Tranfering iTunes library + Phone from PC to Mac

Hi all,
I recently moved my main desktop from a PC to my MBP running Snow Leopard. I'd like to transfer my iTunes library across including my apps, so that I can sync my iPhone with my MBP rather than my old desktop.
1. Do I go through the 'Keep iTunes Media Folder Organized' and 'Copy Files To iTunes Media Folder When Adding To Library' method of consolidating my library on my PC then transfering that library folder to my Mac? Does that include iPhone/iPad apps as well?
2. Can I somehow transfer the backup files from my PC onto my MBP, and will OS X iTunes use those to continue backing up my iPhone?
3. What about synching my iPhone? Once I've transfered my library will I have to restore it and put all my content back on? ie. it won't be able to restore from backup? Ideally I would obviously like to keep all my texts, pictures, game saves, app settings etc and not start from scratch.
Any help would be really appreciated. It seems quite complicated and I just want to get it right. Thanks in advance

Anyone? Sorry to bump

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Trying to Import my iTunes Library Retrieved from a Crashed Mac on my New Mac

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My old itunes folder's content reads like this:
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Go into iTunes prefs>Advanced - check that the path to your iTunes is correct.
It should look similar to this - /users/YOUR ACCOUNT/Music/itunes/itunes music - if the path is not correct then select the 'change' option and point the way.
If you have the ! Next to the tunes then the path is incorrect. This doesn't mean that the files are missing - just iTunes cannot find the way - iTunes is a data base manager and as such can lose track if things are moved in the Finder.
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Hi there!
I'm a newbie on mac computers.. I've recently purchase a macbook pro retina.
So, I used to use iTunes in windows XP. My old computer crashed and I can't re-open it and save files...
Now, the only file I have from my windows library is an "library.xml" file.
The mp3 files that I had in previous iTunes playlists are in my external I: Drive. (not in Itunes folder).
I was searching in apple communities to see how I can transfer playlists in my new iTunes on mac.
But I can't find a solution to my problem... and unfortunately I don't know if there is...
I've try to set the iTunes media folder location my external hard drive, from Preferences-->Advanced-->iTunes media folder location.
Then I go to file-->library--> import playlist and I open the "library.xml".
The result is that I have all my playlists in tact, like it was in my previous iTunes.... But THERE IS NOT ANY FILE ON THEM!!!
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Should I change the Preferences-->Advanced-->iTunes media folder location back to default folder?
That should be set to wherever you want iTunes to store media in the future (though it sounds like you are planning on keeping this unchecked anyway). It has no effect on where iTunes looks for existing files. That is already determined when you first add the file to iTunes or through later consolidating.
In theory you should be able to start iTunes with a blank library, use the import function to add that .xml file and it should still point to the files on the external. If that is not working then I guess it is possible all those %20 space designations may be causing problems. It's strange you are seeing those coded that way but it is likely some carry-over from Windows. The purpose of adding a test file to the external, then adding it to iTunes, then looking at the .xml is to see how Mac iTunes lists the path for a file on the external added when using the Mac so you can use that as a model for changing other paths if necessary.
Holding down the option key while starting iTunes (make sure you are using the correct key) or immediately after starting it should invoke a screen asking if you want to make a new library. If this is not working for you then I have no idea why because it works for hundreds of other people I have told to do this.

ITunes library transfer from PC to Mac

Hi Folks,
My younger brother has just bought a mac and wishes to move all his music he has collected on his PC using ITunes into his new ITunes on the Mac. Having always been a Mac user I have no idea how to help. Is it just a case of dumping all his songs from the PC onto a USB stick and transferring them to the Mac or is there a more sophisticated method???
Thanks for your help and please humour my ignorance!
Cheers,
Tom

Hi Folks,
My younger brother has just bought a mac and wishes to move all his music he has collected on his PC using ITunes into his new ITunes on the Mac. Having always been a Mac user I have no idea how to help. Is it just a case of dumping all his songs from the PC onto a USB stick and transferring them to the Mac or is there a more sophisticated method???
Thanks for your help and please humour my ignorance!
Cheers,
Tom

Is there an easier way to transfer your iTunes library on windows to a mac than copying the library to a usb and plugging the usb into the mac and put the library in the iTunes file

is there an easier way to transfer your iTunes library on windows to a mac than copying the library to a usb and plugging the usb into the mac and put the library in the iTunes file? I recently swapped to Mac and this is how i moved the library from windows to mac and library is in tact but is there an easier way? My cousin just imported her cd's again, but it was harder for me as i have an ipod with over 150 apps and i needed to move them. i think it would be helpful if i knew of an easier way so i can help a friend move his. Thanks

The general method of use is to download a script (double-click or right-click and use Download or Save As...) to a folder of your choice, e.g. your Desktop, Downloads folder or create a folder at ...\iTunes\Scripts. Select a playlist or highlight some tracks in iTunes and then double-click on the script to execute it. If no specific tracks are selected the script will try to work with all tracks in the current playlist or sometimes the entire library.
tt2

Can users have one iTunes library deriving from two drives?

Hi everyone,
I keep my 4 & 5 star songs on my C drive and the rest (all stars, 1,2 3, etc.) on my exhternal hard drive.
Whenever I want to listen to my music, all I can readily play are the tunes on my C drive.
I'm guessing the issues having one library for tunes stored on separate drives is insurmountable?
I say that because I'm guessing that my iPod (4th gen) is only capable of importing from one library?
I think the biggest issue is either I don't know how to (or maybe users can't) list a second drive so that iTunes can load all songs from both drives whenever I do have the second drive up and running.
Adding to the second drive library issue, I can't figure out how to permanently tag my external HD's (I've got 6) so that their drive letter is not automatically defaulting to their order of prescence.
I can deal with that issue by simply not opening iTunes while I the second drive has been assigned a drive letter other than what iTunes (hopefully) is set to (i.e.; hopefully C and F drives).
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Seems I've over come what is something I'd hoped/expected iTunes would be capable of (ie; reinitiating the pathway for external HD music files when their drive letter is the only thing that changed).
I tried the obvious by going to iTunes's Edit>Preferences>Advanced and clicking the change button for "iTunes Music folder location", then entered the current drive and pathway (as the drive is currently assigned, F as opposed to the original G) and of course iTunes still couldn;t find the missing tunes.
Giving up on the hope that iTunes was designed smarter than it is (ie; each and every single missing tune req's manual redirection of pathway, as opposed to a preferable tick box for something like 'use the last redirected pathway').
And I finally figured out how to properly changed drive letter assignments, but still uncertasin if that means permanently tags my EHD's with that drive letter.
For that to be permanent, maybe I need to name each drive regardless that Windows already has unique inforamtion on each HD. Suppose I'll soon find out if the drive at this point has fianlly stored its drive name and whether or not Windows will contiue to change the EHD drive letters simply by the order which I am introducing them to the os.
No real luck with rats nest USB hubs as they crash my os alot, so I'm left to trying to find an easy way of managing the EHD drive assignments. THe following is the closest I've yet to come to doing that:
Click Start>Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Computer Management, and then in the left pane, under Storage, click Disk Management.
Right-click the drive, partition, logical drive, or volume for which you want to assign a drive letter, and then click Change Drive Letter and Paths.
Click Change.
Click Assign the following drive letter (if it is not already selected), click the drive letter that you want to use, and then click OK.
Click Yes when you are prompted to confirm the drive letter change.
Again, too bad iTunes doesn't afford a 'find' feature for 'missing' files such that one might be afforded a tick box for 'do not prompt again, instead use the last indicated location for "iTunes Music" folder as the base storage location'.
This drive renaming thing is a real hassle. Not like somebody couldn't have guessed it and Windows and/or iTunes can't afford some script, etc. to better manage 'tagging' EHD's and/or re-locating 'missing' tunes.
But then what would we have to complain about, not that they listen anyway.

Force Re-Creation Of iTunes Library.itl from iTunes Library.xml?

Can't figure out how to edit a post, so I'm putting this here instead of adding it to "Recovery From Hosed Music Locations - Without Losing Ratings?".
iTunes v9.
It's dawning on me that I can edit "iTunes Library.xml" and fix my hundreds (if not thousands) of broken links there.
But iTunes seems to work out of "iTunes Library.itl".
Seems like there had to be a way to get iTunes to re-create "iTunes Library.itl" from "iTunes Library.xml".
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Damage the ITL first. That method has worked for several folks. Example:
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=11566523#11566523

PC crashed and now using a different PC. How do I get my iTunes library back from the failed PC on the PC being used now?

PC crashed and now using a different PC. How do I get my iTunes library back from the failed PC on the PC being used now?

Extract the hard drive from the faulty computer and recover the library from it or see Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device. (At least one link in there may be useful even if you don't have such a device.)
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*N OVER MY HEAD! my iTunes library disappeared from my PC, TS said uninstall then reinstall, before I reinstalled though my ipad 2 said NOT ENOUGH MEMORY as I tried to update 1 app. What do I do now?

Apparently, something went way wrong SOMEWHERE, SOMEHOW... and now I'm afraid of losing ALL MY MEDIA considering I have NO ITUNES ON MY LAPTOP! I followed all appropriate steps found in trouble shooting, when I reinstalled iTunes though, the reinstalled music on my pc was a handful of songs that were triplicates, even listed some five TIMES! And maybe a total of 20-25 different songs, a fraction of what I had initially!
*N OVER MY HEAD! my iTunes library disappeared from my PC, TS said uninstall then reinstall, before I reinstalled though my ipad 2 said NOT ENOUGH MEMORY as I tried to update 1 app. What do I do now?

1, you can't at the moment, though with iOS 5 in the Autumn, from http://www.apple.com/ios/ios5/features.html#photos :
Even organize your photos in albums — right on your device
2, by removing it from you synced from and re-syncing. Only photos taken with the iPad, copied to it via the camera connection kit, or saved from emails/websites etc can be deleted directly on the iPad (either via the trashcan icon in the top right corner if viewing the photo in full screen, or via the icon of the box with the arrow coming out of it in thumbnail view)
3, the location of the photos that you synced to the iPad should be listed on the iPad's Photos tab when connected to your computer's iTunes.
4, you can copy the photos from your iPad to your computer : http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4083 . You should also be able to delete them from the iPad as part of the transfer process to your computer, and it's then your choice whether to add them to your sync photo list so as to copy them back to the iPad. Copying them to your computer would allow you to organise them into folders and therefore be able to sync them back into separate albums.
5, I don't use Dropbox either. There are some third-party browser apps in the iTunes App Store that allow you to download pages so that you can view them when offline e.g. Atomic Web (the whole page is saved within Atomic Web, it doesn't place a photo into the Photos app)
6, deleting content should help. If you remove an app from your iPad then you also remove the content that it's got on the iPad - so if you then decide to reinstall it back onto the iPad then you will need to manually add back any content that you want in it. None of the Apple built-in apps (including Photos) can be removed from the iPad

How to transfer itunes library music from a macbook to other macbook

how to transfer itunes library music from macbook pro to and other macbook pro with the internet cable .

Move it to the /Users/Shared/ folder.
(58475)

ITunes Library relocation from mac to windows

Hi All,
So my 3 year old iMac G5 died about a week ago (failed logic board). I wanted to know if i can relocate my itunes library to my windows machine. Now, i've copied the entire library to the win-doze and did the "new library" feature by holding the shift button on itunes start up. I've also opened the XML file with a text editor and changed all the old "Mac" directory addresses to match the new library location. Now this worked for about 90% of the 70GBs of music but i've notice that some songs are missing. I guess i'm looking for a cleaner way of doing this. Thanks

See the following: Macworld - How to transfer iTunes libraries between PC and Mac and Geek to Live- How to move an iTunes library from a PC to Mac (and back).

I recently got a MacBook Air and want to transfer my itunes library over from my PC to my Mac.

My family has 1 computer where everyone but me syncs all their devices, I had a PC and had my own library but all on one account. I recently got a MacBook Air and want to get my library from my PC onto my Mac. I tried getting it from icloud but instead I got everyones music all together and none of my playlists where there. How to In get my library onto my Mac without adding the entire icloud library?

iTunes: How to move [or copy] your music [library] to a new computer [or another drive] - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4527 - a somewhat bewildering and not always easily understandable set of options.
Quick answer if you use iTunes' default preferences settings: Copy the entire iTunes folder (and in doing so all its subfolders and files) intact to the other drive. Open iTunes and immediately hold down the Option (alt) key (shift on Windows), then guide it to the new location of the iTunes Library.itl file in the moved iTunes folder.
For the record there's this reference for iTunes 11 but it really doesn't strike me as having the specifics you need. iTunes 11 for Mac: Move your library to another computer - http://support.apple.com/kb/PH12168

HT203167 When I transferred my iTunes library over to my new Mac, I lost all of my purchased songs. I still have my songs that I uploaded from CDs, but I can't find my iTunes purchases. Did they vanish?

When I bought a new Mac and transferred my library, my purchased songs/movies didn't go with it. Now I can't find them. I thought I remember seeing them with a little cloud icon but I don't even see that anymore.

Since you have purchased a new Mac (which, BTW, is not typed in all capitals) why not buy a Time Capsule <http://www.apple.com/airport-time-capsule/> which is designed specifically to work with OS X and Time Machine?
You don't say what part of your Sony "crashed." If it was not the HDD it is possible to take the computer apart, put the HDD in an external case, then recover the data off of it (including the music) simply drag-n-drop. If it was the HDD that "crashed" that makes it more difficult.
If you are able to recover the music from the Sony you can then add it to the iTunes library on the Mac and iTunes Match will then scan, match and upload the tracks to be mirrored in the cloud.

I have nearly filled my hard drive on my Mac Mini, can I store my iTunes library externally from my mac mini?

I have nearly filled up the hard drive on my mac mini. Can I move my iTunes library to an external hard drive devise, that can still be used on the network so that I can still get all my music stored in my iTunes library to use with my sonos music system.

Yes. That's an excellent choice for freeing up space on your internal boot drive. It's very easy to do:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1449

Best way to move iTunes library & media from MacBook to mini server?

First, I searched the forums (parameter: "itunes") and didn't see this addressed.
Second, I searched the web (using multiple parameters), and didn't find an answer on point. I saw discussions about moving the iTunes library (well, media files) to another location (but same computer) and discussion about manually copying everything (with warnings about ensuring that the volume name and path are exactly the same, or else it's totally messed up).
That said, I currently use SL on a MacBook and I'm getting a mini with SLS. Among other things, I'd like the core of my iTunes media to be on the mini (for direct playback to my TV and for serving/sharing to my Apple TV). I'll still use iTunes on the MacBook for selected media (like books).
My media includes both iTunes purchases and non-DRM'd media.
Question: does SLS come with Migration Assistant and will this move my iTunes library from my MacBook (with SL) to the mini (with SLS)? I'm not interested in a migration assistant to move servers (web, email servers) or apps, or documents for that matter, as this is not a server move (some discussions online focused on this).
If it doesn't, what's the best way to move my iTunes library and media from my "clien" machine to the server so that playlists, ratings, purchases, etc. are all intact?

MrHoffman wrote:
iTunes has its own private little world, and this question isn't really specific to Mac OS X Server, and the generic media-transfer discussion will likely receive better coverage over in the [iTunes forum|http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=149].
Mac OS X Server doesn't do anything special with iTunes, and likely doesn't do anything specific with it at all; you're going to a "different" Mac, and server makes this more akin to a transfer to a new Mac, rather than the "replacement Mac" sequence seen with Mac OS X client.
I'd be surprised if this music transfer wasn't something that could be sorted out (within the limits of the copyrights) from some FAQ over in the iTunes forum, or from some of the following support articles:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1449
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1660
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1329
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1848
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1203
http://support.apple.com/kb/TA38534
See if the folks over in the iTunes forum have something for this. (And again, server likely isn't relevant here; you're "just" going to transfer your music to a different Mac box here, and one that happens to run Mac OS X Server.
Thanks for the links - unfortunately, none of those are on point. The reason this is unique to server, I think, is that in the case of a regular mac to mac transfer, you would use Migration Assistant, and the move is easily done. But in seems like server doesn't come with Migration Assistant.
I suppose when I get it, I'll first try copying Migration Assistant to it, and try to run it. That will probably fail (but you never know), so my next attempt will be to have my MacBook move the media to the server (as if the server is simply network storage), and then copy over the library files. (I'm hoping that will enable the file paths to remain intact.)
The mini server is special in that it is the most appropriate home server, and home servers should be expected to do double duty - and outright server, and desktop. So, it would be handy for Apple to include Migration Assistant with the mini server.

Tranfering iTunes library + Phone from PC to Mac

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