will take a bit as it goes through the whole library. I guess after this you could go back to preferences and check that copy to itunes folder so any future additions get put on the external.
I hope that helps.

Problems moving library from pc to mac via external drive

Hi, I have searched hi&lo for an answer to my problem, and now I'm having another problem. I have just got a macbook and had all my music on an external drive in WMA format. I dragged my library into itunes on a pc to transfer it all to mp3 format so I could play it on my mac. That took some time (I have about 50GB worth of music) but it worked. Why can't I just save and replace the old wma library with the new mp3 library? Or do I have to save the new one and then delete the old one? I have just spent hours organizing all the files and artwork, etc. So in order to save the itunes music folder and copy it to the external drive I must consolidate, right? Now the new problem. When I click consolidate library I get an error "Coping Music failed: filename was invalid or too long." I have plenty of space on the pc cdrive and on the external drive. I have done export library and it just puts a small xml file there that obviously isn't 50gb of music! The itunes folder looks like it has most files in it, but no artwork, etc? I have read about the find&replace (can't figure that out either) and other articles, but nothing is working for me yet, any help would be greatly appreciated as I have been at this for days and am getting really frustrated. This is my first mac and use of itunes and I don't see why it's so difficult to transfer your music over! Please help!

This page may be of some help: How to move an iTunes library from a PC to Mac (and back)

Format & install Leopard from a second Mac, or external drive?

hi there,
i'm trying to format my macbook, but unfortunately my dvd drive won't read my installation disc. after looking through the forums, it appears that i can put the installation disc on an external drive, and do the formatting from there. unfortunately, though i have a drive to clone my computer onto, i don't have an additional drive to dedicate to this re-formatting. however, my roommate believes there's some way he can use his mac to to format mine. is this possible, and if so, how? is one method (external drive vs. second mac) preferable to another?
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Hi,
I have all my music on an external drive (and my library files on the internal drive). I activated iTunes Match so I can listen to my music when the drive is not present. iTunes Match activated succefully and I see all my music on my iPhone. But when I launch iTunes without the external drive present and I try to play a song it just prompts me to locate the missing file and it doesn't give me the option to play it from the cloud. Is this fuctionality not supported or am I doing something wrong? Thank you in advance.

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Hi there!
I'm a newbie on mac computers.. I've recently purchase a macbook pro retina.
So, I used to use iTunes in windows XP. My old computer crashed and I can't re-open it and save files...
Now, the only file I have from my windows library is an "library.xml" file.
The mp3 files that I had in previous iTunes playlists are in my external I: Drive. (not in Itunes folder).
I was searching in apple communities to see how I can transfer playlists in my new iTunes on mac.
But I can't find a solution to my problem... and unfortunately I don't know if there is...
I've try to set the iTunes media folder location my external hard drive, from Preferences-->Advanced-->iTunes media folder location.
Then I go to file-->library--> import playlist and I open the "library.xml".
The result is that I have all my playlists in tact, like it was in my previous iTunes.... But THERE IS NOT ANY FILE ON THEM!!!
So, I have only the playlists... Could you help me to set my I: drive as default path of itunes library, to get my playlists WITH the mp3s?
PLEASE HELP!
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Should I change the Preferences-->Advanced-->iTunes media folder location back to default folder?
That should be set to wherever you want iTunes to store media in the future (though it sounds like you are planning on keeping this unchecked anyway). It has no effect on where iTunes looks for existing files. That is already determined when you first add the file to iTunes or through later consolidating.
In theory you should be able to start iTunes with a blank library, use the import function to add that .xml file and it should still point to the files on the external. If that is not working then I guess it is possible all those %20 space designations may be causing problems. It's strange you are seeing those coded that way but it is likely some carry-over from Windows. The purpose of adding a test file to the external, then adding it to iTunes, then looking at the .xml is to see how Mac iTunes lists the path for a file on the external added when using the Mac so you can use that as a model for changing other paths if necessary.
Holding down the option key while starting iTunes (make sure you are using the correct key) or immediately after starting it should invoke a screen asking if you want to make a new library. If this is not working for you then I have no idea why because it works for hundreds of other people I have told to do this.

Moving data from pc to mac with external hard drive

I moved my tunes and pictures from my pc to ext hd. Found hd on my mac, but nothing shows up in the hard drive folder on my mac... how come? what did i do wrong?
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u should check if you hd external system i mean is it fat 32 or ntfs because mac doesn't read ntfs file system

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I have Lightroom 5 (Creative Cloud) and currently use a Windows 7 32 bit Laptop and a 1TB external HDD (connected via USB2, designated as my 'G' Drive) that stores my LR Catalogues and the Library of Photos that LR has created. I want to switch to a MacBook pro with 64 Bit OSX. I have looked at other questions on this forum about switching, but I'm concerned that all my current LR catalogues point to this external G drive. I plan to connect my MacBook pro to an external RAID drive via Thunderbolt, which will contain my 'Master' LR5 Catalogues and photo Libraries. My Questions are :
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I Have the same issue did anyone answer your question ?

I've just moved from PC to Mac, with my PC i and using Vmware Player I used to work on 2 Virtual M/C both on 2 external drives, one Windows Server 2000 as operating system and the sec. WindowsXP, is their a way to open these m/c on my mac

I've just moved from PC to Mac, with my PC i and using Vmware Player I used to work on 2 Virtual M/C both on 2 external drives, one Windows Server 2000 as operating system and the sec. WindowsXP, is their a way to open these m/c on my mac

I am so glad to hear about your success. As you are new to the Mac environment, I will be glad to help you more.
You said: "I can't change the setup yet but i have access". I don't understand what you mean about changing the setup! Please let me know more about that.
I also recommend to use Boot Camp, which allows you to install windows on a partition of your internal hard drive. This has many benefits. First, you can restart your computer and start up in windows. This makes your Mac device a complete windows machine and you gain the most from your hardware when working in Windows. Second, if a problem occures to your Mac OS X, you can restart your machine in Windows and prevent your data from getting lost. Third, you can import the Windows installed on the boot camp partition in to the Mac OS X using VMWare Fusion and work with it as a virtual machine. In this situation, VMWare enables you to work directly with your Windows in the boot camp partition. So it does not create a file package for the virtual machine in OS X.
Regarding the data safety and reliablity, I strongly recommend using Time Machine. You can also set it up to back up your virtual machines or not. This is possible to set up in the Virtual Machine Preferences Page in VMWare Fusion, or in the Time Machine preferences page in the System Preferences app of OS X.
Please don't hesitate to ask any other question. I will be glad to help you.

Can I shift my itunes from my PC to an external hard drive with laptop???

Hey
I really want to shift my itunes from my pc (because its running low on memory now) to one of those external hard drive books which will be attached to my laptop ---- but is this possible????
Does anyone know of any manuals that i can read or any information?
Email me on [email protected]
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To move your iTunes music...
1 Quit iTunes.
2 Move the entire iTunes folder including music to the external drive.
3 Restart iTunes holding the Shift key in Windows, Option key in Mac.
4 iTunes will ask to Create new library or Choose existing library. Select Choose existing library and select the library in the folder you just moved.
5 Move the old iTunes folder to the trash but do not empty it.
6 Restart iTunes normally and verify the songs work. If they do, empty the trash.

Change itunes from PC to Mac with external drive

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