How do i combine iTunes libraries ? from old Windows machine to my Mac?

Hi there...I have an expiring Windows machine where my kids first sync'd their iPods....That machine is dying and i want to bring those songs (hundreds!) to my Mac computer....But I already have lots of music on my Mac....every time my kids have tried connecting their iPods to the Mac it tells them that it will erase their music and install the music I have on the Mac....So...is there a way for me to add the music from the Windows machine to my Mac library? Or...since they each have an account on the Mac...can each account have its own iTunes where they could bring in their music? that way they could at least save the songs they have in their iPods. i know the music will not be transferred from the iPod to the Mac but I have backup diskettes I made on the windows machine. Can i use those? I am hoping I do not lose all that music ($$$)

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Moving entire iTunes library from a windows machine to a mac

Hi I just bought a mac and I need a way to transfer my entire iTunes library to the mac. I have my mac and pc connected via FTP I was just.wondering if it is as easy as dragging the library folder to the iTunes folder on the mac.
Thank You

These pages may be of some interest/help:
How to move an iTunes library from a PC to Mac (and back)
How to move your iTunes library from Windows to Mac

How do I delete itunes library and move library from old windows machine to

My daughter bought a new macbook and would like to move her itunes library from the windows machine to the mac. I copied it to the mac and moved the existing itunes folder to the trash. By the way, she got 3 free downloads from Apple and they were in the library I moved to the trash bin. I then moved the backup folder to the location of the itunes folder I had deleted. When I open itunes, it sees the 3 songs in the deleted folder. How do I get itunes to recognoze the new itunes folder?

Thank you. As I understand it, if the original iTunes folder had never been populated, we would have been able to move the library exported from Windows into iTunes and preserve the playlists. Because my daughter downloaded 3 songs she does not even like, we have no way of preserving playlists? There must be some way to remove all connections to the first library. Is it possible remove the iTunes application and then either re-install it from the original disks or else download it. I know you can download iTunes for Windows, not sure if it is there for Macs. My guess is that if she starts itunes from scratch, there would be no references to the intial DB and we could then move in the folder from Windows without a problem.

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Moving my iTunes library from a Windows PC to a Mac

I did do a search on this topic on both the Apple website and in the forums but couldn't find anything helpful. How do I get my iTunes library from my Windows machine to my new iMac? Thanks!

The simplest way to move your iTunes library from a PC to a Mac is:
• Locate the iTunes folder on your PC (My Documents > Music > iTunes)
• Copy the entire folder to your Mac (use a USB flash drive, or an external hard drive)
• Put the iTunes folder in the corresponding place on your Mac (Home > Music > iTunes)
• Launch iTunes on your Mac
With a bit of luck, your Mac should understand all of the files and their arrangement, and iTunes should display your library.

Transferring entire iTunes library from a Windows PC to a Mac.

Can someone please leave a simple, step by step guide to help me move my iTunes library from a Windows PC to a Mac? I want an identical library on my Mac with play counts, playlists, device backups and all of that stuff. I don't care if it takes a long time to do as long as it is simple! Thanks.

I can't find anything helpful! I want a way to copy the entire library with device backups, playlists and all that stuff! I want it to be like a mirror of the library on my PC!

How can I transfer itunes library from old pc to new imac?

I just got a new iMac and am trying to transfer iTunes library from old PC (barely running) to new iMac. I tried through Home Sharing but couldn't find how to sync. Is it necessary to get Firewire? Or should I sync it from my iPad? I'd like to avoid the middleman. Thanks!

Try this article too - http://www.myfirstmac.com/index.php/mac/articles/how-do-i-move-my-itunes-library -from-pc-to-mac-and-keep-my-settings-intact
MJ

How do i combine 2 libraries from 2 ipods onto 1 computer?

How do I combine the libraries of 2 ipods that were on 2 computers onto the same computer? I have one of them on an external harddrive but I am afraid that if I plug it into the desktop computer it will make me choose which one I want! I want to combine them. Please help

Can you create a BI publisher report with two data models that have the Answers Request as a data source and then generate the xml and use the concatenated data set for the BI publisher report? or are there issues that prevent you from doing so?
I believe in your scenario, it is not possible to have a combined Answers request..
Thanks,
BIPuser

HT1660 how do i transfer itune songs from old ipod to new ipod

I brougt an ipod touch 5th generation, previously i had a classic ipod. How do i transfer my music from old ipod to new. please help.

All of the music should be on your computer. just sync it to the new ipod

Adding a Serial ATA Drive from old windows machine?

Hi,
I have recently bought a new Mac Pro, to complete my conversion from Windows to Mac. However, in my old Windows machine, I have a 120GB Serial ATA hard drive.
I believe that I wouldn't be able to simply put this 120GB drive into my Mac Pro, as it is in NTFS format, which Mac cannot understand. I think that it has to be in FAT32 format, correct? So, if I was to re-format this serial ATA drive into FAT32, would it be able to work in my machine? Or are there more compatibility issues I might face? (Make, Model, Age issues?). I assume most SATA drives are similar, and that it should work, but I thought I should probably check before attempting it!
Thanks,
Steve

Any SATA drive can be installed in the Mac Pro. OS X can read an NTFS drive but it cannot write to it. However, if you just want to use the drive with OS X then you should repartition and reformat the drive for OS X:
Extended Hard Drive Preparation
1. Open Disk Utility in the Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Set the number of partitions from the dropdown menu (use 1 partition unless you wish to make more.) Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button and set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the volume(s) mount on the Desktop.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process will take 30 minutes to an hour or more depending upon the drive size.

How Do I Combine iTunes Libraries? - I just need the content (not playlists, etc.)

I have two very large iTunes libraries that I'd like to combine into one.
To complicate the issue, the "old" library is larger because I had more space on an external drive at the time. The "new" library (the one I want to add to) is essentially a subset of the old library and I'd like to keep it as my main library.
So, how can I bring over the music from my "old" library into my "new" library?
And, is it possible to prevent it from creating duplicate songs?
To help explain the issue further, I have about 29,000 songs in my "main" library. I have about 40,000 songs (including those 29,000 songs) in my "old" library. How can I get those 11,000 songs into my "main" library.
THANKS IN ADVANCE FOR ALL THE HELP!!

Quick question: Will this result in creating duplicates?
Probably not. If the song is already in iTunes, it shouldn't add them again (but never say never).
If it doesn't add them again, it'll put them in a folder named Not added to iTunes (or something like this) in the Automatically add to iTunes folder. Does this with anythoing you put in there that is not added to iTunes.
You can try with a few dozen songs (that are already in iTunes) and see what happens.
Does't matter if iTunes is open or closed but nothing will happen with the songs inAutomatically add to iTunes folder until you open iTunes.

Combining iTunes Libraries from laptop and desktop--duplicates?

I have been through an iTunes search, but can't seem to find an answer to this question. I want to combine all of the music on my laptop, with my mac-mini iTunes music file (on an external drive). I know I can hook the two together and do an "add to library," but I am running 30 gigs or so on the laptop, and more than 70 on the main computer. Will doing this add two copies of duplicates (which would create a "clean-up" nightmare), or will iTunes recognize and skip the duplicates? There is simply too much time involved not to know in advance. Any help appreciated.
Also, I wrote a year or so ago that I have ITunes start up immediately every tme I reboot and want to know how to turn it off. Other folks said they had the same problem, but no solution was ever offered. Anything new on this?
Thanks--

I found your post because im doing the exact same thing..sort of. I had a mac pro that was ahem taken from me about a year ago. Since then ive been using my macbook laptop for my itunes and my iphone syncing. Now that I have my Mac Pro back, im in the process of merging both to my mac pro and using the mac pro as my "primary" itunes library.
Here is my solution..
1) Make sure both versions of itunes are the same on each computer! Start Itunes, click Itunes>Check for Updates.
2) In Itunes, click File>Display duplicates. Clean up anything that needs it.
3) In Itunes, click File>Library>Organize Library then check the box that says "Upgrade to Itunes media organization." If you have already done this previously, you will only see a grayed out box and a message stating that your media is already organized as a itunes media folder. DO NOT CHECK THE BOX THAT SAYS CONSOLIDATE FILES.
(step 4 is optional, I've been using Itunes for many years and it seems every version they change their folder structure (eg, Audiobooks is now books, etc. also, in the past, the folder was Itunes Music, now with version 9 its Itunes Media) I decided I would start clean with the latest Itunes 9 folder structure so I did exactly that!)
4) In Itunes, click Itunes>Preferences>Advanced. Under Itunes Media Folder Location, change to your new path. for example, mine originally said /users/Geoff/Music/Itunes/Itunes Music. I created a new folder called Itunes Media in the Itunes folder so now mine says: /users/Geoff/Music/Itunes/Itunes Media. Like I mentioned before , the main advantage to this is to have the latest folder structure in itunes 9 and not have a bunch of old folders from previous itunes versions.
5) In Itunes do a File>Library>Organize Library then click the checkbox next to "Consolidate Files". When you hit ok what this does is copies all your music, etc to your new folder that you made in step 4. If you didnt make a new folder in step 4, it will simply just reorganize to the latest itunes 9 folder structure and leave the older itunes folders on your computer. (Im a neat freak so thats why I went with step 4 and made a whole new folder for my Itunes Music) If you did create a new folder called Itunes Media (or whatever you chose to call it) make sure you DELETE the old folder (itunes music or whatever you had originally) or you will have 2 folders with the same things in them, wasting alot of hard drive space.
6) Now you have to make a decision which library you would like to keep. yes, we will be merging, but we need to use ONE of the libraries in itunes. In my case, 75% of my stuff was on my laptop, so I decided to keep its library and use it on my Mac Pro (also, my Iphone is synced to my laptop as well so that was another reason I used that one. If one of the itunes libraries your merging is also used to sync your iphone I recommend using that library. ((just how I did it, YMMV)) For simplicity, lets call the library your going to KEEP the source, and the other copy the destination. Once you have decided which library is going to be the source, create a folder on the OTHER computer's desktop (the destination) and call it "itunes backup".
7) Start up Itunes one last time on the Destination computer and export any playlists you want with the new library. To do this, click the playlist, then File>Library>Export Playlist. When you export, it will ask you what format you would like. I just picked Plain Text. I exported my playlists to my desktop, but you can export them wherever you like.
Also, you need to check the movies, tv shows, podcasts, books and ringtones on each computer and write down a list of things you will need to merge from the destination computer to the new library. (eg, i had a few audiobooks on my destination machine that I didnt have on my laptop. I also had a few tv shows and podcasts on my destination machine I didnt have on my laptop. Since i will be using the library from my laptop on the destination machine, I wrote them down so that I could import them later and not worry about duplicates. (If you dont care about duplicates then I guess you dont need to write anything down and you can sort the dupes later in itunes when your done.)
8) on the destination computer (the one we created the folder on the desktop in the previous step), make sure itunes is NOT running, then open finder and go to the music folder, and then go to the folder Itunes. In this folder you will see a file called iTunes Library. Drag it to the folder you created on the desktop called Itunes backup. Next you will see a file called iTunes Music Library.xml
Drag this file as well to the folder on the desktop called iTunes Backup.
9) Now while still looking in the iTunes folder, you will see either a folder called iTunes Music or a folder called iTunes Media. (depending if you did step 4 or not above). Whichever folder you have, drag it as well to the folder on the desktop called iTunes Backup.
10) now, on the SOURCE machine (the one your going to use the iTunes library from) open finder and go to the Music folder, and then to the iTunes folder. Copy the iTunes folder and everything in it to the destination computer. In my case, since both my computers are on a network, I just copied it to the public folder on the destination computer. You can do this, or use a external harddrive, etc. Just make sure when you copy it to the destination computer, you DONT copy it to the Music folder.
11) After the copy is done, You should now go to the destination computer and go to the iTunes folder you just copied from the Source computer. We now need to copy 2 things (one file and one folder). Inside the iTunes folder drag the file "iTunes Library" to the /music/iTunes folder on the destination machine.
12) Lastly, now drag the folder "iTunes Media" (or iTunes Music) to the /music/iTunes folder on the destination computer.
13) start up itunes and go to iTunes>Preferences>Advanced and make sure the proper path is displayed in the iTunes Folder Media Location (it should be the path we copied the 2 files to, (eg, /music/iTunes.)
At this point, you should have a working copy of iTunes from your SOURCE machine running on the destination machine. next we need to merge the last few things to finish.
14) In iTunes, click File>Add to Library and browse to the folder on your desktop called "iTunes Backup". Inside the iTunes Music folder (or iTunes Media folder) click the music folder and then click choose to import the music.
15) next, if needed, in Itunes, click File>Add to Library and pick any Movies, Tv Shows, Books, etc that you didnt have and import them into your itunes library. If everything was the same on both machines, you dont have to do anything and you can skip this step. But if your like me, and had some things in your destination iTunes library you didnt have in your source, you will need to import them. This is where the list in step 7 comes in handy.
16) lastly, in iTunes, click File>Library>Import Playlist and import any playlists you exported in step 7
17) re download your album art and then the last thing you have to do is delete your music dupes and then your finished. To see a list of dupes, in iTunes, click File>Display Duplicates. You can either manually delete the duplicates (make sure you pick KEEP FILES when it asks if you would like to keep the file or delete it from the hard drive.) or use a 3rd party program like tidy songs or something.
Hope this tutorial was helpful, I spent way too long making it..lol..
And the answer to your second question... to stop auto start of itunes. Try clicking the apple logo in the top left corner, then click System Preferences, then click Accounts, then you will see a "Login Items" tab that shows whats starting up at login. Hope this helps.
If you have any questions or comments let me know, ill follow this thread for awhile to help if you need it.
Message was edited by: What2be1
Message was edited by: What2be1
Message was edited by: What2be1

Combining iTunes libraries from separate iPads or PCs

My wife and I both use iPads almost exclusively and only keep our old Windows PCs to basically house our iTunes libraries and a large no. of photos. Can I combine both iTunes libraries onto a Macbook Pro either from our iPads or our old PCs? And if so how?

Hello Chet Black1,
Thank you for the question. The article below outlines several methods to transfer your music from your previous computer to your new computer.
Home Sharing is the easiest way to transfer your music from one computer to another, but I recommend reviewing the options available in the table to decide which method would work best for you:
The following table compares the methods to move music from your old computer to your new computer.
Method
Considerations
Home Sharing
The easiest option, as long as your new computer is already connected to the Internet.
External drive
Requires additional hardware but backs up your iTunes library.
Transferring purchases
Fastest, but only moves the content you purchased from the iTunes Store. Also requires an iPhone, iPad, or iPod with the content on it.
Windows Migration Assistant
Works best for migrating from an old PC to a new Mac, and transfers more than iTunes.
You can find the steps for each of these methods in the article:
iTunes: How to move your music to a new computer
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4527
Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.
Best,
Sheila M.

How do I combine two libraries from two different computers?

My wife and I have two libraries on two windows computers. She wants to add my songs to her library. I do not wish to add her songs to mine. Can we do this? How is it done?
All songs on my iPod have been purchased from iTunes. Her library is half purchased from iTunes, using the same iTunes account, and half from CDs that she's loaded.
OK, rookie question. But we're headed on vacation and I want my iPod back for the trip.
Thx!

You can transfer the iTunes songs from your iPod to her computer, just remember two things.
1) Set your iPod to manual management before connecting to another computer so you don't accidentally erase it. You can change it back to auto-syncing on your own computer when you are finished:
Using iPod with Multiple computers
Managing content manually on iPod and iPhone
2) Authorise your wife's computer to play songs from your iTunes Store account:
About iTunes Music Store Authorisation and Deauthorisation
Copying iTunes Store purchases from your iPod or iPhone to a computer

How do you move iTunes libraries from once computer to another

I'm in the process of purchasing a new Mac computer for my children. Up until now, they had their own iTunes accounts and libraries on my iMac How do I transfer their libraries and accounts to the new computer? Thanks.

Click here and pick the option which best fits your situation.
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How do i combine iTunes libraries ? from old Windows machine to my Mac?

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