Moving itunes to another pc

Owen_Money_2 · 13 March 2007 at 10:48PM

I recently bought a laptop and am trying to move my itunes library onto this. My ipod is 30g so I thought I could transfer the library onto the ipod then onto the laptop.

I tried to follow the instructions on the itunes website but I'm ready for chucking it out the window.

Does anyone have fool-proof instructions that will save my sanity?

Cheers

crazybear · 13 March 2007 at 10:54PM

As long as you put your music directory in the same place with the same drive letter on the other PC, you can select export library which is just a simple xml file. Import this on your other PC.

Hope this helps

PS: It also copies your playlists onto your new iTunes.

Owen_Money_2 · 13 March 2007 at 11:00PM

Thanks Mr Bear - I hope it works!! I'll try later and let you know.

sra · 14 March 2007 at 12:16AM

You can do it much quicker nowadays than you could in the past because the latest versions of Itunes lets you choose the library you want to use.

You can do it this way (I did it a couple of weeks ago and it worked fine):

Copy your Itunes folder from My music (The whole Itunes folder not just the Music folder that's inside it)
Take the folder to your new computer and paste it into the My Music folder.
Hold down the Shift key while you click on the Itunes icon (Make sure Itunes wasn't running beforehand)
You will be given the option of selecting what library you want to use. point it to the iTunes Library.itl file in the Itunes folder you just pasted.

That's it. If you have any protected music you'll have to sign in to authorise the computer before you can use it.

millies_daddy · 5 April 2007 at 9:45PM

sra wrote: »

You can do it much quicker nowadays than you could in the past because the latest versions of Itunes lets you choose the library you want to use.

You can do it this way (I did it a couple of weeks ago and it worked fine):
Copy your Itunes folder from My music (The whole Itunes folder not just the Music folder that's inside it)

Take the folder to your new computer and paste it into the My Music folder.

Hold down the Shift key while you click on the Itunes icon (Make sure Itunes wasn't running beforehand)

You will be given the option of selecting what library you want to use. point it to the iTunes Library.itl file in the Itunes folder you just pasted.

That's it. If you have any protected music you'll have to sign in to authorise the computer before you can use it.

I'm trying to do this.....your point 2....how do you do this?? In other words how do you "take the folder to your new computer?" Are you talking about burning a disc?

bluseychris · 5 April 2007 at 10:06PM

you need either a portable/usb hard disk or a couple of shared folders and wireless capability on both computers. We can show you how to do it, but if you have a portable hard disk you should use that.

sra · 5 April 2007 at 10:47PM

As bluseychris says, you need some some way to move it over.

If all your music is on your Ipod, and you're only interested in moving your music, then an alternative method might be just to transfer the music directly from the Ipod to the new computer - the reason I didn't suggest that before is because you may lose your album art etc depending on how you do it.

There are many ways to do this. One way is Yamipod (runs from the desktop, no installation necessary)

You can use that to suck the music out of your Ipod -
When you run it your Ipod songs appear in the bottom of the window.
You can right-click and "Select All" and then from "Song" menu can select "copy to" and specify a folder.
Then you can just put it in your new Itunes

millies_daddy · 6 April 2007 at 8:17AM

Thanks SRA...don't have an external hard drive and only wireless and burner on new laptop.....I tried sharepod from https://www.sharepod.sturm.net.nz last night but it hit a fault and didn't transfer....will try yamipod or sharepod again...once the new itunes is set up I can get album art from itunes again,can't I?

oohmatron_2 · 6 April 2007 at 11:24AM

You could try this.....

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=300173

I recently bought a new pc and successfully transferred by entire library over to the new pc

sra · 6 April 2007 at 2:14PM

millies_daddy wrote: »

once the new itunes is set up I can get album art from itunes again,can't I?

Yes you can get it from Itunes again.

Itunes have changed the way it stores Album art.
In the past it stored the Art in the actual mp3 file, and when they changed to allowing you to display larger album art, they started storing it in a separate folder or else they might have started making the mp3 files very big.

Any Art you had from older versions of Itunes will move with your mp3 files because they are contained inside the mp3 file, but you'll lose any of the stuff Itunes downloaded for you when they started offering that service - but you can get it back just by telling your new Itunes to download Album Art.

(It's not hard to find the Album Art folder on your computer, but I have no idea how you'd re-associate it with your mp3 files after the move)

Moving itunes to another pc

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