Copy iTunes Library to two new Macbooks

Currently all four ipod users in our family use a shared library from one iMac (OSX 10.5.4). However, my daughters are off to college with their new MacBooks. We'd like to copy the library to each MacBook. The library consists of iTune purchases (they select, I pay) and copied CDs. What is the best way to do so?

If the music collection is smaller than 4.5GB, burning the songs to a DVD would be convenient as would copying them to a flash drive. You could also use FireWire target disk mode assuming all the computers are Macs. Connect yours and a notebook using a FireWire cable and then start up one of the two computers while holding the T key. The computer will appear on the desktop of the other computer as a hard drive and the music files can be copied.
Once copied, start up iTunes and select *Add to Library* from the File menu. iTunes will find the music and add it to its library. And don't forget to authorize the new computers.

Similar Messages

  • HT3819 Can I use Home Sharing to permanently Transfer my old iTunes Library to a new macbook pro?

    Hi,
    I have a quick questoin regarding iTunes Home Sharing. 
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    2. If I deauthorise iTunes on my old Power Mac will I lose my music on my new iTunes Library on my Macbook Pro - essentially are the two somehow linked together? I want to erase my old HD, wipe it clean, chuck it in a case and use as a back up storage, and then sell my old Power Mac.
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    Home Sharing is only for PCs that are connected in the same network

  • My iTunes library on my new Macbook will not sync to iPhone 5

    I just got a new MacBook Pro and spent a lot of time organizing my music into new playlists, deleting old music, etc.  When I plugged in my iPhone 5 to update it with the new library, the new playlists I had just created disappeared and it wouldn't sync to the new library.  This was very frustrating to me.  I then did a sort of "test run" with my much older iPod and it seemed to sync fine.  I don't know what to do.  I've tried checking and unchecking the Sync Music box, restarting both my computer and iPhone, and I even restored my iPhone to factory settings.
    It often stops at the "waiting for changes to be applied" stage, or, sometimes, it will sync just some of my music.
    I've about had it.  All I want is for what is exactly in my iTunes library to sync to my iPhone and I can't figure out what is going on.
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    Maybe:
    "Waiting for changes to be applied": Apple Support Communities
    Next try restoring the iPod and resyncing

  • How do i access iTunes library on my new MacBook

    I was previously using a 2009 15" Macbook Pro which i would routinely sync with my iPhones and iPad.  I now have a new Macbook Pro but i cannot access my my iTunes library.  When i sync my iPhone and view the apps section there are no apps to download.  It wants me to pay for music i have already purchased.  I have authorised this laptop, i have signed in with my Apple ID and i have turned on home sharing, but still nothing.
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    The warranty entitles you to complimentary phone support for the first 90 days of ownership.

  • How to copy iPhoto library to my new Macbook?

    I did a search and found some related topics that helped, but I wanted to make sure I got some more detail on this, as it seems to be a bit more complicated than I thought:
    I recently purchased a MacBook Pro, and need to copy my iPhoto library from our iMac to the Pro. So, here's what I did, which apparently is not correct:
    I have a backup of the iPhoto library on an external hard drive, where I simply copy the iPhoto Library folder periodically.
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    From my research here, it sounds like I need to actually copy the iPhoto library from the iMac (or external hard drive) onto my MacBook, and then open them up with iPhoto.
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    And second, how do I delete the thumbnails that are already on my library, since I don't actually see any files? Under iPhoto library in my Finder, there is simply an iPhoto Library "icon."
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    Connect the External Hard Drive to your new computer, quit iPhoto, drag the iPhoto library from the pictures folder to the trash (empty it later after you are all done), drag the entire iPhoto library as a single entity from the EHD to the pictures folder on your new MacBook and launch iPhoto - it will find the iPhoto library you just put in the pictures folder, convert it if needed and you will have on the MB exactly what you had before on the iMac
    LN

  • ITunes Library to a New MacBook Pro

    I've just purchased a new MacBook Pro and would like to move my iTunes library which now resides on my PowerBook to the MacBook Pro.
    Can someone point me in the right direction on how to simply move the music over. I have several gigs worth of music and do have both Mac's on the same network.
    -Michael

    You should be fine if you move your whole iTunes folder (with the Library and the Music folder) over to the new Mac (or your whole user folder, for that matter). Repairing permissions afterwards is always a good idea.

  • I cannot transfer my iTunes library to the new macbook pro from time capsule,what to do?

    what to do to transfer itune library from time capsule into the new mac book pro(retina)?

    You have an Apple Store across the street, how convenient...  I think you should just walk over and ask.
    NOTE:  Your iTunes library exists on your computer.  Unless you subscribe to Apple's iTunes Match service (which matches or uploads your library's songs and playlists into iCloud), you cannot use another computer and access your library.
    However, you can download previous purchases from the iTunes Store (at no cost) into a different iTunes library (not your library), and then set up the iPod to sync to that library, or set it to Manually manage music and videos, and manually load the songs (and other content) to your iPod.  The manual method may be better in this case, since you won't be accessing that computer's iTunes library again.
    To do this, go to the iTunes Store Home screen.  Sign in using your Apple ID (the one you used to make the purchases).  Click Purchased under QUICK LINKS.  On the Purchased screen, you can find and download previous purchases.  It may not be available for audiobook purchases.
    After the iPod has the content, you should probably delete everything you downloaded in the computer's iTunes library.

  • How to transfer my itunes library to my new macbook pro? pleaseeeee

     

    assuming all your media files are in the default location, the simplest way would be to connect the two Macs with a firewire cable, boot the source Mac in Target Disk Mode, and copy the entire iTunes folder (not just the iTunes music folder) from Macintosh HD/users/yourname/music on the source to Macintosh HD/users/yourname/music on the target (overwriting the iTunes folder in place there).

  • I moved my itunes library to my new MacBook Pro from my iMac using an external harddrive following apple's steps. When I plug in my ipod shuffle 4g and try to download voiceover I get The iTunes Library file cannot be saved. An unknown error occured (-54)

    I'm just wondering what step I should start with to resolve this. There's probably a library issue but I'm not really sure where to start with that.
    I'm pretty sure that the voice over is what is giving the error with itunes because when I try to download it, it won't then the error will pop up after a few moments of itunes trying to download it. Thanks for your support!

    Don't know what changed today but it downloaded and installed on the shuffle. So far so good.

  • How can I transfer the music on my Ipod, to my itunes library on my new Macbook Pro?

    I just brought a Macbook Pro, and I want to put all the music onto it, but I can't figure out how to do it....& the majority of the songs I have arent from itunes, so how can I go about doing that? Thanks !

    Transfer iTunes purhases by:
    iTunes Store: Transferring purchases from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod to a computer
    Transfer other music using one of the third-party programs discussed in this previous discussion:
    Best iPod to PC

  • Old iMac external hd library going to new macbook pro library

    i can't seem to find my exact situation on this forum.
    i have an old iMac where i had a hard drive connected to it, which is where my library was.
    i now have a new macbook pro and i want to connect the samr harddrive, with the library on it, and have that operate as the itunes library on the new macbook pro.
    I got it to work flawlessly on iPhoto. I just held "option" when i started the program and it asked me where the library was. I pointed it to the hard drive and it work no problem.
    I tried the same thing for iTunes and when i pointed it to the folder (because there is no itunes packaged file like in iphoto" it gave me a message stating that there was no itunes library in that folder.
    I then tried to go through the preferences / advanced / "change media folder" route, and when i change the folder nothing seems to happen.
    Am I missing a step? help please

    I think I know hte issue but not the immediate solution. Your external drive doesn't have the full library, just the media files. The library files which have all the things you see in hte iTunes browser are on your old computer so you don't see it when you plug the drive into your new computer.
    You could try copying just the library files from the hard drive of your old computer to the same location on your new computer, then try opening hte external drive. This might work.
    Incidentally, mpst people put their whole library, not just hte media files, on their external drives so it is all a neat package for moving between computers.  I don't think, though, that this will be a simple matter of copying the library files to the hard drive because the location references might not work

  • Copying iTunes library onto new MacBook Pro

    I want to copy my existing iTunes library to my shiny new 13" unibody MacBook Pro. Since my 17" MacBook Pro remains my main home computer I want to leave the library intact on that machine - I just want to copy the library onto the new machine (album art and all).
    Is Migration Assistant the way to go or should I drag and drop the existing library onto an external drive and then drop the library into the music folder on the new machine.
    I'm normally quite good at this sort of thing. Honest.

    drjbscott wrote:
    should I drag and drop the existing library onto an external drive and then drop the library into the music folder on the new machine.
    you could use an external. or, you could connect your Macs with a firewire cable, start up the 17" in _*Target Disk Mode*_, then copy the entire iTunes folder (not just the iTunes music folder) to HD/music on the 13" (overwriting the folder in place there). just fire up iTunes on the 13" and everything will be as you are used to on the 17".
    you can then use e.g. _*Home Sharing*_ (or a 3rd party software) to keep both libs in sync.
    enjoy ...
    JGG

  • I am a long time iTunes user but a new MacBook owner! :) I keep the majority of my music files on an external hard drive.   I'm trying to view all those files on my MacBook through iTunes.   With windows you would go to : File/Add To Library, and iTunes w

    I am a long time iTunes user but a new MacBook owner! I keep the majority of my music files on an external hard drive.   I'm trying to view all those files on my MacBook through iTunes.   With windows you would go to : File/Add To Library, and iTunes would add all your selected files to your music library BUT WOULD NOT COPY THEM TO YOUR HARD DRIVE.  In other words, if the external hard drive was connected, you could listen, drag/drop, and edit the files.   When I tried the same thing with my new MacBook... it actually started coping the files to my MacBook harddrive.  I don't want that, it's millions and millions of mp3's that I don't want to keep on my computer, only my external hard drive.   Can anyone help?    I'm sure it's something easy, I'm just so new to the Mac world.   Being an iPhone owner for many many years I'm picking up things fast, but this is getting the best of me!  Help !

    In iTunes 11 uncheck the preferences setting in in the iTunes Preferences panel "Advanced > Copy Files to iTunes Media folder when adding to Library"

  • HT3819 I want to send my itunes library from my old macbook (start up disk nearly full) to my new iMac then delete my itunes library from my old macbook.  Is Homesharing my best choice for this?

    I want to send my itunes library from my old macbook (start up disk nearly full) to my new iMac.   Then delete my itunes library from my old macbook.  Is Homesharing my best choice for this?
    What I don't want to happen is once I delete my itunes library from my old Macbook that the iMac itunes library to delete itself because I am using Homesharing.  Does homesharing sync and make that happen?

    Here is some help.
    https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3849933
    After confirming that all your stuff is on the drive, delete the photos you have copied. You will need to empty the iPhototrash to free up the space.

  • How can I transfer my iTunes library to a new Mac from a Macbook

    How can I transfer my iTunes library to a new Mac from a Macbook

    Type "move itunes library" into the google search bar.
    Copy the entire itunes folder from one computer to the other.
    Use migration assistant.

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