Transferring Files from old Mac to New Mac and size is different.

So I have a MBP 13 and I want to move the Documents folder to my new MBA. I popped in a USB drive and just dragged my Documents folder to the USB Drive. It registered right around 4gb with something like 17,000 items.
So when I put the USB in the MBA it still says 4gb with the same amount of files. But when I copy them all it only shows 430 files and something like 500mb.
So I tried as the Root User. When I went it as root, it said it was copying the full 4gb and the 17k items. But when I logged in as the admin and not the Root user it still said the smaller #'s.
Is there a reason for this? It seems like maybe something was copied when I just dragged the Documents folder to the USB. Are there some account specific hidden files or settings or something when I do it that way? I supppose I could just open the docs, select all, and copy that way, but I would like to figure out what is going on here.
TIA
Steve

Have you got access to an external drive that is large enough to hold your entire iTunes folder including the iTunes Music folder? Start by consolidating your library. When you consolidate, any songs in the iTunes Library that are not in the iTunes Music Folder are copied to the Music Folder and the Library is updated to point to those new files. Files already in the iTunes Music Folder have no changes made to them. Attach an external drive and copy over your iTunes folder. 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. You should also use the same version of iTunes on both computers.

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