Text editor for moving iTunes?

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Hello, Ive made the switch and have come to my first problem: moving my iTunes library from my pc to my new MacBook. Because I have many songs that are not bought from iTunes, and also wanting to keep my playlists, etc. I decided to try this tutorial:
Geek to Live: How to move an iTunes library from a PC to Mac (and back)
Ive made it up to the step where a text editor is required, but now I have a couple questions. Where do I get a text editor? Any suggestions for a good text editor? And finally is there an easier way to move my iTunes library and still keep all my playlists?

Any and all help is appreciated. Thanks!
 
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Ideally, if all your music is contained in the iTunes folder, you would move that folder, in its entirety, to your Music folder in your home directory. By moving the entire folder, you preserve directory structures, links from the libraries to the files, playlists, etc. The only thing your iTunes would need to do is update it's library file. While it's been a while since I did this, it always seemed to be reliable.
 

Slydude

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I recommended the procedure in this article to someone on the forum recently and I think it worked well for them. If your music is scattered over different folders puttied of iTunes pay particular attention to steps 1 and 2. Move an iTunes library from a Windows PC to a Mac | Music and Audio | Playlist | Macworld

As far as text editors go check out TextEdit that is in the Applications folder on your Mac. If it does not meet your needs I'm sure we can recommend others.
 
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All the songs that were not bought from iTunes were kept in the downloads folder on my pc. Although I think I may have moved them to my iTunes library folder when I checked the "Keep iTunes folder organized" and "Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library" boxes in the first steps of the tutorial. So should I just try copying and pasting it to my mac?
 

Slydude

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You should be able to follow the rest of the tutorial now with no problems. The copy files when adding to library step is supposed to place a copy of the music in the iTunes folder leaving the original where it is.
 
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Ok I used the tutorial to get all of my music on my new computer but I seem to have lost my playlists, playcounts, etc. Is there anyway I can get them back or should I just start remaking them?
 
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chas_m

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Sounds like you somehow forgot to copy over the "iTunes Music Library.xml" file that contains that information, or maybe it's in the wrong place. Had you copied the ENTIRE iTunes folder over, this file would have copied over as well.
 

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