How can i transfer my itunes library from a PC external hard drive to iMac?

I have recently bought a new iMac but my iTunes library is on an external hard drive that is formatted for PC use, this is then linked to my old PC laptop, how can i get the library onto my new iMac?

Drag the entire library to the Mac's internal drive, launch iTunes with the Option key held down, and point it to that library. If the library only contains the music and not the iTunes database files, drag it into the open iTunes application window.
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HOW DO I TRANSFER PC ITUNES FILES FROM WESTERN DIGITAL EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE TO NEW MACBOOK PRO?

I AM VERY EXCITED ABOUT MY NEW MACBOOK PRO AND ITS SUPPOSE TO BE HERE TOMORROW! THERE IS ONE MAJOR CONCERN I HAVE THOUGH, I HAVE ALL MY MUSIC FILES ON MY WESTERN DIGITAL ELEMENTS HARD DRIVE (1TB). THE HD IS FORMATTED FOR WINDOWS THOUGH. I WATCHED YOUTUBE VIDEOS ON HOW TO REFORMAT THE HD TO MAC BUT IT ERASES EVERYTHING OFF THE HD. SO TWO QUESTIONS,
1.HOW DO I TAKE MUSIC OFF OF MY EXTERNAL HD AND PUT IT ON MY NEW MAC EVEN THOUGH ITS WINDOWS FORMAT AND NOT HAVE IT ERASED WHEN I FORMAT TO MAC?
2. HOW DO I REFORMAT THE EXTERNAL HD FROM PC TO MAC AND WHAT OPTION SHOULD I SELECT?
THANKS

I'm very glad your excited about getting your first Mac.
On the Internet, it's not polite to use ALL CAPS BECAUSE IT MEANS YOUR SHOUTING!!!
So with that out of the way.
efromlancaster wrote:
1.HOW DO I TAKE MUSIC OFF OF MY EXTERNAL HD AND PUT IT ON MY NEW MAC EVEN THOUGH ITS WINDOWS FORMAT AND NOT HAVE IT ERASED WHEN I FORMAT TO MAC?
First your Mac is going to need to read the external drive.
Mac's can read exFAT (since 10.6.5), FAT32 and HFS+ (Mac format) external drives.
I'm going to assume your drive is formatted NTFS, the Windows format that is also on the boot drive of Windows machines.
For that your need to install a free piece of software on the Mac here (bookmark this page!)
NTFS Mounter (for WindowsNTFSdrives)
That will allow your Mac to read the NTFS formatted drive. You then get all your files off that you want to save.
efromlancaster wrote:
2. HOW DO I REFORMAT THE EXTERNAL HD FROM PC TO MAC AND WHAT OPTION SHOULD I SELECT?
Once you have gotten all your files off, in the Applications/Utilities folder on the Mac is a program called Disk Utility and it looks like this.
You select your external drive on the left and click Erase > Format > exFAT and click Erase. A warning will pop up and you say ok.
The exFAT format can be read on both Windows PC's and Mac's. Allows for large file sizes over 4GB.
Now this format is for going between Windows and a Mac. Windows Vista and 7 can read this format fine, if you have XP you need to download a free update for exFAT from Microsoft (its easy to find, just search for "exFAT XP microsoft")
Now! however there has been one report that the exFAT formatted on a Mac didn't work on the PC. So if that happens, just format the drive exFAT on Windows first, then the Mac should see it. So check first before doing anything and have a copy of the data elsewhere just in case.
Now if you intend to use the external drive for TimeMachine or a Carbon Copy Cloner/Superduper clone (like "Ghosting") of the OS X boot drive, then you need to format the drive HFS+ journaled in Disk Utility and it cant' be read natively in most cases by a PC unless you install adiditonal software on the PC. (and likely the PC can't read a TimeMachine drive, I don't know I haven't tried it, so your on your own on that)

How can I transfer my iTunes library from one comptuer to another in my houser

how can i transfer my itunes library from one computer in my house to another in my house?

Type "move itunes library" into the google search bar

I'm sorry for repeating this, but i have not found a clear answer. i have a macbook wit iTunes library, an iMac, and a time capsule. how can i transfer my itunes library from TC backup to the iMac? thank you -

i'm sorry for repeating this, but i have not found a clear, step-by-step answer in several hours.
i have a macbook with iTunes library, a new iMac, and a new time capsule. how can i transfer my itunes library from TC backup to the iMac?
(sharing the iTunes library between the macbook & iMack requires both machines and seems silly ...)
thank you -

No.

How can i transfer my itunes library from my ipod to my laptop

how can i transfer my itunes library from my ipod to a new laptop

3 things you need to transfer music from iPod to itunes: iPod, computer, iTunes.
step 1 connect your ipod to your computer via the white USB cable.
step 2 open My Computer, or just Computer from the start menu and look for the ipod drive. It should be in the (F:) drive. You will see the ipod logo in the listing of disk drives.
step 3 Now you should have a new folder called ipod_control. Open that folder up and you should see the following: Calendar, Contacts, ipod_control, notes, photos, ect. If you are trying to save all of your music then the ipod_control folder is the only one you need to worry about.
step 3 Open the ipod_control folder then open the music folder. Copy each one of those folders (should look similar to these: F00, F01 ...) onto your computer.
step 3 Open itunes and insert the new folder you created on your computer's desktop into: library ---> Music

HT4527 How can I transfer my iTunes library from my iPad to my new computer?

My hard drive crashed without recent backup and I would like to transfer my iTunes library from my iPad to the new hard drive. Some tunes transferred and some didn't. Thanks.

Non-iTunes purchases cannot be transferred from an iDevice to computer via iTunes.
The simplest solution is to simply move the ENTIRE iTunes folder from the old computer to the new computer. Why anyone would choose to make life more difficult by screwing around with transferring purchases from an iDevice and using 3rd party software to extract non-iTunes purchases is beyond me.
IF for some reason there is no backup of the old computer and/or the old computer is no longer accessible, then try google for solutions.
Do yourself a favor going forward, backup your media and other important data.

How can I Transfer my iTunes Library from my old computer to my new?

I just bought a new MacBook Pro (my first Mac) and I am trying to figure out how I can get my library from my iTunes off of my old computer onto my new one? I thought that it was saved by accounts, so when I signed into my iTunes on my new MacBook, all of the songs would be there or automatically transfer into it. This did not happen. Is there a way to do this? I want all my music and movies back!
Thank you.

See Here for one way
iTunes: How to move your music to a new computer
Or...
From your Old Computer... Copy your ENTIRE iTunes FOLDER to an External Drive... and then from the External Drive to your New Computer..
An Added Bonus is that you will then have a Backup of iTunes...
Backup iTunes to an External Drive
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1751
Also there is this
By Turingtest2 See this User Tip. for Backing Up to Ext Drive
If your Old Computer is a PC... See Here...
Move iTunes Library from PC to MAC
http://www.macworld.com/article/146958/2010/03/move_itunes_windows_mac.html

How can I transfer my iTunes library from my laptop to an external drive connected to my time capsule? I want to be able to access the music from several devices by wifi and am a newbie to network stuff.

I have a 1TB Time capsule, I would like to attach a USB drive to the Time Capsule and transfer my iTunes Library to it so I can run itunes from wifi. I am new to network stuff. My current iTunes library is on a USB drive velcro'd to the back of my Macbook - rather inconvenient, the USB port is loose. The music files are external but the library files with ratings/play counts are in the iTunes folder. Advice please? Be gentle and assume I know nothing please!
Thanks
scott

Setting it up the way you have with the library on the internal and just the media on the external makes it a lot more tricky to move things around. If it was all on the external you could do in the time it takes to copy the files plus about 20 seconds.
You can use the same library file, except in that file are references pointing to the media files on the USB drive. Are you planning on doing this with the same USB drive that you are using right now>? It is possible it may work. If the configuration is that you have SongA on USB drive Fred, as long as the drive remains named Fred then you should be able to move it to a different point of attachment. If you are planning on using a different USb drive you can try renaming the new USB drive to the exact same name as the existing one and maybe trick iTunes into not noticing the difference.
This is where having as much detail as possible when posting an issue is helpful so we don't have to consider every possible configuration.

How can i transfer my iTunes library from the iPod Touch to my new Windows 7 computer?

My old computer died and I need to move the iTunes library from my iPod Touch to the new Windows 7 computer - how can I do that?

Try this post.
tt2

How can i transfer my itunes library from windows pc to imac

Can somebody help me? Im trying to shift my itunes library from my windows pc to my imac. Is this posible?

Welcome to the Apple Support Communities
It's possible and easy. The best way to transfer the iTunes library is to use an external drive. Follow these steps > http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1751?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US
You have to do the "Restoring your iTunes Library backup" on the iMac, so you will get the iTunes library you had on the PC onto the iMac

How can I transfer my itunes library from one computer to another?

I have my itunes on my laptop which is dying. The cdrw drive is broken so I cannot make a backup copy of itunes. Therefore, I would like to transfer my itunes into my new desktop computer which has a DVD-RW drive. This way I will be able to backup my itunes once it is transferred onto the desktop. I have a 1GB flash USB drive. Could I use this to transport the itunes data from the laptop to the desktop? Any other suggestions? I have about 2GB of songs on my itunes on the laptop. I also have about 1GB of podcasts and video podcasts. Will this transfer also? THank

These article reference using an iPod, but really they apply to almost any removable storage you want to use like an external hard drive or a USB thumb drive.
How to use your iPod to move your music to a new computer using iTunes7
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=300173
How to use your iPod to move your music to a new computer using iTunes6
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304304
Patrick

HT4796 so how do I transfer my itune library from my back up to my new iMac as the old windows PC is dead ?

How do I transfer my iTunes backed up library to my new IMac when the old windows PC is now dead -hence why I purcahsed the Imac.

iTunes: How to move [or copy] your music to a new computer [or another drive] - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4527
do not confuse moving your whole folder and library with moving just media files as in
iTunes for Mac: Moving your iTunes Media folder - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1449
Quick answer if you let iTunes manage your music: Copy the entire iTunes folder (and in doing so all its subfolders and files) intact to the other drive. Start iTunes with the option key held down and guide it to the new location of the library.
Macworld - How to transfer iTunes libraries between PC and Mac - http://www.macworld.com/article/46248/2005/08/shiftitunes.html

Can I put my itunes library on to an external hard drive

I'm looking to get some space off my pc. I have a lot of music stored on my hard drive and I want to put my itunes library onto an external hard drive. I have over 200 more cd's that I want to load into itunes account but i don't want to pay for getting more storage in my cloud when I have a 1 tb extrnal hard drive that I can use. Does anyone know if this would work? Any advice.......

Copy your ENTIRE iTunes FOLDER to an External Drive...
Full Details Here > http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1751
Also see this migrate iTunes library post by turingtest2
To Operate iTunes from the External Drive...
On Windows, hold Shift, launch iTunes and select Choose library... and select the iTunes folder you copied to the external drive.
And also make sure that all is working to your Satisfaction before Deleting anything off your Internal Hard Drive

Old Itunes library (from PC) on external hard drive - Mac won't recognise

I feel like I've tried absolutely everything, so hopefully someone here can help.
I had my Itunes library stored on an external disc. This was when I was using Itunes on a PC. It all ran fine....
Now we've upgraded to a Mac and for the life of me I cannot get Itunes to recognise the library.
First I just tried changing the folder location with no luck. Now I've tried holding down alt when starting Itunes, I've located the folder, and at first it seemed all was well as the albums (sans artwork) all appeared in Itunes. But when I try to play them or send songs to my Iphone, it says it can't locate the file. I've tried to then manually point it to the external drive and the old library and it still won't recognise it.
Can anyone suggest anything??

AnnieeR wrote:
Can anyone suggest anything??
these two reads may be helpful: one and two.

How can i transfer my iTunes library from old computer to new with all artwork and tags intact?

Is it possible to just copy the iTunes folder on my Windows PC from the old computer to a hard drive and then to the new Mac Book, and have the library look the same? Importing the files using the "add folder to library" function results in many files coming up with "unknown artist" and/or "unknown album." But I didn't think just copying the iTunes folder from one computer to the other would work, without somehow also using the "add folder to library" function.
I know there are other questions on site (one by me, actually), but I was hoping for any more information. Many thanks, in advance.

FYI, just in case anyone sees this and has the same problem, I posted another question beginning with the words "How can I get all music "tags" to transfer . . . " which outlines a solution. Good luck to anyone with the same issue - the transfer can be done!

How can i transfer my itunes library from a PC external hard drive to iMac?

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