Moving iTunes to new laptop

Supernova

Hi,

My iTunes library is pointing to a lot of MP3s on my Drive and I wish now to port these across to the E: Drive on a new laptop along with the User/iTunes folder.

Is there an easy way to have the new references automatically updated or do I have to start from scratch and import the MP3s?

For various reasons I cannot just simply rename the E:Drive to the Drive on the new laptop :-(

Thanks!
S

Mista_C

If you don't mind losing play counts, ratings etc. then go into your Music > iTunes folder and open the .XML file in there in Notepad.

Do a find replace to E: and save. Rename the .ITL file (add a .OLD on the end) then open iTunes and import the .XML file you saved earlier.

I'm working from memory here so apologies if something isn't 100%.

Supernova

Mista_C wrote: »

If you don't mind losing play counts, ratings etc. then go into your Music > iTunes folder and open the .XML file in there in Notepad.

Do a find replace to E: and save. Rename the .ITL file (add a .OLD on the end) then open iTunes and import the .XML file you saved earlier.

I'm working from memory here so apologies if something isn't 100%.

Thank you, I'll give that a go :-)

S

Jivesinger

It's ages since I've done this, but I seem to remember I needed to deactivate iTunes on the old computer, so that it was no longer using up one of the 5 (?) possible computers I could link to that account.

Supernova

Jivesinger wrote: »

It's ages since I've done this, but I seem to remember I needed to deactivate iTunes on the old computer, so that it was no longer using up one of the 5 (?) possible computers I could link to that account.

Thanks, I'll see what happens to the authorisations :-)

S

20aday

Yes you're allowed up to five authorised devices with iTunes.

There's some information here from Apple's Support pages too which may/may not be of use OP:

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT204318

Undervalued

Jivesinger wrote: »

It's ages since I've done this, but I seem to remember I needed to deactivate iTunes on the old computer, so that it was no longer using up one of the 5 (?) possible computers I could link to that account.

Yes, although if you forget before you scrap the computer you can do it from another authorised machine by deactivating all authorisations then re-authorising the ones you want up to five.

Also, in the iTunes library file structure you will find a folder called something like "automatically add to iTunes". If you manually dump the tunes you want in there it will import them properly into iTunes on that machine.

Supernova

Undervalued wrote: »

Yes, although if you forget before you scrap the computer you can do it from another authorised machine by deactivating all authorisations then re-authorising the ones you want up to five.

Also, in the iTunes library file structure you will find a folder called something like "automatically add to iTunes". If you manually dump the tunes you want in there it will import them properly into iTunes on that machine.

Ah...interesting. I put the folder structures there and it didn't do anything.

I took the menu option to Add a folder to the Library and it started copying MP3s to the Music folder even though I don't have that option selected in Preferences :-( Bit of a mess - maybe uninstall and start again.

Previously, I had moved it onto the Drive for the time being and pointed iTunes Preferences to my transferred user library settings. It could see my iTunes purchased albums but not my MP3s.

Would be nice to get my Playlists back too - maybe via import.

I only have 2 auths so no worries there.

S

Supernova

OK, sorted now.

iTunes library has to be on the C: Drive and Google had led me to an outdated 64-Bit version on Apple's website.

Thanks folks!

S