HELP! Tiger to Leopard CRISIS!

So here's what happened-
I installed Leopard onto my powerbook, and everything worked fine.
I attempted to open a music recording program(pro tools) on my computer, and later found out this program does not function with leopard.
This program is something that i use almost every day so i needed to downgrade back to Tiger.
I put in the Tiger disk, and it said that i could not downgrade.
I ended installing Tiger onto a different part of my harddrive, however i did not uninstall Leopard.
Now, I want to know how I can get back to the Leopard part of my hard drive, cause all of my files are there.
If anyone has any help please let me know ASAP!!
THANKYOU

Please clarify. Do you have two partitions on the drive? One with 10.4 and one with 10.5? Can you see icons for both partitions on the desktop? If This is the case, you should be able to access any files on either partition regardless of which one you are booted from. Please explain how you are attempting do do this. What error messages if any are you getting?

Similar Messages

BOM Archive Helper (Tiger) v Archive Helper (Leopard) - what gives?

Drop a tar.gz on old Tiger BOM archive helper and it unpacked, compiled or whatever and left you with a disk image on your desktop where you could drag the app to your apps folder.
In Leopard all I seem to get with the "archive helper" is an unpacked folder - behaving more like unStuffit - with files still needing to be compiled.
I took tar.gz file across to Mac running Tiger and it unpacks as usual, so I realized there appears to be a difference between the old BOM Archive Helper and the Leopard "archive helper" --- they left something out it seems to me namely the compiling bit.
Anyone throw any light on this?

Hi, I think the problem is the crazy deal that once unzipped, it can have a completely unrelated Name & creation date, for those I move the ZIP file to a New Folder al it's own, unzip it there by double clicking, and the result should be in that folder.

Help - Migrating from Tiger to Leopard Server via Apple Maintenance Program

Hi, I'm to upgrade an Apple Xserve running Mac OS Tiger to Leopard. There was an Apple Maintenance Program purchased for this Xserve. I plan to do a clean install on the server, however, I don't know where to find Leopard's serial number or if I need one or if I can do a clean install via AMP.
This was the first AMP sold in my country I think and the VAR was a little clueless, it wasn't our plan to upgrade until now and I don't know who to ask.
I have the media, but it wasn't the one that apple sent, the VAR just made me a copy of a Leopard Server. I have the license program agreement, there it is stated the License Number (amp - xx -xxxxx format), the License Date, the Sales Order # and something label PO.
Could somebody please point me out how should I proceed? The server is being moved from its intended use so a clean install is no problem (and prefered).
Thanks in advance
Rafael

You should get the media directly from Apple complete with "xsvr-"serialnumber in an envelope in the (snail-)mail.
We have customers which didn't get the serial or DVD in the envelope so we had to contact Apple again.

Help upgrading from Tiger to Leopard

I need to upgrade from Tiger to Leopard for Quickbooks 2009; can you point me to some resources that will walk me through the process (and point out any pitfalls)? Also is the product that outfits like Amazon or Buy.com are selling what I need to do the upgrade?
Thanks.

Hi ramonelkalsaw;
The only thing I would add it that while the upgrade process does claim that it will preserve things for you I would add that creating a bootable clone before starting the upgrade process is a good thing. It gives you an easy way to get back to where you were before you started very quickly just in case something goes wrong.
Allan

Help reverting to Tiger from Leopard - No boot from CD

Hi there,
I am trying to revert to Tiger from Leopard on an Intel iMac that used to run Tiger. My plan is to wipe the drive and start fresh. Unfortunately, the computer will no longer start up from the Tiger installer DVD or an extrenal drive running Tiger. I am running 10.5.2. Has there been a ROM upgrade or something that prevents now Tiger from running? Any ideas?

Can I please ask a question.
I have leopard (10.5.2) installed on an intel Imac. I have just bought a Formac mini disk (160G USB) because I would like to install Tiger on it. When I bought the Imac it originally came with Tiger (Version 10.4.2) and the disk from what I am reading on these forums would indicate that it is a install disk rather than a retail version. The disk is grey and again I am assuming it is an intel install disk (don't know how to check).
Anyhow, in order to install Tiger onto the USB mini disk, I believe I need to boot up the from Tiger install disk and after the start chime begins hold down the 'C' button from some time until the Tiger install menu appears. My problem is that the Tiger install menu does not appear (tried this on several occasions) and it continues to boot up to Leopard.
Can someone please tell me if I am doing something wrong, or even what I am trying to do is able to be done. I think I have covered and put down all of the problems here ?
Appreciate any advice

Need help reverting to Tiger from Leopard

Last last year I purchased a new iMac that came with Tiger (version 10.4.10) installed. I set it up and everything worked great, including the wireless. Unfortunately, it also came with a Leopard install disk in the box, and, not realizing that Leopard is Apple's equivalent of Vista, I "upgraded" the machine to Leopard. My wireless has not worked well since, and, after waiting for several Leopard updates to "solve" the problem without apparent success, I think I just want to revert back to Tiger.
I was thinking the best thing to do is an Erase and Install using the 10.4.10 install disks that came with the computer. However, I believe that when I "upgraded" to Leopard, Mail 3 modified the mail format used by Mail 2, and similarly with Address Book. So my primary question is how to get my mail and address information back to Tiger. Does anyone know if I archive off my mailboxes from Leopard's Mail 3 in mbox format, will I then be able to successfully import them back into Tiger's Mail 2? Similarly, can I export Leopard Address Book information into vcards and then read them back into Tiger's Address Book? Or are there better ways of doing this?
Thanks in advance!

I have looked through and posted to the Leopard "Getting Online and Networking" forum for months now looking for a solution. I really don't want to go through the "it's the router's fault" discussion anymore with the posters who want to blame everybody but Apple for something that obviously showed up in Leopard. This includes those who somehow believe that only Apple implements the standards correctly and the rest of the world doesn't, so the rest of the world is at fault.
I am just hoping someone who has some knowledge about reverting can answer my original questions in this post about getting e-mail and address book information back into Tiger from Leopard.

Client Upgraded from Tiger to Leopard Can No Longer Connect to Tiger Server

I just finished upgrading a G5 2GHz DP Powermac from Tiger to Leopard. This was an Archive and Install upgrade with importing the old settings. After verifying the account migration, including .Mac connectivity, and fixing all 3rd party software compatibilities/upgrades, I tried to connect to our Tiger 4.11 server by clicking on the server's Icon in the Shared section of the Finder Sidebar. The finder then switches to browse the the server for shares: "Connecting..." is displayed under the tool bar, with a "Share Screen..." and "Connect As..." buttons to the right.
At this point the "Connecting..." remains displayed with the spinning circle in the bottom right of the Finder window.... spinning. This situation continues for several minutes until is seems the system gives up.
If I click on the Path button on the Tool Bar, and go up to the Shared level, ALL the Shares on the Network are displayed, including all the Tiger Client machine shares. I can click on the triangle beside the Tiger Client's icon, and all the drives and home directories on the Mac are listed. All the client shares can be accessed without any issues. NOTE: There are no other Leopard clients on the LAN.
Prior to the Leopard upgrade, this client could connect to the Tiger server as well. All the other clients on the LAN can access the Tiger server also.
On the Leopard client I have tried clicking and the "Connect As..." button and using the menu "Connect to Server" and specifying the server's IP, and I get the same "Connecting..." message with a "non-connecting" result.
I can only assume that somehow the Account Name and password are not being passed correctly. But, using "Connect As..." should resolve that. However, "Connect As..." does not give me a user/password window!
If I check the AFP Access log on the Server, the only messages displayed are "Mounted Volume..." No messages in the error log, and no messages in the "Connections" section.
Can anyone help me figure out why the Leopard client can not connect to the Tiger Server?
My apologies if the description of my problem is a bit disjointed. I have been thrown into server admin and am learning "Trial by Fire".
Any help or suggestions on how to resolve this issue will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Gary
Message was edited by: Gary Sumlak

OK. A quick update.
After waiting for about 10 minutes for the rotating circle in the bottom right corner to stop, I was able to click on the "Connect As..." button. It took another 10 minutes, but the Connect As window eventual popped up. I entered the Userid and Password (saving to Keychain) and was able to see all the sharepoints on the the server. I browsed all the connected drives and folders without issue.
I then disconnected from the server. Reviewing the AFP logs on the server shows messages for the connection Login and Logout.
I then tried to reconnect to the server, and again another 10 minutes wait, although this time the Leopard client eventually connected automatically with the proper User, as per the AFP logs confirms.
Although, the client can now connect to the server, for it to take 10 minutes will be unacceptable to management, not to mention the end user. Tiger clients can connect in a couple seconds!
Is there a way to reduce the Leopard login time to, say, a couple seconds, like it does with the Tiger clients?
Again, any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Gary

Mail no longer working after upgrade Tiger to Leopard

I know that there are some reports out there on the Internet but I can not find a solution that I trust. i upgraded from Tiger to Leopard and ever since my Mail program has completely disappeared. it is no longer in the dock, it is no longer in the applications folder and I went into the Mac Harddrive and found i. I dragged the icon on the dock and when I now start Mail the bar on top of the screen shows me that it started, but no windows come up. Under File most options are grey. i can see that all my mailboxsettings are still there. I have Entorage 2004 as my default mailprogram, but that gave never problems in the past and I use Mail for my google account. Under View in the menu almost everything is grey.
can someone help please? thanks so much.

In addition the article cited, if you ran 10.3 or earlier prior to upgrading to Tiger, once-upon-a-time, you might also need to remove two files with MessageSorting in their names.
Ernie

Can't find mails anymore after update from Tiger to Leopard

I've just updated my IMac from Tiger to Leopard (OSX 10.5.6).
After opening the Mail program I just see the menu bar (no window for the postbox).
When I open the postbox via the menu bar, the box is just empty. Are my mails gone? Where can I find or restore them?
Thanks for help,
Vanillia

Let's force an overall reindexing via the removal of the Envelope Index. Note the special instructions when forcing the reindexing of IMAP or Exchange accounts in the following:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mail/3.0/en/14019.html
This will force the reindexing of all the POP mailboxes and all On My Mac mailboxes. With regard to any IMAP accounts if you have any, the practical result of this action of removing the account folder, is that with the IMAP account still set up in the Preferences, Mail will connect to the IMAP server and create a new account folder, and while doing so will index the messages in the mailbox folders of the IMAP accounts on the server.
Keep me posted.
Ernie

FireWire slows from 60MB/s to 16MB/s when switching from Tiger to Leopard

Hi Folks
This is a big problem for FCP users so I'm posting this here (as well as on the Leopard discussion board). After upgrading to Leopard I noticed a substantial drop in FireWire disk performance. While in Tiger I could sustain 60MB/s against a FireWire800 RAID0 drive. After doing a clean install of Leopard the same drive wouldn't go past 16MB/s reading and about 30MB/s writing.
Note that I'm well aware of the usual suspects - Spotlight, Time Machine, some other process hitting the disk. This is NOT what's going on.
I can boot back and forth between Tiger and Leopard and see the above-mentioned speed change. I even went to the Apple Store and booted my machine off of their vanilla installs of both OSes and verified the problem.
Turns out the specific version of the MacBook Pro is important here. The latest refresh does NOT repro the problem. However, my version, MacBookPro2,2 the first refresh (which was the first to have a FW800 port) DOES repro the problem.
I've tried this with various Oxford-based FireWire drives and seen the same behavior. Anyone else have this version of the MacBook Pro willing to try this and post their results? You could use most any benchmark program to test throughput - Xbench is fine and free - but I've been using this one (free as well and one-button easy):
http://www.aja.com/ajashare/AJAKONA_System_Testv2.app.tar
Thanks and let's hope Apple fixes this one quickly!

You might consider getting a firewire 800 card and see if that helps. Maybe they'd let you try one out at the apple store. Never a bad idea to have a second firewire bus anyway.
Or even better, get a SATA card and some external sata drives (I've got both a firewire800 and sata card for my macbookpro - but I've got the earlier model that only has firewire 400 internally). btw, I'm still on tiger.
Message was edited by: Michael Grenadier

Droplet Script used to work fine in Tiger and Leopard, now doesn't

Hey everyone,
I'd like to apologize in advance, I'm not really good with AppleScript and was only able to create my droplet in the first place by changing little bits of a Droplet example script I found on the internet (I forgot where I found it, but it might even have been here at Apple).
The script worked perfectly fine in Tiger and Leopard but throws an error in Snow Leopard. The error says "Can't make alias "...filepath... "into type file."
The problem is that I can't find the problem in my script. I don't get any indication which line it may be and I hope someone here will be able to help me.
I also tried Script Debugger, but the script works there! So that doesn't help either...
I'd appreciate any help, here is the script:
-- QuickTime supported image formats
property type_list : {"JPEG", "TIFF", "PNGf", "8BPS", "BMPf", "GIFf", "PDF ", "PICT"}
property extension_list : {"jpg", "jpeg", "tif", "tiff", "png", "psd", "bmp", "gif", "jp2", "pdf", "pict", "pct", "sgi", "tga"}
property typeIDs_list : {"public.jpeg", "public.tiff", "public.png", "com.adobe.photoshop-image", "com.microsoft.bmp", "com.compuserve.gif", "public.jpeg-2000", "com.adobe.pdf", "com.apple.pict", "com.sgi.sgi-image", "com.truevision.tga-image"}
-- This droplet processes files dropped onto the applet
on open these_items
repeat with i from 1 to the count of these_items
set this_item to item i of these_items
set the item_info to info for this_item
try
set this_extension to the name extension of item_info
on error
set this_extension to ""
end try
try
set this_filetype to the file type of item_info
on error
set this_filetype to ""
end try
try
set this_typeID to the type identifier of item_info
on error
set this_typeID to ""
end try
if (folder of the item_info is false) and (alias of the item_info is false) and ((this_filetype is in the type_list) or (this_extension is in the extension_list) or (this_typeID is in typeIDs_list)) then
processitem(thisitem)
end if
end repeat
end open
-- this sub-routine processes files
on processitem(thisfile)
-- NOTE that the variable this_item is a file reference in alias format
-- FILE PROCESSING STATEMENTS GOES HERE
tell application "Image Events"
launch
-- get the parent folder of the image file
set the parent_folder to the container of this_file
-- derive new name for the new image file
set the new_name to my addextension(thisfile, "png")
-- look for an existing file
if (exists file new_name of the parent_folder) then
error "A file named \"" & new_name & "\" already exists."
end if
-- open the image file
set this_image to open this_file
-- save in new file. The result is a file ref to the new file
set the new_image to save this_image as PNG in file new_name of the parent_folder with icon
-- purge the open image data
close this_image
end tell
end process_item
on addextension(thisfile, new_extension)
set this_info to the info for this_file
set this_name to the name of this_info
set this_extension to the name extension of this_info
if this_extension is missing value then
set the default_name to this_name
else
set the default_name to text 1 thru -((length of this_extension) + 2) of this_name
end if
return (the default_name & "." & the new_extension)
end add_extension

Here's the faulty line:
--open the image file
*set this_image to open this_file*
The command open doesn't return anything that could be assigned to the variable this_image.
I also wonder if it wouldn't be better to add “as alias” at the end of each of the following two lines:
*set this_info to the info for this_file*
*set the item_info to info for this_item*
I hope this help.

"Moving" Tiger and Leopard OS's from G4 (32b) to G5 (64b)

I plan to image Tiger (10.4) and Leopard (10.5) from my Power Mac G4 (Quicksilver 2002) to a recently acquired a Power Mac G5 (Early 2005). My questions are:
1. Tiger and Leopard were installed on a G4, a 32 bit processor, but the G5 is a 64 bit processor. Do I need to do anything after I’ve “installed” the G4 Tiger and Leopard on the G5 to have them function as 64 bit Operating Systems (a.they can detect which processor they are installed on automagically and don’t need my intervention OR b.I have to toggle something OR c.I have to reinstall one/both of the Operating Systems on the G5 for them to function as 64 bit Operating Systems)?
2. How can I tell if the OS is running as a 32 bit or 64 bit process?
TIA.

Hi Barubin,
I'm no expert on OS X's internals, but I believe Tiger and Leopard's kernel still is 32-Bit, but allows 32-64-bit bridging. In Leopard's Activity Monitor I can only find two apps running in 64-Bit mode:
usbmuxd
IIDCAssistant
The best way of getting 64-Bit is to upgrade to Snow Leopard on Intel, I'm afraid.
Your target-disk method or BDAqua's suggestions should work just fine, but I usually find hdiutil to be generally more reliable, plus I can keep around a system image for safety's sake. When I say reliable, I mean that you can always interrupt the image creation by using CTRL-C or check whether it is actually throwing any errors. The GUI has hung on me on occasions. I also love UNIX, which helps!
I've never done a speed comparison between Disk Utility and its CLI counterparts, but I like the verbosity/flexibility provided by the CLI. It's a matter of taste, really. If you're not comfortable using the CLI, stick to the other options.
The purpose of asr -imagescan (asr stands for Apple Software Restore), is to rebuild the target image and replace it with a checksummed and reordered (optimised) version, so it can then be verified against the contents of your target volume after you're restored the data. Also, scanning the image allows you to do a block restore, which is effectively a blazingly fast blind copy. In a matter of minutes you can easily restore 15 GB of data into your chosen volume, as opposed to not scanning it with asr or Disk Utility and the restore operation defaulting to a normal image mount --> data copy operation, which is slow and inefficient. It's a tradeoff really. You can wait for ages restoring, or creating the image
I rather wait for image creation since it's the safest and cleanest option data-wise.
Check out:
$ man asr
$ man hdiutil
I'm confident it will all work just fine with your heart transplant!
Cheers

I just upgraded my older G5 from tiger to leopard and it is now at 10.5.8, I was unaware that the new system did not support the classic envoirnment and cannot access my 6.0 version of Photoshop, which I use often...how do I get P.S. going again?

I just upgraded my older G5 from tiger to leopard and it is now at 10.5.8, I was unaware that the new system did not support the classic envoirnment and cannot access my 6.0 version of Photoshop, which I use often...how do I get P.S. up and going again?

Niel...
I installed Leopard 10.5.6 and then it upgraded to 10.5.8, when I installed it I had the old info saved to a "previous systems" folder, where most of my artwork, etc. were saved, I have a one terabyte Lacie backup that unfortunately did not work as it was intended...it saved the new info and not the old. I did look into the system preferences folder and found the classic file, of course it wouldn't launch...but I have the old G 5 startup discs and will try to do it as you stated. I will try also to move it out of the previous folders file to my hard drive and see how that works.
thank you for your time and help,
Dennis

Mail app on Tiger and Leopard no longer bring in mail from non-apple servers

My husband's computers use Tiger and Leopard (10.5.8) to access his email on the Mail program. His mail is from Comcast and uses the Comcast server, not apple or iCloud. His mail suddenly stopped working a couple of days ago.....as it did on one of my machines that still uses Tiger. He had not done any updates that could have broken the software. He does not have iCloud except on his phone and he doesn't even have a .mac address. There is no reason for the comcast server to not be able to be accessed by Mail app.
He did finally update everything that needed it and it still does not work. Why would Apple's change over to iCloud break email access from other servers and how can we fix it. He really doesn't want to do his mail on Comcast's web site as it's slow and awkward.
Thanks for any help you all can offer.
Paula

Thank you for answering.
I know it shouldn't have been able to stop those accounts from working on the Mail app but it did.Out of 4 machines, 3 stopped working at the same time. The 4th is on Snow Leopard and continues to get my Comcast mail. But the one Tiger machine and 2 Leopard machines no longer access any mail from any server. Shouldn't be possible, but it happened.
I don't want to delete accounts because I don't want to lose the old email in the different folders on there and the software is acting so bizarrely, I know the mail would be lost.
I checked all the settings and compared them to the one on Snow Leopard that still works. The settings are all the same. The only difference is the OS.
And to make things more frustrating, I found that several entries in my Contacts book were either deleted or scrambled with phone numbers for person A in the entry for say, person C. I mean it's a real mess and this all happened after I got a notice from Apple that they were shutting down all their mobile me stuff and sending everything to iCloud. Syncing is obviously a mess now and I don't even want my stuff sync'd there. My husband has never even signed up for iCloud but since he has an iTunes account, thus an Apple acct, they appear to have automatically put him on iCloud too. And....mail quit working unless he gets it on his iPad or iPhone.
We're fed up with Apple's insistence on total control of it's customers' previously working equipment. We have no desire to upgrade to Lion or it's next iteration. We have been happy with what we have and asked only that it continue to just WORK.
It's become a rotten Apple in the past few years. We've been with them a long time but we're watching other companies closely for something that will do what we need without the draconian control.
I have a feeling the only way to "fix" Mail.app is to upgrade to Lion and we won't be doing that.
Thanks again.

How Do I Import Playlists From Tiger To Leopard?

OK, I give up. The following falls under the category “It Doesn’t Have To Be This Hard.”
I purchased a new iMac and went with the 24 inch Intel 3.06 GHz Core 2 Duo, 10.5.5. Sweet.
With my previous iMac (G5 Rev A., 10.3.9), I had Tiger 10.4.11 installed on an external HD and used it for my iTunes collection. All was well.
Now, with Leopard on the new iMac, I’m stumped as to how I can import the playlists from Tiger’s iTunes. I’ve imported the music and podcasts, etc. from Tiger but the playlists are empty. I have them listed but all except one have no music in them.
So, my questions (after performing a thorough review of the forums and entering every search term I could think of related to this issue) are these:
1. How do I import playlists from Tiger to Leopard so that I get music and playlists?
2. Where are the playlists stored? I cannot find them using a Spotlight search ( using Leopard), nor are they listed in the iTunes music files. So, where does Tiger and/or Leopard keep them?
3. At least one playlist made it from Tiger to Leopard. Why did the other playlists arrive but w/o music in them?
4. Is the problem I have described a common one? If so, why is there no easy fix for it. Or perhaps there is an easy fix but I’m too blind to see it.
Anyone with answers is encouraged to reply. I’ll sign off as “flyboy01” but in reality I’m “Stumped!”
Thanks in advance,
flyboy01

Just so you know, the difference in the version of the operating system has no bearing here as you would have experienced the same issue going from account to account on the same computer because you performed an incomplete iTunes transfer. As you inquired about where playlists are located, I will give you a complete break down of iTunes database structure as well as the proper technique for transferring your library.
_*INSIDE iTUNES*_
*iTunes Components: The Library and the Database Table*
The term library gets thrown around quite a bit when people discuss iTunes, but what you see in iTunes denoted as your libraries (e.g., music, podcasts, TV shows, etc.) is actually just a reference to your actual media library. iTunes is essentially a database package, just like your local public library’s computer-based card catalog system; the difference is that the content is electronic and owned by the user so you can also directly access the content through iTunes instead of having to go and (physically) retrieve it. Your actual library is the collection of media files you have stored on your computer. If you think of it in terms of the real world, your media files are the virtual equivalent of the books, periodicals, microforms, etc., in a real library and the folder or volume in which those media files are contained is the library.
While iTunes will allow you to add media to its library (iTunes library interface) from anywhere on any volume attached to your computer (e.g., branch libraries), iTunes generally expects your library to reside in a single folder (main library). In iTunes that folder is referred to as your iTunes Music folder and by default it is a folder named iTunes Music contained in your iTunes folder (~/Music/iTunes). The music folder can have any name and be located anywhere on any attached volume as long as you inform iTunes of where it is located by changing the iTunes Music folder location in the Advanced tab of iTunes’ preferences.
How you organize music within your music folder is unimportant, but iTunes must know the location of the (root) music folder in order to properly access the media files contained within that directory. The reason for that is because once you have defined a music folder location, or leave the default, that location is where iTunes will automatically place any new content that you add to iTunes’ library. Keeping the location of the music library straight is most important to iTunes users, such as myself, that keep their actual library on a separate volume from the system volume where the iTunes folder is located.
When iTunes uses the term library, it is actually referring to its database table file. Properly designed databases, particularly those that are scalable and that allow records (database entries) to be found or visually organized via multiple keys (metadata), as iTunes does, consist of two basic parts: the database, or source data (records), and the index table(s). In iTunes your media files are the records. Along with the actual media content, those files also contain a number of tags that provide a range of information about that particular media file (e.g., artist, song title, movie title, album, year, etc.).
The database table is the iTunes Library file located in your iTunes folder. That file is actually what iTunes references the vast majority of the time when you are browsing your collection. The table contains metadata about all of the media files in your library and it is that metadata that is displayed in iTunes when you browse your library. When you play content or edit tags, then iTunes directly accesses the files in your library. The table also contains your playlists and playlist folders, so that is the reason that Spotlight would seem to not find them on your computer’s hard drive; Spotlight most likely did list ‘iTunes Music Library.xml’, as that file is an XML version of iTunes database table.
If you copy the iTunes Music Library.xml file to the desktop on your old computer and open it, you will see the basic structure of the table. The first group of entries are the definitions of your media files—the code between the <dict> and </dict> tags—and contain the metadata that is displayed in iTunes and by which you can search and group music in iTunes various views. The definitions also contain metadata defining the location of the media file, if the track is enabled (checked) or disabled (un-checked), the (iTunes) track ID, etc.
If you scroll toward the end of the XML file, you will see the definitions of your playlists and playlist folders as well as some occasional data blocks that look like gibberish. The latter is the text representation of the binary code that defines the criteria for smart playlists. On thing that you will notice about the playlist definitions is that they do not contain detailed track info or metadata for the songs contained within the playlist(s). iTunes is a relational database, so the playlists do not contain any actual data, but instead a list of indices (pointers), the Track IDs, to the definitions for each track you have in your playlists. The definitions listed in the first part of the XML file also contain only a subset of the tracks ID3 tags. The definitions only require metadata for information that is relevant to permitting you to browse and organize your library in iTunes’ interface. In the track definition, the Location metadata is an index and points to the actual media file where the complete set of ID3 tags, as well as the actual media content, reside.
While your media resides in your music folder, the library structure you create in iTunes is actually a simple, albeit long, table stored in a separate file. Another component of iTunes is the artwork database kept in the Album Artwork folder. The Album Artwork folder contains a complex folder tree structure with proprietary .itc files at the leaves. I do not know what the exact structure of the .itc files is, but they play a role in storing image info for the various graphic-based views in iTunes (e.g., CoverFlow). Also, any songs you purchase from the iTunes Store will have the cover art stored in the Album Artwork folder; images that you add manually are stored in the actual media files.
*Transferring Your Library to a New Computer*
Now you see that there is more to iTunes than just your media files. Thus, if you want the playlists that you spent time building to migrate with your music collection simply copying the music folder to the new computer is not going to result in what you want: a complete transfer of the library you dedicated time and energy into organizing. When you transfer music files to a new computer iTunes builds a new library around that content and the only playlists that will be present are the defaults tha come with iTunes; your user-defined playlists will not appear on the new computer if you have not transferred the database table.
In order to successfully transfer iTunes to a new computer you need to move your library and everything that was built around that library. To perform a complete library transfer you need to follow this procedure:
1. *Consolidate your library* If you know for a fact that all of you media files are contained within a single root directory (e.g., iTunes Music), then this step is not necessary. If you do not have the preference to “Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library” enabled, then there is a good chance that you will have orphaned media files and should consolidate your library just in case. To perform library consolidation go to Advanced > Consolidate Library (iTunes 7.x) or File > Library > Consolidate Library (iTunes 8).
2. *Transfer your database* Replace the default iTunes folder on your new Mac with the iTunes folder from your old Mac by transferring the entire folder. When asked if you wish to replace the existing iTunes, do so.
3. *Get the media library* If you keep your music in the default iTunes Music folder contained in the iTunes folder, then you have already performed this step. If not, transfer your music folder from you old Mac to wherever you wish for it to reside on your new Mac.
4. *Set up iTunes* Unless you already started modifying preferences in iTunes on the new Mac, when you launch iTunes you should see your music library just as you did on your old Mac.
a. If your library is in the default location, ~/Music/iTunes/iTunes music folder, iTunes will begin rebuilding your library after it launches. Once that process is completed, you should see your library with playlists and folders intact.
b. If your library is in an alternate location, you will see an empty library, but you should see your playlists and folders, albeit filled with broken links. Go to the Advanced tab in iTunes’ preferences and change the location of the iTunes Music folder to the location of your transferred music library. iTunes will begin rebuilding your library from the alternate folder. Once that process is completed your library should be just as it was on your old Mac.
5. *Keep your library consolidated* To insure that any new media that you add to iTunes stays with your main library when you add content to iTunes make sure the “Copy files” preference is enabled. If the “Copy files” preference is disabled then any content that does not come from the iTunes Store or ripped CDs that you add to your iTunes library will remain in the location where the content was originally placed.
Hopefully this helps you better understand how iTunes works and why simply transferring your media files results in a loss of your library’s structure.

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