Moving library from a PC to a new Mac

I recently made the move over to the good team (mac) from my desktop PC (I bought an iBook G4.) Anyway, I had already got rid of the PC before i got the iBook so the initial problem is that i no longer have the PC to revert too. However, I do have my iPod with my entire music library on it. (I figured that I could just do it this way.) The main problem/question is how do I transfer the music library on my iPod to iTunes on my new Mac iBook without sacrificing any of my 3,000 songs!?
Thank You VERY Much in Advance!!!

Check out the iPod TroubleShooting FAQ
Basically, you should have considered the move BEFORE trashing the PC. Boxy's link would have been perfect advice if you still had the PC available. With the PC on hand, you have several supported possibilities for transferring the music. With the music only on the iPod, you have a single, unsupported option of trying to offload the music from the iPod. This was specifically designed to be difficult to reduce piracy.
Check out the "Lost Your Music?" links in the FAQ
Also, make backups from iTunes to avoid a repeat of this issue.
Good luck. Give a holler if you have more questions.

Similar Messages

How to move iTunes library from my iBook to my new Mac??

What's the best way to move my current iTunes library from my iBook to my new Mac?
I am sure there's a simple answer I just don't know it yet.
Thanks for your help.

Probably the most straightforward way to get iTunes onto your new computer is to network the two computers and copy your iTunes folder across. This works fine if you have been using iTunes to completely manage your music and all your songs are in iTunes Music not in different folders. Connecting two Mac computers using Ethernet
Copying the whole folder brings with it the iTunes Music folder and also the iTunes Library (iTunes Library.itl in Windows) database file which holds all the information about your songs (Playlists, Ratings, Play Counts, Last Played, Date Added, etc). You'll get more information including the Folder/File structure in this article: What are the iTunes library files?
When you copy the iTunes folder make sure you put it into the same location on the new computer. This has to be the exact same place, on a Mac this would be in Username/Music/. When you open iTunes on the new computer it will be the same as on the original one Songs, Playlists, Play Counts, Ratings etc. When I moved iTunes a while ago for my daughter I was also using the same version of iTunes, not sure how important that is but it's probably worth keeping them the same.
Another way to connect two Macs is to connect them over Firewire and put the one with the iTunes library on it into target mode: How to use FireWire target disk mode

How do I bring up my Itunes library from my PC to my new MAC?

How do I bring up my Itunes library from my PC to my new MAC?

To do it yourself... 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 sync my iTunes library from my iPhone with my new mac mini

Recently my hard drive failed on my mac mini. I had burned a bunch of CDs on the old mac mini and then sync'd it with my iphone. Now the CDs are on my iphone but not on the new mac mini. How can I sync my itunes library from my iphone to my new mac mini?

The iphone is not a backup device.
You need to copy everything from the backup copy of your computer computer to your new one.

What is the easiest way to move my iPhoto library from my macbook to my new mac pro?

What is the easiest way to move my iPhoto library from my macbook to my new mac pro?

Surprisingly easy! Go into the Finder, then into the Photos Library. In there, there will be a file called your iPhoto Library. It holds all your photos, essentially a special type of folder. Using an external hard drive transfer it to the same location on your new Mac. Now, when you boot iPhoto on the new Mac, it will recognise it and you'll see all your photos instantly!
There's a really good video on it here...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6N2K_gRKsQ

Problems moving library from old external drive to new one

I keep all my music on an external hard drive connected to my laptop at home. I am now spending several months away from home, and couldn't take my external drive with me.
I planned to handle this by using iTunes backup feature to put my whole library on DVD, then buy a new external hard drive to take with me, and sse iTunes backup feature to rebuild the library on the new external HDD.
However, I can't get the library to restore/re-load/re-import from the backup DVDs. The iTunes backup/restore instructions tell you to open iTunes then insert the backup DVD. When I do that, I get the following error message:
"The Disc "Backup2007-07-09" cannot be read. An unknown error occurred (-69)."
However, I can read the DVD using just going through My Computer, so I really don't believe it's a problem with the disc.
So, if this backup method isn't working, how can I re-create my library on the new hard drive? I have dozens and dozens of playlists, a lot of them smart playlists that depend on such things as play count, rating, and date added, so i really need to keep all my tags.
I thought of two possible work-arounds.
Plan A: Copy all the music myself (ie, not using iTunes) onto the new external hard drive, using the same filename and path as they had on the old external hard drive, then import the Library.itl file that's on the backup DVD (manually copying over the default one created by iTunes).
Would that work? The big annoyance of this plan, I should add, is that, looking at the files on the backup DVD, i can see that iTunes added a number behind each folder name (ie, "01 Al Green") and behind each album title (ie, "01 Al Green - Greatest Hits"). It seems to me I would have to go through and manually delete all the numerals in both artist and album names in order for the .itl file to point to the right place. That would take hours...
Plan B: (Really not a great plan, but I'm grasping here...)
Give up on the backup altogether. Keep adding music and podcasts to my library as is. All my music that is sitting on my far, far away home HDD will get the exclamation point next to it in iTunes. Then, when i try to sync the ipod, if i'm thinking this through right, iTunes will go ahead and add the new stuff to my ipod, but all the old stuff will just not copy over, and then at the end of syncing i'll get the error message to the effect of "itunes didn't copy song x because the file could not be found." This option is far from ideal, as my playlists won't update, but at least i'll still have the playlists.
Do either of these sound like they would work?
Any other suggestions?
Any help would be very much appreciated.

If you can you connect both external drives to the computer at the same time, it would be easier to use the "Consolidate Library" utility in iTunes to move (actually copy) your media to the new drive.
1- Open iTunes preferences and select the Advanced tab. Change the location of your iTunes music folder to a location on your new drive. Also select the options "Keep iTunes music folder organized" and "Copy files to iTunes music folder when adding to library". Close the preferences dialog.
2- On the iTunes menu, select Advanced/Consolidate Library. This will gather all your media and copy it to the new location (the folder you designated in step 1).
3- After the consolidation is complete, verify that your music still plays, and check "Get Info" on some items to verify that iTunes is looking at the new location.
4- Optional. Delete the original files on your external drive. Do this only if you are certain that everything copied over to the new drive.
5- Optional. Close iTunes and locate your "iTunes Library.itl" file. This is typically in your iTunes folder, which may be on your computer's drive and not the external drive. Move this file to somewhere on your new external drive. Next, hold the Shift key as you launch iTunes and you'll be prompted to "Create Library" or "Choose Library". Select "Choose Library" and navigate to where you put the "iTunes Library.itl" file. This is a one-time step that tells iTunes where to boot the library from.

How do I move my iTunes library from a windows to my new mac?

I have a fairly extensive library of music (made of both purchased music and other sources) on my family's windows computer, but recently purchased by own Macbook Pro for school. I want to transfer my Itunes library to my new mac. What is a relatively easy way to do this?

The Apple Store will do this for you.
You can call Apple Support and they will help you do it.
Or use a Google search:
Migrate your files
http://www.macworld.com/article/146958/2010/03/move_itunes_windows_mac.html
http://osxdaily.com/2010/03/21/copy-itunes-library-from-a-pc-to-a-mac/

Moving data from old computer to my new mac air

How do I, physically, move data from my old macbook pro to the new mac air I just ordered?

Here's one way...
Get another External Hard Drive... Format it to Mac OS Extended (journaled)... Drag and Drop the items you want from the Old Computer to the New External...
Then when you get your New Mac... connect the External Drive to it and Drag and Drop the items to the New Mac...
Also, See this Excellent Link by Pondini...
Setting-up a new Mac from an old one, its backups, or a PC

How to get batch recognition of (!) on some tracks after moving library from external hard drive to new iMac (with terabyte hard drive)?

I'm using Lion 10.7.2 and iTunes 10.5.2
I have moved my iTunes music from an external hard drive onto my new iMac (with a terabyte hard drive) with music folder organized - when I try to play some tracks I get the iTunes can't locate warning and so I follow through and show iTunes the track - they are all in the music folder on my iMac hard drive - they all copied over and they all appear in the iTunes library list - so far as I can tell out of a 500 gigabyte music collection - but there are so many giving me the error - many other tracks function as they should too, some work others don't - So I'm looking for a way to get all the error tracks fixed in a batch correction way. Doing this individually with each track just isn't realistic.
Can anyone suggest how I might fix this issue?
Also, after I show iTunes the song location and it plays, I get a find files prompt that looks like it wants to find other files, but that just causes the process to jam and I have to force quit iTunes and then it doesn't remember what I last showed it next time I open iTunes.
Also I'm trying to avoid the use of the consolidate function because that would copy a whole other set of music - not in iTunes - that is in the process of being edited (audio hijack pro and fission tools being used to put vinyl and tapes to mp3) But all that other music just means the consolodate function across my whole computer would be too much.

Some details seem to be coming into focus - I have started scrolling through the main library list A to Z repairing tracks individually (there are thousands, but it's what works so far) - as I work through, it appears the problem occurred on tracks where album artist metadata was different than song artist metadata, predominantly. I'm not sure that is 100% the case in every instance, but that is what it's looking like. I don't why that happened, must be some technical glich I guess.
Also, I tried running Doug's Scripts - the one titled, iTunes Track CPR v1.3 - it is supposed to fix exactly the kind of issue I'm having - I bet it would work for some people with a similar issue - but for my case it only identifies the 'de-linked' tracks and doesn't repair them - that is at least helpful as I scroll though to fix them - I can see exactly which tracks have the issue quickly after running that script - but iTunes doesn't remember that warning symbol after a log-out, so it's only worth running the script on a set of tracks I intend to review and fix in any given session at a time.
If you are interested, Doug's free scripts can be found at
http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=itunestrackcpr
there are other interesting and useful iTunes scripts there too...
also, unrelated to the issue I'm having, I found a lot of really useful and time saving metadata fixing free scripts at - hubi's iTunes scripts - the page isn't English, but the script download is easy to find -
hubi's scripts work for batch selections of tracks - so if you import an album and find the metadata screwed up somehow, you can select the whole set of screwed up tags at once (even across a series of albums), run the easy to use script, and watch it all be fixed automatically while you sit back and relax...
http://hubionmac.com/wordpress/category/softwareschmiede/applescripting/itunes/
just for reference, here is a sampling of what hubi's scripts can do...
there are other useful scripts out there - the tough part can be finding the one that helps you...
01-(un)capitalizes
01-(un)capitalizes
This script changes.... THIS TEXT into This Text... or this text
01-Delete spaces
Sometimes invisible blanks are behind an artist name or album name...this script deletes these blanks behind or infront of the strings
01-Delete x first-last chars. of Title
A Name like "01--Ray Of Light" will be changed to "Ray Of Light" and the01 will be entered in the tracks tracknumber id3 field =)
01-fix combined Artist-Title
Sometimes Tracknames look like:
"Madonna---Ray of Light" and in the artist field you see something like"Ripped by Me"... this script puts Madonna back to the right field... all youhave to do is to enter the right delimiter ("---" in this case)
01-switch Artist<->Title...
Switch ID3 field a with ID3 field b (not only Artist with Title any more =)!
01-z_filename ->Title
Sets the ID3 field Title to the track's filename)
01-z_trackNr-Filename->ID3
When a track's filename look like "01-Madonna-Ray of Light.mp3" andyou don't have the track's tracknumber stored in the ID3 Tag... this Scriptcan do this for your =)

Lost old backed-up files while moving music from an old computer to new Mac

I was following the support topic, "How to use your iPod to move your music to a new computer" on the support tab for iTunes. I followed all of the instructions and in one of the final steps, I was gping to put the estimated 1000 songs I already had on my Mac back into itunes. BUT, the folder on the desktop that SHOULD have had the files in it is completely empty. I need help locating those files. iTunes now only show the roughly 700 songs that I transferred in from my old computer. My boyfriend is going to be so angry if I lost 1000 of his songs...I followed the instructions on backing up those songs...how can I fix this??? This is the address to the support article I followed: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=300173

Did you search your HD with Spotlight to locate the missing tunes?
MJ

How do I move my iTunes library from my MacBook to my new Mac desktop computer?

I just got a new iMac computer and want to transfer my iTunes from my MacBook, including apps and movies, to my new computer. How do I do this?

You can use migration assistant.
Mac OS X 10.6 Help: Transferring information using Migration Assistant
You can copy it from your backup.
You can copy your entire itunes folder to the new computer.
You can use Home share.
iTunes: Setting up Home Sharing on your computer
Understanding Home Sharing
Your choice.

I'm moving to an imac from a PC. I want to move my itunes library from the PC to my new imac. What is the best method and where can I find instructions?

I'm moving to an imac from a PC. I want to move my itunes library from the PC to my new imac. What is the best method and where can I find instructions?

Move iTunes from PC to MAC, http://www.macworld.com/article/146958/2010/03/move_itunes_windows_mac.html

I am moving my ipod classic from a pc to my new mac

I am moving my ipod to my new Mac and no longer have physical access to the pc.
So I think I need to move my library and reformat.
I am confused about the resetting or reformatting part.
I think I understand that I have to download a manager program to get my whole library into the new itunes.
And I think that I understand that I have to reformat my ipod to mac, but that can erase your ipod so what order do I do what?

Try Senuti.
It's a program that transfers music from iPod to iTunes on a Mac.
As is Music Rescue.
Both of these should work with a Windows formatted iPod because Macs can read and write to FAT32 formatted drives.
There's also a similar program called Yamipod which has a Mac version.
I've used all of these on a Mac with great success.
Now, when you've successfully transferred your music from the iPod to your new Mac, you can if you so wish reformat the iPod to a Mac version by simply restoring it (on your Mac of course).
See: How to restore the iPod to factory settings.
*This will erase the iPod's contents so don't do this until you've got all your music off it.*
However, you don't necessarily have to reformat the iPod because a Windows iPod will work just fine on a Mac running OS X. Many folks leave it like that for the convenience of being able to use the iPod on both a Mac and a Windows machine, and I left my new Classic Windows formatted for months before I eventually reformatted.
The one downside is that you won't be able to update the iPod software if you leave it Windows formatted unless you do it on a Windows PC. So, if you want to update and you only have access to a Mac, you'll need to reformat it.

Moved library from PC to Mac w/ iPod now exclamation points next to songs

I used the instructions at http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=300173 to move my iTunes library from a PC to my new MacBook Pro.
Everything seemed to go smoothly...I moved the iTunes folder from the iPod to the Music folder on the Mac, then opened iTunes. Then something went wrong that I can tell will take me hours to fix. Or at least I hope not:
The first time I did it, all the songs had the exclamation point next to them and when attempting to play, I got the 'file not found do you want to spend hours re-linking all the files?' message. I moved the iTunes folder and tried it again. This time, about 95% of the 1,100+ songs had the exclamation point. And as I clicked on the few without the exclamation point to try and play them, they too developed the exclamation point blues.
Is this fixable? The .itl and .xml files are in the 'Music' folder. Should I try moving the iTunes folder from the iPod again? I also noticed that while my playlists and custom genre tags, etc. made it, the album artwork did not .
Please help! Thanks so much!

It is a likely possibility that the format of the folders is different between the 2 OS. Troubleshoot these
Make sure you have actually music files in the folder from your XP. Make sure you transfered your main music folder (My Music)
Do you have the folders in this order in your music category on your MacBook? iTunes>(iTunes Music Library.xml and iTunes Library data file)iTunes Music>(all of your music
If these dont work, then use Yamipod, a 3rd party utility that can extract all your info/music off your iPod into iTunes...

Transferred itunes library from Windows XP PC to new Windows 7 PC. plugged in 3rd gen Ipod. Ipod icon appears along with playlists, music etc. Songs are grayed out and won't play. Please help!

I recently transferred itunes library from windows XP PC to new Windows 7 PC. The transfer was successful, however when I plug my 3rd gen Ipod Nano into the new PC, the Ipod icon appears along with the music, playlists, etc. The songs are shown but are 'grayed out' and wont play or sync.The 'Devices & Printers' window in new PC shows icon for Ipod driver & is OK. The icon for the Ipod appears but depicts a delta shaped warning icon that states that the Ipod is'not operating properly'. Tried troubleshooting. The troubleshooting message states the the Ipod is 'disconnecting'. Can you help me with this problem?

Then, I dropped the entire itunes file from the old PC (XP) into an empty external drive.
That "itunes file from the old PC"? Is that the iTunes folder, from the old PC, that was in the user home folder's Music folder?
All of the library, playlists, etc. from the ipod as they always have been are shown, by they are 'grayed out' and will not open or play.
That's on the iPod, correct? Are all of your old playlists in iTunes, from the old PC, still there in iTunes on the new PC? Are the songs in iTunes still playable?
This document provides the steps to transfer a complete iTunes library between two computers. See the section called External drive.
iTunes: How to move your music to a new computer - Apple Support
There are many steps, but this is a summary. (1) On the old PC, consolidate all of your iTunes data into the iTunes folder. (2) Copy this iTunes folder to the external drive. (3) On the new PC (that has iTunes installed but NOT running), replace its existing iTunes folder with the one from the old PC (on the external drive). When you run iTunes, it uses the iTunes folder from the old PC, and it should look like iTunes on the old PC (with all the playlists, ratings, play count, etc.), and your iPod will see the iTunes library as the same iTunes library (because it is the same library).
If you did something different, and the old PC is still accessible, you may want to try it using the method from the linked document.

Moving library from a PC to a new Mac

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